Something I’ve thought of in recent years is that a significant part of
the viciousness of modern life is attributable to people being simply
overwhelmed – stretched beyond, or at least to, their breaking point.
As a quick example, consider the parent who has had a ‘stressful day’
at work (I’ll explain what that could be
shortly) who comes home, tired, ill, feeling unappreciated and even
threatened and VERY insecure about survival issues (we need money in this modern world to pay the rent/mortgage/bills and
so on), and then has to deal with rowdy, exuberant children. Such a person
may well snap, partly as they’re coping has been destroyed by their day, and
partly because the children take survival issues for granted. Now, compare and
contrast that with the same parent a few months after they have, perhaps, won
Tattslotto, have no survival fears, are living in their own, fully owned home.
They may well – subject to character traits! –be more able to cope competently
with their children’s chaotic exuberance.
Now, that ‘stressful day’. The worst of such days for me is any day I
have to resist pressure to behave unethically. I’ve stated to long past employers,
and to some clients, that if they headed down a particular direction, I would
take the matter up with the Institute of Engineers Australia’s Ethics
Committee. I never needed to do so, but there is always the concern about
retribution – and it useless to say the law is a help, even if that was the
case, as I would still have to find enough money to live while any court cases
about dismissal meandered their interminable way through court. Less stressful,
but still bad enough, is having to cope with macho workplace cultures and economies built around competition,
and suppressing being human (see here).
For others, doing the actual work, particularly if it is new, is the main
source of stress.
Many people, in my experience, DO live ‘lives of quiet desperation’, as Thoreau termed it –
whether it is in the city, or on the land. The desperation is worse in third world
nations, where physical survival is even more of an issue, but my experience is
that it is present in ‘the West’ as well. As an example, consider this media
article: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/oecd-report-poverty-engulfing-many-australians-20140318-350ef.html.
If they’re taken away from their fears around survival, I suspect many
people would be better human beings – or, at least, less bad.
In terms of how to do this, I consider two things are required.
Firstly, live more simply. Aspire to smaller, more affordable houses (and make sure that all adults who are going
to co-own a house equally share the burdens of paying for it: being the sole source
of income is often not easy, and I know too many women who falsely think it is
the breadwinner’s ‘job’ to support them in absolutely anything they want [and I
have declined to get involved with such people, just as I have declined to get
involved with people who are still living in their parents] ) – I personally,
for example, could happily spend the rest of my life on a 30 to 40 foot boat (I spent 8 years living on a 24 foot boat, and
know others – couples - who live on boats less than 30 feet in length; and for
those cretins who think that involves polluting water, the first thing I did
when I bought my boat was put a grey water recycling system, and I always used
a Porta Potti).
Secondly, know what is important to you, and plan your life around
that. I am of the view that too many people wind up in 9 to 5 lifestyles, or have
children, or live in the suburbs or in particular ways because of social
pressure (expectation! Also sometimes
referred to as socialisation) and then, whether they admit it to themselves
or not (and admitting something to others is yet another matter). This sort of
pressure really is often quite ubiquitous – as an example, there was a busybody
I knew when I was living on my yacht who tried to pressure me into going to
heterosexual dances (for older people: I
was no spring chicken when I move aboard) because she enjoyed dancing with
men so much that she could not conceive of a situation that someone else (i.e., a lesbian such as myself) could
not. (Despite that, and a couple of other
problems, the time I spent living aboard was one of the best of my life, and I
am glad I did that. My current partner and I have plans of me building [using
the skills I have, which not everyone has] a boat for us when we can afford it,
so that I can start being on the water again.)
That incident also illustrates that there is more to making this world
a better place than just fixing up lifestyle – things like consciousness
raising, etc are still needed, but there is a reason that survival needs are at the base of Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs', and I maintain my view that the world would be a less bad place if
people were less stretched.
On that, my nation, Australia, is busily reintroducing the notorious ‘White Australia’
policy by the back door (see here,
for instance; most of our current crop of politicians strike me as being
incredibly simplistic in their thinking, and immature in many ways – especially
spiritually. I was pleased to see that some people are openly calling these
aspects of Australia evil, and doing something about it – see here),
and one of the current changes is repealing parts of the Racial Discrimination Act , which was very well comments on at http://www.theage.com.au/comment/brandis-race-hate-laws-are-whiter-than-white-20140327-35lv7.html.
From my point of view, one of the many problems with those supporting the
changes, which are basically about being able to express bigotry, is that those
supporting such vicious behaviour have no experience of being flooded
by such views. If the proposed changes pass Parliament, it is not the case that
one person on the receiving end will receive one nasty comment and that is it,
they will be submerged in an environment where such abuse is ubiquitous. That
overwhelming overload is what kills people - and I have buried several people
driven to suicide by such environments, and come close to being driven to doing
the same myself.
This policy is a case of giving the ‘haves’ more power to exclude the ‘have-nots’,
which directly and obviously harms the ‘have-nots’, but also promotes an ‘us
and them’ mindset on the art of the ‘haves’ which harms them spiritually,
karmically, and by increasing to the pressure this post is about. It’s a right
proper lose-lose situation.
[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.
[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").
Love, light, hugs and blessings
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux? Morinehtar? Would-be drýicgan ... )
My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.
I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour - and see also here, and be flexible.
I am a Walker upon the Path of Balanced Positivity, seeking Spiritual Maturity.
- One size does NOT fit all.
- Don't be mediocre - seek to excel.
- Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
- May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
- Ban the dream interpretation industry!
- A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
- Housework is for ensuring a home is comfortable to live in, not competing to outdo or belittle others.
- Being accustomed to interacting via certain rules makes those rules neither right nor universal.
- Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
- Expertise at intimacy and emotional happiness is generally not the same thing as spiritual growth.
- "Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
- Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
- The means shape the end.
- BPLF restraint of uncooperatives is NOT an opportunity for revenge or getting even - even unconsciously.
- As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
- My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
- All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...
Do not pray for easy
lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY (who was quoting 19th
century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)
We make our decisions. And then our decisions turn around and make us. F.W. BOREHAM
Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent. Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that.
Because we use those names to infantalise females – we keep females in
their 'little girl' state by the names we use for them. Get over it. If
you want to be taken seriously, get serious. JANE ELLIOTT
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." EINSTEIN
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." EINSTEIN
We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW
Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech)
Too
much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and
community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross
national product ... if we should judge America by that -- counts air
pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our
highways of carnage. ... Yet the gross national product does not allow
for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the
joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the
strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the
integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our
courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor
our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except
that which makes life worthwhile." ROBERT F. KENNEDY 1968
Tags: attitudes, awareness, discrimination, hierarchy of needs, ignorance, lifestyles, Maslow, self awareness, society,
First published: Fryrsdagr, 28th March, 2014
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Friday, 28th March, 2014
