Post No. 714 - The Fog of the Internet, Transgressing Ubiquity and Jobs

It’s been another long, exhausting week, and I’ve got another such week coming up. Still, I’m at the weekend now, and I can put some energy into the things I want – such as this blog – and have to – such as housework, and looking for a better (less decrepit and less expensive) home and less demanding day job :)

I’m also considering starting another Yahoo group, one focused on the weekly meditations and clearing of nonBPLF energy that I do, with a willingness to work with The Nine without freaking out and raving about conspiracy theories. There may already be such groups out there, but I can’t find them, which leads me to the first topic in this rambling post: the fog of the Internet.

The Fog of the Internet

When the Internet was getting going, I recall reading articles about how wonderful it was all going to be – people could access knowledge, learning and share for mutual empowerment and benefit. Well, a few decades later, what have we got? facebook, and search results full of chatter from games players …

It’s not that bad, of course – there IS valid access to accurate information on the ‘net, and it is being used for remote access healing, teaching and other purposes (on a personal note, I was pleased when I could start dialling in to a treatment plant to fix a problem, rather than getting up in the middle of the night and driving for hours to a remote area – particularly one plant, where people were doing illegal hunting nearby and, as a woman, I felt extremely unsafe). Nevertheless, the point remains that there is a lot of trite usage – which is OK in itself, except that it is starting to mask more meaningful uses of the Internet, as well as occupying capacity.

We’ve even had someone start a theme on LinkedIn to stop people posting photos of their dinner and maths puzzles. Now, as an engineer, I don’t mind the odd maths puzzle, but photos of dinner belong on facebook, not LinkedIn.

The end result is that I feel we are starting to lose at least some of the potential of the Internet because of the clutter of mundane and trivial matters. There, I consider, borrowing from the phrase “the Fog of War”, which was borrowed for the  Robert McNamara  interview, a “Fog of the Internet”.

Transgressing the Control of the Ubiquity of “Normality”

As a member of the LGBTIQ communities, a Pagan, and someone who has never wanted to live in a box jammed up against lots of other people who are all arguing with each other about whether their box is neat enough, I don’t fit into the routine expectations of the society – expectations which keep people so busy they have no time to think. We’ve gone from a situation where we spent all our time and energy on trying to survive, to a situation where we had an excess of food sufficient to develop something called civilisation, to a situation where we in developed countries are all – well, most of us – squabbling round in the muck of daily life trying to have more.

Considering the spiritual and thought diamonds that are in our history, that is a crime – and the crime is compounded by the fact that so many people on the planet are still struggling to live, and we are losing access to many brilliant minds, wonderful people and enriching opportunities that would help us as well as them.

There are people who are taking action against this ubiquity of “normality” – conscientious objectors during times of war, socialists, environmental activists, people campaigning for nuclear disarmament, human rights activists (sorry – “defenders” … maybe I’m a human rights defender and human dignity activist? And I’d thought it was the other way round :) ) … and LGBTIQ people. On the latter, I recently read an article on how we – LGBTIQ people, or, rather, the T in the LGBTIQ – have supposedly historically been given spiritual roles. I don’t know whether that is true or not, but I can state that the potential is there for such a radical experience of life to enable one to see and see through the rules of normality that bind and constrain so many of us.

It is a dangerous thing – people going through such experiences are tested by the experience, and not all of us cope: many, many more of us are harmed by the reactions of others who want to stay what they consider is “normal”. If you want an analogy, consider a fish who is thrown somehow out the water: it will immediately realise that there is such a thing as water, and that she/he/ze is at risk. As the fish falls back in to the water, the splash and some sense of difference may result in other fish in the school treating her/him/hir differently – almost as if the fish was sunburned by the experience, and the glow is considered dangerous by the other fish (I am so tempted to write “the other sheep-fish” …).

Of course there are easier ways for people to learn …

I’m thinking of adding “ubiquitous is not necessarily normal” to my signature block.

Employment

One of the big problems in modern economies is the trashing of jobs. We need jobs for people to have dignity, self-respect, wellbeing, etc – that was one of the main arguments when I was lobbying (sorry – activist-ing *rolls eyes* ) for trans rights back in the late 90s. I think removal of a maximum target for the unemployment rate (even if that rate is a joke because of the idiotic definition used) from the official duties of the Reserve Bank of Australia was a major mistake (just as Kennett removing tech schools in the 90s was a mistake – one which I think he admitted recently, and I am glad that there are plans to reintroduce them).

Unfortunately, there are some groups of people who seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to that. Counter staff in banks have led to me changing the bank I use several times in the past, and am considering doing the same again after lousy service recently.

Similarly, there are supermarkets I avoid because of abusive or rude staff.

This is the sort of experience and response that doesn’t make job security in either industry better.

 

[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here, 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").

[3] I apologise for the formatting: it seems Blogger is no longer as WYSIWYG as it used to be, and there are a lot of unwanted changes to layout made upon publishing, so I often have to edit it immediately after publishing to get the format as close to what I want as possible.

 

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr, Wéofodthegn

(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index 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 for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate-clear 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.

Tags:communication, control, economy, Internet, socialisation, society,

First published: Laugardagr, 30^th May, 2015

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Saturday, 30^th May, 2015

Post No. 605 –Balanced Positivity (The History of), Bow Exercise and Reading

Well, I’ve done a little more this week on one of my personal goals, which is finishing Brendan  Myers’ wonderful – and free, and should be taught in all schools - course “Clear and Present Thinking”, and I have found that, in my view, Balanced Philosophy is a form of Virtue Theory (Wikipedia discusses this as “Virtue Ethics” – and it is actually worth reading that link, particularly for the criticisms … well, it was worth reading it as of 25^th October, 2014).

This is discussed in slides 16 to 19 of the PowerPoint presentation “Chapter 6 - Moral Reasoning”, which includes the following, from Slide 19:

A vice, according to this doctrine, is a case of manifesting too much or too little of the particular quality that a situation calls for;

And a virtue is the ‘right amount’ of the quality which the situation calls for;

Courage, for example, goes between rashness or recklessness (which is too much courage), and cowardice (which is too little.)

This view goes back to the work of Plato and Aristotle, who, interestingly, are discussed in Chapters 11 and 13 of Mr Myers’ book on pagan philosophers: “The Earth, The Gods and The Soul” (which I bought and read as part of my preparation for my interview on “Harmony in Diversity” - see here and here; Pub. Moon Books, 2013, ISBN 978-1-78099-317-1).

One day, maybe when I retire – assuming I can ever afford to, I’d like to write about Balanced Positivity as a philosophy. I am of the view that it addresses some of the criticisms of Virtue Theory.

OK, so … moving on.

One of the other things I have been thinking of is that one of the benefits of the bow exercise that I wrote about towards the end of this post (basically, visualising your arms as the strong of a bow, one representing one polarity of an attribute, perhaps extroversion, and the other arm representing the other polarity, being introversion in this example, and am you draw the bow, see which is stronger) is in the thinking about how this exercise works, and what could go wrong. For instance, what could lead to me perceiving attribute X as stronger/weaker than it actually is, am I open to truth / all possibilities, etc.

There was one other matter I wanted to write about, but in the days since I thought of it, daily life has obliterated that memory – which is a lesson in itself. If I recall it, I will add it, but in the meantime, here are some reading links. (Ah - it was about family, and how I consider friends, the family you choose, to be at least as significant as those connected by blood or relationships. Hmm - that can be a post for another time, I think.)

G'day, hello, howdy, hi, zdravstvujtye (some of my work colleagues are Russian, including an absolutely invaluable administrator who has recently taken maternity leave - may she and young one and family be blest), guten tag (where I have connection owing to a recent past life), sveiki, czesc (I have friends, not just colleagues, at work who are Polish), bonjour (colleagues at a former workplace were French, and we practised and tried to extend my woeful and limited range of this language), selamat pagi (one of the best junior engineers I ever worked with was Malaysian, and she taught me a few words), annyeonghaseyo, pryvit, bitaem, como vai (a friend of mine a few years ago, although not Brazilian, had Portuguese ancestry), ¡Hola (a former work colleague and friend, a VERY talented artist - with a Mexican sensibility to her artwork, particularly around the Day of the Dead - used to teach me Mexican Spanish), Selamat pagi, ni hao (ah, my work trips to Asia, and the many wonderful, wonderful people I have met there - and some excellent work colleagues and friends here, as well), bongiorno (my current home city of Melbourne has lots of Greeks and Italians, who have made our culture far richer - and made us coffee snobs :) ), hoschakal, hejsan, ciao, jo napolt kivanu, chào bà, chào ông, yiassou (from the city which has, I understand, the largest collection of Greek people outside of Greece), ceau, salam wa aleikum, sawas dee ka, dia duit, hoi, hei, namaste, marhaba, dobry den.

• I’ve had ethical concerns about Facebook for many, many years – over privacy, over the fact that they want information that they have NO right to, over their attitudes, over their foundation, the addictiveness and diversion away from spiritual things such as thinking, etc, etc, etc. The debate currently being had over reasons for not using real names is, to me, old hat – I’ve been through it, and it was the final “straw that breaks the camel’s back” that stopped me signing up on the one occasion when, in deference to others’ desires over my concerns, I started to sign up. When it became clear that I would have to give my real name and other details, and give my word that the details were true, I stopped. I prefer not to lie. That’s actually a bit tamely worded – I detest breaking my word, and am aware that there are major spiritual consequences for people who do so that are along the lines of what author Jim  Butcher [2] describes in his Dresden series of novels. So: Facebook’s approach has, in my view, always been wrong … maybe it could have been fixed a long time ago if more people had objected then, maybe even foregone the perceived and real advantages of being on Facebook (those advantages are real in some instances – for people who are isolated and in need of connection, for businesses, etc). This little diatribe has been prompted by the following: http://wildhunt.org/2014/10/culture-and-community-the-impact-of-real-name-policies-in-paganism.html;
• this is something that is vital to most people starting on their spiritual journey: the need for solitude. It is also, in my opinion, one of the greatest weapons against the various scourges of modern  and, to some extent, what is called “civilised” life: http://www.theage.com.au/national/why-being-alone-means-keeping-good-company-20141011-114mtf.html;
• this has some points worth thinking about: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/women-bear-the-brunt-of-our-primitive-response-to-fear-20141010-1145ah.html;
• ultimately, the only solution to prevent these sorts of abuses is for every single person to be able to think clearly, and not get caught up in, or propagate – hysteria and unreasonable concerns, and to learn how to work collaboratively and with consensus decision making which is the basis of a democracy, sharing power and decision making: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/08/cia-first-tweet-torture;
• http://wildhunt.org/2014/06/against-fascists-and-liberals-radical-pagan-identity.html (click through to the comments: some are disappointing, but quite a few are good; one thing to keep in mind is that perhaps what makes a movement “relevant” changes depending on the times the movement is in);
• I got the link for this summary of Thomas Piketty’s work from an article by Bill gates on LinkedIn about to reduce inequality, and why that is important: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/05/economist-explains;
• another great post from T. Thorn Coyle, http://www.thorncoyle.com/know-thyself/, which links to a post at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/quakerpagan/2014/10/a-love-letter.html;
• http://polytheist.com/wyrd-ways/2014/10/15/awe-reverence-and-restoration/;
• having had a boss in the past who met the definition of workplace bully, and possibly also that of psychopath, and who tried to force me to see his preferred doctor, I can relate the situation of this woman: http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/news-features/anz-employee-disciplined-after-refusing-pelvic-exam-tells-her-side-of-the-story-20141020-118rt7.html;
• an interesting post about mediumship, something which tends to be neglected in Pagan circles: http://polytheist.com/the-web-of-blessings/2014/10/22/wide-as-the-night-sky/;
• an interesting post about one of my favourite places - and we will go to a favourite one nearby, when I finally get a week off soon: http://wildhunt.org/2014/10/around-the-world-samhain-in-an-occult-bookshop.html.

 

[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

Gnwmythr, Wéofodthegn 

(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux? … Morinehtar? … Would-be drýicgan ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index 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.

• 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'.
• Our entire life experience, with all the many wondrous and varied people, places and events in it, is too small a sample for statistical reliability about Life.
• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• 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.
• The means shape the end.
• 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 ...

Jesus loves you. Odin wants you to grow up.

(Facebook meme, according to John  Beckett)

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

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children

Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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.

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

John F. Kennedy

Tags: abuse of power, Balanced Positivity, Bow Balance exercise, democracy, ethics, governance, Internet, mediumship, paganism, philosophy, society,

First published: Laugardagr, 25^th October, 2014

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Saturday, 25^th October, 2014