Post No. 898 – Money, and Which World Will We – and the Advertising Industry’s Advisors – Feed?

Money 

One of the earliest things I learned in my life generally, and my spiritual development when that kicked off, was that there is more to life than money (or social status, or worldly power, etc, etc, etc).

Furthermore, many of the people who chase after those things are either flat-out “nasty” people, or in a spiritual state of being that is “wrong”, or undesirable –unbalanced, from the point of view of Balanced Positivity. (This does NOT apply to all such people – Warren Buffett, for instance, is a notable exception, as is the Russian philanthropist Dmitry Zimin, who has a strong science and education connection, or Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev, who chose to keep a Western newspaper going.) This “lesson” was noted while I was a child, seeing “Sunday Christians” who preached love on a Sunday and struck the knife in people’s backs on Monday.

So it can be important to focus on what are commonly viewed as immaterial things – such as values.

The problem is, the pendulum can swing too far the other way, with too focus on immaterial at the expense of the physical – in many ways, including the denial of sexuality associated with neochristianity, and a refusal to engage with financial matters. The latter problem can result in problems such as:

• people being naïve re Abundance (see my post here on one of the problems that can occur around how people relate to this Law / principle);
• inadequate resources for deserving groups and people;
• people who are so focused on spirituality that they are oblivious to what those are supporting them are going through in the course of earning an income to support them (I’ve seen several people in this category, sadly). That means the so-called spiritual partner can end up being responsible for causing so much pain for breadwinner that it neutralises the value of the supported partner being “pseudo-spiritual”. This expectation of support from others is a concern I have with some monastic and religious traditions – although not all who receive support;
• naïve views such as “love conquers all” – which I’ve mostly heard from people who haven’t had to worry about how they’re going to feed / house / clothe their children, and thus haven’t really been in a situation where this has been tested (some people I’ve known have had that test of themselves and a partner, but all people involved have been adults capable of choice, and thus I argue it is not the same). This simplistic view is, in my opinion, a far too common cause of problems – including the problem of spiritual people not being involved in activism;
• failure to act on things that are important to people’s quality of being, such as this: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld;
• also, a failure to act on things like the GFC, or addressing the nastiness of politicians (have you, Dear Reader, ever done something as simple and basic as write to MPs when they have indulged in such behaviour?); and
• a failure to recognise that we are a part of the world – that we are, in fact, a part of the animal kingdom.

So … what does one do about all this? Well, firstly, make sure one has a balance between the worldly and the immaterial – and review that balance regularly, and, whenever one is involved in financial matters, stay focused on ethics – which leads a focus on what the money is really about, not the numbers! 

This is a lesson I have learned far too late in life, and I hope that, next time, I learn this - especially the value of being focused on ethics - at a far earlier age. 

Here’s another link to consider on this topic: http://wildhunt.org/2016/04/column-living-in-a-material-world.html

Which World Will We – and the Advertising Industry’s Advisors – Feed?

I’ve just been watching The Century of the Self. Although I’ve still got a bit more to watch, I can state that this series focuses – in part – on perceived struggles between sexuality and suppression (named “control”), and a struggle between “rational” and “irrational” behaviour of crowds – the latter being a particular fear of Edward Bernays, who invented the term “public relations” to avoid calling it “propaganda”, and took psychology to the commercial world and politics (from the Wikipedia site: “He combined the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud”).

The first struggle - sexuality vs. suppression - is portrayed as being about Sigmund Freud, his daughter and their “opponents”. I’m definitely more in the Jung camp that Freud, but Freud did help widen awareness of the world of the diverse nature of consciousness.

The history of the last century, however, shows that people have both sides of whatever polarised category you want – and I note that some political events of late show people can be enlightened and act or vote way beyond being merely self-interested. Yes, movements like Nazism showed irrational herd instinct (sheeple) at its worst, but there are also examples of our better natures.

I also note that the involvement of advertisers in getting to go from buying what needs to consumerism is evil – this is a good part of what led to climate change ... It also goes far beyond the self-serving justification of “giving consumers what they want”, as it actively shapes and modifies people’s perceptions of what it is they want: it actively drags people down to a consumeristic state of being (starting in the 1920s, according to this programme). 

In other words, the advertising industry is feeding the unbalanced / unbalancing wolf in our natures / society's nature. 

In my view, all of these ploys and campaigns miss out because it ignores the nature of reality - which is that we have a Soul / Higher Self, and that our purpose for existence is – to simplify a little - to evolve.It is when one starts to acknowledge such that one is able to answer the challenge of "well, all we are doing is giving the consumer what they want - what's wrong with that?" with "it makes them less good people, and encourages a selfishness that puts them, other individuals and society back."

Another way that these concerning abuses and misuses of knowledge can be overcome by people thinking clearly and critically (e.g., BrendanMyers’ course “Clear and Present Thinking”, which I want to see taught in every school - although I saw my current partner's children show signs of having been taught to critique consumer advertising), and by learning and doing the psychic basics (flame, ground and shield, clear, etc - refer to my signature block below for more).

Here are some more links on this topic:

• The Engineering of Consent – the Wikipedia article on this includes the following: “Under modern conditions of political advertising and manipulation, it has become possible to talk of the engineering of consent by an elite of experts and professional politicians. Consent that is thus engineered is difficult to distinguish in any fundamental way from the consent that supports modern totalitarian governments. Were the manipulated voter to become the normal voter, the government he supports could hardly be said to rest on his consent in any traditional sense of that word” … which has been very true, in my opinion, but has also come undone in a big way in recent elections …
• The Men Who Made us Spend – I’ve commented about this before: “ I’ve been watching the excellent (well, the first episode was … After loading skips I have to watch the second on catch up TV … ) series “The Men Who Make Us Spend” (see here also for another review of it; I can’t find any useful link on the BBC, which originally screened it – apparently they don’t make their programmes available to anyone else in the world), and reflecting on the fact that one of the reasons Australia has such generally poor politicians is because voters fail to think properly and effectively about many issues. (It's also why a lot of people foolishly put personal convenience ahead of internet safety, and expediency ahead of 'right living' ... )”
• PBS's  Frontline – The Persuaders – about the clutter that advertising creates, which includes a line to the effect “when a culture accepts advertising, it is no longer a culture”. Interestingly, this programme identifies that advertising in the 90s tried to start focus on “the meaning of life”. It also shows the power of words – such as changing “estate tax” to “death tax”, changing “War in Iraq” to “War on Terror”, and “climate change” rather than “global warming” … and there is the reprehensible, damaging “toilet to tap” (not mentioned in this programme). One of the practitioners of this technique admitted it was up to the practitioner to choose to do “good”, not “evil” – which puts back into the self-regulation model that failed so abysmally in the NSW greyhound industry. This is also credited with having led to more “emotive” and deceptive political advertising. The personalisation of advertising – whether political or consumerism - to break through “clutter” is based on data acquisition that is extremely disturbing, particularly when it leads to a loss of the common good.

The man behind The Century of the Self, Adam Curtis, has said that that “his favourite theme is "power and how it works in society" ”, and has a few other programmes that I may watch at some stage (if I can find them - hey, BBC, maybe remember there are people in the world outside the UK), including:

• Pandora’s Box, “looking at the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism”, which includes – according to the Wikipedia article, an episode on engineers in the early days of the Russian Revolution which sounds as if it could be as bad as I would expect engineers to be in social roles;
• The Living Dead: Three Films About the Power of the Past, which “examines the different ways that history and memory (both national and individual) have been used and manipulated by politicians and others”; and
• The Mayfair Set, which “looks at Britain's decline as a world power, the invention of asset stripping in the 1970s, and how buccaneer capitalists shaped the climate of the Thatcher years, focusing on the rise of Colonel David Stirling, Jim Slater, Sir James Goldsmith and Tiny Rowland—members of London's elite Clermont Club in the 1960s”.

There are others as well, but they looked a bit of a mixed bag, some aspects good, some neutral, and others not so good. Feel free to look at the Wikipedia links and chase whatever is of interest to you :)

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr, Pagan Energy Worker, Wéofodthegn

I am revamping my former website, and getting at least one other underway (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. The reasons for my caution when using Wikipedia are 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. 

May the best in me, my Higher Self,
and those of the Clear Light who assist me,
help me to keep myself grounded, centred and shielded,
to be Balanced and a Fulcrum of Balance,
a centre of Balanced Positivity and Spiritual Maturity,
with my aura continuously cleansed, cleared and closed,
repelling all negative or unwanted energies,
whilst allowing positive, balancing and healing energies in and through.

The real dividing line is not between Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.

Tom Fletcher, Former UK Ambassador to Lebanon

• All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Tags: consumerism, discrimination, finances, hypocrisy, materialism, naivete, society, social status,

First published: Sunnudagr, 10^th July, 2016

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Sunday, 10^th July, 2016

Post No. 591 - Are spiritual/evolved people worse drivers? ... and a TV programme

Strange question to begin with, isn't it? :)

Well, the thinking behind it goes something along the following lines:

• Spiritually more evolved people are, in general, very likely to err towards seeing the best in people, rather than the worst. This means, for instance, a spiritually more evolved person would, perhaps, look at a child throwing a tantrum in a shopping centre, and see an overworked parent and a tired child, or one with some psychic sensitivity being overwhelmed by the negative energy of that circumstance (most shopping centres have a preponderance of clashing - i.e., disharmonious - energies, with a dash of negative energies such as consumerism and greed), whereas someone who is less evolved may perceive a child who has not been disciplined. (A very evolved person may see karma in action, or, indeed, a child who has been spoilt by overparenting.) 
• Safe driving requires one to be prepared for 'the worst' - to be prepared for people doing things like changing lanes without indicating, or driving on the wrong side of the road to beat a change of lights just ahead so they can turn, or aggressively pushing ahead of other cars when lanes are merging (all of which I saw three days ago), and many other examples. A good driver keeps space around her - including staying at least two or three seconds behind the car ahead (or him, since men can be good drivers also, or hir, since gender is not binary) [3] , is prepared to stop or diverge into that space, is prepared for other people to make mistakes, adjusts driving speed to suit conditions, keeps tyres and brakes and car in general in a good (safe) condition, etc, etc, etc. It is that one attribute of many, "is prepared for other people to make mistakes", that is the focus of this line of thinking. 
• There is a small sub-section of people who are less evolved that are considered in this line of argument: those who are colloquially referred to as 'yobboes' (who can also be female, as the term is used this days, and not just young) or 'bogans', and they stereotypically have a passion for cars. (I also want to make it clear that I am referring to stereotypes here: I personally know some people who would normally be referred to using these derogatory terms who are actually very kind, loving and, in some ways, spiritual people. But admitting that would spoil the point I am making - and that, in itself, is a point :) ) The presumption applied to these people are - in addition to aggressive and loud - drivers who are very judgemental of others. They make presumptions that other drivers will make 'mistakes'. 
• Does this mean that they could - albeit inadvertently - be better drivers from a safety point of view, as they may better fit the "is prepared for other people to make mistakes" criteria?

In a word ... no.

Before I explain that, I HAVE found some people who are aiming to be spiritual who are utterly appalling drivers, but that is a case of inappropriate behaviours that is the same as the inappropriate reactions to (agape) love I've posted about elsewhere. These people tend to say things along the lines of - whilst not word perfect quotation, this is from my life experience - "I'm sure that driver has a good reason for what they're doing", or "They should be supported by us, not judged", said about drivers who are weaving over the road, and thus may be drunk, drug impaired, distracted by mobile phones, or simply too incompetent to drive.

Now, those bad drivers may well need support, but they're in charge of a potentially lethal weapon, and therefore the first priority is to remove the danger to other people.

Anything else is simply not spiritual. Focusing on helping one person when that will put others' wellbeing or lives at serious risk is irresponsible, and unspiritual. It is dangerously naive.

Now, let's look at the unevolved or less evolved drivers. The behaviour being exhibited by these drongoes is often not actually unbiased. Their behaviour is often simply giving vent to their prejudices, such as assuming that group 'X' is all incompetent, or all showing a certain characteristic - such as, perhaps, driving at speeds that these idiots consider too slow. I've heard these people get stuck into specific groups who, in my experience, are simply reflecting back the shortcomings of other Australian drivers.

The truth is, all people, from all possible groups that one can think of, can equally be good or bad drivers. I aim to be prepared for all reasonable eventualities, and I look at how cars are being driven, not who is driving them. And one of the biggest sets of problem drivers is the idiots I'm writing about - especially in relation to tailgating. 

The problem remains, however, for those trying to be spiritual to learn to avoid the mistakes of inappropriate or naive behaviour.

Now, to a completely different matter: television. I found that my local community TV station, Channel 31, has a programme where a panel of psychics answer questions about various matters. The programme is called "Psychic Solutions", and I caught about half an episode today.

When I found the programme, one of the panellists, a Teena Angelia, was discussing negative energy and clearing, so my initial reaction was this could be worthwhile. Some of the rest of it was less interesting to me, but I've only seen half an episode, so I need to watch a couple more to see if it is worthwhile.

[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.

• 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'.
• 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.
• Ban the dream interpretation industry!
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than 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.
• Any person, male or female, who has neither a serious health issue, dependents nor an agreement about study. yet expects their partner to work to support them, is, spiritually speaking, little more than a parasite.
• 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 19^th Century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)

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

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

Albert 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.

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

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

If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do. (Often degraded to “Be the change you want to see in the world” – see here)

Gandhi

Tags:attitudes, inappropriate reactions, irresponsibility, naivete, psychism, spirituality,

First published: Laugardagr, 6^th September, 2014

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Saturday, 6^th September, 2014

Post No. 519 - Why I never claim to like all children, or (blindly) love all humanity

Although I've mostly not seen myself as parental material (I thought about having kids for a while in my 20s), I am capable of fulfilling an auntie type of role reasonably well, and others have assessed me as being able to get along with kids reasonably well - or over-assessed, in some cases (and I'm too exhausted and stressed in this current phase of my life - not to mention busy with other matters - to want anything in particular to do with kids now ... but when I was a teenager at the sailing club in Queensland, I often had smaller kids following me around the way our cats do now). But at all times of my life, I have never said "I like kids", or "I love kids".

Why?

Because it dismisses the individuality of kids and reduces them down to a uniform cipher, something that is always likeable or loveable.

Now that is clearly nonsense (there are the kids who are bullies, or those who are killing or torturing animals on their way to allegedly becoming serial killers), but even worse, it has an insidious influence that prevents the chance to deal with those kids who are 'not nice' effectively.

This attitude seems to come with a blindness to kids behaviour and flaws and problems, in my experience. Kids can get depressed and suicidal - I first thought seriously about suicide when I was 10 (are you listening, Mr Putin???); kids can suffer from abuse or bullying or even the trauma of going to school - and some of those kids may need some serious help, help which cannot be delivered effectively if one is blinded by a belief that they're all alright inherently. Some of these issues (especially child abuse) need persistently understanding and loving help, help that has its eyes open, not blinkered by an idiotic view that kids are always likeable or loveable.

If we consider the kids who are 'evil', well, they need help too - they may need to be constrained from harming others first, but they also need help, even more so than the blindly naive view that kids are always likeable or loveable.I'm aware that such people will eventually change, possibly only after many lifetimes, and thus one can say that all people are capable of being good, but to say that without also acknowledging the obverse, that all people re capable of being 'bad', is to limit one's ability to perceive the truth of the world about one, and about what some people may truly need for their Highest Spiritual Good, whether the people are 'big' (i.e. adults) or 'little' (i.e., children).

As a final point, consider who has the greater love: someone who loves the amorphous mass of humanity as a spiritual principle but with little experience, or someone who has experienced the worst of humanity and yet still manages to love that less amorphous mass?



[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"). 

[3] I have to thank an ex- of mine from over 20 years ago for starting me down that particular path of insight (hi Deb) with her words that kids are 'just' little people.
 

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr 
(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.  
• 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)

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

"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, children, harm minimisation, healing, love, naivete, simplifications,

First published: Sunnudagr, 9th February, 2014

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Sunday, 9th February, 2014