Economics

If we live in harmony with nature as the indigenous tribes have throughout history then we will experience feast and famine. Many of our ancestors chose the path of consumption which has led us on a path of abundance, conflict, depletion, and pollution.

Modern society is based on consumption but is faced with economic turmoil because the resources are inequitably dispersed allowing for profiteering as well as being depleted potentially leading to conflict.

It is possible for humans to live in balance with each other? Will we equitably and honestly distribute the sustainable resources? We we be good stewards of the planet as we consume the nonrenewable resources as we diligently search for renewable alternatives?

I think the answer is yes because crises have a way of ordering the environment. Conflict and pollution will take place but eventually the remaining constituents miniscule or vast will find order imposed.

2nd letter

Please, Please, do not vote for the proposed jobs bill.  It is a waste of my grandchildren's future.  Please stop the madness.  We have gotten ourselves into this mess and we must be the ones to pay the price and suffer the consequences.

I understand there will be hell to pay, selfish people rioting in the street, and general deterioration of our standard of living but we should have stopped this idiocy in the 70's, it should have never been started in the 40's and it will only lead to anarchy in the 21 century. Please be responsible and stop this.

We have to cut our budgets and eliminate unjustified expenses and when we will not put up with less then we will have to agree to pay more for the services we demand.

B.O.

Just because B.O. says it, doesn't make it true. " Things would have been worse" had the money not be printed, the future taxes encumbered, and previous consequences ignored. "Things will only be better" if I print more money, bankrupt our great-great grandchildren's future so the we don't experience any unpleasant moments, so we can continue to pay people not to work, so we can continue to buy what we can't afford, so we can be as irresponsible as we can possibly be.

In one single generation we have gone from the best to the worst, from the most selfless to the most selfish, from responsible to irresponsible, and from decent human beings to despicable.

Consumption

Existence is based on consumption. Food, water, air etc. Conflict and economy are outgrowths of consumption. You have something that I want so I either take it from you or trade something that I have for something that you want. Abundance, of anything valuable, attracts consumers. Societal rules of behavior have evolved to reduce conflict and promote cooperation. Cooperation produces abudances, economies, and wellbeing. Human nature aspires to wellbeing and unfortunately excess. Eventually prosperity leads to inequities and conflict. Growth, expansion, development, and consumption distracts us from those inequities because of its inherent promise of wellbeing. Eventually the resources run out, surpluses turn into scarcity, and promises become failed dreams.

Given the economic and social circumstances of our world is it possible to ascribe to the future a behavior where consumption is relative to the resources available and where human nature is mastered by one's self? Is it within the purview of society to facilitate the individual's wellbeing or simply prescribe and enforce the deviant's punishments?  I think not.  The religious have tried to constrain and the godless have tried to restrain to no purposeful outcome. It seems to be the nature of a few to advance the cause of the many but as the many become too-many and as the insufficient becomes scarcity then what can one person, one society, one agency, one government do?

The Big Horn mountian in Wyoming are composed of sedimentary and metamporhic layers of rocks 10,000 feet above sea level.  Where did all of the water and soil which was above them go, maybe to the tune of many thousands of feet.  Down stream you say. How when this was originally down did this become up?  Plate tectonics you say.  What causes the north ameican plates, 30 miles thick, to shift resulting in the pacific plate to slide under affecting  the crust over 1000 miles away causing  it to tip up and drain a sea of water and eventually erode thousand of square miles of soil to the ocean?  The rotation of the earth, your say and the molten core the mantle floats on, assuming that theory is accurate, causes the earth to slide and shift around, some plates moving east and west, and remakrably, north and south.  Most interesting .  What would cause the plates to over-ride one another.  Well it is the spreading of the ocean floor in the Atlantic, five or six thousand miles away. More interesting.  What causes the spreading.  The potursion of the magma from cracks in the mantle that come to the surface. Why would that happen?  The natural event of hot things rising which then allows for cold things to settle like a boiling pot of water. Unlike water a boiling pan of gravey burns because the ingredients are too thick to move effectively which causes one to wonder about 30 miles of rock.  Assumig that any of my charactizations are accurate then it seems to me a different mechanism is required to explain how the water and earth originally above the layers of sediment which accumulated from somewhere else is to become the big horn mountains of today.  Please see condensing earth earlier post.  India crashing into asia, its northen neighbor, is another story.

Seven Sins and Heavenly virtues

After contemplating the seven sins and the seven virtues for quite some time I have come to the realization that there is and eighth.

Silence and Prayer.  The seven sins and virtues are temporal and I understand how they are conclusive. However, they do not recognize the spiritual even though they are relevant to it.

If we do not communicate with our worldly partners then our lives are wasted. If we fail to communicate with our other-worldly partner then our eternities are wasted.

Maslow's 5 needs

I think a sixth can be added. Spirituality.  Some will argue that it is included in self-actualization but in reality it supersedes it because even after we are actualized there is a feeling of incompleteness and that can only resolved when me is replaced with we or more profoundly you.  When I am so concerned about you that I forget myself I will have superseded self.

Covey's Eighth Habit

I like Stephen Covey's Eighth habit, "find your voice and help other find theirs". It was easier to do when I was employed. Now I an not very successful in even finding mine.  I have been given credit in saving someone's life because I was brought into their life at a very critical time and inspired her to enrich her life and find her voice.  I didn't realize what I was doing just that I see value in those around me and naturally encourage them to make the most of themselves.

At her graduation party she reminded me that five years earlier I told her that if she were still working at the same job, in five years, I was going to fire her. She told me that was what motivated her to go to school and get her life back on track.