JJ's World Views

Tag: power

  • Incentives

    Incentives

    It seem that there are many people who believe that money is the only way to incentivise people to be productive members of society.  This is just not true.  Me for instance I am not like that at all.  I am incentivised by helping people and trying to create a better world to live in not just me but for all our sisters and brothers around the world.   The people that think that money is the only incentive I feel have been corrupted by greed.  They project their own desires away from themselves and on to everyone else.  It is a shame that for most of the worlds history this is how the leaders have chosen to incentivise the people. For to me greed brings out the darkest parts of our nature. It fosters hate, fear, war, famine and disease.   It cuts us off from each other, dividing us to the point where we can love one another and bring peace to the world.

    Those who focus on altruism and charity bring light into a society that is filled with grief and despair.  They are the glue that binds us all together and strengthens social bonds.  People like this do not worry about if people like them for themselves and not for what they give others materially.  Looks are dashed for their inner beauty shine through, and people want to be around them for who they are.  These people give with their hearts not their pocket books.  These people see the darkness and do not shy away from what others think or say about them.  This is a constant struggle with temptations and hurdles, which are put in their way.

    Some people have a desire to learn and gain as much knowledge as they can.  This is to help inform and teach the others to become better people as well.  Their are also those who seek knowledge to use against others and gain power over them.  Their hearts are dark with a smidge of light or no light at all.  There are those who are lead by being to discovery, searching out adventure and seeing new things.  Some seek adrenaline to which they skydive and compete in different events.  Some explore the reaches of our minds in order to heal themselves or others.  Others crave physical power over others through fighting or personal physical growth, to feel confident in oneself.

    Many of these incentives overlap with one another.  The people who driven by overlapping incentives can be some of the most balanced of individuals or off centered as well.  It all depends on which of the incentives that guide them.  If someone allows greed and knowledge they may use the power they gain in destructive ways.  Whereas, those who are guided by altruism and knowledge may try to enlighten the population.  Giving of themselves to better the human condition.

    These motivations can be combined in a multitude of ways and used for the betterment of society or it’s demise.  We have to choose for ourselves how we are incentivised and how we would like to use what we have gained.  Whether, it be for selfish or altruistic reasons.  Let me ask you “How do you choose to be Incentivised?”

  • Philosophies of a Humanist

    Philosophies of a Humanist

    As a self proclaimed Humanist  I do not believe in a God or gods.  I believe in the power of humanity in and of itself.  I have been to many churches and they all seemed strange to me, even the Catholic Church in which I was loosely raised in.  The whole sit, stand and kneel ritual was quite irritating along with the sermons and the Bible.  They all just rubbed me the wrong way.  When I got in to my twenties I read the Bible from front to back and the contradictions within it drove me nut as well as the whole lineage stuff.

    It was when I was introduced to Bruce Lee and his philosophy of martial arts  that I started developing my own system of beliefs.  I liked how he took the best parts of other martial arts and combined them together to create Jeet Kune Do.   I liked this and wondered why no one had thought of doing this with religion or faith.  So, over the years I started developing my own philosophies.  I did not just stick to the ideas of religion though I also took from themes within fiction and movies where religion lacked.  I try to live by a code that promotes peace and harmony without being hypocritical to my beliefs like many do with in religion.  Some may think it is naive but I see the world as it is and I aspire to make changes with in myself, so that I may help change the course of humanity in a positive way.

    I strive to eliminate hate from myself, for to hate I feel is to give power to that person or group over me.  This is no easy task.  I may get angry at someone but I will not hate them.  Anger will only last as long as I let it.  I do not hold grudges anymore, for this only hurts me.  It darkens my heart and breeds discontent in those around me.

    I remind myself fear can be both a good and bad thing.  Fear can keep me safe from the dangers of the world.  Remember not to let fear control me, for if I allow it to have control it can hinder my journey through this life and lead to hate.  When fear becomes too strong I must face it by putting myself in uncomfortable situations, this way I understand what I am afraid of, henceforth stifling hate.

    Be kind to those around me.  This is can also be hard to do especially if I am angry.  I am not perfect and will not claim to be.  We all make mistakes so, we must own up to them and learn.

    Love everyone no matter the race, religion, sexual orientation or any other way society deems to separate us.  I have come to the realization that I may not be able to love in a romantic sense,  because my heart is filled with love for all humankind.  I am fine with that.  In some ways it is lonely and I crave the affections of someone but this may hinder me from the mission I have taken on.  I vowed to not be with anyone until I have finished my Bachelor’s Degree that was almost 3 years ago.  I have almost allowed myself to fall back into the old routines, of mistaking sex for romantic love.  I do not wish to do this again.

    I put my heart into my goals.  This is why I think I am so good at being an Educational Assistant and why I will be a good teacher.  I put the kids I work with first, this is how I am.  I want to make sure that children no matter where they are where they are from.

    Do no harm is another principle I try to live by as well.  This means I will make sure to exhaust all methods of nonviolence.  I would rather die than to physically harm someone.

    These are some of the principles I try to live by.  But, I am not perfect and I will never claim to be.  If I do please call me out on it.

  • Diversity in All Things

    I found a post on Facebook today that I thought was interesting, though I thought it was some sort of scam at first.  It was about something called and RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates).  I know nothing about it, but it was talking about how it helps to transition the U.S. to a more green sustainable energy system.  I ended up on this video from the EPA.  It talks about how our power grid works and what we can do to help push more green energy.  The way they do this from my understanding is this: we by the certificate and pay the company we bought the certificate from, they in turn put that much energy into the grid and the fossil fuel company gets half the money.  Which means we are getting 50% of our energy from the renewable energy company, but we still pay the same on our bill.  This does show how much cheaper renewable energy has become.  It is half the cost of the old energy sources.  Then the old place we got electricity does not have to produce that energy.

    For some reason this made me think of how we as citizens need to be able to diversify our knowledge base.  Gone are the times of one job or career for the rest of our lives, like our parents and grandparents.  The economy is always changing know.  So, we need to be able to change with it not only that, but with longer lifespans we will start to need a change every once in awhile.   This is why we need college for all and stop calling it a liberal education then start calling it a diversified education.  The people on Wall Street should be able to understand that.  One of the things I have heard about from the stock company commercials is that  we should diversify our portfolios.  If we diversify our knowledge about the world we can transition into different fields easier and explore other careers that we might not have that of.  This helps to stabilize the economy and helps us to work toward that goal in the constitution of happiness.

    Hell, I think there should be diversity in all things.  Without it our species would die off for sure.  I could never understand the premises of White Power.  If we only had white people in the world or any color or nationality.  Eventually there would be too much inbreeding in the genes.    That kind of explains the people who want their own people only.  Could you imagine a world with only white, black, asian or hispanic people.  It would be pretty boring.  We would see similar faces all the time.  The other day a guy came into the student store he was Somalian and he had the same facial structure as and old friend of mine who is white.  To me this seems like there are limited amount amounts of faces that mother nature has and reuses them in other races.  Kind of blows my mind.  Now that I said that being said imagine duplicate people of the same ethnicity all over the place.  Pretty unremarkable is it.

  • How can we find meaning in a world of chaos?

    I dedicate this to my Brother

    How can we find meaning in a world of chaos?  How do we find happiness in a land of greed and hate?  These are questions I struggle with on a daily basis.  I have been told I think to much. Personally I think those who say that do not think enough.  They are to caught up in their own little world only looking on the surface to frightened to look inside, for fear they may not like what they will see.  The darkness in their own hearts that drains them of humanity.  They are devoid of empathy and compassion for their fellow humans.  Why is this?  A big factor I feel is what we have been taught and the refusal to question it.  I look at the world around us and I see our potential as a species, but I also see the devastation we cause, because of greed.  I try to have hope then it fades, I try to be positive then it is broken.  What can we do to stop this and help ourselves and other to find their true meaning, their true purpose in life.  I know we have to create our meaning and purpose, but why? What then?

    Hope is something I cling to for dear life, because if I don’t it will mean my life.  Fore if I do not have hope then life is not worth living.  Slowly day by day hope slips away leaving an empty shell.  A life dedicated to only making money is not a life I want to live there is no meaning or purpose to it.  Money is worthless till we give it worth, not the other way around.  Why do we allow it to have so much control over our lives?  Why do we let those who have it to have power over us?

    I see those high level bank, big pharma, big agra and fossil fuel executives, wall street shills, venture capitalists and lobbyists as the true throw away people, not the poor.  These are people who could not make it in the real world without destroying others.  There is no need for these types of professions other than to rape and pillage society.  We have been trained to think we need them in reality they need us much, much more.  Necessities like housing, medicine, military, police, food and water should not be for profit.  it is the frivolous thing that can be to a point.  Money is supposed to be in limited supply, but it is not at least not at the top.  The dilemma of the fiat currency is the fact that the obscenely wealthy horde the currency causing inflation.

    Imagine if all the money that the .1%  have was actually in circulation and not sitting in some offshore account.  There would be no need to print any more money for a long time.  The world economy would stabilize there would really be no need for charities as they are now.  More people would be able to donate time instead of money.  There would be less discontent and war.  People would be happier and fear would start to fade, because people could travel more and experience new things and meet new people. Instead, of  being inside hiding from the cruel reality that is this life at the moment.   Then we could actually find the answers to the questions I have asked.