Thursday, September 27, 2007


Interesting Content


I just learned about a site, http://www.stumbleupon.com/, where you can register and indicate interests, and then use the "stumble" feature to have websites relevant to your interests (the community uploads and tags websites) displayed one after the other. Since there are hundreds of millions of websites, some of them no more than a few lines, the sites returned vary greatly.


One interest I indicated - philosophy - turned up a website - http://www.doctorhugo.org/ - where the following list from Mahatma Gandhi was displayed:


"Seven Blunders of the World"
  1. Wealth without work

  2. Pleasure without conscience

  3. Knowledge without character

  4. Commerce without morality

  5. Science without humanity

  6. Worship without sacrifice

  7. Politics without principle

Think about the first one. Being given money (wealth) without having earned it can cause a learned helplessness (rewards or punishments are not contigent upon action). This has recently been called affluenza, a condition where children grow up in well-to-do families where they do not have to earn their own way, and are then rudderless. Every child's got to have his own.

Pleasure without conscience, wtithout awareness of how others might not have pleasure and how fortunate you are to have such, would be a life without gratitude. Better to be grateful always: count your blessings daily for a happier existence.

Knowledge without character: we know knowledge is power and we do not want to endow those without character with the power to affect us all (see politics without principles). Many a sociopath has great knowledge, often used against their victims.

Commerce without morality. Capitalism only works well if you play fair. Cheating to gain an advantage corrupts the entire system. Lying to get more business is bad kharma. Enron proved that the innocent get caught up in the backwash.

The ethics of science have grown even more complex since Gandhi's analysis, but I would like everyone who is on the verge of discovering how to clone humans, how to create nanobots that live inside us, and how to grow human organs in vitro to check their ethics. When we can play God, should we? And should we let anyone other

Everybody has to serve somebody. Bob Dylan told me so. The joy of worship is sacrifice, giving all to free yourself of worldly concerns other than worship. I struggle mightily with this one, though I believe it as fervently as the others.

Finally, politics without principle is analogous to trying to always please everyone, without knowing if your actions are moral or not. The focus group and instant polls are the bane of good politics. All politicans see how a statement "plays in Peoria" and then craft their messages accordingly (well, maybe not all, but those who are electable). That's because we teh public do not want to hear bad news, even if it is the truth. Sweet lies. Ronald Reagan was the master. No wonder we are so disillusioned with politics; we created it by ignoring these truths.

Monday, September 03, 2007

My Favorite Coffee Cup

Do you have a favorite coffe cup? Mine is a roughly-sealed, hand-thrown mug from Vermont with a crude moose figure on it. The cup is earthen colored and the moose is brown. The texture of the sealing makes it feel as if it is rough and bumpy. I bought when Teresa and I went to Hanover, New Hampshire to meet Marvin and Sue Ann for a short vacation.

I don't know why it is my favorite, but when I open the cabinet and it is there (as opposed to in the dishwasher), I always feel lifted.

Do you hve other simple objcts in your life that provide an emotional anchoring, like my moose cup?