If you grew up, live in and/or are connected to places where flora and fauna thrive you will be more happy and tolerant than if you grew up playing videogames and, as adult, operated switches, knobs and buttons most of the time. Earth is mostly biochemical today with a dash of gravity and magnetism thrown in for "seasoning." Creatures take millions of years to evolve and adapt to it. Imposing electromechanical rhythms stresses them out. In turn, they become insecure, aggressive, intolerant and destructive.
As wheel-reinventing knowledge addicts, we might buy a Tolerance Software Package for our kids' computers--but they don't need it. Species far more ignorant and indolent than us thrive easily on Earth. Not ignorance but an imbalanced activism--which even our simian cousins cannot match--is our problem. Teaching the Facts of Life In A Changing World to those BORN alive and kicking is, if not fake and phony, foolish and false. It is true, the land, air and oceans of Earth, courtesy human hyperactivity, have been badly bruised, but its mass, axis, poles, spin and velocity are still, fortunately, intact and unhampered. We are "threatened' not so much by the multiplying poor--warmongering and market capitalism leave them little else to do besides twiddle their toes--but by the misdirected, predominantly Electro-mechanical hyperactivity of (essentially greedy} insecure, aggressive, intellectual, educated fools who, due mainly to self-generated stress, can seldom claim to keep even their own bowels and bladders clean.
To make tolerance a key word--and deed--in the 21s century, we must create and live, with our children in an environment which harmonizes and balances its biochemical and electromechanical constituents. If with our machines, we persist in our hostility to Earth, it may choose to makes us no longer welcome here. We would then either face slow or rapid obliteration or, in our delusional sense of Glory, will have to run out into the irradiated blackness of Space where, in loneliness, some of us might create a world of our own smart folly. That would be Adam and Eve falling from Paradise for a little while--all over again.
-- From an essay Vyom wrote in 1995 on Tolerance.
Jul 31, 2007
Market Capitalism - Painful Fraud and Seduction
Indic etymology reveals Market Capitalism as
Market --> MAAR=hit / kill + KAAT=cut / sever (painful)
Capitalism --> KAPAT=fraud + TILISM=inveiglement (seduction).
Defenceless against the seductions of subverting eloquence, we forget that, in excess, goods do not necessarily add to the common good; that as a creed, greed promotes intolerance. Competing rights and contending equalities cannot begat harmony and peace; only equilibriums so fecundate. In the end we are intolerant only of our interiorized-and-therefore-mislocated, warring selves. Social entropy eventuates when lives, by fraudulent consent or otherwise, are externally governed. Resting upon the dangerous tautology of checks-and-balances, the Rule of Law loopholes corrupting mischief's to dislocate our freedoms and responsibilities. If allowed its own rhythms, the Music of Life can still restore the Role of Love. Those whose Beings are in communion with it will forever resist and resent communicational structures conceived and imposed by privately amoral, bereft men and frightened, indignant women made hysterical by their own histories.
In philosophical theorizing, says James Edwards, author of, our relationship to life is radically diseased. Curiosity replaces wonder, the world as miracle becomes the world as riddle. Nature's pathos degenerates into superstition. Action becomes technology. We are suckered into accepting the medium as the message; the packaging and the pitch for the product.
The 21st century will be intolerable if "Masters of The Universe' haven't first mastered--and stilled--their disquieted, avaricious selves.
-- From an essay Vyom wrote in 1995 on tolerance
Market --> MAAR=hit / kill + KAAT=cut / sever (painful)
Capitalism --> KAPAT=fraud + TILISM=inveiglement (seduction).
Defenceless against the seductions of subverting eloquence, we forget that, in excess, goods do not necessarily add to the common good; that as a creed, greed promotes intolerance. Competing rights and contending equalities cannot begat harmony and peace; only equilibriums so fecundate. In the end we are intolerant only of our interiorized-and-therefore-mislocated, warring selves. Social entropy eventuates when lives, by fraudulent consent or otherwise, are externally governed. Resting upon the dangerous tautology of checks-and-balances, the Rule of Law loopholes corrupting mischief's to dislocate our freedoms and responsibilities. If allowed its own rhythms, the Music of Life can still restore the Role of Love. Those whose Beings are in communion with it will forever resist and resent communicational structures conceived and imposed by privately amoral, bereft men and frightened, indignant women made hysterical by their own histories.
In philosophical theorizing, says James Edwards, author of
The 21st century will be intolerable if "Masters of The Universe' haven't first mastered--and stilled--their disquieted, avaricious selves.
-- From an essay Vyom wrote in 1995 on tolerance
RA-CAN Proposed: the Rotary Alumni Cyber Ambassadors' Network
Staring at the corpus of knowledge & Wealth we now have, is our collective inability to reach this know-Wealth to all. Internationally bureaucratized and economically multinationalized systems are stymied by a macabre synergy of problems which has made Earth more anti-biotic, human-life upon it more robotic, marginalizing food, health and education away from 3/4ths of our kind.
The Brookings Institute says that the Global Disparity Ratio for 1998 is at an unsustainable 135:1. One way to rev-up our skills and capabilities is to rehearse them against a larger snarl of problems first; to simply change achieved goals into milestones on a longer journey. In the Rotary Club, humanity breathes in hope and breathes out purpose. When so many of us are getting sicker, poorer , mis-educated, we look to Rotarians to raise the voice which will be heard and heeded world wide. Shake out of your Complacent Fatiguapathitis, please!.
A commodified education which unrealistically fires up individual ambition, a learning which nurtures the homocentric hedonist, an attitude which looks out only for options, opportunities, entitlements, rights and freedoms, but disregards responsibility, relevance, service, duty and sacrifice cannot be supported. Rotarians are right to tourniquet such resource-exporting eduCommiments. In hyped up acadeMedia, postures masquerade as concepts, but ideas still upset ideologies. Confounding experience, the Reality of a thorn takes out the hurting one; and by sticking to the tree, the bitter fruit escapes into sweetness. For less than a world-around airline ticket, without leaving home & hearth or Mom's cooking for a single day, a deserving past/potential Rotary alumnus can today transform into Rotary's Conflict-Resolution-Supporting lifetime cyber-ambassador. My 1996-97 Walter Mitty had mused thus: "If I were re-doing my scholarship today, instead of my ticket to L.A., I'd ask Rotary to enable me with a multi-media, multi-lingual computer-station with all the Internet bells and whistles so that, if need be, I could drive the Mars Rover from Dehripaali, Sambalpur." RA-CAN, the Rotary Alumni Cyber Ambassadors' Network I've envisioned here, can become the synergizing link between the clubs, the Foundation, and the anywhere-on-Earth Community Programs of Health, Education, Hygiene, Nutrition, Sanitation, Conservation, Employment and Farming. For instance, by accessing and disseminating the knoWealth of specific processing, storage and marketing, RA-CAN, in India, alone, can help prevent the annual USD 7 billion "already-grown" food-loss.
It has taken Jeremy Rifkin to point out that markets, governments businesses--in flux & dissaray today--are creatures, not creators, of communities; that revitalizing them is what globalization if really about, something Rotary pioneered long before it became buzzword. Rotarians know we do not create order, but Order, divine and benign, created us.
HERO/MARTYR OPPORTUNISTS SEEK/CREATE CRISES.
Zillions of upstart NGOs are doing tons of humanitarian work in Dubiousdom, displaying their vested interest in keeping us dehumanized on their doles, subsidies, handouts, soupkitchens--and their good intentions which, one may've heard, pave the road to Hell. RA-CAN can become Rotary's Instrument of Relevence in the millenium now almost upon us."
- From Vyom's 1998 speech to Rotarians
The Brookings Institute says that the Global Disparity Ratio for 1998 is at an unsustainable 135:1. One way to rev-up our skills and capabilities is to rehearse them against a larger snarl of problems first; to simply change achieved goals into milestones on a longer journey. In the Rotary Club, humanity breathes in hope and breathes out purpose. When so many of us are getting sicker, poorer , mis-educated, we look to Rotarians to raise the voice which will be heard and heeded world wide. Shake out of your Complacent Fatiguapathitis, please!.
A commodified education which unrealistically fires up individual ambition, a learning which nurtures the homocentric hedonist, an attitude which looks out only for options, opportunities, entitlements, rights and freedoms, but disregards responsibility, relevance, service, duty and sacrifice cannot be supported. Rotarians are right to tourniquet such resource-exporting eduCommiments. In hyped up acadeMedia, postures masquerade as concepts, but ideas still upset ideologies. Confounding experience, the Reality of a thorn takes out the hurting one; and by sticking to the tree, the bitter fruit escapes into sweetness. For less than a world-around airline ticket, without leaving home & hearth or Mom's cooking for a single day, a deserving past/potential Rotary alumnus can today transform into Rotary's Conflict-Resolution-Supporting lifetime cyber-ambassador. My 1996-97 Walter Mitty had mused thus: "If I were re-doing my scholarship today, instead of my ticket to L.A., I'd ask Rotary to enable me with a multi-media, multi-lingual computer-station with all the Internet bells and whistles so that, if need be, I could drive the Mars Rover from Dehripaali, Sambalpur." RA-CAN, the Rotary Alumni Cyber Ambassadors' Network I've envisioned here, can become the synergizing link between the clubs, the Foundation, and the anywhere-on-Earth Community Programs of Health, Education, Hygiene, Nutrition, Sanitation, Conservation, Employment and Farming. For instance, by accessing and disseminating the knoWealth of specific processing, storage and marketing, RA-CAN, in India, alone, can help prevent the annual USD 7 billion "already-grown" food-loss.
It has taken Jeremy Rifkin to point out that markets, governments businesses--in flux & dissaray today--are creatures, not creators, of communities; that revitalizing them is what globalization if really about, something Rotary pioneered long before it became buzzword. Rotarians know we do not create order, but Order, divine and benign, created us.
HERO/MARTYR OPPORTUNISTS SEEK/CREATE CRISES.
Zillions of upstart NGOs are doing tons of humanitarian work in Dubiousdom, displaying their vested interest in keeping us dehumanized on their doles, subsidies, handouts, soupkitchens--and their good intentions which, one may've heard, pave the road to Hell. RA-CAN can become Rotary's Instrument of Relevence in the millenium now almost upon us."
- From Vyom's 1998 speech to Rotarians
Jul 30, 2007
Humankind has an IOU: information and a debt to pay
The Bible says, "Love Thy neighbor as thyself," but does not say why. An old book I read decades ago has an Englishman explain that the answer lies in Hindu thought, which says, "Tat tvam asi," (Thou art that). Love thy neighbor because, i.e., you are that neighbor--i.e., in Latin id est, THAT IS.
I.E. I use these letters as an acronym for "Internal Efficiency" as opposed to "External Efficiency (EE)",
Evolutionarily most large forms of Life Systems--and human Organizations crudely modeled on them--learn and develop several techniques that require them to manifest as externally efficient. They become efficient at gathering food from the external environment. They become adept at recognizing external friend and foe. And they develop good defense mechanisms to defend themselves against external systems.
However, few have been given the opportunity to thrive in an environment in which they can develop internal efficiencies--of the spirit and their metabolism. (Those that did were poor at defending themselves externally and were annihilated, parasiticed, colonized etc.) Fewer still, could create equilibrium of evolution for themselves in which their internal as well external-interfacing systems could be developed efficiently. The resource-productivity emphasizing "Next Industrial Revolution" is, essentially, for the global industrial metabolism to create internal efficiencies. To really commence these a triquilibrium needs to be aimed at. The English name chosen for this triquilibrium can be summarized in the acronym IOU. The letters stand for: INformation, OUTformation, USEformation.
Besides Inside-Outside-Unity, it is good that the letters IOU also remind and resonate within the minds of the native speakers in such a way that they feel a sense of indebtedness, as in
The Hindus discovered that the best time to enter relevant information into the mind was when you are young and the memory is sharp and behavior can be modified through practice. Therefore, in the traditional, oral ways of instruction, the Hindu teacher would spend less time explaining than in helping create useful group-songs containing relevant information which the children would memorize and never, ever, forget. The attitude was, "Let them carry it inside them. At the appropriate time, they will ruminate, digest, understand and act accordingly." The teaching method was not 3Rs but LRU: Listen, remember and understand.
The Hindu also raise their children so that they go through life feeling indebtedness--to be given the human form, to have been granted intelligence, to live upon the work of their elders such as gods, saints, and ancestors. Amongst the Rites of Passage--both for boys and girls--was the conferment of the sacred, three-stranded Thread of (this) Indebtedness, which was worn diagonally across the torso, from the right shoulder. This helped the Hindu acquire an attitude of reverence, humility and non-violence and to regard the planet earth as Mother. Devout Hindus still beg Mother Earth's forgiveness every morning before getting out of bed and stepping upon her. In the same way, the woodsman humbly prays and begs forgiveness before cutting the tree with his axe.
So this IOU triquilibrium thing keeps coming back to bug me: InformationOutformationUseformation. It's my way of saying what Bucky Fuller said, humankind knows so much, but does so little.
- adapted from an email to rmi.org, 18 July, 2000
I.E. I use these letters as an acronym for "Internal Efficiency" as opposed to "External Efficiency (EE)",
IE: INTERNAL efficiency
EE: EXTERNAL efficiency
Evolutionarily most large forms of Life Systems--and human Organizations crudely modeled on them--learn and develop several techniques that require them to manifest as externally efficient. They become efficient at gathering food from the external environment. They become adept at recognizing external friend and foe. And they develop good defense mechanisms to defend themselves against external systems.
However, few have been given the opportunity to thrive in an environment in which they can develop internal efficiencies--of the spirit and their metabolism. (Those that did were poor at defending themselves externally and were annihilated, parasiticed, colonized etc.) Fewer still, could create equilibrium of evolution for themselves in which their internal as well external-interfacing systems could be developed efficiently. The resource-productivity emphasizing "Next Industrial Revolution" is, essentially, for the global industrial metabolism to create internal efficiencies. To really commence these a triquilibrium needs to be aimed at. The English name chosen for this triquilibrium can be summarized in the acronym IOU. The letters stand for: INformation, OUTformation, USEformation.
IOU:
IN-formation
OUT-formation
USE-formation
Besides Inside-Outside-Unity, it is good that the letters IOU also remind and resonate within the minds of the native speakers in such a way that they feel a sense of indebtedness, as in
IOU: I OWE YOU
The Hindus discovered that the best time to enter relevant information into the mind was when you are young and the memory is sharp and behavior can be modified through practice. Therefore, in the traditional, oral ways of instruction, the Hindu teacher would spend less time explaining than in helping create useful group-songs containing relevant information which the children would memorize and never, ever, forget. The attitude was, "Let them carry it inside them. At the appropriate time, they will ruminate, digest, understand and act accordingly." The teaching method was not 3Rs but LRU: Listen, remember and understand.
The Hindu also raise their children so that they go through life feeling indebtedness--to be given the human form, to have been granted intelligence, to live upon the work of their elders such as gods, saints, and ancestors. Amongst the Rites of Passage--both for boys and girls--was the conferment of the sacred, three-stranded Thread of (this) Indebtedness, which was worn diagonally across the torso, from the right shoulder. This helped the Hindu acquire an attitude of reverence, humility and non-violence and to regard the planet earth as Mother. Devout Hindus still beg Mother Earth's forgiveness every morning before getting out of bed and stepping upon her. In the same way, the woodsman humbly prays and begs forgiveness before cutting the tree with his axe.
So this IOU triquilibrium thing keeps coming back to bug me: InformationOutformationUseformation. It's my way of saying what Bucky Fuller said, humankind knows so much, but does so little.
- adapted from an email to rmi.org, 18 July, 2000
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