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 12 Mar 2008 @ 17:14, by bapty. Social System Design
Anybody wishing to understand the thinking that lies behind the following short article is invited to read my website www.humantruth.org or, if they prefer, to read the new edition of my book The Wrong Reality (560 pages) shortly to be published by CheckPoint Press, Ireland. More >
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 6 Aug 2007 @ 11:40, by jazzolog. Social System Design
In the scent of plum blossoms,
Ah! the sun appears---
the mountain path.
---Basho
When we have seen Reality, there is not a grain of dust which has not a sublime meaning.
---J. Vanderleeuw
It is like archers. If they start out competing, they'll never become marksmen. It is only long after practice, with no thought of winning or losing, that they can hit the target. Same with the study of the Way. If even a single thought of winning or losing appears, you will be chained by winning and losing.
---Ying-An
The painting is called The Indian Prisoner, created by William Gilbert Gaul, 1899.
In one of the first essays I ever attempted online, I mentioned how I happened to come in contact with the famous folk music collector, Alan Lomax. I said at one point he called me "puritanical" and how stung I was by the remark. [link] It still bothers me, but I've soothed myself somewhat with the balmy knowledge that he knew of my New England education---and I was aware of how he felt about New England. I've also tried---and been forced by reality---to ease up on the rigidity of my views of 30 years ago.
I'm glad that at the time I did not begin a range war with Alan, since Texas always was home to him. I doubt any Texans have been called puritanical (unless one happened to be born and educated in New England before relocating----hmmmm) but we do know something about justice in the Wild West. Whether or not the scores of Westerns I saw at the Saturday afternoon matinees gave me an accurate history, I've grown up thinking resentments are a particular weakness in the American fabric. I think we tend to be a people that transfers our problems rather than inventories them in order to change. We go to workshops that teach us to transform failures into opportunities for growth and expansion. We spin.
When I came to Southeast Ohio, I learned that until recently spanking students with big wooden paddles was legal and routine. At first I thought they were joking. No teacher ever laid a hand on me in New York, and I couldn't conceive of it. One time in Lincoln Junior High a science teacher made a kid stand in the corner on his head for a while, but that's the worst I saw. When I worked among people here, who didn't necessarily go beyond the local high school education, I was similarly amazed when they spoke of "beating" their kids, specifically the boys I guess. I didn't think it was my place to ask for details, but I thought maybe again this was a term for strict discipline but not actual physical pain. "Beating their butt" is common parlance around here among many parents.
I've been feeling that during my lifetime the American character has changed markedly and the rest of the world is noticing. Maybe we all were mistaken, having been mislead by World War II propaganda---as Clint Eastwood hints in his film Flags Of Our Fathers. We were the fun-loving Yanks liberating Europe with dollars and chewing gum. If we never were that actually---or even if we were---do others feel we now are vengeful opportunists, motivated essentially by getting more for me and mine? Do we care if injustice is done to others in our name? Do we listen intently to testimonies of people released from our "detention centers" about what was done to them for years---or don't we want to hear about it? Have we gone off the deep end and become cruel?
I've worried about this and tried to deal with it personally, convince myself the behaviors I endure everyday by others driving cars are just momentary. The aggression will fade away when the war on terror is won and we all return to normal. But maybe it's something more permanent, a trend not so easily reversed.
And so it was this morning I came upon an article in the Boston Review. Well, maybe Boston is the best place to review an oppressive morality! The title is simply Why Are There So Many Americans In Prison?, and was compiled by Glenn C. Loury who is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences in the department of economics at Brown University. A 2002 Carnegie Scholar, he brings very recent statistics to bear on how Americans are using punishment to solve problems. More >
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 13 Jun 2007 @ 17:47, by jhs. Social System Design
Using Skywork, we mapped out these days in Milan, Italy, Europe, Earth, Solar System... a scale of confront which appears applicable for various areas beyond interpersonal and group relationships. We verified the results later with another group without any prior information. The results could fill a book, especially if one would gather still more details.
As a side product appeared the mechanism of pole swapping. Example: the attacker assumes the identity of the overwhelmed after being sucked into the new identity like into a black hole.
Once a polarization exists, the 'vanishing' of the other pole (subjectively into darkness!) causes the still existing pole to enter a confusion and shortly thereafter assuming the presumably LOST identity of the other pole (which apparently vanished).
Although much of this is already known for those studying the dynamics of polar structures, it was inspiring to witness the details of the pole swapping, especially the fundamental differences between overcharging a pole and zeroing out one of the poles.
Another surprise were the precise points at which marked differences in behaviour/emotions manifested. These points, apparently in logarithmic distances from each other, follow parabolic lines. In other words, not only distance but also 'angle of confront' determine the emotional attitudes during 'approach' of a terminal.
Further, the behaviour of negative and positive pole is not simply a mirrored function. In other words, there is a clear difference between a positive pole approaching a negative pole versus a negative pole approaching a positive one.
As just one of many examples, a revision of 'traditional' scales of emotions seem to be in order, adding another dimension, or directional extension of progression, depending on the 'item' approaching or being approached, abandoned or being abandoned.
We also saw the boundaries of a 'comfort zone' and a boundary from which communication occured optimally for both terminals. Interestingly, this boundary appears very similar to the 'zero' line of virtual mutual non-existence and both are very stable.
So much for now... More >
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 15 Jul 2006 @ 16:05, by mre. Social System Design
Dear Friends,
The plan is to build a Unity-and-Diversity Global Assembly from the bottom up, using the internet and a process of voting on messages to involve the hundreds of millions of people who realize that humanity must adopt a global perspective if we and the earth are to thrive. Instead of electing candidates to a global assembly, a hugely expensive undertaking, we will elect messages to represent us in both our unity and our diversity. More >
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2 Jun 2006 @ 14:11, by bapty. Social System Design
Many people want a truly human world but few believe it really achievable. Have we any clear idea what such a world would have to be like, and are we going the right way of achieving it? More >
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19 Apr 2006 @ 12:52, by swanny. Social System Design
The Global Social Reality
Me gosh... thats tough... and complex and diverse
and dynamic... Difficult to apprehend.
Almost unmanageable well perhaps unmanageable
hence the need for Moses of the Holy Bible to
impose some "simple laws or commandments" with which to ease the complexity. Yet it becomes even more complex somehow as we are born into the prefabricated framework of life, society and order without the understanding and appreciation of the subtle nuansances and historys perhaps. Born into a dynamic social order or structure that we don't have the capacity to apprehend or understand given the exceeding complexity and then throw nature in the mix and you've got our "controlled human folly" to be sure.
Can we even attempt to understand such? Hmmmmmm Can we properly appreciate such? How much of such is largely taken for granted? Apparently way to much... witness the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
Yikes....
and then we must coexist with our fellow species to boot
and we are delving into space....
Mind boggling.
Well I suppose a start would be to have Moses ten commands apply more broadly and to the planet and some of its other species as say all mammals as well.
Well we have to start some where.... to gain a sense of order or values or worth.... or perspective...
Is it merely subjective or how would the objectivity enter in?
ed More >
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 10 Feb 2006 @ 08:13, by bapty. Social System Design
That which motivates our thoughts and actions generally does not represent the true us so much as the pressures that the Machine subjects us to. More >
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 7 Jan 2006 @ 12:57, by bapty. Social System Design
I have already posted an article on Leadership, Authority and Government. Now I want to emphasise criticism of the principle of leadership. More >
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 5 Jan 2006 @ 14:00, by bapty. Social System Design
Human world society is clearly insane.
There are many attempts to better the world by changing the hearts of people but leaving the basic structure of society the same.
It is vital that structure and heart be changed at the same time, for we cannot be moral in an amoral framework of life More >
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8 Dec 2005 @ 19:57, by bapty. Social System Design
Our institutions, especially those of law and order, finance and politics, do not exist for the prime purpose of benefitting humanity according to moral truth. They are there both to permit and control instinctive behaviour according to Machine reality. More >
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