Category: community

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“More of the Same”: The Non-solution is Human… or: War is not an Option – Neither are Threats

Photo of peacock's feathers presented like a pattern of a cloth
Image by Alexa from Pixabay

Anyone watching the scenes that are public and published can state it that way: “More of the same.” It’s interesting to see that people behave the same way everywhere, just as Paul Watzlawick in his famous book called it:
“More of the same.”

He is a leading figure in communication science and has written standard works for the field.
The well-known, bestselling “The Situation is Hopeless but not Serious – The Pursuit of Unhappiness” was written with tongue in cheek, so it is the reverse of what you would expect. A tutorial how to do it right…to be happier. It’s revealing the patterns people repeat making themselves unhappy that way.

The patterns are there, not just in the book but in life – and in politics. Especially surprising it might seem as regards the war in Ukraine and the situation in Gaza.

Hellooo?

We do not need to repeat the ideas, statements and threats of the past 2 and 7 decades, respectively.

It is about dropping the ‘attitude’:
“Me (us) – always right.” and getting down to brass tacks. To the real thing. To negotiating instead of making a lot of noise. Or expecting the other, the person across from us to change just as by magic – because we suddenly decided that it would be the best way:
Just ‘let’ them give in…

It’s indeed almost as if people had taken some of the bad movies and fairy stories too seriously – and forgotten to consider the other person.

When you meet people in life they don’t behave according to your wishes – just because you tell them so.

No king will get that – and no dictator.

What you can do is: Learn!

Learn about humans, about the universal truths and the actual real things that make life fine – not bragging and boasting and ‘making it an act’.

But about community and the bigger picture, peace and – eventually kindness of hearts.

Because: That’s what real happiness is about. Sense of community – and kindness.

The great kings of the past still considered to be great were not the ones to make a lot of noise and war.
They were the ones to understand about people, that is, their subjects – and about life’s essentials.

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When Politicians Start Behaving Like Immature Boys in a Sandbox: USA, Ukraine, Russia and the ‘Pride’ of Males

When men start ‘impressing’… (Images licensed via Adobe CC)

When you look at children playing they already repeat the sometimes age-old patterns of the patriarchal societies we live in: “When you start touching my sandcastle, I’ll kick yours…!”

“Why? Because…!”

It’s that thing about boasting, bragging and hitting the chest, just as apes do…

Whenever in history was it helpful or really effective to use threats of war? Usually it will just end in war!

How ridiculous can you get these days? Especially someone like Trump, who was raised in a place that calls itself a military school, not to say an academy, West Point…

I beg your pardon, ‘dude’, but if you didn’t get what tactics should have taught you, you are wrong for that job anyway!

Do you really and truly believe that you will get Putin to relent this way?

Or is this one step into yet another ‘deal’ to sell more weapons?

That is Putin and Trump, as per precedence (s.a. 2016 elections, where Putin had them manipulated in favour of Trump)* getting together behind the scenes – and having a ‘ball’ at our expense…?

Well, there’s a thought: Do not buy into their wars.
This strange entity called Trump is known for and even proud of making ‘deals’ that way: He creates a background of scares and fear and threats – and then tries to move in. But then, apparently he suffers from ADHD anyway…

Unfortunately Putin in Russia for reasons of his own would not be where he is today if he was ‘got’ that easily – assuming that what we see in front of cameras is not just a …

Big stage performance…

 

*Note: Since then the Washington Post has been acquired by Jeff Bezos, founder of amazon and has become completely unreliable.

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Thinking it Through from the End – Or: Where Do You Want to Go? – Or: Nothing in This Life Worth Having Comes Easy…

Collage of four images that show a person traveling, a finish and a start line and a pin pricked into a map someplace
Images licensed via Adobe CC

The principle is as old as mankind itself: When you want to get somewhere, you need to know two things, basically: Your finish line – and your starting point.

PEACE is some goal…

When it is a problem to be solved it is important to not just get a hazy idea of some problem or issue… a clear idea of the true problem is vital. Since, trying to find a solution without the clearly identified problem is pointless and a waste of time.

In other words: To get a clear picture of reasons for people doing something – or a system failing, you would look into history: Because it can help to find similar situations you can learn from.

And: Nothing in this life worth having comes easy…but that’s no reason to despair, but: “Keep at it – and remember about the breaks.”

We have come quite some way, in general!

In the past, people for centuries actually found it a great pastime to visit public torture and public hangings!
That has stopped.
In most countries around the world the death penalty has been abolished!

The most simple principle in that respect I have mentioned too, already:
Whatever you colour, creed, or conviction, you are not supposed to either kill, torture or bother other people. Period.

So, again, our goal as societies that have learned a thing or two about communities and responsibility – most, if not all of us yearn for peace: For peaceful coexistence. For more mutual understanding.

People in power these days once more seem, at the moment at least, have begun to realize that they are not just powerful for their own fun – or into the bargain; but that they carry the responsibility for exactly that kind of thing with them, each and every day:

    • Keep the goal, the ultimate finish line, in focus.
    • Start thinking it through from the end.
    • Get proper counselling.

Remember that you are not alone on this planet and that your ‘powerful’ existence as such would be pretty pointless without all the others around….

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Economy Slow… or: Desperately Seeking Sales… or: How Weapons for War Make Profit…

Image of stacks of coins, a small tank in the middle and a globe shape in the background
Image licensed via Adobe CC

Yes, of course: It’s past a pandemic. Look at times in history, when people died in heaps, literally: Bodies everywhere in the streets, literally — in heaps.

So, business is slow, because we saw inflation due to high costs of the pandemic’s health measures: Everywhere when it was declared to have stopped businesses and shops raised their prices. Certain businesses stagnated and smaller shops had to close in large numbers.

People in such times start saving their money instead of spending it. Since sales, profits, revenues, are central in this kind of system, the inflation rose again.

In other words: Supply and demand.
No demand, normal or high supply = no profits.

Businesses have to close, lay off personnel, result: Less spending and thus less sales…
Again, the supply and demand chain.

When markets stay low, and slow, what to do?

One of the very old and often and too soon used methods is: Make a war.
People get distracted. They start worrying about other things.
They may even attribute slow economy and loosing their jobs to the war — and the ‘enemy’.

Meanwhile, weapons have to be produced: They need personnel they will be sold, more people start spending again, and with ‘luck’, apparently the slump will be over…

Well, a few other people die — but — what the heck..? If the government and dictators keep their jobs a little longer.. and others finally get to spend their vacation at the seaside again… who cares?

Well, I do. And I know there are others out there, who do too.

This is to all of you wealthy and powerful: Think again.

Remember:

Whatever your creed, colour or conviction, you are not supposed to kill, torture or bother other people. Period.

 

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The View on Things and People — Perspective or Judgement?

Photo of lighted glowworms in a forest clearing at night
Image by Yuri from Pixabay — Glowworms at night

Perspective is another word for a view on things — or the world. Our view on the world can be mutli-faceted — or rather singular.
It depends on how we grow up, what we see and learn – and how we learn to deal with people and things — and how to judge them.

What now? ‘Judge’?
I am just thinking here, you might say.

Of course, in a broader sense, judging is what we do when we determine our view on something, or somebody.
In many cases what we see and hear is what we go by.

But blind people for example will tell you that going by your visual impression alone can easily lead to mistakes.
Equally, deaf-mute people will tell you that ‘going by’ the sounds or words spoken will easily lead to mistaken impressions.

But if that’s so easy to mistake what would you ‘go by’ then?

It needs an open mind and it needs patience. Neither people nor things can be judged quickly — although many people tend to do that — and a good understanding comes with time — and knowledge.

A very popular example is the reported reaction of a group of deaf-mutes watching the former US president Clinton when he spoke on his relations to the young lady that eventually caused his resignment from office: They smirked and laughed out loud until asked what was going on? And they answered: “But he is lying, it’s so obvious…”

Whatever the reason or the occasion, if we want to make this world a better place we would want to check our view — our judgement — of people as well as situations carefully.

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US-American Politics are Policies… Science — or Not…?

shadow shape of bird of prey, a vulture
Bird of prey – eagle? – vulture – Image free license courtesy freepik.com

These days the next step in destabilizing a democracy of sorts is being executed:
Famous universities are not only denied the government funds they have a right to — they also are severely pressured by hollow statements and threats:

That Israel’s hardliners, most prominent Netanyahu, are driving a cruel and hard ‘bargain’ in order to cover up their dwindling support among voters is clear to all who have studied matters for some time.

That other people protest openly against the Gaza politics is only to be expected. To put that in one with anti-Semitism is ridiculous.
Whatever your creed, colour or conviction, you are not to kill, harass or torture other people. Period.

The present criminal holding the office of president in the US, called Trump, has together with his ‘consort’, of course, prepared this for years.

What it amounts to is this: Destabilizing the legal, the administrative and the scientific pillars of a democracy are in keeping with his complaints of alleged ‘fake news’ whenever media report facts about him that are diminishing to his image as a hero — when in fact he is a convicted criminal.

Do not let them — or him — fool you: He is neither stupid nor insane: Just true to his past and ‘consorts’: incredibly greedy and selfish.

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Cruelty and Violence, the ‘dreadful Sisters’ — Remedy: Real Values: Other than Unlimited Wealth

Image of a father teaching his children by reading books with them - and 2nd image of an open book with two pages shaped into a heart
(Images licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics)

The founding myth of a society such as the US-American one is simple and as follows: Work hard or even harder to get rich — that way proving to all and God that you are favourable to God. Since the rich are God’s favourites.

That value is probably the most damaging and destroying one ever to be posed throughout the history of mankind:
All is fair — that is any means to that end: becoming rich — is good and even fair in God’s eyes.

Religion in general is one way of posing understandable values and rules for a society to live by.
It also fulfils the human need for transcendence, so the philosopher Fromm tells us.

When we are lucky, those rules are not just about limiting everything to a bare minimum — but about the real health and joy human life has to offer:

Combining heart, soul and body in ways that make you smile, like yourself — and thus enable you to like others (more).

And interact with a sense of community so the welfare of all is at the back of people’s minds.

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A Great Soul, a True Visionary and Fine Human Being Dies: Pope Francis — Rest in Peace

Image of Pope Francis in Prato
Pope Francis in Prato — Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons, date: 10th November 2015

Pope Francis was a thinker and a man of the people. The ‘pope of the hearts’ he has been called. A great soul has died today, after a long period of ill health and sickness.

When he became pope I felt for the first time for many years that there was still hope for the Catholic church. I was raised a Catholic and since have widened my ideas.
But the actual basis to my mind, the gospel and thus the idea of neighbourly love are some of the most fundamental truths and ideas to carry us through life, and indeed hard times that you can find.

Pope Francis knew this — and lived by it more than many of his predecessors, the respective pope of the Catholic church in the course of the past one hundred years.

Billions of people live by this creed, Christianity and Catholic confirmation. The Vatican statistics of 2024 state that across the globe the number of Catholics actually increased.

Whatever your respective confirmation or creed may be, Pope Francis deserves a special attention and mention as well as high respect for his achievements.

He “brought the church back to Earth” — the well-deserved tributes paid him are perhaps comprised this way best.

Rest in peace — requiescat in pace — a great soul, human being, and true visionary.

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“The Silent Majority” – The 100-People-Rule

Image of many figures like pieces in the blue dark, one of them in red and highlighted standing out.
(Image licensed freepik.com)

In former times it seemed to be a matter of course to talk about the ‘silent majority’. And it also seemed to be debatable: Did it exist?

These days we know: It does!

The statistics you get from business departments such as support, online and offline, confirm:

For any person letting a company, an organization, or platform know about their issues or problems or worries, there are around 100 silent ones who do not speak up. Some are too lazy. Some are too busy. Some are just too self-conscious, don’t dare to draw attention to themselves.

Whatever the reasons may be: I also know from actual experience how often people in everyday life underestimate the universal facts of human life:

Emotions, feelings, worries and also joy so often are felt very similarly. Yet, very often also people don’t know about that and therefore feel disconnected.

Sharing helps: Experience, emotions, and thoughts. And my blog is one place where I like to share for exactly that reason. To help and to spread perhaps a (little) light of understanding.

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News – Courage – New Year’s Resolutions: Keep at it and Remember the Breaks!

(Image licensed via Adobe CC)

You can easily feel discouraged looking at news these days: People in New Orleans suffer from an attack, numerous people die. The Ukraine-war raging on. The Gaza strip and Israel and Palestine conflicts going on into the 7th decade…

‘What’s going on with people in this world?’, you could ask.

Let’s remember two very important truths:

    • News are about some aspects of life – but news are not LIFE!
    • News are often rather sensational, they focus on the dramatic, the ‘scoop’ – because that’s what newspapers and channels live by: Drama sells. (Just as sex does, by the way.)

Courage comes from hope and thus let’s remember:

An African proverb is supposed to run like this:

“If many little people in many little places all around the world do many little things every day, they can change the face of the earth.”

Keep at it – and remember the breaks too!

Know that we are strong, together!

A happy, peaceful and friendly new year to all, with friends and relations – ‘near and dear’ – full of hope and courage!

 

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