I will try to answer your Q: "how are we ... going to change the world;" but it's a BIG topic so I'll just do a quick outline here and follow it up on my blog - if thought necessary, and as time permits.
Asimov outlined his 'three laws of robotics,' then had to come back and add his 0th[1]. Following that example (and programmers often begin at zero), here is the outline:
0. Zero. Null. Nothing. Just for the idiots (those whom we do not shrink from insulting), get this: doing nothing is not an option. Also as part of 'null,' yes, jo, we are alone - there is no 'other' to appeal to; we (humans) have to do it all 'alone.' And that implies the next part of 'zero,' dump all religion. Which means, specifically, not telling any lies to the 'littlies,' aka no g*d stories anymore, contrary to the wishes of another idiot, a self-confessed children's-minds-abuser.
1. Get a proper morality. See my attempted formalisation, the chezPhil morality, which is based on reflexive altruism and includes the Golden Rule "Do unto others ..." and a corollary, "Do no harm." Contrary to the ravings of yet another idiot, the Golden Rule can be traced back at least to around 400BC[2], meaning anyone after that should have attributed the usage, not claiming it for him/her/itself. A 'small' point here, and that is that altruism works in small groups but (usually) breaks down in larger groups - absent proper sanction mechanisms[3,4,5]. This is a doubly fundamental flaw; one: that sanctions are needed at all (cf. police), and two: that sanction mechanisms for our so-called leaders have been ignored or disabled - more the latter, I'd say (cf. UN), and deliberately. Which leads directly to the next item:
2. Make the morality 'scalable,' I do not assess all humans as hopelessly corrupt. The wo/man in the street would probably wholeheartedly agree with my proposed morality (show me a single valid objection); the problem comes when so-called leaders free themselves from normal morality and embark on crime, and here I mean two 'streams,' the business community (strongest example the mining/oil rip-offs), and the political community as linked into the M/I-plex, strongest (actually weakest) examples being the illegal invasion of Iraq (now a 5+ year brutal occupation; murder for oil), and the criminal IDF's deadly 60+ year spree, murdering for land & water.
In our so-called (defective! Dysfunctional!) democracies we have only a single lever (attached to our so-called representatives): these representatives must be called to account, to respect our common morality (see (1)), and to properly represent us, we the people - and not represent any M/I-plex, not the I/J/Z-plex, nor developers, nor any other such sheople®-enemies.
If/when we reform our representatives, they will get to work - honestly - on defeating our number-2 enemy, aka the greedastrophe®. (This assumes that our number-1 enemy is the corruption of our so-called leaders.) To round this off, the normal morality must be scaled; the same rules for all, from the normal sheople all the way to the so-called rulers, aka our leaders.
The 'last word' on democracy is the sheople alone are sovereign, not any putative 'representative.'
3. If we get here - and we must, or perish under the corrupt 'business as usual' scenario leading directly to our currently anticipated greedastrophe demise - we can then at leisure reform our democracies, to replace the current 'representatives rip-off' with a better system, namely fully open debate and a fully engaged electorate operating via single-issue referendums.
A final note on this last, namely single-issue referendums: in 'debate' in the past, opponents - basically, more idiots, aka supporters of the (corrupt!) status quo, have claimed that referendums may be vulnerable to abuse by some minority or other. Note that this is 'special pleading' - just as support for USrael (the combination of the US and its M/I-plex, Israel and its I/J/Z-plex all melded via M-W's Lobby) is 'special pleading,' so get this: supporting corruption is itself corrupt; no more of the same!
Our current world is quite obviously 'off the tracks,' and a major negative influence enabling this dastardly state of affairs is the flood of (lying!) propaganda supporting the above-mentioned corruption, this propaganda delivered via the (venal!) MSM. See (1) again; the peoples' morality I suggest says "No lies, no cheating, no theft and no murder." Jo, you mentioned a species "that love more than they hate," we the sheople are not haters - we (generally) don't hate people, rather what we do hate is some people's criminal acts; it's the criminal psychopaths ripping us off that's the really big problem, and once again: doing nothing is not an option!
-=*end*=-
Ref(s):
[1] the "Zeroth Law", which is:
«a robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.»
Comment: What's valid for robots ort'a be doubly so for allegedly sentient so-called leaders.
[2] The circa 400BC formulation:
«Do not do to others that which angers you when they do it to you.»
[Isocrates, Speeches and Letters]
[3] Fair punishment supports human altruism
19:00 12 March 2003
James Randerson
[NewScientist.com]
[4] Why altruism paid off for our ancestors
19:00 07 December 2006
Richard Fisher
[NewScientist.com]
[5] Dangerous games: selfishness v altruism on climate change
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
«So the ... message is: if it's clear that the risk is high, people will work together to reach a common goal. But if it's in the balance (ie, if there's a perceived 50-50 chance of dangerous climate change), then selfishness takes over.»
[NewScientist.com]
Comment: Who is manipulating perceptions? Why? Cui bono? What's the real chance of a terminal CO2-caused greedastrophe? What's the penalty of getting it wrong, cf. the precautionary principle?
Once more and finally: doing nothing is not an option!
[cross-posted]
3 comments:
Something (not) to think about:
“ One asks why the world has become this way, so utterly bourgeois... Why does this narrow, limited, petty mind override and seem to conquer all other minds and feelings and activities in the world?... So it would be rather interesting to find out what it means to be a bourgeois. Obviously it is a person to whom property, money and self-interest are dominant, although he may not own property, or have a lot of money... There are many such people in the world. In the religious field and the world of artists and intellectuals self-interest also persists. So it may be that a bourgeois mind is this factor of self-interest... This limited adaptability and elasticity of the mind does not offer freedom. How can a man who has invested in a particular belief or ideology have a mind and a heart that are infinitely pliable... If there is any of this destructive self-interest, there is the stamp of mediocrity that gives such great importance to property, position, money and power. This petty little mind cannot go beyond the wall, the barriers that man has built around himself... As long as the mind is tethered or bound to any point, to any experience, to any knowledge, it cannot go very far... The emptying of consciousness of its content is to have total movement in perception and action....
Routine and habit are our everyday life. Some are aware of their habits, others are not... What is important in all this is to understand, not intellectually, the mechanism of habit-forming which gradually destroys or blunts all feeling. This machinery is the enormous lethargy which is part of our heritage, as tradition is. We don’t want to be disturbed , and it is this lethargy which builds routine. Once having learnt, we function according to what we already know, adding to or modifying what we already know... The fear of change strengthens habit, not only physically but also in the very brain cells themselves....
So this is the way of life we have accepted... To go beyond these borders... the whole point is to see-- actually, non-verbally-- what is really taking place. To see non-verbally means to see without the observer, for the observer is the essence of habit and contradiction, which is memory. So seeing is never habitual because the seeing is non-accumulative... So the act of seeing is the only natural thing; seeing the natural inheritance of the animal in us, which is violent, aggressive and competitive. If we could understand this one thing, which is really of primary importance -- the act of seeing -- then there is no accumulation as the me and the mine, then there is no habit-forming at all, with the routine and the boredom of it all. So to see what is, is to love....
Are we really actually concerned about the transformation of society -- society which is corrupt, which is immoral, which is based on competition, ruthlessness?... That is the society in which we are living... Corruption exists in the very high places and on the very doorstep. To be tied is corruption, any form of attachment leads to it, whether it be to a belief, faith, ideal, experience, or any conclusion....
There civilization began, the incredible vulgarity, the brutal haste and the immodesty of humans, everyone asserting his presence, and the rich showing their power and will... And humanity puts its faith in politicians and governments....
We have to inquire into what is society... It is human relationship that is society. That human relationship with its complexities, its conditions, with its hates, can you alter all that relationship? We can. We can stop being cruel and all that goes with it. What your relationship is, your environment is. If your relationship is possessive and self-centered, you are creating a thing around you which will be equally destructive. So the individual is you and you are the rest of mankind. I don’t know if we realize it.
We need to be re-educated, not through school, college, university-- which also condition the brain-- nor through work in the office or the factory. We need to re-educate ourselves by being aware, seeing how we are caught in words. Can we do this? If we cannot do it we are going to have perpetual wars, perpetual weeping, always in conflict, misery and all that is entailed... When you live with the facts as they are, ... observing them, watching your own activity, your own egotistic pursuits, then out of that grows marvelous freedom with all its great beauty and strength.”
( From Krishnamurti, J. Meeting Life. San Francisco: Harper, 1991)
Wow, what a mouthful! But it did contain some elements of truth. Routine and habit and indoctrination are part of most people's everyday life.
Stepping outside our programming is not easy. It can even be a bit frightening for some.
I question everything.
«The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.»
George Bernard Shaw
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