What is woke? Is it good? Can good policy promote good woke principles?
From what I can tell, woke principles are in need of discussion (like, what does woke mean?). And from what I can tell, the enforcement of woke through DEI has been utterly wasteful if not harmful, with shallow few benefits to show for it. — Fire Ologist

Thank you. The US is really blowing it when it comes to social harmony, and I have the same sense of wrong when it comes to "in your face" sexuality, even when it is heterosexual. How many remember when our sexuality is a private matter? In the movies it was alluded to but not "in your face". Could there be a relationship between this modern "in your face" sexuality and Woke?

In my point of view, woke is like a house guest who goes from being a pleasant person to be around, to acting as though s/he rules and everyone should submit to the demands of a very unpleasant person.

Years ago, I was horrified by the demands of men-hating, homosexual women, who had gotten control of a women's shelter. I was in training to be a volunteer, and as their hate of men went on and on, I felt like I had to defend men. I dared to say, it is not only men who can be abusive, but women can be the abusers too. That resulted in being told I was not welcome. These angry women also made it a rule that mothers must allow their children to sit on the laps of a gay person, and if they did not, this mother and child needing protection would be thrown out of the center. Anyone who opposed them in any way was the enemy, and anger was their driving force.

I went into a training for Camp Fire Girls, and I was horrified by the focus on sex! To be a Camp Fire leader for girls at this time, we were to understand that shaving our legs, and wearing lip stick and just about anything that made being a girl fun was taboo. Years earlier, I had been a Girl Scout leader. Sexuality was never an issue. We were not at all interested in grooming girls for someone's ideas about sexuality. That should be a non-issue. We are talking about young girls. It is not a scout leader's job to mold the sexuality of a child.

I interviewed for an in-home care service position and the person with the most power in the room was a gay woman. That was liberalism gone too far. To my horror, she wanted in-home care workers to understand the special needs of gay women. :gasp: I had a college education and years of experience, and never was the gay issue an issue. That is because in-home care has nothing to do with sex.

Am I just old-fashioned for believing some things are private and the whole world does not revolve around our sexual "needs" and desires? When a person is forcing his/her way on me, and others, it is not respectful, but is crossing boundaries that should not be crossed.

Roosevelt was the sort of leader needed during the depression because he fostered the ideals of civic nationalism; unlike in certain European nations, the economic frustration did not lead to societal division. You mentioned Roosevelt's social security policy, which I think speaks to his broader strategy of maintaining citizen's dignity throughout the struggle. Americans still vaguely believed in rugged individualism and personal economic responsibility, but Roosevelt saw a way to adapt it to the modern era and contemporary struggles. Just look at all the infrastructure projects, nature reserves, buildings, and artworks commissioned during the depression which employed millions. These offered American citizens pride in their nation and in their work, allowing for both individualism and solidarity to coexist.

"Tough times make good men" is a dangerous cliche (see depression-era populists like Huey Long, fervent nativists/antisemites like Charles Coughlin) but the right cultural attitude, solidarity, and ambition during difficult times can have generational impacts. New deal principles became the ideological establishment for almost half a century. Moreover, the fact that we made it through the depression while still upholding core liberal democratic values remained a source of pride for many in that generation; the depression made those principles even more important and ingrained. ("Look at what it took us to make it through and still be free. We can't give up now"). — finarfin

I take it you are as much a fan of Roosevelt as I am, and his wife, Eleanor, was a wonderful First Lady. She was the good woman behind the great man. Thinking of their story makes me regret that our media today does not have the same standards as in the past. The image of our President and First Lady is important to the leadership of our country and how we feel about who we are and our future.

For sure, all the jobs created under Roosevelt gave the US a stronger military, because malnutrition does not result in strong bodies, and the jobs created fed the workers and their families. On top of this would be the psychological effect of having a loved President and First Lady, and knowing how much their decisions helped the common man and his family. I am reflecting back on John Kennedy and his wife. Remember the Camelot years? The Kennedys made many of us very happy and his statement "Don't ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" was great leadership like Roosevelt. I pray our next president comes with a great First Lady and that they give us the kind of leadership the Roosevelts and John Kennedy gave us. I am talking once again about believing in ourselves and being hopeful about the future.

Hard times can unite people and bring out the best in them, if the leadership is worth following.

AI suggests that the Great Depression affected families and increased people's concerns about economic security. This surely made Roosevelt's creation of Social Security a strong psychological benefit. If we live long enough, we have Social Security. That is no longer true, but neither is it true that Social Security didn't mean the ability to live without a job. It made it possible for older people to retire, and that opened a job for a younger person. However, our life expectancy was a little less than 60 for White males a little over 60 for White females. While Black males weren't expected to live past 50.

For the families, statistically, people stayed married because they could not afford divorce, but family violence increased. This period was very hard for males, as they were expected to support their families, but there were no jobs, so they struggled with feelings of worthlessness, and unfortunately, some desperate wives made this worse as they became critical of their husbands' failure to support their families.

Financially, women fared better because they could earn small bits of money with their domestic skills. Sewing, child care, cooking, etc.. Making them less dependent on Industrial jobs. My father's grandmother wrote articles for a romance magazine. My mother's mother was a teacher, and they had to live in a rural area because city schools would not hire divorced women until the Second World War took the males. As horrible as war is, it rescued the egos of males who were now needed by their nation. And the war gave women employment they would have never gotten without a war. But after the war, the women were expected to return to their traditional family role as homemakers. My father's mother wrote of this difficult transition for a romance magazine. In her story, the wife accepted her duty as a homemaker, but in reality, my parents divorced, and she was a divorced woman.

When I began writing, I was thinking of our materialism and wondering if we would be so materialistic if it had not been for the Great Depression? Would family values have done better if it had not been for the depression and the war? How much of what is so today is a reaction to that past?

A benefit of living in the US is knowing that different tribes had different cultures. The training for Apache warriors began at birth with harsh rearing that assured they would be strong and aggressive. Hopi mothers were more protective and nurturing, as their goal was cooperation and harmony. These differences in child rearing can be seen around the world.

Even if the Justice system were to be perfect, I am still against capital punishment. I do not believe it has the power to dissuade someone from committing a capital crime, — BC

When I engaged with criminals, it seemed evident that the reason they did bad was that they did not know how to do better. Especially one young person broke my heart when he explained he was glad to be sent into the correctional system because he wanted to know how to do better, and he felt wronged when he learned our correctional system stopped at punishing.

To have a just correction system, we need knowledge of our nature and the importance of liberal education. Understanding human nature does not come from the Bible, despite what Christians believe.
I think the best information I came across came from a Bahi woman in Canada. She realized that just punishing children is not helpful unless they are taught what is right. She created virtue cards for teaching virtues and wrote a book to go with the cards.

This is the modern malaise most young people also understand, given the roulette wheels of fleeting pleasures available at our finger tips. If AI can help sustain attention/commitment to the working topic, to dig in rather than just glide over the surface and onto the next thing, it surely is useful. But as folks have said, is it just another modern crutch that makes us weak and dependent and not very good, logical thinkers. — Nils Loc

I don't think that last line defines my experience. :lol: My living space is now cluttered with books related to discussions, especially Jack's thread about God. This is not the same clutter of books I had two weeks ago because of a thread I was doing in a history forum. But then I use a walker and I don't think it makes me weaker, because without it I would not go for walks and for sure my body would get worse. I think it is our motivation that determines how we use tools and aids. If a child were to read something said in AI and ask me about it, I would be delighted and avoid defining the technology as bad and harmful.

As for your next paragraph. The subject demands our attention and perhaps our action. I have been complaining about our lack of privacy ever since we went from laws protecting our privacy to employers and landlords wanting to know what we used to keep private. I think charging a fee to prevent advertising is extortion that should be against the law.

We went into education for technology, and dropped liberal education that prepared us for good moral judgment with the 1958 National Defense Education Act. One of the problems of relying on the Bible for good moral judgment is that the book does not help us with the present demands of moral decision-making.

We have so much to discuss. Has the change in education and development of technology put us in a precarious position?

Why "consider" this when "God's truth" about "quantum physics" is not revealed in ANY of thousands extant sacred texts? :eyes: — 180 Proof

I like your post, however, I will argue, as long as there is an argument we need to argue. Forums do not restrict membership to those who have an agreement supported by the owner of the forum. :lol: Well I was once evicted from a science forum because I used the word "God". Fortunately, most forums are not so narrow-minded.

The art of debate is worth developing, and we can do that by arguing both sides of the argument.

Also, Jose Arguelles mentions galactic beams as compatible with the Mayan cosmology. Thanks to the Spanish and Christian fanatics, we don't have Mayan textbooks. However, Jose Arguelles gives an interesting explanation of how these beams affect life on Earth. His explanation is rather fantastic, but trying to understand the Mayan concepts is interesting to me. Communicating my understanding and receiving replies is part of the learning process.

Quantum Field Theory is by far the most successful truth in the history of science, its scientific model very well showing what goes on.

The quantum 'vacuum' has a base zero-point energy that is never zero and a base zero-point motion that is never zero. Philosophically, we would also conclude that Nothing and Stillness wouldn't have prayer of being so. — PoeticUniverse

That is very different from believing there is nothing between the plants, and what is in space is perfect orbs, and nothing in space changes. Seeing spots on the sun was heretical because that would make the sun imperfect. It was not only the church that did not approve of Galileo, but all the academics who held the explanations of Aristotle as true. I read it was the academics who spurred the Pope to take action against Galileo.

I am dumbfounded by the religious folks clinging to their mythology despite how much our understanding of reality has changed.

My father didn't know his father who died in a mining accident about 1912. Dad had several siblings but he was the only one to leave the coal mines behind. He had his mother save his pay for tending the underground donkeys and after he graduated high school he attended Penn State for a year, then went into the deep south to continue his education, working as a campus cop to support himself.

Dad's mother was a resourceful woman. She turned her shotgun house into a small grocery store and supported herself and her children for years. The store was still open in the 1960s. She lived to 94 or so. I only met her once when we drove from Alabama to Pennsylvania for a visit in the late 1940s. That was considered a big deal and the local newspaper had an article about our adventure.

I don't recall either of my parents complaining bitterly about the Depression. They minimized their needs and adjusted as best they could. When WWII came along Dad was offered a commission in the Navy, but he had a health problem and turned it down. After the end of the War he became chief statistician for the War Assets Administration for a brief period. Then on to academia. — jgill

That is an awesome story. It is interesting to me, and I would like to know more about how her home was turned into a grocery store. I have to use this AI explanation. I Googled 1910 coal company helped a widow create a store.

In the early 1900s, coal companies sometimes operated company towns that included general stores, but specific instances of a company helping a widow create her own grocery store are not widely documented. While not a definitive answer to a specific 1910 event, several historical patterns show how this may have occurred.

Back in the day, people would help, but the help would be a hand up, not a hand down. I can so see how a coal mine owner would give a son a job or help a widow. This is from knowing my grandmother and mother. It is forbidden to take something for nothing. And when there was a charity drive, you gave something to "help those less fortunate." These rules are very much a part of being. That is not all good. It is very hard for me to accept a gift. On the other hand, because I don't accept something for nothing, I am less apt to be a victim of a scam.

I appreciate your humor. I can drop my concern about the depression thread, but the thread came up in a search, and that could benefit the forum if it attracts new people. But I might do better in life if I limit my efforts to what benefits me. Rarely does anyone appreciate my suggestions about what s/he should do. I have a very fickle mind. The last few days, Jack's thread about God has consumed my time, because in my mind, that got tied to quantum physics, the Mayan Factor, and sacred numbers. :yum:

My point was that I was working to benefit the forum and needed a voice other than my own, and that other voice could be AI. You know, along the line of using a car to get to work might work better than a horse and buggy. I am not sure the decision to restrict the use of AI in the forum is the best rationale. However, we may all be concerned about our economy being tied to AI. This could get very interesting very fast. The book "The Mayan Factor" by Jose Arguelles predicts an economic collapse on our Path Beyond Technology.

In answer to your question "One question may be what are the benefits and disadvantages of throwing the idea of 'God' aside in philosophy?"

I want to go back to your statement, "The worldviews of the philosophy of 'reality'. The idea of 'God' may seem outdated, but it is an extremely complex area of philosophy, and may not be dismissed easily in human understanding."

I think by using the term "worldview," you might be working with a Western worldview, which does not include the Mayan, Hindu, or Chinese understanding of reality. Interestingly, the Chinese I Ching matrix fits perfectly in the center of the Mayan matrix. The Chinese matrix is equal to the 64 DNA, and the Mayan Matrix includes the universe. The acupuncture points are found in both. I think there is a lot we have to learn before our understanding of "worldview" includes other points of view, that are not dominated by the God of Abraham religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Those religions will not bring us to an understanding of quantum physics.

What we want is the truth; seeing quantum physics as God's truth is something we need to consider.

I am glad your father survived the coal mine. That was not a healthy place to be, and one of the best Great Depression. Would like to know more about their experience?



My favorite mine worker's story is Mother Jones.

Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onward, was an Irish-born American labor organizer, former schoolteacher, and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She helped coordinate major strikes, secure bans on child labor, and co-founded the trade union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

Notice she was a school teacher. At the 1917 National Education Association Conference, one of the teachers spoke of how proud she was of teachers who, in teaching about democracy, were also encouraging the development of granges and unions. Democracy is people uniting to help each other. I hate reading explanations of education being about pleasing Industries that treated humans poorly. That is not a correct understanding of what teachers were doing and why they were so strongly committed to teaching. The democracy we had, came through education, and it included spreading awareness of unions. Unfortunately, the coal miners and the Industry got into a life-or-death battle.

I use AI as a source of information. That means I am constantly learning. All this learning is more fun when I share it with others, and from my point of view, it doesn't matter where I get the information, from a book on my shelf, an encyclopedia, or an online source. What matters is how much work I put into it, and I hate quoting from a book because that is a lot of work for me, and I don't think people read the quotes.

My next consideration is quality and AI is a better writer than I am. Finding an exciting explanation is like bird watching with others, when the intent is to identify and count the number of birds, only I am only looking for information, not birds. I think discriminating against AI is like discriminating against people who look different. The rationale is a rationale, but it is not good reasoning.

So no one here cares about my thread about the great depression, and that is easy to accept. However, it came up in a Google search, so someone or something thought that information was worth spreading. That could be good for this forum, as it could attract a new person or many new people. That would make me feel good, but how much work do I want to put into it? If I could use AI as a second person in the thread, it might be fun to see what I could do. But I am not going to write the whole thread by myself, replying to my own post on the chance that something good could come from that. There has to be at least one other voice other than mine.

I don't think you need to worry about what AI could do to my enjoyment of learning.

Oh my goodness, he has a few books that appear to be complementary to Spinoza's ideas of nature and mind. These thinkers appear to me more appealing than quantum physics. However, quantum physics opens the possibility of all things being connected, and what we think is reality is an illusion and only one of infinite possibilities.

I want to go back in time to when people in South America had huge gatherings where it is likely psychodilics were used, so I can experience what they were experiencing. Along with going to India and learning the truths of Hinduism. Those truths are not so different from the Mayan beliefs. Philosophy has different sources of the notion that life as we know it is an illusion and the true reality looks like quantum physics.

Oh my, that is different from believing there is one god and our material reality and our lives are in his hands.

That was a lot about smell. When it comes to sex, our noses play an important role in our feelings of attraction.

Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com › attraction-evolved
Oct 16, 2018 — Bendas' findings show that odor is central to our sexual experiences. In fact, a satisfying sex life may simply be a case of following your nose.

Well, that is exactly what I have believed for a few years. It works perfectly with Buddhist concepts, but I have not come across the concepts with a more scientific explanation until yesterday. Several years ago, I began reading Frithjof Capra's book "The Tao of Physics," which explains Eastern mysticism and modern physics. I became convinced that we must learn to think in quantum physics terms, but I was alone with this book and struggled to understand it so I moved on to easier things.

However, then comes Jose Arguelles' book "The Mayan Factor" and Michael S Schneider's book "A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe", and all altogether there is a lot I want to learn. Especially Arguelles's book is hard to understand and seems to say totally ridiculous things, but I think I should go back to reading it in light of what the videos I posted say.

What if God is quantum consciousness, and you are part of it? What if you never died?

This video really excites me. I don't believe it is 100% correct. In the ancient past, there was sacred math, and that means Turing may not have originated his understanding of math. Whatever, near the beginning of the video, there is an explanation of what I understand to be the spark of life. Math and form/space are everything. Towards the end of the video is an explanation of God's thumbprint, or if you like, the golden ratio.

That is very interesting and hits upon something I have been struggling with for years. I have never been correctly indoctrinated into a religion or science. :lol: My thinking is liberal, and what is called pseudoscience gets my attention. I think authorized science is way too materialistic. I had not thought of vision as you explain it, but when we smell something, that thing does not go up our nose. What goes up our nose is coded information, and that must be so for what we see.

I am going to jump to another post and share a video about math and manifestation. I want to hold what I said in reply to you separate, in case I need correcting. I am not sure of my understanding of what you said, and I plan to contemplate it when I go to bed. I am trying to visualize what goes into our eyes that becomes our vision. I have so much to learn. I am sure in my college days we studied how the eye works, but thanks to what you said, I am not sure of how the eye works.

Obviously, I am sure that many people in philosophy circles would scorn the process superstition. For those who pray, it is to whichever God one believes in but prayer is central to the Judaeo-Christian tradition. — Jack Cummins

AI says this.

Research shows prayer and meditation can increase certain brainwave patterns, such as alpha and theta waves, which are associated with relaxation and emotional experience.

I think this information needs to go with the information about electromagic energy. What are these brain waves? What creates them? Music can effect our brain waves, but exactly why?

Alpha waves (8-14 Hz) are brainwaves associated with states of deep relaxation, calm, and focused attention, like meditation or daydreaming. Theta waves (4-8 Hz) are slower brainwaves linked to light sleep, deep relaxation, heightened creativity, and memory processes, often occurring at the threshold of sleep. Both types of waves are neural patterns of electrical activity in the brain that change with different mental states and activities.

THANKS, JACK, FOR THIS THREAD. I AM ENJOYING IT SOOOO MUCH. :hearts:

If telepathy is real, why wouldn't it be physical, given that both sender and receiver are physical? To assume there's something nonphysical means the brain can have a causal relation to the nonphysical. More assumptions = weaker justification. — Relativist

Yes you are right, but that is not the whole story.:starstruck: You got my youthful thoughts all excited and I feel young and alive in the moment. In the past, I got all the information I could about what some call consider non-scientific thinking.

Do you know people's hearts can synchronize? Why and how does that happen? For sure, there is an emotional cause.

Reach for the hand of a loved one in pain and not only will your breathing and heart rate synchronize with theirs, your brainwave patterns will couple up too, according to a new study.
https://www.aau.edu/research-scholarship/featured-research-topics/holding-hands-can-ease-pain-sync-brainwaves#:~:text=Reach%20for%20the%20hand%20of,according%20to%20a%20new%20study.

I have to use AI here because (bad word) it is necessary information.

Electromagnetism is the fundamental force describing the interaction between electrically charged particles, encompassing both electricity and magnetism. It explains how moving electric charges create magnetic fields, and how changing magnetic fields can, in turn, generate electric fields. This force is responsible for everyday phenomena like static cling and magnets sticking to refrigerators, as well as holding atoms and molecules together, forming the basis for chemical bonds. https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+electromagnetism&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS990US990&oq=what+is+electro&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqEAgAEAAYkQIYsQMYgAQYigUyEAgAEAAYkQIYsQMYgAQYigUyDQgBEAAYkQIYgAQYigUyDQgCEAAYkQIYgAQYigUyDQgDEAAYkQIYgAQYigUyDAgEEAAYFBiHAhiABDIMCAUQABhDGIAEGIoFMgYIBhBFGDkyDAgHEAAYQxiABBiKBTIMCAgQABhDGIAEGIoFMgcICRAAGI8C0gEJODE2M2owajE1qAIMsAIB8QUnuNeVOJFJjvEFJ7jXlTiRSY4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I think this next explanation explains telepathy, my messages from the dead.

Electromagnetic waves have two physical components: a propagating electric field and a magnetic field. These fields are perpendicular to each other and also perpendicular to the direction of the wave's travel, forming a transverse wave. The fields oscillate in phase and are in a fixed ratio of strengths, creating a disturbance that carries energy through space. https://www.google.com/search?q=what+are+the+physical+components+of+electromagnetic+waves&sca_esv=f67f5be7214373bb&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS990US990&sxsrf=AE3TifMOu1HVsffl-x3KoT3wD51UccnPDg%3A1756751983807&ei=b-i1aN2HMYbw0PEPuZ-bkA4&oq=what+are+the+physical+components+of+electrom&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiLHdoYXQgYXJlIHRoZSBwaHlzaWNhbCBjb21wb25lbnRzIG9mIGVsZWN0cm9tKgIIBzIHECEYoAEYCjIHECEYoAEYCjIHECEYoAEYCjIHECEYoAEYCjIHECEYoAEYCjIFECEYnwUyBRAhGJ8FMgUQIRifBTIFECEYnwUyBRAhGJ8FSPOIAVCAEVidUnABeAGQAQCYAV-gAbUHqgECMTG4AQHIAQD4AQGYAgygAucHwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR8ICChAjGIAEGCcYigXCAgUQABiABMICBhAAGBYYHsICCxAAGIAEGIYDGIoFwgIIEAAYgAQYogTCAgUQABjvBcICCBAAGKIEGIkFmAMAiAYBkAYIkgcEMTEuMaAHiWGyBwQxMC4xuAfiB8IHBjAuMS4xMcgHKw&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

According to quantum field theory, the "non-physical" or abstract causes of electromagnetic energy arise from the fundamental properties of the vacuum itself. These are phenomena that are not the result of moving or accelerating physical, charged particles but are intrinsic to the quantum nature of space. The main non-physical causes include: https://www.google.com/search?q=none+physical+causes+of+electromagnetic+energy&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS990US990&oq=none+physical+causes+of+el&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgDECEYChigATIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAhGAoYoAEyCQgCECEYChigATIJCAMQIRgKGKABMgkIBBAhGAoYoAEyBwgFECEYqwIyBwgGECEYqwIyBwgHECEYqwIyBwgIECEYjwIyBwgJECEYjwLSAQoxOTIwOWowajE1qAIMsAIB8QVCzvEybOpHy_EFQs7xMmzqR8s&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Have you heard of people using shrooms having the same hallucinations? I have been watching history videos, and it appears some people had sacred cities and, evidently, huge gatherings where psychedelics were used. For some, using shrooms is a spiritual experience that is life-changing. I think Western prejudices have kept us ignorant. It was the prejudice that killed my interest, but here we are, and that interest is rekindled.

↪Athena Perhaps there was a telepathic event as the man was dying, that planted the words in your mind. Or perhaps you received it telepathically from his wife's subsconscious, stimulate by her mental state. These seems more plausible to me than your receiving this cryptic message from him, after his brain ceased functioning. — Relativist

I have been watching an explanation of Spinoza and I like all is God. For me, telepathy means there is an energy that is different from our other forms of communication, which are all physical. If there is another energy other than physical energy, that makes life after death possible, doesn't it?

I appreciate your interest in this, for it weighs on my mind as well. But thoughts here get so bound up in extraneous and historical content that has no business in this matter of God. Before moving forward, onw has to ask what God IS first, and then a great deal of what troubles this issue simply vanishes. So what do you think God IS? — Constance

According to Spinoza God is the universe. God is nature. God is all that is and ever will be. We are made of by nature, and nature is God. We are not separate from nature/God.

The medical evidence demonstrates that memories are "stored" (in some sense) in the brain. Disease and physical trauma can result in memory loss. So even if a "soul" lives on, if the individual's memories are absent, it seems irrelevant to me. I regard myself as the person who was shaped by my experiences, including the memories that were formed along the way. — Relativist

I agree with that logic, but I am not sure that we know all there is to know.

Years ago, someone I PM lost her husband, and I had a strong urge to ask her if the words "red" and 'bucket', meant anything to her. She wrote back "no". Then, a few days later, she said her husband used a red bucket in his room as a trash can. I have no reasonable explanation for that.

When a neighbor died, after her funeral, I got on the elevator and it would not go up, but the lights began flashing. I almost ran off the elevator, but everything returned to normal, and I went up to my apartment.
Obviously, that was an elevator malfunction, and it is just a coincidence that it happened on the day of her funeral. So what if in over 15 years, nothing like that happened before or after. Now I could buy that, but having to ask my PM buddy if the words "red" and "bucket" meant anything to her is harder to explain away.

The thought of an afterlife is certainly appealing, but wishful thinking seems to me a poor guide to truth. And AFAIK, there's no evidence of it (unless you buy into claims about houses being haunted). Still, believing in an afterlife is not usually harmful (unless it leads one to risk or forgeit his life, or that of others), and it could be emotionally beneficial. — Relativist

I am quite sure the deceased have communicated to others through me. I am not positive of that, but there is no other way to explain some experiences. So I am sort of on the fence. Maybe there is life after death, and maybe not. Maybe reincarnation is possible, and maybe not. Becoming senile could be the perfect way to prepare for a new life. Like it wouldn't be a new life if we continued to be the person in the old life. :lol:

I am concerned about our souls needing this planet, and what happens if we destroy it? Will we become like refugees looking for a new home?

"Personal pain and suffering" define you? — 180 Proof

Sure. Quite a while ago, I read that we know who we are by checking our feelings. Recently, I came across the notion that our default mood defines who we are. Others know us as basically light-hearted, frivolous, crumpy. Whatever our default mood might be. Explaining this to you makes me think those thoughts are a little crazy, but it works for me right now. Daily, I check in with myself, and think, yeap, I am in the right body. It feels like me. :lol: From there, I work on improving myself as much as I can. My life is driven by eating the right food, getting the right amount of rest, and exercise. And mental exercises that all the vogue right now.

You must understand, I am not the old lady in the mirror. Most of us are not that old person. Our bodies are old, but our personalities solidify around age 30, and we tend to think of ourselves as that person. We know a lot more than we did, but I think our egos tend to solidify in our 30s. Then our egos take charge.

I returned to the forum this afternoon to watch the Spinoza video again. I have played with being egoless with Buddhist thoughts but I think Spinoza's thoughts might be more useful. I can't believe everything my head tells me about me, and I would like to silence some thoughts that have quite a negative effect.

How would I know who I am without my personal pain and suffering? What would give my life purpose and meaning? What would hold me separate from God?

Thanks for the explanation of being free. I think I will pursue knowledge.

This is interesting and essential if one is interested in the history of thoughts about existence and a god.

Getting back to you about the books you listed. I was able to read some of "Information and the Nature of Reality" this morning. I think I have a book about quantum physics that might help me understand the concepts. My mind is kind of stuck back in the day of Newton. When trying to understand quantum physics, it is quickly overwhelmed, but it is clear to me that we must upgrade our thinking. :lol: I have to laugh at myself. My brain doesn't work as well as I would like. My old legs sure are not putting in me in a marathon.

But I will keep working on improvement, just in case the Egyptians were right about the trinity of our being.

Whether one's ideas about reality are 'delusions' or not is culture dependent. The standard idea of delusion is if one's ideas are not shared by others. For example, if someone believes oneself to be a Messiah it is usually thought to be delusional. Generally, those with unusual beliefs are regarded as eccentric, or referred to a psychiatrist.

Even within psychiatry, mental health professionals ideas vary, ranging from fundamentalists to hardcore atheists. This affects the way the professionals interpret the ideas of psychosis and delusions. Nevertheless, one common ground is thinkers about the impact of the ideas. If a person is seen as a risk to oneself or others there is more concern about delusional beliefs.

Of course, it is possible for people in power or an entire nation to be delusional, in a 'harmful' way. Politics involves ideas about reality, ranging from leaders fighting for religious beliefs to Marxism based on dialectical materialism. — Jack Cummins

That could lead to an unpleasant discussion.:lol: I have a few words to say about delusion and political problems, but that would not be philosophical. However, AI's explanation of "Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Political Delusion" is perfect. We should not base our decisions on popular opinions but on truth. That is where freedom of the press and the media comes in. Our journalists were supposed to keep us well informed, and many took this very seriously. But lately, the media has catered to popular interest. Resulting mass delusion.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Nearing and Helen Knothe, a lifelong vegetarian, lived together in Winhall in rural Vermont, where they had purchased a large forest tract for $2200 and a moderate-sized farm for $2500.

Scott Nearing, an economics professor who at 45 had made himself unemployable because of his socialist-pacifist views. https://www.google.com/search?q=scott+nearing+vermont+house&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS990US990&oq=Scott+Nearing+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgHEAAYFhgeMgoIABBFGBYYHhg5MgcIARAuGIAEMgcIAhAAGIAEMgcIAxAAGIAEMgcIBBAAGIAEMgcIBRAAGIAEMgcIBhAAGIAEMggIBxAAGBYYHjIICAgQABgWGB7SAQs4NTg1NzBqMGoxNagCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I think many who could afford a farm turned to farming during the Great Depression. My grandparents owned a chicken farm, so they ate well but.... The story goes that they could not sell the chickens, so my grandfather gave them away. That made my grandmother furious, and they divorced. I thought the divorce rate increased because of the Great Depression, but AI said the divorce rate decreased until the economy started to improve. Then the divorce rate increased.

My grandmother was a teacher, and divorced women could not get teaching jobs in the city so she and her two children had to stay in a rural area until the rules for teachers changed.

Followup question: are we still a nation anymore? We all know the state is alive and kicking, but when's the last time somebody bothered to check on her brother? Civic nationalism (the US' chosen type of unifying ideology) is much more intellectually demanding than ethnic nationalism, which threatens to divide pluralist nations into factions. Enlightenment ideals like you mentioned, an emphasis on individual liberty, personal responsibility, active citizenship and pride in duty, rule of law, diversity of opinions, backgrounds, and cultures, and reverence of constitutional foundations all seem to be core tenets of our national identity. It's fundamental for liberal democracies to remain united behind these or adjacent ideals so that solidarity can prevail even in times of crisis or division. Without them, the only common denominators would geography and a prevailing political authority, while sub-national factions jockey for political dominance without much restraint — finarfin

Wow! I love :heart: what you said! I don't know which nation you are talking about, but the US is in big trouble! The Roosevelts had a different set of values than some presidents. And we may want to pay attention to this difference.

I hold my hands at this moment, a book titled "Poverty and Riches" by Scott Nearing, Ph.D. published in 1916. It is a horror story about the exploitation of the poor, including children. This book seems to say we should take Germany's side in the First World War because it did far more for its citizens than England did for its poor and powerless class.

Here is the reasoning for that.. under the Act of 1831...

children of nine could be called upon to work sixty-nine hours a week. "The hours of black slaves' labor in our colonies were at that very time carefully limited by law (Orders in Council, November 2, 1831) to nine per day for adults, and six for young persons and children, while night work was simply prohibited". Not until 1847 was a ten-hour day for women and children secured.

6. Laisez-Faire Justified
The debate in Parliament over the early factory acts sounds weird and uncanny in twentieth-century ears. The Unspeakable working and living conditions of the industrial population were explained and justified in the name of liberty and individual freedom.

The revolting conditions surrounding the lives of the working population were more than offest, in the eyes of English statemen, by the cheapness of the product, the profits of the industries to the manufacturers, and the splendid trade balances that were growing in favor of England.

This is what the Roosevelts were looking at when they determined to use the federal government to take better care of the working class. Heaven only knows how many people would have starved to death if Franklin Roosevelt had not used the power of government to create jobs that were desperately needed.

I am trying to hold this examination of economic crashes and capitalism to a question of morality. Socrates said, when people are exploited, sooner or later, they become a problem to those who exploit them. The Enlightenment was a belief that humanity can do better.

Plagiarizing someone else's writing is wrong. I grew up with that rule and have strong feelings about the wrong. However, as I sit out here all alone with my thoughts, it is wonderful to find I am not totally alone, but AI knows what I am talking about and more! Unlike some replies, AI leads me to learning more about the subject I am writing about. It's a wonderful experience for me.

I don't always agree with Google AI, and that is annoying. How dare they say something that is wrong. I don't want people believing something that is wrong. I don't think AI has emotional intelligence and that can be a threat. Some of us do not want to be ruled by a king, nor AI.

I would really appreciate any corrections to what I am saying about GD, because I was not there. I think for some of us where I live, the recession was like the GD. I risked my life hitchhiking and selling plasma to get through my generation's hard times. I experienced black humor, where the possibility of dying was funny. But I did not live through the GD so I may hold wrong notions about it.

That would not be very useful.

Thanks, I looked for the lounge but couldn't find it. Too much on my mind all at once, shuts my brain down.

I am most concerned about what the people in charge of the forum want. Using AI would make developing a thread by myself much easier. But my next move might be quoting from a book titled "Poverty and Riches" and published around the First World War about why Germany had healthier citizens than Britain, and questioning if taking the British side was the right thing. Capitalism that exploits people, may not be moral, and Socrates said sooner or later those people who are exploited will become a problem to those who exploit them.

Thank you. I will follow the Hippie path. The more scientific one causes my brain to shut down.

One of my favorite philosophers is James Williams, and he was good with Holisticism. He is also a hard read for me, but says things my brain really likes. He was an education authority, and education is a subject I am passionate about.

I checked my favorite second-hand book dealer, and the book The Sapient Cosmos by James B. Glattfelder is more than I usually pay. I will have to think about it. I already am behind in my reading.

Back to the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover's "rugged individualism" lost him the election and put Franklin Roosevelt in the presidency. The Roosevelts have a history of progressive political action. Before Franklin was Theodore Roosevelt, who increased government power to regulate Industry when the gap between the rich and poor was huge. Theodore was anti-monopoly and he regulated the railroad. Franklin built on this government control of Industry. However, Hoover, was responsible for reorganizing the federal bureaucracy that made the New Deal possible when Franklin Roosevelt was the president. That is, these men worked together for a more moral and efficient government.

I say a more moral government because not only do I see the moral decisions, but James Williams an American philosopher was concerned about the moral decisions, and he favored the liberal point of view.

"Certainly Dewey does not offer us final or settled solutions but this is not the issue; at various times in his long career, he thought seriously and deeply about many social and moral problems, and it is our contention that he provided his liberal followers with some answers to some of these problems. His social and political activities were a lived extension of his political theorizing. From the First World War to the end of the Depression and after-as long as he was actively involved in social and political movements-he applied his theory to practice in concrete engagements. Dewey's appeal for the use of intelligence in social change can easily lend itself to caricature as long as intelligence retains its scholastic connotation." BY EDWARD J. BORDEAU
https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1077&context=rel_fac

That is very exciting to me because it is Enlightenment thinking, and I fully believe it was Enlightenment thinking that made the US great. The most noble purpose of education is to prepare the young to be responsible citizens. This is a far cry from the present mood of the US to oppose intellectualism. And curiously, Christians hated William James.

And in Texas, the grade school textbooks do not mention the problem, and because they buy so many textbooks, they are written to please the people in power. Other states buy books made for Texas, but they may be modified to fit the different state standards. That is unethical.

In 1920 a newspaper warned "Given our known oil supply and rate of consumption, we are headed for economic disaster and possibly war." There is no excuse for our ignorance. Carter was right about avoiding war by reducing our consumption of oil, and Reagan was a liar when he said we have all the oil we need, because that depended on a military a presence in the Middle East. Technology extended our time to use oil. A technology that depends on a lie and ignorance is unforgivable, and it was the media's duty to keep us informed. We might delay the collapse of our economy but we can not prevent it, while at the same time we are destroying our planet.

We need honesty and we need to act on what we know. We must not let the discussion stop at ignoring the problem because change would hurt.