Socrates would love your argument. That is the problem with learning the technology of rhetoric instead of being prepared for good moral judgment. That rhetoric can get people into wars they should avoid. Our sense of self-importance has gone crazy. We are as paranoid as Germany, suffering an extreme need to be superior and in control. That comes with education for technology. This is a culture change that came with the change in education. — Athena
I’d put a similar thought in this way: a culture of people can either be a ‘dominator culture’ or not.
These days the word ‘dominant’ is seen as superior, but being a ‘D-Cult’ its strength is superficial and stolen… and extremely toxic.
It’s like a person growing rich by embezzlement; it may go on for years, but it is ultimately unsustainable.
We are living in a dominator culture (as you probably agree).
As a culture bent on turning the Earth into wealth, and absorbing (stealing) everything and everyone else on the planet, we have a certain logic and rationale that is difficult to argue with.
It is difficult to argue with because it is the logic of absolute power, the persuasion of guns behind all the complex and scholarly reasoning.
And to defy the Empire that rules the world, an empire that is now beyond any one particular nation, is a paradox.
It is a paradox because it is suicidal to oppose complete power, yet it is genocidal to go along with it.
This is why the people around us (and perhaps ourselves) are struggling to keep from slipping into insanity. — 0 thru 9
Thanks for your wonderful post!
:flower: :smile: :up: — 0 thru 9
Helping out locally, via volunteer work, is I think one of the best uses of a person's time you can ever take part in. The wee town I live in, has so many wee community help groups, and they are all fantastic. — universeness
Do others have notions about what it means to be a citizen in a democracy? In a kingdom, everyone expects to rely on the king, but in a democracy, every citizen has a part to play. This gives us a kind of immortality because our lives are bigger than just ourselves, and we carry the purpose of giving our best to the future and our nation. Everyone has a part to play. — Athena
Are there any opinions about the psychological factor in music, song, dance, sports, and possibly art? All this would be part of a liberal education. — Athena
I watched a show about Native Americans and have been attempting to see the world from the point of view of people who were here long before Europeans and the technology that came with them and continues to drive our modern way of life. I want to feel connected with Mother Earth and live with the purpose of caring for nature. — Athena
Are there any opinions about the psychological factor in music, song, dance, sports, and possibly art? All this would be part of a liberal education. — Athena
That is the important part of the message of the Natives and tribal peoples.
Earth plus us is a marriage, a relationship, a friendship.
The current relationship to the Earth too often is ‘take, take, take!’… which ends up being very close to criminal activity like slavery, theft, and rape. — 0 thru 9
All this was part of my 1957-1965 routine public school education in Toronto. Plus domestic skills, health and hygiene, math, grammar, literature, history, geography and science, access to the library and extracurricular activities. A lot of the arts and after-school programs were cut dues to financial constraints. A friend who came from the US and later went back told me that her daughter who wanted to study geography at post-secondary level could not find a school in Chicago that offered it. — Vera Mont
At the moment I am questioning my reliance on Athens that continues to exclude the Native American spirituality which I still hunger for. A PBS show about Chaco Canyon has me thinking heavily about these people's spiritual point of view. Animism is a belief about the entire universe being alive and some of the science I have come across is saying the same thing. — Athena
I studied home economics — Athena
It was a shock to me that women's lib would destroy that value system and turn us into "just housewives" as though that is almost the lowest thing a woman can be. — Athena
It brought its own young in line with the new world order your country had a major role in creating in the wake of WWII. Round individuals had been pretty rare before the war. Now, more scientific and industrial skills were needed, and a couple of other countries were already more advanced in those areas. The US had two choices: catch up and pull ahead or fall behind and lose its position as a world power.I am asking people to look at what the 1958 National Defense Education Act did to education and our culture. — Athena
Well, I did try to highlight examples of fantastic citizenship and community spirit, that I know for a fact exists in the small Scottish town I live in. Surely that and the fact that such is alive and kicking in 2023, should offer you some contentment that we have not all surrendered to tock yet. — universeness
Immediately I know, I like the notion that I belong to the world — Athena
It was a shock to me that women's lib would destroy that value system and turn us into "just housewives" as though that is almost the lowest thing a woman can be. Just one step above a prostitute. Then I learned of matriarchy and some Native American tribes where women have value and are highly respected. I am asking people to look at what the 1958 National Defense Education Act did to education and our culture. How did the development of well-rounded individual growth become too expensive and focus us on education for military and industrial needs? — Athena
A fusion of tribal thinking with Greek and Stoic philosophy could be amazing.
I think the Tao Te Ching is in the neighborhood of that in some ways, and is a deep well of wisdom. — 0 thru 9
Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is a condition where a child doesn’t form healthy emotional bonds with their caretakers (parental figures), often because of emotional neglect or abuse at an early age. Children with RAD have trouble managing their emotions. They struggle to form meaningful connections with other people. Children with RAD rarely seek or show signs of comfort and may seem fearful of or anxious around their caretakers, even in situations where their caretakers are quite loving and caring.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17904-reactive-attachment-disorder
(1) All phenomena are mutually related and give rise to one another simultaneously. (2) The broad and the narrow are mutually inclusive without impediment; and one action, however small, includes all actions. (3) The many are included in the one and the one in the many, without losing their respective characteristics as “one” and “many.” (4) All phenomena are interpenetrated in their essence; one is equal to all and all is equal to one. (5) The hidden and the manifest complement each other and together form one entity. (6) Things that are inconceivably minute also obey the principle of many in one and one in many. (7) All phenomena ceaselessly permeate and reflect one another, like the reflections in the jewels of Indra’s net (a net said to hang on a wall in the palace of the god Indra, or Shakra; at each link of the net is a reflective jewel that mirrors the adjacent jewels and the multiple images reflected in them). (8) All phenomena manifest the truth, and the truth is to be found in all phenomena; anything can serve as an example of the truth of the interdependence of all things. (9) The three periods of past, present, and future each have past, present, and future within themselves. This defines nine periods, which together form one period, making ten in all. These ten periods are distinct yet mutually pervasive. This mystery expresses the “one is all, all is one” principle of the Flower Garland school in terms of time. (10) At any time, one phenomenon acts as principal and many phenomena as secondary, thus completing the whole. https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/T/60
Good, glad to hear that! :grin: It’s a liberating feeling.
We’ve all been lied to, even repeated the lies that we ingested.
Now’s an excellent to to stop, beginning with what we tell ourselves in the quiet of our minds. — 0 thru 9
So should every boy along with every girl. I resented the hell out of not being allowed to take shop. Men need to budget, clothe and nourish themselves, just as women need to do minor home repairs. Whether they're married or not - besides, who says they'll marry each other? impractical to have two partners who can make pineapple upside-down cake but neither can put up a level shelf.
Women's lib didn't do that - patriarchy did. Women who had no independent income were at the mercy of their husbands in more ways than just financially - more so if they had children.
I am asking people to look at what the 1958 National Defense Education Act did to education and our culture.
— Athena
It brought its own young in line with the new world order your country had a major role in creating in the wake of WWII. Round individuals had been pretty rare before the war. Now, more scientific and industrial skills were needed, and a couple of other countries were already more advanced in those areas. The US had two choices: catch up and pull ahead or fall behind and lose its position as a world power. — Vera Mont
Yup. The second-class, if not actually chattel, idea has been kicking around for quite a while. Read it in the Bible. There was no great value placed on women in American society, either, except when there was a scarcity out west and brides were mail-ordered, and during the wars, when cheap labour was needed in the most dangerous factories.Are you sure it was not women's liberation that destroyed the value of being a woman? — Athena
Rarely have men prevented me from doing something I wanted to do, but you make me think about this and now I remember occasionally men did draw the line — Athena
but they have not attacked me as women have when I argue in favor of traditional values. — Athena
Do you know how hard it is to make repairs with kitchen equipment? — Athena
Fortunately, a male teacher told the class we were now going to be educated for a technological society with unknown values! Unknown values?! — Athena
What are we protecting if the only value we share is the value of money? — Athena
https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/T/60
That is different from thinking in terms of God's manifestation and good and evil like Zoroastrianism or the God of Abraham religions. Once the concepts of good and evil blend with our thoughts is it possible for us to think without good and evil judgments? How does it feel to think of the 10 mysteries? — Athena
How about you? I find Eastern thinking liberating. As I near death I am comforted by the notion that I am one with the universe, but also distressed about being one with the universe and no "I". If "I" do not exist does anything matter? But is it not that need for "I" that separates us from the oneness? I have an awful lot of thinking to do. — Athena
As soon as I lied down I thought of Sumer and the story of a wild man living in the wilderness being tamed by a woman in the city. The point being we are not naturally good and caring beings who live well in communities. We learn how to be civilized. Children who are not nurtured well early in life may lose the ability to love. — Athena
We were not successful in every endeavour, but at least some progress was made. In the workplace, considerable progress. In law and politics, two steps forward to one step back. In marital relations and parenting, immeasurable - because in some segments of society, the change is producing much better relationships and healthier children, while in others, very little has changed. — Vera Mont
Who takes care of the children? Maybe in another 100 years, men will be instinctively nurturing but right now the idea of leaving a very young child in the care of a man for more than a couple of hours, unnerves me. — Athena
I would find all that less harmful if Industry used the democratic model instead of the autocratic model. We could include childcare in the place of employment or subsidized housing. We are having a hard time wrapping our heads around communal living and shared responsibility. — Athena
I am not sure we fully appreciate how much things have changed and I am out of time for today. — Athena
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