Useful Education, Information, Communications

The worst thing about reading the newspapers and especially the editorials, is that it is an insult to most intelligent people -- and so THAT segment of their readership is the first to migrate on to “smart” media -- which of course, dooms the prospects for any recovery and revitalization of an older culture and institutional hierarchy.

The secret to competition is to recruit the talent to your side -- and not to demand that nobody can be better than their present top guys. That’s why organizations fail; they suffocate themselves by shutting themselves off from the talent that would be their salvation -- circle their wagons, and roll themselves into fetal positions to deny the impending realities. They always hire down, rather than up; nobody can be smarter than their immediate supervisor.

Meanwhile, excellent leaders and growing movements are not afraid to recruit competent people to their cause -- as equals rather subordinates.

Now the Mayor is warning that if we build the rail transit system, it will cost untold billions -- but if we don’t build the rail transit system, it will cost almost as much. That would be the “do-nothing” plan they already have in the works.

Maybe they could spend those billions educating and informing the people to ride the present bus system (mass transit) and to car/van pool, along with developing a state-of-the-art information/communications network that will facilitate that orientation and purpose. Obviously, better education, information and communications are key to the better societies of the future -- and not more underutilized and misused physical plant.

That is a very 20th century vision of what was needed -- more physical plant, more capacity -- rather than how it is used.

A second theme in today’s editorials is the Democrats resurrection of the gas cap distraction from the realization that gas prices go down when people use less -- and not when government forces down prices so irresponsible consumers can burn all they want. These are the kinds of readers that only the newspapers have now -- so that their editors can still crow that they are the smartest people in town; they shrink the intelligence pool so that no credible ideas can ever see the light of day.

That’s why it is imperative to build a vastly superior modern education/information/communications infrastructure rather than throwing more money at perpetuating these inefficient hierarchies that cannot solve the problems because they don’t have these integrated purpose and approach. Each narrow self-interest undermines all the others -- to achieve their own supremacy and dominance, which is even a 19th century mentality and outlook.

A fragmented, partial, partisan advocacy is not going to bring about the kind of society that serves all, as equals, co-creating the reality -- rather than just being forced to accept the ultimatums of the powers that be who wish to remain so until they die.

Two Bads Don’t Make a Good

In reading the editorial pages of the newspapers, one is struck by the impression that the editors believe that by presenting one gross, distorted perspective countered by an opposing gross, distorted perspective -- that somehow, they have presented the truth of the situation, rather than just two grossly distorted perspectives that are not helpful in getting closer to the truth. And that is why credibility and readership is collapsing at unprecedented rates now that there are alternative sources for information -- rather than just “news,” which they and their confederates control.

Real useful information on the other hand, will cause one to stop looking for more information -- until the next “real” need arises -- rather than just the fabrications by editors thinking to create more news, and the demand for “more” news. Obviously, this is a need that no longer exists -- and people need to reserve their attention for actual problems and solutions, and not just those manufactured by the news peddlers to counter the confusion that they themselves are creating.

Society doesn’t need to create any more jobs like that -- of people creating problems just so they can provide the “solution.” There are far more meaningful ways to use one’s life -- than in gossip, propaganda and deliberate distortions. If one can, better just to be completely unaware of all those things. The decline of mass media is the verdict of a clearer thinking audience that they need less of this “entertainment” while focusing their attention on real problems confronting their daily lives, and in solving those problems, rather than just the fabricated, their lives will improve meaningfully and substantially.

That is the problem of mass media in a personalized media world. Publishers can no longer control or insist, that the reader first read the information they want them to see, before they can have the information they want.

Election seasons are particularly perilous times for newspapers -- because of the heightened partisanship, manipulations and deceptions -- that allowed to go unchecked, and even encouraged and inflamed, totally destroys whatever vestiges of credibility these publications have. Of course they can point out that their sources lied -- as though merely reporting them, absolves them of any culpability and malice.

A lot has changed since most of the leaders of mass media received their training and education; many are even past the mandatory retirement age for most other fields -- to remain at the top of their game. So their world of information was shaped fifty years ago -- and they have apparently learned little new since, and think that in maintaining these “old values,” they can cause them to return -- while the rest of society has passed them by, amazed that they should demand that the prerequisite for learning anything new, is to learn everything that is old -- for which they have the monopoly and are the gatekeepers collecting the tolls.

The problem of the old mass media is that they are overrun by the abundance of information -- and not the lack of it.

Reward Talent and Ability -- and Not Just Seniority

That is the heart of most of our problems -- that we do things the way we do because it’s always been done that way before, and seldom because it is the best way for accomplishing our objectives. That is the corrupting influence of rewarding (valuing) seniority above all -- when it should have no place in any intelligent discussion at all.

All that should be discussed is the best way to accomplish our objectives -- regardless of how it was done in the past, since how we have done it up to now, has CAUSED the great crisis of this time. Very few see that because they are already vested in the old ways, vested in the problem -- and are no longer interested in the solution, if by that solution, it would mean the elimination of a great problem that has plagued humankind throughout time.

Unions do not have to reward seniority over everything else; they have chosen that path because by keeping those at the entry-level, low-paid relative to the high, who are often doing nothing but exploiting their status, they can point out to their employer that the lowest paid person is not making enough -- BECAUSE he is being exploited by his own fellow union members, who if everybody was paid at least the same, would be getting the generous wage the employer wants to pay ALL his employees.

When the entry-level pay is less than that of the longest employees -- it creates the problem of recruitment that many professions bemoan because those with seniority anywhere else, will be reluctant to move into another field that might desperately need their skills -- because they don’t want to start at the bottom, while they can remain at the top of the pay structure, remaining where they have a lot of seniority (status), even if they’re doing nothing useful anymore, and the job has become obsolete (meaningless) except for the press releases they write periodically, describing how the problems are getting worse -- and so they need more money, more staff, and more pay, for doing the same work or less!

If the need for teachers was real rather than artificially constricted by restricting all competent applicants -- many who are not only more qualified but often the creators of their information and discipline -- by requiring them to take inane education course that are an insult to intelligent people, the pool would be much greater. Since the standardized test scores for education graduates are collectively the lowest of those majoring in any discipline, it stands to reason that a degree in any other subject is preferable to one in education -- and should not be the only allowed educational requirement for teaching. Mastery of the subject matter should be the most highly valued -- and not education to seem knowledgeable while really not -- which is what teacher education (pedagogy) is about.

The very talented in any field are rewarded by the love for what they do -- even if the pay was equal to every other job -- because doing that, is the fulfillment and joy of who they are, and what they do. For them, the job is easier than for a less talented, skilled, experienced person -- because of those advantages, and so they do not begrudge the novice for receiving the same pay for doing that same job. Their talent and ability -- is their major advantage in life, as well as their greatest compensation -- for they have found their calling and meaning in life, instead of just thinking, that money is the only measure of their worth -- while understanding nothing useful at all.

District 21 Newsletter (Waikiki-Kapahulu)

There is No Good Hate and Bigotry

Dear Mr. Hu,

I am an editorial writer for The Advertiser, doing research in preparation for district endorsements in House races.

I have read your blog and filing with the elections office, but would appreciate your personal thoughts on your priorities for the district specifically (any development or infrastructure concerns?), as well as on statewide issues, such as prison overcrowding and education needs.

Please feel free to comment in a reply to this message, or by phone: 525-8027.

Sincerely,Vicki Viotti
The Honolulu Advertiser

The demographics of the Waikiki-Kapahulu District 21 is that it probably the oldest population in the state -- in which most of its residents are retired -- and so there is a dearth of children. In this context, rather than being less need for schools, it needs to be reoriented to the even greater need of re-educating and re-conditioning this aging population to re-learn everything they need to know to remain vitally healthy and vibrant in the reality of today's greatly increased life spans -- as opposed to the traditional aging paradigm.

We already see this dichotomy and divergence in many of the candidates running for elective office -- of which age is an underlying issue. But the real issue is not age per se, but whether these people have aged in the traditional pattern or have embraced the new possibilities of life in today's world -- mainly by being open to them, willing to learn about them, and having minimal resistance to embracing that wonderful new life that never was possible before.

The world has changed so greatly that education for the young is no longer an overriding concern -- as it had been when an educated person was relatively rare. With nearly universal education, most people can learn just by being around knowledgeable people willing to share information -- which is most people. The exceptions are the professional educators -- who of course, want to protect their monopoly and cash cow. But in maintaining this power and exclusive jurisdiction over these function and activities -- they disempower everybody else from this participation, which should be everybody's basic right -- the right to learn, whenever, wherever, whatever they want to learn -- and not have that dictated to them by the "education professionals."

As such, the education professional becomes the greatest hindrance to a much greater societal progress and evolution -- which is a life of learning, constantly adapting with the latest state-of-the-art advances which are likely to be discovered in the discussion of these issues -- freshly, and not just in the traditional parameters -- which are inevitably about more money and job security for teachers (the professionals). Once that money is freed up, there is money to address our present greatest problems of aging, dysfunction, ignorance of essential but untaught skills -- rather than continuing to fund learning for learning's sake -- just because it was always done that way in the past.

Those kinds of traditions we need to break free from -- to embrace a life without those problems. The old conditioning, the old education, the old social hierarchies, the old institutions, habits, customs are the problems of today because the response is to another time and age -- in which most people stopped learning as soon as they could, after leaving school -- because they were taught that learning was difficult, time-consuming, costly, and mostly about learning things that had little to do with their daily lives.

And that is the greatest problem of education -- that students (children largely), are forced to learn what they don't regard as vital to their lives. I know that was always my objection to much I was taught: "What was the relevance?" But in things that are vital to know, everybody is an attentive and interested student.

One of the best arguments for this difference is the persons running for our highest office: Linda Lingle and Malama Solomon are basically the same age, yet one looks like the mother of the other. Yet the one with the advanced degree in education is not a good testimony of that kind of education. That is the clearest example of the new and the old -- which is not fundamentally about age but of attitude and perceptions of life in the possibilities of these times. The new is the life I want to choose for our society -- and not the old, poorly, inadequate challenge to life in these times.

-- Mike Hu

A Message from Bob Kessler, Chair of District 23

Aloha all - You may have noticed that I've been missing in action for a few weeks. I apologize. My wife has been ill and I've been taking care of her. But I've been monitoring the campaigns and I believe this is one of the most exciting election seasons I've ever seen. Debates, ads, lots of interesting endorsements, lots of mailers, and LOTS OF OPPORTUNITIES! Ed Case opened the door for some real Republican progress. Plus we have some truly impressive Republican candidates out there who need our support. So I suggest that instead of having our normal monthly meeting we use that time to get out there and help our Republican candidates! Wave signs, phone all of your friends and neighbors, even knock on doors to make sure that OUR candidates enjoy strong support and that OUR voters get out there and vote. And don't forget they need our financial support, so be as generous as you can.

Start with our very own Representative Anne Stevens. I've attached her sign waving schedule. It helps if you wear a Stevens or a GOP t-shirt, but that's not a requirement. The important measure is having a crowd out there showing strong support at her sign waving events. If Anne doesn't have enough signs for everyone who shows up, show up anyway and stand next to a sign waver and wave to the passers by.

Move on the Mike Hu, running to represent HD 21. Mike may be the clearest thinker in any of the races. Read his ideas and platform at hawaiirepublican.blogspot.com (repmikehu.blogspot.com). Get your friends and neighbors to read Mike's blog and draw the comparisons between his ideas and the go-along-to-get-along record of the incumbent, Scott Nishimoto. No contest intellectually. Then get'em to get out and vote for Mike.

I've also attached a couple of emails that offer informed recommendations on the city charter and constitutional amendments. Input from Sam Slom and Charles Djou is always good enough for me.

Remember that absentee voting starts tomorrow, October 24.

Remember when voting for the city charter and constitutional amendments that a blank vote counts as a no vote. (Only in Hawaii!!) And remember that every Republican vote not cast is a vote for continued Democrat insanity.

Get out those voters!

Bob K

Much of the drama of elections exist at no other times except the few fleeting moments they hope will quickly be erased from the memories of all. That was especially true in the old mainstream (mass) media era in which yesterday’s news was likely to be residing in the landfills rather than the virtual memories of today’s new information and communication technologies.

That shift made it possible to see the reality behind the fabrications -- causing the eventual collapse of such control hierarchies. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen -- at first by those who can trust their own judgment about what is happening. So beyond the obvious, evident and even theatrical, what is important to do is just talk sense with your neighbor, friend or relative, rather than acting as a cog in the chain of misinformation the powers who wish to remain so would like us to pass on, in pushing our well-conditioned buttons.

There is no such thing as good hate and prejudice just because it is propagated by the self-designated right authorities calling themselves “liberals“ or some other noble cause. Hate and bigotry are simply that -- and there is no rationalizing their motivations that transmutes them into any good -- for it is a poison that corrupts any society, organization and institution fatally.

So as we view the political advertisements, we’re wise to look beyond the manipulations and deceptions -- to the mentality behind it all, and compare it to the positive messages being produced by the Lingle-Aiona campaign -- and find a way to link ourselves to that powerful engine of progress and good feeling. That’s how things are so different from four years ago. There is this confidence that things can be done right.

Mike Hu
3123 Esther Street
Honolulu, HI 96815(808) 561-3645
Email: humikhu@aol.com
http://www.freerepublic.com/~mikehu/

What Are Our Real Problems, What Are Our Real Solutions?

If one listens to the education, transportation and legal lobbies, the answer to every human ill is to throw more money at them -- as we have been for the last 50 years, causing the current crisis -- which is that there are scarce resources available for solving very pressing problems because the education, transportation and legal professionals cannot live in the lavish lifestyles they think they are “entitled” to -- while many others have to go homeless, without adequate health care and legal protection because the self-chosen oligopolies have this prior claim on the prosperity of society.

Teachers don’t need to produce more failing students in order to justify more money for education. They need to be actually teaching those failing in society -- and not teaching people who fail to recognize the leader of Mozambique, as though that were some great failing and need of society. The problem of education and learning is this learning of that which isn’t relevant -- while the professional educators will insist that they are. When learning is clearly essential to the task, learning is never a problem. Convincing people that learning the irrelevant just for educators’ job security -- is easily seen through and questioned even by the most compliant students.

Likewise in transportation, there is no greater need for more mass transit, when the current available mass transit system is running way below capacity. Even the highways are running way below capacity -- even as they are notably bumper-to-bumper, with single occupants in each vehicle. The problem is not that we need more mass transit or more highways, but to achieve higher effective uses of what is already there. That has to be the first solution -- which is the lack of the proper understanding.

Otherwise, like more learning, it doesn’t produce a better society that a few elitists have more knowledge -- as it would be if valid, practical information was spread more equally among the population. The problems are not of resources but of distribution -- just as the Governor points out in countering the education lobbies’ demand that they need “More money,” when very little of it is getting to the classrooms -- and so the central bureaucracy has to be eliminated so that they do not absorb all those monies.

Learning, transportation, health, ethics are pretty straightforward -- except they become very lucrative when monies are freely available and regulated for the benefit of the self-interest, instead of the citizens, which is the purpose of decentralizing these powerful self-serving bureaucracies. They instead, will attempt to pass laws and constitutional amendments to ensure their lifelong status and advantages -- at the top of the social hierarchies.

With that lack of mobility and opportunity for all others, particularly those at the bottom, it is no wonder they recognize that the odds are hopeless and just drop out -- because the advantage is not given to those at the bottom but those at the top promising they will “give back,” AFTER they have gotten theirs. THAT is the status quo we are challenging.

It Takes Two to Tango

Leadership also requires the voting public to recognize their own responsibility for the government they have -- and not that government leaders should know what is expected of them, while they themselves have nothing to do with who is in charge of government -- which is minimally voting.

It often is the case that the biggest complainers are precisely those who take no responsibility for anything; they, like the many newspaper editors and columnists, just get “off” on complaining loudly and lengthily for as long as others will let them.

Many times, the voters ae right in saying that it doesn’t make a difference because they can’t tell the difference between the candidates. But when they can, every individual owes it to themselves to validate their own judgment -- beyond how people tell them they “ought” to think. Then voting becomes the ultimate expression of who they are, and not just cogs manipulated and ordered about one more time by their union and other self-interest groups who demand that one reflexively obey the commands from on high.

Then voting takes on a greater significance -- rather than seen as the dutiful obligation “to stick together” because if one doesn’t, one is nothing and powerless. In voting, standing alone, exercising one’s greatest judgment -- and not just mechanically doing what one has been told to do all one’s life -- is not only permitted, but is the ultimate expression of intelligence -- whether anybody else recognizes (rewards) that or not.

In that way, every vote makes a difference not just in determining who wins the election, but as a manifestation of intelligence and judgment in this world beyond the immediate outcome. Such actions set in motion the precedent for subsequent actions --- beginning with the single step, because if one doesn’t take that step, it is meaningless to talk about any other.

That is how reality is created in this world -- which is a huge difference from just shouting into the wind about how the world needs to change and be different just because one wants it to. That is a great problem of life in contemporary society -- in which it is easy to think that just wishing makes it so. It’s not enough just to have capable leaders; there must also be a demand for capable leaders -- who can be valued rightly as such.

That is the difference between democracy and demagoguery. The former is thinking for oneself, while the latter is allowing others to do one’s thinking for them, including the countless ways they are manipulated into thinking they have come upon those ideas on their own.

This indoctrination to conform, begins in our earliest school experiences, as the mandate to do what the authority figure determines is “correct” and to consider no other alternatives. Only the best and the brightest manage in their lifetimes to break out of the pack of that crushing conformity -- and become the leaders who know what that quality is, and to recognize it in others.

The Challenge of Change

Every time there’s the slightest disruption from the norm, the routine, the commonplace, mass panic and hysteria seems to grip the Island community -- which doesn’t say much for the resourcefulness of the people our education hopefully instills. That is the whole meaning and purpose of culture and education -- that it enhances our ability to cope, as a group. Individually, some do it a lot better than others.

For a rare few, the greatest catastrophes, seem to be what they were destined to handle -- easily and effortlessly; for others, every deviation from the predictable, the trite, the mediocre, is a cause for great concern and consternation. They will loudly proclaim and protest that it hasn’t happened before and has never been done that way.

So when a truck hits a sign, the entire community grinds to a halt. When electricity is not available for a few hours, some advocate an overthrow of the government. Some demagogues have promised them that if we let them do our thinking for us, nothing would ever go wrong again in the world for them -- and naively, that none of our own soldiers would ever be killed in wars, so millions more could live.

One of the great problems of our education (culture) is that it is taught (transmitted) by those who have never had any real life experience other than “learning” from a book -- and think it is the same as studying life directly. In the book, one can only find out what the writer knows -- because surely, it is not all that is happening, all that can be known, but only what the writer thinks is happening. That is the arrogance of having a little bit of education and knowledge -- learning a little and thinking it is everything that can be known.

So when there are these disruptions, it is an opportunity to do something different -- as well as one does the routine and commonplace. Too predictable a life or society, loses its responsiveness, its ability to cope with change, which is how society improves. Many have no training in being able to recognize and take advantage of doing things differently -- and so do the same, even when it is futile, like compulsively turning on the switch hoping for a different result.

Societies have to be programmed for improvement -- or not only do they stay the same but they deteriorate, because life changes as does everything in it. The quality of life is that adaptability and acceptance -- to be moving, growing with life, rather than trying to fix everything in one unchanging, repetitious, unvarying mode. The trend is obviously to increasing freedom, independence, choice -- and not less, even if they call themselves “utopians” and other noble central “planners” -- for everybody else.

Such societies are known as technocracies -- or the rule by the “experts,” over the governance of individuals of their own lives. While experts are sometimes helpful and necessary, when they threaten that they know best -- whether education, health, relationships, communications -- and have been designated to do that exclusively for everyone, one needs to take back their own lives (government) into their own hands -- again.

What is Destroying the Mainstream Media

During the election season, the newspapers become a cheap way of spreading lies and propaganda sympathetic to the liberal/Democrat point of view -- because their editors and writers are convinced that their own liberal/Democrat point of view is the highest form of understanding -- rather than the narrow provincialism it is like with any other self-righteousness, that even university professors are susceptible to. In fact, it is often the case, the highest priests of even secular understanding, can be easily convinced of their own superiority to every other being, understanding and lifestyle -- because it serves their own self-interest and vanity.

Then, any action can be justified -- once they begin with those preconclusions, that whatever they do is right -- because it serves their own self-interests -- as society’s only reason for being. Thereafter, the logic gets even more ludicrous -- and self-serving, which becomes its own end.

That form of society is not democracy -- though most will call themselves “Democrats,” but oligarchy -- a society run by and that only serves a few, permanently and irrevocably. Any change to that plan of self-serving aggrandizement, is an absolute “wrong,” “kapu”, taboo, grounds for expulsion from the Garden of Eden, etc. While history never repeats itself, the themes are universal and timeless.

“Never challenge authority.” “Never challenge the elders,” “Never challenge seniority.” “Never question the status quo.” “Don’t rock the boat.” “Don’t fix what ain’t broken.” And a long list of moral imperatives and “truisms,“ that are indoctrinated as commonsense.

That is the real problem of our “education” system -- that it really is this indoctrination of acceptance of the status quo, rather than the proper function of education -- which is to question it, and in doing so, improve society by increasing its understanding -- and not by defining the limits of inquiry. That is the failure of education all across the board -- from kindergarten to the Ph.D. programs -- if they never question authority, seniority, the status quo of knowledge -- but merely pay homage to long ago discovered truths as though nothing further was possible.

The golden age of liberalism was the 19th century, and the 20th century should have been its death -- when all those liberals claiming to be enlightened and thus know better, assumed control of many countries and then began the systematic elimination of all those who were “politically incorrect” -- which eventually ran into the hundreds of millions of people, who could not be “socialized” properly.

By contrast, since the dawn of the 21st century, losses have been minimal by keeping such “liberal” ideologies in check -- except for the reminders we see of would-be demagogues on the editorial pages of the local newspapers.

The Mapunapuna Trip

I guess the only reason for going out to Mapunapuna for many people without a car to be detailed or repaired, is to do a taping at the Olelo public access television facility -- which is surprisingly good, now that the initial wave of novelty has waned and there aren‘t so many producers over consuming the “free.” I could probably get used to doing more television appearances if all I have to do is show up -- and their staff takes care of everything else.

Initially, public access’s vision was to make everybody a producer of their own television programs -- complete with their own crews, producers, directors, writers, actors, etc. Anybody running a political campaign or any other enterprise knows there’s just not that much available talent around waiting to be mobilized.

So what one has to do is find the synergies -- of people already doing whatever it is they’re best at, just waiting to be discovered. One of the most obvious discoveries, for many people, would be the realization that we already have a mass transit system -- being underutilized -- which brings into question whether we need MORE and BETTER mass transportation -- or merely need to recondition (educate) people to using what we already have.

That’s an education and information problem -- which is more telling of a deficiency than the scores they receive on a purely academic test of understanding and comprehension. The traffic problem is really one of a lack of information and insight than the lack of facilities. No matter how good and how abundant the capacity, there is never enough when everyone decides at the exact same moment that they want it -- as in conditions when there is no choice and everyone wants to exit a burning theater through the same exit at exactly the same moment.

Planning exclusively for that use, would be cost-prohibitive -- just like planning and building for a 100-year flood, while always standing in one-inch of water all the time. It would be a better expenditure of time, energy and intelligence, to deal effectively with the one-inch of water, than to build an Ark for that one time use. Then once they have proven that they can keep the streets and sidewalks in tip-top condition, then I think they have proven that they have the competence to run a system with less tolerance for error.

After visiting the standard-of-the-art facilities at Olelo, if one ventures into the depths of the Ranch 99 shopping mall next door, one discovers two interestingly useful stores. One sells remanufactured/refilled cartridges for printers. The do-it-yourself kits aren’t as good as the new cartridges, but the factory-refilled ones apparently are -- for a 25% discount, on these seldom discounted items that companies give free printers away because it is such a cash cow.

Next to the Post Office is the treasure of the complex -- a store that features L(ight) E(mitting) D(iode) flashlights -- at very inexpensive prices, for what should be a staple in the Islands -- and used for many previously unthought of ways. It produces a powerful, pure light at virtually no consumption of energy -- or production of heat. That would be the ultimate lighting for Hawaii. The other item featured, is the electric scooter-bike, with a range of 20 miles on a single charge, capable of riding with the bikes or on the sidewalks -- because it is still classified as a toy despite its impressive capabilities.

Two months ago when I went in for my Primary taping, it was selling for $298. Now it is priced at $198 -- and if you buy two, you get a third free. That is the vehicle I have chosen to purchase if I’m elected to the legislature to commute to work.

Must-See TV

There’ll be a rebroadcast of Understanding Conditioning, my landmark video on exercise and conditioning -- on Thursday, October 12, on Channel 52 (Oahu), from 3:30 pm for the hour video. However, if one misses any part of it, they can tune in at any time -- and it still makes sense because it is not in the format of 20th century and older sequential information processing and accessibility presentation, but is characteristic of the newer mode of randomly-accessed information -- on demand, and as needed, in the holographic model.

That is, one doesn’t have to learn the 99% of the irrelevant -- and not miss any of it, to learn and benefit from the 1% they really want and need. That is also how the academic tradition differs from the state-of-the-art model of being informed only with what is required in the present task -- because all the rest doesn’t matter and is a distraction, a diffusion of focus.

The essential lesson in Understanding Conditioning, is that if one devotes all one’s resources and focus to a single, clearly understood task -- it is always very easy, and achievable. But when that objective and purpose is not clear, one is not even sure what results one is getting -- much less being able to measure them.

That is also the great problem of education -- in which the objective seems to be about ensuring job security for teachers and especially education professionals and administrators -- instead of the much simpler learning to do what needs to be done. Much of “education” is actually disconnected from any doing -- and becomes learning for learning’s sake, creating the artificial need for infinitely more learning (education).

But the human being does not have infinite resources to do so -- to learn what is simply impressive to exhibit some day (one hopes). Meanwhile in all the practical tasks and activities of one’s life, there is no manner of applying any of that “knowledge” to the present situation, and so there is no advantage to being “smart” in that way. The academicians and educators will even deride that kind of practicality and common sense as something quite beneath their noble exercises -- which have value because they are “useless“ and “theoretical” -- and is therefore, academic.

That is the compartmentalization and fragmentation of the world of thought from the world of action -- which creates further fragmentation, division and conflicts we see expressed as partisanship -- which means as it sounds, a partial view of the process rather than the totality and comprehension of it. Once one begins with this fractured view, it’s not possible to put this reality together again.

So one must begin wholly, simply, with the one clear objective and purpose. In exercise and effort, that would be understanding and achieving the flow of that activity -- which every great practitioner and performer recognizes is the perfection of what they do. At that moment, there is total integration -- of mind and body, doing and understanding -- and not every part competing against every other part, creating more work, jobs, expertise and confusion.

There’s a Reason Things Happen

Just as in the 2002 gubernatorial campaign, it looks like the Democrat standard-bearer is going to make a “virtue” out of their liabilities.

“The Governor is attracting too much monetary and volunteer support”…

“The Governor is good friends with the most powerful leaders in the world”…

“The Governor knows too many competent people”…

“The Governor had a normal, healthy childhood”…

Meanwhile, I’m still trying to locate one person from Kaimuki High School circa 1965, who lights up with fond recollections at the mention of Randall Iwase (or Mazie Hirono) from those days.

One of the things about being raised in the poverty they both claim, is that one never escapes from that mentality of thinking that the objective in life is to struggle one’s way to the top, in a ruthless, brutal competition against all the others -- instead of beginning without those deficiencies and inadequacies -- and taking everybody else with them. That’s the better breeding ground for leaders -- that improvement comes as the entirety of society improves, and not just vis-à-vis everyone else -- which is a severe handicap as well as the predictor of authoritarian, demagogic personalities. Those severe circumstances, allow them to justify whatever it takes to get to the top -- vilifying all those more successful than they are as legitimate targets of their ambition and ruthlessness.

Lying, cheating, stealing is wholly justified by their self-proclaimed “deprived” status, as well as justifying their bitterness and resentment against all those they perceive as being more popular, attractive, richer, advantaged, etc.

It’s kind of a sick basis for justifying one’s claim for rightful leadership in any society. It is the entitlement to leadership -- rather than the recognition that is earned all one’s life in everything they do.

I don’t think Linda Lingle is successful because she’s the governor. She probably would have been successful at whatever she did -- just as when she lost her first governor’s race, she built up the Republican Party, while the Democrat loser did not -- allowing it to degenerate so that they cannot come up with credible and exciting new personalities to run for the highest offices -- and if they do, get beaten down and back for trying to upset the apple cart.

The Discover Moiliili festival was quite an unlikely place for people to approach me with these surreptitious insights on the community scene only talked about at venues in which there is adequate time to talk about the otherwise unmentionable.

Life Ahead

I will be participating in the American Association of Retired People’s (AARP) candidates forum on Wednesday, October 4, 2006, noon to 1:30 pm, in the Waikiki Ballroom, at the Hale Koa Hotel (next to the Hilton), and then at the Ala Wai, Kapahulu, Diamond Head, St. Louis Heights Neighborhood Board meeting candidates forum at the Ala Wai Golf course clubhouse ballroom on the following Thursday, October 12, starting at 7 pm. Both events are open to the public.

Then beginning October 19, Channel 49 (Olelo) will begin broadcasting the Candidates in Focus 5-minute spots for the coming elections, for which you can check the 5-day advance schedule at http://www.olelo.org/programming/, if you do the computer thing. Otherwise, you can call the station, channel surf, however one gets their information these days -- which often times is pure luck and chance. So here’s hoping you get lucky.

I hope I’ve already met more than a few of you on my biking/walking forays through the various neighborhoods throughout our district, personally handing out my flyers and talking with you -- for as long as you want to. That’s my inimicable style -- which is why “some people” don’t like to show up at the same forums I do. A few people have noted that I’m the best writer and speaker they’ve ever personally encountered -- including a few teachers.

That’s what makes me very effective in virtually any forum -- and after realizing that, many forums try to suppress or discourage my future participation -- even becoming obsessed with doing so. So I usually go and talk to people who want me to talk to them -- in an impromptu “talk story” -- at their front door, out in their yard, walking through the neighborhood for their daily exercise, etc.

People who are most impressed with meeting me are those traditionally not involved -- feeling that it’s no use trying to talk to the politicians and government bureaucrats. I shared those feelings myself until I met Linda Lingle -- even before she was governor. She’s an authentic person -- and not just the slick image the Democrats like to claim she is because she seems “too good to be true.” She’s by far, the most important vote you will make this election -- and then if you vote for me, there’ll be at least two extremely effective people representing you at the Capitol -- and as I’ve said to many, if I’m elected as your representative, you should come and visit me as often as you want.

I don’t just want to be talking to lobbyists -- and they’ve already learned, they don’t want to be talking to me -- because I’m not an easy mark. It’s never been “business as usual” with me. I’m not the defender of the status quo guy. I think we need changes -- or there can be no improvement but only more of the same problems, costing everyone more. It doesn’t have to be that way -- if we all think creatively. I think that’s particularly important in leadership -- rather than just being a conformist, never rocking the boat, never challenging authority and the status quo.

Change doesn’t have to be worse -- like the defenders of the status quo like to panic us every time an election draws near. It’s very important not only selecting good leaders but feeling as though each is a leader in the community too. That is also my style.

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Bonus appearance: Understanding Conditioning, my landmark video on exercise and conditioning, will be rebroadcast on Wednesday, October 4 at 5:30 am on Channel 52 -- for you early risers attending the candidates forum later in the day -- as well as those wondering how they‘re going to make it through the day!

The perfect way to start one’s day.