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.
posted by Mike Hu @ 10:20 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Here are the showing times for the Olelo five-minute candidate presentations on Channel 49 for the next five days -- that will be running daily until the day before the election, November 7.
The schedule is available at: http://www.olelo.org/programming/
The program is Candidates in Focus,General and the segment for the Waikiki-Kapahulu area is #3 Hawaii-Kai-Ala Moana-Diamond Head. They're grouped into senatorial districts, for which ours is 9, which are House Districts 20, 21, 22.
So I follow Spaker of the House Calvin Say, and precede actor, Al Furuto.
October is the month for candidate forums presented by the various orgnizations -- like the neighborhood boards, AARP, PACs, etc. I was starting to develop a reputation as an extraordinary speaker and presence -- because I always have been. So it was a smart move for my opponent to avoid that direct comparison except for the once.
But those who participated with me on the same forums also got better -- realizing that I expanded the upper end of these possibilities. At first, I thought I had to memorize important points to say, and even read that script off the teleprompter, which causes an obvious mechanicalness. It doesn't come across that well -- but I thought I'd try it for the first Primary taping -- before realizing that my strength had always been in extemporaneous speaking, without any preparation or premeditation.
So it is worth checking out my five-minute presentation -- to see what the best is like in that genre. Most people just do it like evrybody else does it -- because they don't have the confidence to do it differently, as the person who is the most talented will. That is true of every activity -- that the person most gifted in, exhibits the greatest confidence, by which he can do what everybody else thinks cannot or should not be done, even making it look easy.
That's always bothered me about attending public forums -- in which people try to sound as officious as possible -- rather than as natural as possible. In fact, just as with photos, many think that the natural should never be recorded -- and so there is an image created apart from the reality.
When people think they know somebody, they usually just know the image of that person, rather than the person. Many people devote most of their energies to cultivating that image rather than the reality of who they actually are; they will demand that you believe what they want you to believe -- rather than trusting your own senses about anybody.
That kind of manipulation is very obvious and evident in the letters to the editors of the newspapers -- where peope regard that forum as the medium to convince people of what is not true, and of things that are not true, while seeming to be innocent, well-meaning and well-intentioned people.
The "liberal" blogs have also become these manipulations of people's attitudes and perceptions -- because they exploit people's "good intentions" and what they want to believe about themselves -- rather than the actuality of knowing themselves, which I think is the whole meaning and purpose of communication.
Liberal blogs are also notably abusive -- that is, if you don't see things their way, it is because you are stupid, unintelligent, and "politically incorrect." "Liberal" is a label they slap on themselves, thinking it announces to the world that they are "highly intelligent" and "open-minded."
But distinctive of much liberal talk these days is the promotion of hatred -- for self and community, as though not to despise oneself is unjustified pride and arrogance. It is the disempowerment of the individual in subjugation to the anonymous mass.
Anonymity is one of its most distinguishing features -- and why the mass media thinks it is essentil to protect anonymous and unaccountable speech. With liberal blogs, the authors create multiple aliases to give themselves the appearnace of having a following of many people who think exactly like they do.
Legitimate people have never feared to be known -- and to know others authentically. But for many in the old mass society, that was their greatest fear.
Candidates in Focus General: 3 Hawaii Kai to Ala Moana to Diamond Head FOCUS
10/21/2006 8:00:00 AM New and incumbent candidates are provided an opportunity to tape a five minute message. Election Candidates in Focus General: 3 Hawaii Kai to Ala Moana to Diamond Head FOCUS
10/24/2006 2:00:00 PM New and incumbent candidates are provided an opportunity to tape a five minute message. Election Candidates in Focus General: 3 Hawaii Kai to Ala Moana to Diamond Head FOCUS
10/24/2006 7:30:00 PM New and incumbent candidates are provided an opportunity to tape a five minute message. Election Candidates in Focus General: 3 Hawaii Kai to Ala Moana to Diamond Head FOCUS
10/25/2006 1:30:00 PM New and incumbent candidates are provided an opportunity to tape a five minute message. Election
Mainstream media failed because it was ultimately about the hype and not the substance, the sizzle rather than the steak, the controversy and not the reconciliation. It made one dysfunctional -- because the people drawn to it were the most needy of attention, rather than capable of paying attention.
Actually, this sounds more like the correct category for Waikiki-Kapahulu. I didn't notice it earlier because it was abbreviated. But it is Senate District 9, House District 21.
If we all were limited to a 5-minute campaign, this would be my nomination. Unlike the previous take, the more I look at this one, the more I like it. It's really on the level of my Understanding
Conditioning video on exercise and conditioning.
If you only watch 5 minutes of public access television in your lifetime, this is the five minutes to see; it's got everything one could hope to see in a five-minute candidate presentation Correct me if I'm wrong:
CIF General: 4 Kaimuki to Waikiki to Moiliilo to Manoa to Makiki FOCUS
10/23/2006 8:00:00 PM New and incumbent candidates are provided an opportunity to tape a five minute message. Election CIF General: 4 Kaimuki to Waikiki to Moiliilo to Manoa to Makiki FOCUS
10/24/2006 1:30:00 PM New and incumbent candidates are provided an opportunity to tape a five minute message. Election CIF General: 4 Kaimuki to Waikiki to Moiliilo to Manoa to Makiki FOCUS
10/25/2006 2:00:00 PM New and incumbent candidates are provided an opportunity to tape a five minute message. Election
What is really rare is actually getting to know a candidate -- or anybody, for that matter.
Most of the jargon and buzzwords are actually desgined to be a distraction and diversion from really getting to know the candidate. There really is a prohibition against getting to know people -- and especially one's self. That is the ultimate taboo because such a person would be in chrge of their own life -- and the prevailing mindset is that that can never be -- and that people can only be acted upon by outside forces, rather than being internally driven.
Most political discussions are of this nature -- that one is driven by the party, ideologies, stereotype, habit -- rather thn that people can pull their own strings and determine their own fate. But it means owning up to one's own responsiblities for those choices, actions and fate.
It's far easier just to find one person to lame for everything going on. That's a big problem in Hawaii because important as politics and government are, individual action and accountbility is even more important, but rarely considered and discussed.
Individual choice is by far one's greatest response to any problem or situation -- and not the government. The first resort to government to solve all one's problems is not a healthy mindset -- just as one's health care provider is not one's primary care provider, which is individual responsiblity. The same for learning, and other essential tasks.
That co-dependency is disempowering and eventually crippling. The purpose of government and society should be to make individuals stronger and less dependent on government -- rather than more dependent on it.
I prefer solutions that make individuals stronger, freer and more independent. Most of our great problems of government is this desire to make people more dependent upon it -- to ensure high-paying, lifetime jobs for government employees.
But who pays for it?
The classic government arguments right now are over transportation -- whether to build mass transit rail or a high occupancy toll lanes, while not seriously considering other options -- like car and van pools, and the information infrastructure that would empower that option. Also, there are innovative personal transportation devices that are really the wave of the future -- much like personal computers were to the old centralized concept of data processing, which funneled ll data through large mainframes rather than giving that computing power to individuals.
That's the same dilemma in transportation. To herd everybody through central hubs -- or create personal devices like electric scooters that allow everyone to go where they actully want to go. That is the real challenge of mobility (transportation); it's not just getting from station to station but highly personbal destinations -- including within one's home for the elderly and disabled.
For those people, the challenge is not getting from Kapolei to downtown. It's just getting to the bus stop, or to the neighvorhood grocery store. And for them to adapt these new technologies requires them to re-educate themselves to the new world of possibilities -- even more thanthe children who have only learned those new (present) realities. The emphasis on education needs to shift to the old -- who need to be re-educated to maintain their viablity and opti8mal functionability.
As these people are more capably educated, they don't drag down the rest of society. The old public education model is premised on most of the population being uneducated -- but when one has a highly educated population, that task can be accomplished in the norml interctions with other educated people.
Tht's the Internet model: many people now have direct access to the leading authorities on subjects -- if they can determine that competence and credibility, which is the new, higher level of literacy.
That's why the mainstream media becomes redundant and inefficient -- because they are not the best as serving in this capacity, as general writers with no specific expertise of their own -- so that they can determine it in others. The world's leading authority in one subject matter can determine that same competency in another field, whereas a person dependent on the expertise of others for everything, has no basis for determining competency -- on their own, in anything. For such people, everything is arbitrary.
In many government hearings, "experts" say whatever they think they can get away with, trusting that the elected representatives, are dependent on them for the truth -- and have no way of determining it for themselves.
There's been a blurring of the difference between a professional education and academic disciplines -- with the former just being taught what is popularly believed as their dogma, which is never questioned as would be required in an academic discipline.
Post a Comment
<< Home