In Hindsight, Everyone’s a Genius
One can go to schools and universities and learn countless tedium about the history of the world, but what matters is the future of the world -- as we live it in the present. That is the proper understanding of the history of civilization -- and not the creation of hopeless divisions of time, knowledge and experience, that has been the manner of thought up to the present. Those are the problems of the world -- thinking that every day is just a repetition of every day before it.
And that’s why the problems of the past continue -- because we have learned to solve the problems of the past, and not the problems of the present -- which becomes the future. Even solving the problems of the future -- in the future, is just the continuation of the past. The only meaningful action is to solve the problems of the present -- in the present, and not 20 years in the future, or 100 years in the past. That is just a delusion of understanding anything worthwhile and worth knowing.
The “advantage” of solving problems only in the past or in the future -- is that one never needs to confront the problems of the present, and in that way, problems can never be solved, much less recognized. All contemporary activity is a diversion and distraction from the real problems of the present.
That is the contemporary dysfunction that is repeated in every particular problem. Problems are solved in another time, in another universe, in another set of conditions (the ideal) -- but never in the present reality and moment, as it is. In this manner, every action can only be ineffective -- because it is not solving the problems of reality, but only thought, which for most people, is not reality. For most, thought is wishful-thinking -- and not observing things as they are.
The word is not the thing itself. However, many people growing up in today’s world, are taught to believe that the word and the images it evokes, is the same as the reality. Many (liberal studies) boast that everything is only a belief -- which they undoubtedly prove stepping into a busy intersection without first checking to see if any other traffic will get in their way. All that is necessary is what they want to believe.
So before we can make right decisions, we have to have the right perception -- that things are not merely what we wish them to be -- but that there must be some correspondence of thinking to the underlying realities. Without it, it is futile to discuss a more rational approach to anything -- because everything is regarded as arbitrary, and that might, the majority, the consensus, the politically correct, is all that it required to make it right -- no matter how wrong.
In a more naive time, it was thought that the majority was ALWAYS right, and so all that was necessary was to make the majority, or most people, think it was so -- even if it was a fabrication, a lie, a deception, a manipulation. But there is magic, when even one person challenges this authority, and says, “How do we know what we think we know?”
posted by Mike Hu @ 9:51 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Every event and forum is the result of the interaction among the participants. If even one person is alert and clear, it alters the chain of causation immediately -- and not only some time in the future. When there is true awareness, change is instantaneous -- which is the “awakening,” or the “one who is awake” in Eastern religion. That is the powerful role of merely being aware.
Societies and subcultures prevent this awakening and clarity -- by putting one to sleep -- with all the tedium and minutia, so that at the end, nobody is awake and alert to see what is really going on. And so, talking as long as possible, has become the trademark of most self-important people -- to dominate the discussion, even while having nothing of importance and merit to say. It is enough that they merely control the discussion -- as an end in itself, and that is why, nothing meaningful ever gets done but to reinforce the status quo and the hierarchy that maintains it.
Eventually it becomes ONLY about that -- and the original meaning and purpose is lost -- so that people think the only purpose is to preserve the status quo (and all ts problems -- which of course, must get worse each year).
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?524b5013-f4d0-4050-b60c-45f0d258b6b2
No Wimps!
House's Silent Minority Disappoints Local Republicans
By Garry Smith, 3/8/2007 9:09:54 AM
The election of 2006 saw the continuing slide of Republican House members from10 to a low of 8, the least in over 12 years. At one point in 2000 with then Republican Party Chair Linda Lingle at the helm of the Hawaii Republican Party there appeared to be a chance that House Republicans might gain the power of 18 so they could force votes to the floor and sustain the veto of Lingle, who would be elected governor in 2002.
That was not to be. Since Lingle left as Chair of the Republican Party of Hawaii to become Governor in 2002, the number of House Republicans has continued to go down.
Under Republican Party chair Sam Aiona in 2006 the House Republicans fell to an almost inconsequential 8, barely enough to fill the broom closet they use for Republican caucuses at the State Capitol. (The Senate has remained at 5 Republicans of 25 members).
Since the numbers are small and not even considered a swing vote by the Democrat majority, the only influence they may have is as a vocal minority, capable of frequent newspaper, radio and television appearances to voice their disagreement with the majority and to spread a Republican perspective of what life in Hawaii would be like under a Republican majority.
Unfortunately, our Republican House has rendered themselves the silent minority through their undistinguished leader, Rep. Lynn Finnegan.
Given several large newspaper article print opportunities such as the opening day speeches, Rep. Finnegan has proven that she is not capable of providing a credible opposition to the Democrats.
Her opening day speech consisted of offering advice on how to get the best price from “the manapua man at the end of the day”, for being resourceful in stealing a tray from ”McDonalds to use them for body surfing.” And in pushing her personal agenda for more Hawaiian immersion charter schools since her keiki are part Hawaiian.
On her second chance at giving Republicans something to be proud of, her full column in The Honolulu Advertiser opposite House Majority leader Rep. Kirk Caldwell was instead a full 4-column inches attempting to make a metaphor of high cholesterol and high taxes - something readers, including myself, did not understand. Since those two opportunities we have not heard much from our Republican silent minority. They apparently have hunkered down to fight the nasty Democrats on their turf but little do they know that they are fighting in a vacuum where only Democrats win.
The most important thing our House Republicans can do is to lay the groundwork for new House candidates in 2008. They have no ability to pass any legislation the Democrats do not want. To effectively fight them they have to demonstrate their ideology to not only their faithful Republican base but also to the voting public who might be swayed into voting for new Republican candidates in 2008.
Numerous opportunities have been squandered for Rep. Finnegan to put a Republican spin on things, which by the way, is her job. She has been offered a weekly time slot with the popular Rick Hamada show on 830 KHVH to which, according to Rick Hamada, she did not even offer the courtesy of a reply.
As for possibly being unavailable due to demands on her time, it seems Senate President democrat Colleen Hanabusa is able to make a weekly appearance on Rick’s show and clearly her time must be very busy leading a majority of democrat Senators. Except for a couple of articles published in Hawaii Reporter and the local dailies by Rep. Colleen Meyer, Rep. Cynthia Thielen and most recently Rep. Barbara Marumoto it’s only been the democrats who have filled the newspapers with their strange view of legislation.
Surely the 8 surviving Republican members of the House can at least give some time to the media in the form of letters to the editor to provide the Republican point of view so that in 2008 the new inexperienced candidates (as most of the old reliable candidate place holders are getting tired of the losing marathon) might have something to show the electorate as to why Republicans are different from democrats and should be given a chance.
If Rep. Finnegan wants eventually to become the majority leader she should at least show that she has a voice of opposition.
It’s up to the current elected House Republicans to provide to candidates in the 2008 election, a visible tangible distinction between themselves and the Democrats.
Voters so far have decided that there is no difference between Democrat and Republican ideology electing the current House Republicans on the basis of their personal popularity. This makes it impossible for new candidates to defeat Democrat incumbents when voters cannot see that if they take the chance and vote for a Republican there will be a difference they can count on to improve their lot in life.
As the old saying goes “lead, follow or get out of the way.” It’s time for House Minority leader Rep. Lynn Finnegan to follow this advice.
Garry Smith is a Republican based in Ewa Beach. Reach him via email at mailto:garrypsmith@juno.com
The preceding commentary by Garry Smith is fairly typical of why the Republicans are an ineffective voice in Hawaii. They buy into the belief that only their "elected" officials should speak out and do something, when in fact, a dedicated individual does not just tell everybody else what to do -- but leads in the doing.
Then your representative feels comfortable following that path. But if you're not going to do it, why is there this expectation that they should do something -- or that a few should do everything? They have to prioritize their efforts.
Too many candidates say, "If you elect me, I'll do this and this..." OR IN HAWAII, THEY DON'T EVEN PROMISE TO DO ANYTHING -- and that is why they are elected.
I've sat in on many of the meetings in which the party leaders and candidates vow to beat the Democrats at their own game -- which is manipulating the masses.
I maintain that Republicans can't do that very well because they're not constitutionally built that way -- valuing individuality of expression. So we have to create another game at which we can win -- which is the emergence of the blogs and alternatives to the mass media and its control of the public thinking.
The writing of Republican blogs are very superior to democratic demagoguery that works well in mass media but fails entirely in the personalized and targeted new media.
It's like the bombing technologies they used in Iraq. They just don't rain down bombs to destroy all the houses; they can send a missile down a chimney to the properly designated room.
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