sure am determined

So i'm almost finished the book "Moral Politics" by George Lakoff. I love it because in that little tome, he's elucidated several themes of my life: family, politics and morality. So i'm reading it, and recommending it to anyone who may be interested. And my friend calls me. He wants me to go to the Million Man March anniversary party. I say no. I don't want to go because i think its nearly useless. I want something with a coherent paradigm. Not a bunch of speeches. I want something with some programs, or at least something tangible that i can sink my feet into. Not there. Of course, that may be a function of me not hearing about this until the last few days. But i'm not impressed. I wasn't then, and i'm not now. I do love the aims, but i'm not sure about the means. People in a group. I want organization.

So what am i determined about? Well, for one thing, to make my own values explicit. So this Moral Politics book outlines the primary values that liberals and conservatives have which give rise to which issues and programs they deem important and which sides of the fences they sit on. In addition, the book even gives you a way to analyze the variations of liberal and conservative viewpoints, and the people that have some of both. So basically it helps you to uncover your own (which is especially helpful) and another person's ethics, politics and family views (even when these don't co-incide). So i'm determined to outline my own ethical system.

So i started this a couple weeks ago when i started re-writing my book. Its a self-development/self-improvement book. Well, its really a philosophy book with those things as outcomes [after reading MP, i don't know what isn't]. I've been toying with Ayn Rand's rabid individualism, but cooled out with my awareness of systems thinking (man is an island, but perhaps part of an island chain). So my moral system aims to balance both the values of individualism and the values of collectivism. Not really, but that's the only political labels i have for what i'm talking about.

I have thought of a new basis. I realized that individualism and collectivism is a false dichotomy. A person can't exist without a community (at least parents) and a community can't exist without individuals. So there has to be a natural, not comprimised or negotiated, balance between these two extremes. Sure, it sounds like i'm going to spew some 'moderate' or 'middle-roader' stuff, but that's not what i'm talking about. What i'm saying is that there is a viable moral system that is coherent and distinct from either and both liberal and conservative moral systems. I aim to construct and popularize it. I'm not talking about re-hashing a perot-like third party or being a libertarian or right-leaning progressive. I'm saying that somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum is a network of values and ideas that is coherent and can form the basis for a third party.

So far i have outlined the values into individual, ethical and political [btw-these are in hierarchical order from most important to less] and of course, this would make the most sense if you've read the book, but if not here's a link to an intense summary [http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/lakoff/New_School.pdf] :

On an individual level i value:
Wholeness- character and integrity
Strength- backbone and self-possession
Self-Nurturance- long-term self interest and protection
Self-Development- awareness and involvement
Happiness- in the context of relationship to life, reality and others

On an Ethical level i value:
Order- hierarchy of wisdom, hierarchy of competence
Empathy- absolute empathy plus moral instruction and the strong golden rule
Nurturance- supporting self-reliance and regular exercise of social ties
Social-Ties- non-sacrificial maintenance and showing compassion

On a Political level i value:
Distribution- contractual, scalar, procedural
Authority- contractual, overt and covert
Restitution-Retribution this would be scaled according to the severity of the infraction.

The book i'm writing covers the main branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics and art. I've been at a loss on what to put in in some sections (mainly ethics and politics) now i can put forth what i'm talking about concisely and coherently. In the book i'll be clarifying all of these things, but in a couple more posts i might clarify these things as a teaser, or at least to get this stuff out.

learning history

So i'm a fan of history. I love it because it helps you understand today. Nowadays all you hear about is things becoming accelerated: the internet, lifitng speed limits, gas price increases, my income to debt ratio . . . With history, it gives a person a chance to look over long periods of time and look at the different factors that influence daily life.

I mean shit. Life, the world, is complex. Really complex. And there are literally millions of things that go into how the world works. You can't find them all at the same time, but you can notice the important stuff through reading history. Things like the development (continual) of language, technology, communication, the evolution of transportation: foot, animal, machine, and how that affects the daily lives of people, not just their ability to travel, but the movement of goods, materials and ideas really quicly, etc. that's why i like history.

Other people don't like history. Because they haven't been taught how to deal with it. I mean, in grade school nobody was taught how to think about history, just how to memorize facts. More importantly, i think, people weren't taught how to understand how history happens. There's a big difference between remembering the fact(oid) that in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and having a movie in your head about it.

Along with the movie comes a whole host of considerations: how they measured distance, how they oriented themselves to the stars, what they wore, what they ate and drank, how the Captain held his power, how the shipmates repaired sails, etc. A whole lot of day-to-day information is missing from that factoid. So what i've noticed in my own experience is how i make history come alive in my head. I imagine it! Sounds simple doesn't it. there are two things that make me facile at history: 1) how i understand it and 2) how i 'format' it.

More later

Moral politics, the sequel.

So i'm about halfway through the book. To put it simply: Moral Politics by G. Lakoff may be the most insighful book about politics ever written. It explains the moral system undergirding liberal and conservative standpoints on issues. It explains the values that we hold that give us our national and personal political platforms.

In real life, i saw a couple political advertisement for each [maybe better put against the other] candidate in the NJ Corzine-Forrester race. I saw exactly what values each attack played upon in the liberal or conservative moral viewpoint. What i thought was ingenious though, was that one ad attacked the other candidate for having certain values that their candidate didn't have. The other ad attacked the other candidate by pointing out the inconsistencies between his platform and his behavior in his own moral system.

Simply put democrat attack republican for being a republican and republican attack democrat for spouting democrat views but behaving like a republican. What was especially hot was how that second attack centered on a particular view of republicans that democrats vilify about republicans.

One thing that i noticed was that Lakoff put his book in terms of conservative and liberal viewpoints. What i liked about that was that it almost explained why there are so many 'moderates' on both sides of the fence. This comes from people having a few values from both moral positions.

When you have some conservative views and liberal veiws (maybe you're for gay rights[liberal stance] but also for gun control[conservative stance]) it's because you hold certain values that allow for these things. Not many people are fully conservative or fully liberal, we usually have a mix of views. This book will explain what you value, which guides you to hold the political positions that you have.

why I love landmark

So I lead introductions to the Landmark Forum. That's a bit hard for me to say because if you google it, you'll find some nasty stuff about it. But, if you google anything, you'll find nasty stuff about that too. So what is the Landmark Forum for? Its about living a life of Possiblity.

Let me explain by using the metaphor of the goose that lays the golden egg. The rhyme goes that some foolish farmer cut open the goose to get more golden eggs. All he found was innards. So he sacrificed the goose that laid the eggs to get the eggs themselves.

So let's say that any possibility (little 'p') is an egg from this magical goose. Well the Landmark forum is like that Golden Egg-Laying Goose. It's about creating Possibility (big 'p'). What happens is that this big 'p' Possibility is the mother-goose of these golden eggs. What happens in the Landmark forum is that you get in connection with the realm of Possibility (big 'p') so you can

Think about it. When you think of doing something that you really want to do, sometimes you get scared, maybe a little cynical. Why? Because you have a story about your life that highlights all the times you failed and almost succeeded. In these instances you didn't do as well as you would have liked, you chipped away at your connection with the possibility that you can be anything you want to be, and have a life that you love. So you threw the baby out with the bathwater. You strangled off big 'p' Possibility in your life instead of keeping it specific to that possibility. It's like tripping over a chair and hating all furniture. Absurd eh?

So the Landmark forum helps you to see that you do this, and helps you notice that you have a choice in the matter of big 'p' Possibility. You can have Possibility in your life. A realm of big 'p' Possibilityin which little miniature little 'p' possibilities can exist and flourish.

Come to think of it, that golden egg-laying goose example might've sucked.

The book: Moral Politics

A couple months ago i read this little pamphlet/book by cognitive scientist George Lakoff. It was called "Don't Think of an Elephant". He examined in the book the issue of framing in politics. Basically his point was that the 'conservative machine' has gained an unprecedented amount of power in the last few decades because they spent money on getting the morals that underly their platform not only out in the open, but with catchy slogans to boot. The purpose of this book was to get the progressive movement a swift kick in the behind so that they can get their act together likewise and organize not only their programs, but the morals that make the programs valuable.

So i am now reading his earlier book Moral Politics. This book is longer. Its purpose is to examine deeply the moral systems that give rise to the conservative and liberal movements. It's doing a great job. Go read it if you want to know some more. I also suggest that you read Don't Think of an Elephant first.

I'll be giving you a blow by blow as i read through it.

this weekend

my mom's birthday was this weekend. I went to help her out around the house. I missed the eagles game. That's real love. We had a pretty deep conversation about the family and all of its dysfunctions, with my aunt. It was a nice day.

But on saturday, i spent it cleaning the house i'm about to buy with my father. He's a garden wizard. He had me pull some weeds out of this little tiny front yard (5x8 feet?). I came back like two hours later (get how comitted i am right) and he had a whole garden for me. He had some ivy plants and three colorful suckers, but i don't know their names yet. This happened after the appraiser came and walked through making me nervous. I am trying to figure out how much i have to pay for the house/mortgage and so forth.

i probably had a deep thought or two. but i forget what they were.

GO EAGLES!!!
ps: i LOVE the eagles, but i still think if we see the bowl again, i hope it is against pgh, but i would take the patriots on a 3-2 fav.