We vote with our dollars everytime we buy something. Use your hard earned money to do more. Buy strategically by looking for fair trade and sustainable items. Use cash when you can.
“Paying cash to the small merchants in your community helps them in many ways. It avoids the skimming off of percentages from the credit card companies, it avoids the imposition of debit card swipe fees on merchants or you, and it gives them an alternate to begging for credit to make payroll.
If you are scared of carrying much cash, write checks.
. . . Plastic is for proliferate pushover pansies pretending that convenience trumps all.”
I think she or he makes a good point. From now on, I will use cash when I can – like at the grocery store or a local restaurant.
Too often in Christianity (Catholicism included) obedience is held up as a virtue. This is true if the obedience is to God within ourselves or our deepest interior voice. Unfortunately this is not typically the reference for the virtue of obedience. The reference is all too often to religious authorities, institutions or superiors.
This is the opposite of what Christianity calls us to. We are called to answer to God within. We are to discern our own heart and listen to our own voice. Those who call us to obedience to others often have their own benefit in mind.
Society, of course, encourages obedience and compliance. What better way to control large numbers of people?
What causes some to be cruel and others to be kind?
In her New York Times book review, 6 Degrees of Empathy, Katherine Bouton writes,
“The Science of Evil,” by Simon Baron-Cohen, seems likely to antagonize the victims of evil, the parents of children with autism spectrum disorder, at least a few of the dozens of researchers whose work he cites — not to mention critics of his views on evolutionary psychology or of his claims about the neurobiology of the sexes. “The Science of Evil” proposes a simple but persuasive hypothesis for a new way to think about evil.
Bouton explains –
Dr. Baron-Cohen, a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Cambridge and director of the university’s Autism Research Center, proposes that evil is more scientifically defined as an absence of empathy, exacerbated by negative environmental factors (usually parental, sometimes societal) and a genetic component. When these three exist in tandem they result in what he calls a Zero-Negative personality. Zero-Negative takes at least three forms (and possibly more), borrowing from terms used in psychiatry: Zero Type P (psychopathology), Zero Type B (borderline disorder) and Zero Type N (narcissism).
So basically, one might say that self-centeredness or selfishness is strongly correlated with what we would describe as evil or cruelty.
Autism, of course, is the polar reverse of this. It has been proposed that in some forms of autism, the person over-identifies with others. This results in high empathy – so much so that communication becomes minimal. Why? If one believes that they identify strongly with others, why ask?
Since social environment plays a role here we need to ask, “How much self-centeredness is promoted in our culture of individualism and isolation?”
Certainly, our own freedom to choose who we want to be plays a role too. We all know people who come out of situations where little or no empathy can be found – yet choose to live lives focused beyond themselves. As persons we make a moral choice to develop compassion and empathy for others – or not.
Failure to do this is a failure to realize that we are all connected. It is a failure to realize that my own well being is contingent on the well being of others.
Empathy is the core of what it means to be truly human. In Christianity Jesus is the model. Jesus wanted us to be able to feel what others feel. We are to make their feelings our own. That is the task of being on mission for Christians – this means we enter the world of those who are different and see it from their point of view. This makes us truly human, who we are meant to be.
The movie Avatar is a film that tries to make this same point. Although steeped in all the patriarchal trimmings (white male saves the planet, yet again) there is still something to be learned. Watch and enjoy.
I came across this post on Zero Hedge a while back. Then I noticed an eye-brow raising response in the comments section. The post entitled “Dear Fellow American” represents a fairly common, American-centered view of our current national economic and political situation. Here’s the original post, also shown below and the comment follows.
Warning – The commenter to “Dear Fellow American” articulated another view of our situation (follows the post below), that will be very difficult for some to read, much less face. Still, the commenter, who is British, voices some hard truths that many in other countries around the world believe about Americans, our current situation and the U.S. in general.
Dear Fellow American,
I am writing this letter to you not as a liberal, not as a conservative; not as a lefty, not as a righty; not as a Democrat, not as a Republican, not as a Tea Party populist; not as a Christian, not as a Buddist, not as a Moslem, not as an atheist; not as a socialist, a communist and certainly not as a bailout capitalist.
I am writing to you as just another ordinary American.
I’m your next door neighbor, I’m the guy standing next to you at the check out counter, I sit next to you on the bus, I sit next to you at worship, I’m in the next lane over on the freeway, we see each other at work, I’m right behind you at the cinema and three rows over at the ball game, our kids go to school together. We stare blankly at each other each and every day, but we rarely if ever exchange a word.
Today, I have something important I would like to say to you.
In these twilit days of August, as we watch the so called “power elite” luxuriating in their billionaire beach hideaways, at their billionaire birthday parties, political golf outings, fund raisers and PhD cowboy retreats, I keep asking myself one simple question.
I’m pretty sure you are asking yourself the same question as well. That question is written all over the worried faces of millions of struggling Americans trying to live a modest life within their modest means.
It is written on the faces of the unemployed struggling to pay their bills. It is written on the faces of young adults despondent over their prospect of living under the shadow of runaway debts. It is written on the faces of children living in homeless shelters, it is written on the faces of struggling entrepreneurs who can’t get a loan, it is written on the faces of all of those frustrated working and out of work people who once had a simple American dream.
Everywhere I look, I see the same question.
Unfortunately, I don’t see any answers.
All I see is self serving corruption, greed, stupidity, short sightedness and outright thievery by the parasites and leeches that would have us look upon them as our grand leaders and paragons of commerce.
They ask and take, they take and complain, then they give precious little or nothing in return.
They blather endless platitudes about what’s good for them, then pay feeble lip service to what is good for the rest of us. Their idea of a free market is that of justice and prosperity to the highest bidder.
They are good at one thing and one thing only, preserving their own status quo by exploiting you, me and the rest of us.
They are callous human strip miners and care absolutely nothing about anything but their own fat cat bank accounts, fat cat sports cars, fat cat jets, fat cat hideaways, fat cat trophy wives, fat cat mistresses, fat cat country clubs and gold plated suntans.
The question I want to ask you is this: Why?
Why is it taking so long for you, me and the rest of us to look each other in the eye and finally say what needs to be said?
Those selfish crooked liars and thieves on Wall Street in collaboration with their hired guns and bought politicians in Washington DC have taken over the town. They are down in the Silver Dollar saloon whoring themselves at a big old drunken Wall Street party while the rest of us are quietly cowering in the miserable shadows of Everywhere USA.
Why are we waiting to speak out, to act, to do what is necessary to protect our families, our children, our grand children and our country, yes OUR country, from those Capital Hill bandits, corporate horse thieves and fast buck bankster snake oil artists?
It is time to take back the neighborhood we call USA. It is time to haul the thieves and swindlers responsible for the mother of all economic clusterfucks before the court of public justice.
Let them call us populists. Whatever. I’ll gladly wear that badge if that is what it takes to set things right.
I know you are busy so I won’t take more of your time. All I ask is you consider what I have said and how it relates to you, your friends family and loved ones.
If you agree with what I am saying, but wondering what to do, perhaps one way to start is to take this letter, pass it along to the next person and ask them to do the same.
The sooner we all stand up and openly say enough is finally enough, the better we will all be.
Yours sincerely,
WilliamBanzai7
Now the response – an apt reply to “Dear Fellow American” which articulates the feelings of many around the world.
From Zero-Hedge reply 8-20-11 – 13:03 by YHC-FTSE
I spent some time re-reading your efforts, and as laudable as your sentiments are, I fear it is too little too late even if by some miracle the vast majority of your continent share the same feelings – which they do not.
I have tried in vain to summon up some sympathy and compassion for your fellow Americans who find themselves in the present predicament, but every time I do, the faces of babies, children, women, and men your fellow Americans have exploited, raped, poisoned, bombed, knived, and shot around the world during my lifetime surface along with the spurious reasons spoken by a million American lips why they all had to die, each time it happened. I think about the millions of people bombed in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, the 300,000 stillborn babies deformed beyond recognition by Agent Orange, the hundreds of thousands raped by US troops around the world, the legacy of another generation of children deformed and dying from depleted uranium in Iraq, and wars upon wars fought directly or by proxy by those who govern the USA. In my lifetime alone, the picture is staggering.
If America’s Downfall or more aptly, Der Untergang, means I don’t have to hear another Rand-worshipping, paranoid, materialistic, murderous, thieving, delusional, lying fat-American-fuck expound jingoistically on his “Greatest Nation in the World”, then I can only wish it will happen tomorrow. If Der Untergang means justice for the downtrodden by removing American support for despots on their land, the removal of military garrisons of the pretend-Roman-empire on every corner of the globe, and a chance for individuals and nations to finally control their own destinies, then I say bring it on, no matter what the cost to me.
If Der Untergang means the end of the pernicious Ponzi cycle based on debt slavery as saleable asset, and creating wealth out of bullshit with fancy sounding words like, “fractional reserve”, “deposit insurance” and a million acronyms, then I say, yes please. If it sends the whole industry of leeches who make nothing tangible, create nothing useful, and merely suck all the youthful, useful talent into the abyss of a money making gambling machine, and sends them all into oblivion, the human race would be much better off.
I am sure there are those whose hearts are in the right place. The real life versions of Grizzly Adams, The Waltons, or even Earl Hickey in America who despair as much as everyone else in the world at what America has become: A haven for zionists and other fundamentalists who base their lives on causing as much misery to others as they can, and spreading their Malthusian philosophy all the while as an excuse to get rich on the misfortune of others. If you are that person in despair, then you have my sympathies. Otherwise, it is time for Americans to reap what they have sown so widely with their greed. None of you gave a shit when NGOs pleaded that the USD dilution as a reserve currency will cause widespread starvation in the 3rd world because millions will be priced out of staple foods. Virtually none of you gave a shit when you were told about gross abuses and exploitation practiced by US corporations. It’s only now when it affects YOU that I hear the whining. Remember: in a democracy, you have none to blame but yourselves. The World will be a much better place without the kind of people America breeds and nurtures.
What do you think? Are we willing to face the hard reality of how we are viewed by many around the world?
You’ve probably heard the phrase “family is everything.” Perhaps you’ve even said it yourself. But stop and think. As DH said to a friend, “Are you on automatic pilot when you say this?”
The idea that “family is everything” is a common North American cultural fiction. “Family is everything” may sell Hallmark cards and wall plaques but it doesn’t reflect reality.
Most of us can think of at least one person, from our family of origin or even adult children, who has NOT treated us even remotely the way family members should treat each other. In this case family is most definitely not everything. Relationships with people who treat us badly should be minimized or even better, eliminated – genetic linkage not withstanding.
Conversely, you probably have someone in your life who has been very kind to you but isn’t directly (and who decides what constitutes “directly”?) genetically linked to you. Foster and work to maintain these kinds of relationships.
The truth is that if you go back far enough, everyone is family. We are all part of the human family. All are family. So categorizing people genetically is completely arbitrary.
Therefore, “family” really means anyone who cares for us, supports us, stands with us and is trustworthy. Likewise, we offer care, support and are trustworthy with them too.
Reassess. If “family is everything” then we must ask, “Who do we consider family?”
