We have traded quality for quantity.
I have discovered that I am a ‘morning person’. I mean that my best is available to me in the morning. I seldom make decisions or try to do creative work late in the day. My best creative effort comes in the morning and I thus save for late in the day those tasks that are mechanical and require little of me in the task. From talking with others I conclude that each of us is either a morning or a night person.
I also conclude that we are bipartite creatures with a creative side and a mechanical side. I think that a very fortunate few of us find a way to make a living using our creative side. The Industrial Revolution has slowly diminished our creative self and has replaced it with our mechanical self.
We have slowly morphed into mechanical workers and this has resulted in an atrophying (wasting away) of our creative self. A major part of our life is spent in the work place and since this work place not only requires little creativity it often finds any form of creativity to hinder efficiency. What corporation wants its machines to set around thinking when ‘doing’ is the ‘game’?
A fortunate few keep their creative self on the job but I wonder if even those few tend to lose their creativity; often because the society has become individuals without creativity. Even those who are creative on the job have exchanged that creativity for objects (money). We all sell our time for money. I think the social sciences call this “equivalent valuesâ€.
Ours is a commodity economy that has morphed into a commodity society because our education, values, religion, politics, etc. have all become commodities (objects of commerce). We relate to one another as objects in which the exchange of things is the means for establishing the value of a person.
This is a dramatic change from what we started out as a nation. I think that comparing the rugged individual of the frontier and the family farmer of our origin might be a useful means for illuminating how different we are from our origins.
The rugged individual as farmer and as merchant and as social being, wherein each person was a jack-of-all-trades and master of no trade but master of her domain, might be compared with the herd of commodified creatures we have become. We have traded quality for quantityâ€perhaps this is a good trade but it needs to be understood and given careful consideration.
We have traded quality for quantity
We have traded quality for quantity
Whenever a person works for others he smothers a part of himself in order
to fit in.
The bigger the corporation, the more they want their workers to be robots -- doing the same assignment over and over and over again without deviation.
The more people employed, the more need for order.
Creativity in smaller companies is still looked for, but it is expected that you
will stifle all urges for making changes until it has been properly analyzed by
your boss (who if it is good, will invariably pass this suggestion on as his own.
In very small businesses, you must be creative as you are working side by
side with the boss or bosses. In this instance, if you don't become a major
contributor to the running of the business you will find yourself a lacky doing
the constant bidding of the boss and eventually shut out.
Regardless of size, however, the more specific the task, the less opportunity
to be creative.
It's easy to see how programmed the American worker has become. It is
easy to see why the masses can so easily be manipulated. It is not so easy
to see a way to change this.
to fit in.
The bigger the corporation, the more they want their workers to be robots -- doing the same assignment over and over and over again without deviation.
The more people employed, the more need for order.
Creativity in smaller companies is still looked for, but it is expected that you
will stifle all urges for making changes until it has been properly analyzed by
your boss (who if it is good, will invariably pass this suggestion on as his own.
In very small businesses, you must be creative as you are working side by
side with the boss or bosses. In this instance, if you don't become a major
contributor to the running of the business you will find yourself a lacky doing
the constant bidding of the boss and eventually shut out.
Regardless of size, however, the more specific the task, the less opportunity
to be creative.
It's easy to see how programmed the American worker has become. It is
easy to see why the masses can so easily be manipulated. It is not so easy
to see a way to change this.
We have traded quality for quantity
Sojo..
I think the way to correct this matter is for all adults to reestablish their creative self by becoming self-actualizing learners. Understanding is creating meaning.
I think the way to correct this matter is for all adults to reestablish their creative self by becoming self-actualizing learners. Understanding is creating meaning.
We have traded quality for quantity
coberst wrote: Sojo..
I think the way to correct this matter is for all adults to reestablish their creative self by becoming self-actualizing learners. Understanding is creating meaning.
Understanding may create meaning but what good is it if it is not used........
Yes, we can only change ourselves, but we live in a world of 'others' and
therein lies the problem..............
I think the way to correct this matter is for all adults to reestablish their creative self by becoming self-actualizing learners. Understanding is creating meaning.
Understanding may create meaning but what good is it if it is not used........
Yes, we can only change ourselves, but we live in a world of 'others' and
therein lies the problem..............
We have traded quality for quantity
SOJOURNER wrote: Understanding may create meaning but what good is it if it is not used........
Yes, we can only change ourselves, but we live in a world of 'others' and
therein lies the problem..............
While we try to understand the world and our self we can try to convince others to do likewise. If enough people begin to understand we may be able, as a group, to influence the direction our community takes. We are not powerless, nor easily frightened, if we understand what reality is about.
Yes, we can only change ourselves, but we live in a world of 'others' and
therein lies the problem..............
While we try to understand the world and our self we can try to convince others to do likewise. If enough people begin to understand we may be able, as a group, to influence the direction our community takes. We are not powerless, nor easily frightened, if we understand what reality is about.
We have traded quality for quantity
coberst wrote: While we try to understand the world and our self we can try to convince others to do likewise. If enough people begin to understand we may be able, as a group, to influence the direction our community takes. We are not powerless, nor easily frightened, if we understand what reality is about.
Okay. Can you make a suggestion for a first step to influence the community?
Okay. Can you make a suggestion for a first step to influence the community?
We have traded quality for quantity
Sojo..
We can start at the begining, which is learning CT. CT will help one learn to think in a coherent way and will set up ones attitude to become an enquiring intellect.
CT (Critical Thinking)
“The noblest exercise of the mind within doors, and most befitting a person of quality, is study.â€
William Ramsey, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, 1904
“Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.â€
Carl Sagan, Celebrated Scientist
I once asked a philosophy professor “What is philosophy about?†He said philosophy is “radically critical self-consciousnessâ€. This was 35 years ago. Only in the last five years have I begun to understand that statement
I took a number of courses in philosophy three decades ago but it was not until I began to study and understand Critical Thinking that I began to understand what “radically critical self-consciousness†meant.
I consider CT to be ‘philosophy light’. CT differs from other subject matter such as mathematics and geography in that it requires, for success, that the student develop a significant change in attitude.
Anyone who has been in military service recognizes the significant attitude adjustment introduced into all recruits in the eight weeks of boot camp. During the first eight weeks of military service each recruit is introduced to the proper military attitude. During the eight weeks of basic training there is certain knowledge and skills that the recruit learns but primarily s/he undergoes a significant attitude adjustment.
I would identify the CT attitude adjustment to be a movement from naïve common sense realism to critical self-consciousness. It is necessary to free many words and concepts from the limited meaning attached by normal usageâ€such a separation requires that the learner hold in abeyance the normal sort of concept associations.
The individual who has made the attitude adjustment recognizes that reality is multilayered and that one can only penetrate those layers through a critical attitude toward both the self and the world. To be critical does not mean to be negative, as is a common misunderstanding.
If we were to follow the cat and the turtle as they make their way through the forest we would observe two fundamentally different ways that a creature might make its way through life.
The turtle withdraws into its shell when it bumps into something new, and remains such until that something new disappears or remains long enough to become familiar to the turtle. The cat is conscious of almost everything within the range of its senses, and studies all it perceives until its curiosity is satisfied.
Formal education teaches by telling so that the graduate is prepared with a sufficient database to get a job. Such an education efficiently prepares one to make a living, but this efficiency is at the cost of curiosity and imagination. Such an education does not prepare an individual to become critically self-conscious.
If we wish to emulate the cat rather than the turtle we must revitalize our curiosity and imagination after formal education. That revitalized curiosity and imagination, together with self directed study prepares each of us for a fulfilling life that includes the ecstasy of understanding.
I think that radically critical self-consciousness combines the attitude adjustment of CT and combines it with the curiosity of the cat and then takes that combination to a radical level.
A good place to begin CT is: http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm
We can start at the begining, which is learning CT. CT will help one learn to think in a coherent way and will set up ones attitude to become an enquiring intellect.
CT (Critical Thinking)
“The noblest exercise of the mind within doors, and most befitting a person of quality, is study.â€
William Ramsey, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, 1904
“Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.â€
Carl Sagan, Celebrated Scientist
I once asked a philosophy professor “What is philosophy about?†He said philosophy is “radically critical self-consciousnessâ€. This was 35 years ago. Only in the last five years have I begun to understand that statement
I took a number of courses in philosophy three decades ago but it was not until I began to study and understand Critical Thinking that I began to understand what “radically critical self-consciousness†meant.
I consider CT to be ‘philosophy light’. CT differs from other subject matter such as mathematics and geography in that it requires, for success, that the student develop a significant change in attitude.
Anyone who has been in military service recognizes the significant attitude adjustment introduced into all recruits in the eight weeks of boot camp. During the first eight weeks of military service each recruit is introduced to the proper military attitude. During the eight weeks of basic training there is certain knowledge and skills that the recruit learns but primarily s/he undergoes a significant attitude adjustment.
I would identify the CT attitude adjustment to be a movement from naïve common sense realism to critical self-consciousness. It is necessary to free many words and concepts from the limited meaning attached by normal usageâ€such a separation requires that the learner hold in abeyance the normal sort of concept associations.
The individual who has made the attitude adjustment recognizes that reality is multilayered and that one can only penetrate those layers through a critical attitude toward both the self and the world. To be critical does not mean to be negative, as is a common misunderstanding.
If we were to follow the cat and the turtle as they make their way through the forest we would observe two fundamentally different ways that a creature might make its way through life.
The turtle withdraws into its shell when it bumps into something new, and remains such until that something new disappears or remains long enough to become familiar to the turtle. The cat is conscious of almost everything within the range of its senses, and studies all it perceives until its curiosity is satisfied.
Formal education teaches by telling so that the graduate is prepared with a sufficient database to get a job. Such an education efficiently prepares one to make a living, but this efficiency is at the cost of curiosity and imagination. Such an education does not prepare an individual to become critically self-conscious.
If we wish to emulate the cat rather than the turtle we must revitalize our curiosity and imagination after formal education. That revitalized curiosity and imagination, together with self directed study prepares each of us for a fulfilling life that includes the ecstasy of understanding.
I think that radically critical self-consciousness combines the attitude adjustment of CT and combines it with the curiosity of the cat and then takes that combination to a radical level.
A good place to begin CT is: http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm
We have traded quality for quantity
I think that understanding is equal to meaning. This statement may be too general but I think it represents truth in many or most cases.
I know almost nothing about Zen Buddhism but I am conscious that Zen considers that our habitual consciousness is to look at things mechanically and to freeze that conscious meaning to be reality. When, for some reason, that reality is shattered we are forced to face the nakedness of our existence. Our usual reality is that which we have accepted from our family and immediate society in our journey from childhood through adolescence.
This agreement about reality is like the Midas touch. Reality is the meaning we have agreed to and in so doing that reality becomes concrete. When we agree we limit our individuality--but when we do not agree we isolate our self from our community. Our understanding, our created meaning, is truth for us.
I was raised in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools where I was taught that it was a sin to “entertain†a thought of doubt. We would sin just by allowing doubt to be “entertainedâ€. As an adult I did entertain such doubt and thus isolated myself from that community. If we do not go through such a maneuver for all our preconditioned realities we never lose the control that childhood reality has over our life.
Webster says empathy is: “the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it†I take this definition to mean that I can through imagination create a milieu (environment) for someone that will allow me to better understand that person. If I am trying to understand a terrorist bomber I might imaginatively place myself in his shoes for the purpose of understanding him.
Let’s try to empathize with the frontier family who is a farmer or small merchant. Such a family must face alone all the tsunamis of everyday existence without help from anyone other than a few neighbors. Such a family has no “safety net†of any kind. There is no insurance, pension, social security, hospital, and no hardware store with all the technology to help when things go wrong. Such a family must reconstruct reality constantly when faced with a reality that they are unprepared for. Such a family must constantly recreate a new reality as reality constantly shakes the foundation of their understanding.
I know almost nothing about Zen Buddhism but I am conscious that Zen considers that our habitual consciousness is to look at things mechanically and to freeze that conscious meaning to be reality. When, for some reason, that reality is shattered we are forced to face the nakedness of our existence. Our usual reality is that which we have accepted from our family and immediate society in our journey from childhood through adolescence.
This agreement about reality is like the Midas touch. Reality is the meaning we have agreed to and in so doing that reality becomes concrete. When we agree we limit our individuality--but when we do not agree we isolate our self from our community. Our understanding, our created meaning, is truth for us.
I was raised in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools where I was taught that it was a sin to “entertain†a thought of doubt. We would sin just by allowing doubt to be “entertainedâ€. As an adult I did entertain such doubt and thus isolated myself from that community. If we do not go through such a maneuver for all our preconditioned realities we never lose the control that childhood reality has over our life.
Webster says empathy is: “the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it†I take this definition to mean that I can through imagination create a milieu (environment) for someone that will allow me to better understand that person. If I am trying to understand a terrorist bomber I might imaginatively place myself in his shoes for the purpose of understanding him.
Let’s try to empathize with the frontier family who is a farmer or small merchant. Such a family must face alone all the tsunamis of everyday existence without help from anyone other than a few neighbors. Such a family has no “safety net†of any kind. There is no insurance, pension, social security, hospital, and no hardware store with all the technology to help when things go wrong. Such a family must reconstruct reality constantly when faced with a reality that they are unprepared for. Such a family must constantly recreate a new reality as reality constantly shakes the foundation of their understanding.
We have traded quality for quantity
Sometimes I just look up at the night sky, at all of those stars, billions of galaxies and the neverending vastness of the universe stretching out in every direction.
I then think 'I work for an insurance company, one of the largest in Europe, and it really doesn't matter'. If you take a step back and think like this sometimes it stops your 'robotic' side from taking over.
Well it works for me anyway...
(I have problems concentrating at work)
I then think 'I work for an insurance company, one of the largest in Europe, and it really doesn't matter'. If you take a step back and think like this sometimes it stops your 'robotic' side from taking over.
Well it works for me anyway...
(I have problems concentrating at work)