Society & Politics

Brainstorming different vectors for achieving independence during time of war.

Corporations are powerful, useful and fascinating inventions full of the trappings of humans and are the embodiment of some of the tensions of what it is to be a person. They can be safe. They can be ruthless. Some people bristle at the thought of a cube farm and I think some people prefer the safety of a corporate environment.

I was thinking about purpose and amibition and how, on the outside, that could look a lot like ego. And I realized that ego is just drive without a purpose. It's an obsession with yourself. And it can be easy to fall into that trap. But I think that if we stay focused on our goals, on our purpose whatever that may be, and to remember to help others rather than help ourselves we can avoid being an egotistical person. And also, that a strong sense of self and belief in yourself and your mission are not bad things.

vs a presumption of negative intent.

1. The only real power is force (including coercion)
2. The only good power is respect
3. All other power is by agreement or convention

Thoughts on different ways societies deal with crime. Their general disposition. Needs some work, especially at the ends. Particularly since I am not sure what the x-axis indicates.

Because this is the year of the copyright and also because I have been fascinated in freedom of information I wanted to take a look at current US policy and visit, just a little, the debate between the desire for openness and freedom to appropriate and the desire to protect and monetize things which people/corporations developed and in many cases put forth considerable effort in time or money to develop.

Short of developing a theory, to which I have little to add, I sketched up what I think is a very succinct summary of the issue:

Thinking is often so short sighted. How do we think longer term?

What I have been experimenting with is pausing once or twice a day, or when I'm between things to reflect on where I'm at.

I try to consider perspective on different time scales, to formulate my decision making around longer scales of time.

For example:

Moved by the Pope's Encyclical a few years ago, I've established my own sustainability plan. I've also been inspired recently by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's 17 Sustainable Development Goals so much that I've decided to rewrite my sustainability plan in context of those goals.

A Chinese scientist recently announced that he had genetically modified two embryos, implanted them and gave birth to two healthy babies. The scientist has apparently used CRISPR to make them immune to HIV. Whether or not this is true someday it will be true.

This government is quite authoritative and imposes great control over its people. They have virtually no rights, no privacy and no ownership of property or land. But this article is not about that.