the human condition can be explained by a simple equasion.
HC = (S) P +C vs (I + R = F)
HC =Human Condition
S = Social
P = Power
C = Control
I = Individual
R = Responsibility
F= Freedom
Yeah human beings are a social species, we co exist (okay that is questionable) with our peers in societies, sometimes small, sometimes large. What ever the framework of the society, the is always interaction between people, we are dependant upon others. Usually in a harmonious society that will exist in harmony there are no C or P issues, yet how many do you know off. It seems that in most societies P and C issues manifest. They take the guise as social responsibility (S) for a social order to exist there must be social responsibility, yet there is a conflict becuase it comes at the expense of negotiating the surrender of power and control or the taking of it. In a relationship between a man and wife, power and control issues are the undercurrent, in a city they reign supreme and in a country it is more obviously displayed.
If an individual surrenders their control they expect something right? ie. i expect the govt to give me access to a hospital if i pay x amount of taxes.
Usually this exchange is acceptable, health, eduacation, transport and protection are all reasonable things to pay. We empower our govts to do this.
In a relationship, some one likes to take control of the desicions, perhaps one partner feels loved more than the other and therefore is feeling insecure, perhaps one beats the other up, perhaps one uses sex as a weapon. the means are infinate, the fact is rarely is there a balance.
So the trade of is we give control and power to our govts. Are we happy with the trade of?
Perhaps only when we learn to be responsible for ourselves can we truly be free at the moment we are slaves, sure we are not in chains and most of us have nice homes and tv sets, but really the truth of the matter is we are not as free as we claim we are. Locked in to constructs, thought processes, cycles and patterns how can we really be free when we depend on so much from our govts.
I'd really like to run a test on all the people on the planet. Do you trust your government?
The sad and awful truth is most people require govts, they are sheep, zombies sleep walking though their lives. Wake up before the alarm bell goes off, you don't wanna miss it.
4 comments:
i wonder??
i think the actual issue is that 'we' separate ourselves for 'the govenment'.
the disinformation going around is that there is a distinct governing sector going about making decisions that enslave anybody not privledged enough to part of it.
personally, cant see evidence of it.
what i can see evidence of is an entire population upholding an illusion of elitism - where a small percentage realizes how to play it and a large percentage dont.
'WE' ARE 'THE GOVERNMENT'. there is no distinction aside from the one we want to make - and the equation here is that the less responsibility one wants to take on, the more of a separation is defined.
your hippies and punks and armchair revolutionaries and all other whinging minorities are those those who create the we vs the govt illusion.
now, im not saying the way to make it work is to install phony pseudo-democratic lobby groups. no no, that only strengthens the separation by reinforcing the we-govt interrelation (any separation is reinforced by getting the '2 sides' working together).
what must be realized is a)'the govt' is made of people like 'us' - who get up, brush their teeth and go to work like anybody else. b)'the govt, like the 'rest of us' only listens to the mass opinion. & c)those in 'the govt' are also motivated for personal gain, just like 'us'.
so whats it mean?
it means that what you expect from the govet you must provide for yourself. just like the captain says.
where i think the captain is a little out is in his opinion on power and control.
both are beneficial things, and both are things that can only be given. any sector with power was given it - they cant and didnt earn it. they received it from those who, like the captain says, thought it a good deal to trade it for less responsibility.
what the captain didnt say tho is that power and control in the hands of those who play with responsibility (the ability to respond) are the things that set you free.
the whinging masses are those that complain about the use of power & control - but what would they do with it themselves? by recognizing 'them' having power over 'us' is what the power is. 'us' complaining IS the control.
how many of us are really able to face up to a society where power/control is evenly distributed?
for any society to operate it requires power and control - its just that for it to be a healthy/sustainable/diverse society, it needs power/control in the best way. best being the way that perpetuates to more diversity, more intelligence, more fun, for free time, more health, more resources etc.
more power works when it is put into the hands of more people. more control works when it is put into the hands of more people.
power & control cannot be removed from a society - that is what every conflict ever has been about. what is needed is more control and more power, evenly distributed.
and the way to do that is to take responsibility as the captain says.
start with education, but dont wait for 'the govt' to provide it. do you really think they would fund a system that rests power/control away from them.
no, recognize the elements that increase intelligence (any attenborough doco will demonstrate that clearly) and APPLY them.
but are you ready?
are you ready to take on self-biology, self-medicine, self-directed employment, self-sustaining social structures?
face it - so long as we live in a geo-political structure like we have it, with passports, deficient currencies, border restrictions it will be very confronting.
the first sign of self-autonomy is when you confront the state. many laws are there to diffuse such things. self-directed responsibility can appear like civil unrest or revolution to the ignorant. whether its running intelligent chemicals thru your brain, intelligent programs thru your laptop or intelligent courses thru your social group, chances are anybody else will get upset that you are fiddling with the control/power play. which you are
so what do you do?
you show them how to do it themselves.
what you DONT do is start trying to impose your power/control structure on them.
remember; 'we' are 'them'. getting upset at the power 'they' have is self-defeating in the same way as being upset at someone with more freedom.
translate 'control' as 'freedom', and 'power' as 'responsability'. every time you suffer from someone elses 'power' you getting hit with the freedom you give em. every time youre stung by the govts power your being zapped with the responsability your threw away.
generation after generation has smouldered away upset with 'the government'. those that have done well are those that have taken the responsability upon themselves and formed their own alternative societies. amazingly tho, many of these have then gone on to only suck the power from groups within themselves and become what they initially despised.
so what to do?
take upon the responsabilities you expect from the govenment and apply them to yourself, then, as you empower yourself, withdraw further and further from accepting the power plays of those you disagree with - but not aggressively and confrontationally, but intelligently, working alongside them.
ngo's do this all the time. corporations do it (albeit not always intelligently). cults do it. catholics do it. all sub-cultures to some degree do it.
old al gore once said "if the people want it, thyve only got to start getting it happening. once they have, the govenment will be the first to jump on the bandwagon".
power and control? so long as its in the right place, i say.
of course any or all of this could be incorrect.
i do actually like where yr coming from Mr. Agitator, however i think i was talking more about the social controls and collective experence of the human condition, the individual one being slightly different as there in lies the strange paradox the individual has far less power than the govt it surrenders control to. The individual is a dead concept in political experience, the trade off is now a rip off, this happened years ago after the revolution it just reverted to a different package and it's not going to change with another unless the reveloution is an internal individual one, and drugs, the shock of extreme travel ie Dafur. or total enviromental planetary shifts will not help the individual at all. We are all plugged in to the illusionary holograph of freedom, yet in many ways we are all slaves. The only worthy step in ones life is to come to a point where one understands this. That's a form of freedom itself.
But yeah i dig what you're getting at.
sure sure sure - but im left thinking that the control/power situation is all about self-direction; the individual is dead by suicide.
i think that 'govts' (you and me playing as govts) havnt done it, they simply cashing in on what 'we' do to ourselves, but like to blame 'them' for.
im not sure 'we' as individuals have any less power than 'the govt'. unless we shortchange ourselves into it being so.
youre 100% in saying it will take massive voltage to jolt all of 'us' into self-direction, and agreeing with your tools of drugs, extreme pursuits etc - thats exactly why they are restricted to either the eccentric or the braindamaged.
y'know - the most damaging thing ever done to the process of freedom was the packaging of it; long hair, coloured hair, loud music, harley davidsons etc would sony or warner bros sink zillions into such 'rebellious' markets.
yeah sure.
i have the feeling we are talking about the exact same thing.
margaret mead said;
'dont feel discouraged if you are part of a small group trying to change the world.
for that is all that ever has changed the world.'
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