{"id":2828,"date":"2015-11-24T21:41:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T21:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=2828"},"modified":"2015-11-24T21:41:23","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T21:41:23","slug":"terrorism-to-happiness-connecting-the-dots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/terrorism-to-happiness-connecting-the-dots\/","title":{"rendered":"Terrorism to Happiness – connecting the dots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"main_900\"<\/a>The news seems to be as bleak as ever, … but the outlook is worse.<\/p>\n

There have always been stories of blood, death, corruption and pollution but now the consequences are more global and terminal.\u00a0 There is even a rationale argument that we are past tipping point, but I choose to believe that there is still time to change.<\/p>\n

Humans are clearly amazing.\u00a0 Just look around you to see the conveniences and contrivances that make life easy and enjoyable.\u00a0 You’re probably reading this on a computer or phone.\u00a0 Isn’t that fantastic?!\"corruption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And we’re lovely, especially when we’ve had enough to eat and we’re in a good mood.\u00a0 We’re creative – art, music, dance – and innovative.<\/p>\n

So how come the systems for peace and justice don’t seem to work?\u00a0 How come the food we buy is poisoned with chemicals?\u00a0 How come the clothes we wear are made by slaves?\u00a0 How come we’re on top and others are below?<\/p>\n

Because we’ve stopped being human.\u00a0 We’ve stopped thinking and regressed to primitive instinct and are prodded by rules and advertising to lie and steal.\u00a0 That is a black and white caricature, but it is closer to the truth than we admit.\"la-sci-sn-china-exports-air-pollution-united-s-001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And how did we get this way?<\/p>\n

We looked at our neighbour’s stuff and wanted more.\u00a0 We didn’t care they are the same as us.\u00a0 Or that we’ve pretty much got the same.\u00a0 Or that in order to get the stuff you have to give up really living.\u00a0 We were duped in to thinking that sitting on a throne is more enjoyable than hanging out with friends.<\/p>\n

\"Water<\/a>How did that happen? Fear and greed.\u00a0 That’s OK, because it’s natural.\u00a0 At the beginning instinct and survival rule.\u00a0 That model is fine at the beginning, when the beast is starting to develop language and tools.\u00a0 That time has passed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now it’s about civilisation.\u00a0 We have moved beyond survival, egocentric, controlling, strategic, even tested consensus models.\u00a0 But all of our systems have been exclusive.\u00a0 About US and THEM.\u00a0 And now it’s about more than US or THEM, it’s about more than US and THEM.\u00a0 It’s about everything.<\/p>\n

Everything is connected from politics to environment, from work to play, from business to family.\u00a0 So we must use all we know and move beyond exclusive thinking to inclusive thinking.<\/p>\n

\"atomtoworld2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This starts with putting yourself in the other person’s shoes.<\/p>\n

If you don’t want to be … hit, bombed, starved, underpaid, overworked, abused, cheated or lied to, stolen from, … then don’t do those things.\u00a0 And that means all people, and animals too.\u00a0 And realise that plants are the foundation of life so treat them well.\"astraeaspiral2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are responsibilities too.\u00a0 About compassion and generosity to others, about working when you’re getting paid to work, about openness and disclosure, about care for other’s stuff.<\/p>\n

It all sounds so simple.\u00a0 Do the right thing the right way.\u00a0 It’s actually not that hard.\u00a0 It even feels good sometimes.<\/p>\n

But we don’t all behave that way.\u00a0 We don’t because of ignorance or complacency.\u00a0 Sometimes it’s peer pressure.\u00a0 But when we’re at the top, there’s no excuse.\u00a0 Then we’re just choosing to be corrupt and corrupt the system.<\/p>\n

It’s quite clear that we do have the means and understanding to give people the minimum resources and guidance to lead fulfilled lives.\u00a0 \"eatingmoney\"<\/a>But we don’t do that.\u00a0 Half the world starves, a few million (say 30 million people, or less than half a percent (< 0.5%)) have more than that bottom half.\u00a0 You can see that we’ve chosen that because the evidence is all around.\u00a0 We all get to choose the way we live, the stuff we buy, the talk we talk, the jobs we do and when you add it all up, … you get what we’ve got.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s common sense right?!<\/p>\n

We can change.\u00a0 We can do things differently.\u00a0 We could grow up.\u00a0 We could do the things we’re supposed to.\u00a0 We could give more, take less.\u00a0 Be more open, honest.\u00a0 Stop consuming when you’ve had enough.\u00a0 Understand the connection between your choice to buy … food, clothes, furniture, toys, transport, holidays, homes, cars, votes … and the consequences for other people and for the life of earth.<\/p>\n

People don’t want to blow themselves up.\u00a0 They might do it out of desperation or ignorance.\u00a0 But they’d rather have a decent life.\u00a0 So deliver resource to live, work and play, deliver education and technology and the freedom to choose.\u00a0 Choose to share.<\/p>\n

\"World-Peace\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news seems to be as bleak as ever, … but the outlook is worse. There have always been stories of blood, death, corruption and pollution but now the consequences are more global and terminal.\u00a0 There is even a rationale argument that we are past tipping point, but I choose to believe that there is …
Continue reading Terrorism to Happiness – connecting the dots<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,5,3,14],"tags":[143,144,140,102,141,142,139],"class_list":["post-2828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perspective","category-worldofmoney","category-holonics","category-risk-and-terror","tag-fear","tag-greed","tag-happiness","tag-holonics","tag-love","tag-share","tag-terror"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-JC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2828"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2854,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions\/2854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}