We spend an inordinate amount of time creating systems to try to make the world fair.
I agree with what Alain says in the following video. Somewhat staging the issue but not the solution. If you don’t have time to watch it all, the last 2 minutes cut to the chase with a great question and answer session from Chris Anderson
Tag Archives: Love
What has love got to do with it?
Money
“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.” ~ Mayer Anselm Rothschild (Banker)
What do we reform to give best bang for our buck?
Financial independence is something we all covet but very few enjoy. Money, however much we wish it not to be so, dictates much of our enjoyment of life. We wish to eat, it requires money. We want new clothes, it requires money. We’d like to travel, more money, and so on. Hence those who have control over the supply of money, are deemed by most individuals to have power and control. Banks, Governments and Companies are the groups which wield this power. Within these organisations, individuals make the day to day decisions which ultimately give or take away money from other individuals. Traditionally, these organisations tend to be organised in a hierarchy where the individuals at the top have the ability to make decisions over the supply of money to those individuals beneath them. The ability to hire and fire is the ultimate example of control of the money supply. As society’s requirement for access to money increases so, an individual’s feeling of control over their own lives diminishes. Entrenched fear of losing money supply is still the most dominant management system in play. There are many management systems which have been implemented to redress the control of money, and hence control over our own lives issue. Within business, Piecework Pay, Production Bonuses, Profit sharing, Gain sharing are all systems, with varying degrees of merit, which, whether by chance or design, promise to pass back a degree of control to an individual. Most of these systems attempt to design in fairness of compensation through the use of empirical data, manipulated by some algorithm. Generally the algorithm consists of logic that some form of consensus has deemed to be fair. More often than not, individuals within an organisation will know of, or perceive of, examples where the system has not produced a fair result, whatever the system.
What if we accepted that systems were sometimes not fair and created a compensation system that didn’t use “fair”, as a guide but instead relied on faith in group, and individual humanity?
What if we created a system which enhanced communication, exchanged ideas, and gauged feelings?
What if this system empowered all individuals within an organisation not just those who excel?
Wouldn’t that be “Good”?
- I’m a Communist?
- I’m a Greenie Wack job?
- I’m a conspiracy theory Nut?
- I want to bring down the free market?
I’m none of those, just a bloke with a plan to save the world.
The Little Red Hed – Revised
Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who lived on a farm. She was friends with a lazy dog, a sleepy cat, and a noisy yellow duck.
One day the little red hen found some seeds on the ground. The little red hen had an idea. She would plant the seeds.
The little red hen asked her friends, “Who will help me plant the seeds?”
“Not I,” barked the lazy dog.
“Not I,” purred the sleepy cat.
“Not I,” quacked the noisy yellow duck.
“Then I will,” said the little red hen. So the little red hen planted the seeds all by herself.
When the seeds had grown, the little red hen asked her friends, “Who will help me cut the wheat?”
“Not I,” barked the lazy dog.
“Not I,” purred the sleepy cat.
“Not I,” quacked the noisy yellow duck.
“Then I will,” said the little red hen. So the little red hen cut the wheat all by herself.
When all the wheat was cut, the little red hen asked her friends, “Who will help me take the wheat to the mill to be ground into flour?”
“Not I,” barked the lazy dog.
“Not I,” purred the sleepy cat.
“Not I,” quacked the noisy yellow duck.
“Then I will,” said the little red hen. So the little red hen brought the wheat to the mill all by herself, ground the wheat into flour, and carried the heavy sack of flour back to the farm.
The tired little red hen asked her friends, “Who will help me bake the bread?”
“Not I,” barked the lazy dog.
“Not I,” purred the sleepy cat.
“Not I,” quacked the noisy yellow duck.
“Then I will,” said the little red hen. So the little red hen baked the bread all by herself.
When the bread was finished, the tired little red hen asked her friends, “Who will help me eat the bread?”
“I will,” barked the lazy dog.
“I will,” purred the sleepy cat.
“I will,” quacked the noisy yellow duck.
“Yes!” said the little red hen. “You are all welcome to share.” “I had fun planting, cutting, grinding and baking.”
“Now I can also enjoy watching the fruits of my labour being used”, and she did!
For the more traditionalists amongst you, the original story above.
As if you needed a reason to save the world
I’ve never been a disciplined person. I wish I was. I’m sure if I had been I would have achieved a lot more than I have by now. I know the theory but have a hard time putting it into practice. I should have goals. I know they should be attainable, measurable, and time bound. When I actually do set goals I generally, but not always, achieve them. So let’s start the process of setting me a goal, a really cool goal that I really care about.
So what do I really care about? Ummmm! See this is where it gets tricky, I have this tendency of letting my mind get away on me.
Take for instance the thought that I would like a happy life, which quickly gets extended to wanting a happy life for my daughter, and once I start thinking about that, I want her offspring to have a happy life as well. Well she doesn’t have any children yet, so I don’t know them, and yet, I want them to be happy. Ok, so I want people I don’t even know to be happy, well, I don’t know most of the people in the world, so if I move on down the thought process, I perhaps want everyone in the world to be happy. Very quickly I have got to something that I want that is seemingly unattainable. I have seemingly broken the first rule of goal setting by finding something I want that is unattainable.
I guess this is where you are supposed to break the thing down into manageable hunks and create some mini goals, which are attainable, that sets you off in the direction of your overall goal. I guess one could call that overall goal a mission or a vision.
So my mission is for “Everyone to be happy for evermore”?
Well first things first I guess, we need hope that there will be a “for evermore” for people to be happy in. So I guess my mission could be to “save the world”; yeh! That will do, my mission is to save the world and my mini goal is to come up with a plan to do it.
I can hear you saying hold on, that’s a complete waste of time. What ever you come up with will never work, much greater people than you have tried and thus far failed. What makes you think you can succeed where others have not?
The answer is “I don’t know” but it’s my mission now so time to give it a go.
Am I alone in this mission? Seemingly not, for a start I apparently have all the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant contestants wishing for world peace and determined to use their crowned stature to achieve it. I’m in good company. How common is this mission? If we look at what got me to my mission I would suspect it is very common. A huge proportion of the world population want to be happy and want their children to be happy. If we add in the constraint that this must be achieved in conjunction to adhering to one or other religious beliefs, this happiness desire is almost universal. Assuming everyone wants to be happy, by necessity we require a world to be happy in. Q.E.D. The world must be saved and its no less my responsibility to save it as yours.
Not Knowing
Being an Agnostic is a bad thing.
Humans don’t like uncertainty.
If you don’t know, that makes you inferior in some way doesn’t it?
You are wishy washy, you sit on the fence, you are indecisive. Definitely not leadership material.
I decided a long time ago I was probably agnostic, I say probably because I don’t really know. I went to University and learned about Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and realised I was probably right to doubt what I knew and what I didn’t know.
I like the saying “A true scientist never says never”. Not that I profess to be a scientist. Far from it. I do however find living a life being open to possibilities is more fun than that of living with a closed mind.
I guess it all comes down to probabilities. What is most likely to be right? Once you get close enough to 100% proof, acceptance saves a bit of time.
So if I don’t “know” anything for certain, what sort of things would I like to be true.
A couple of things come to mind.
Humanity is basically “Good”
Individuals are “Good” because they have a capacity for “Love”
I will attempt to deal with “Good” and “Love” in future posts.
Of course I don’t know these to be fact but I do find them assumptions which make my life fun.
They are in fact essential assumptions in my Plan to “Save the World” and rest assured this won’t stop me from acting on my plan.