First off, what is cool?
Let's examine this through pop culture. From James Dean to Fonzie to Justin Beiber and Lady GaGa, cool is never the geek with the glasses who likes to read. Cool isn't Calculus and Philosophy, nor has it ever been playing Scrabble® and Yahtzee.
Cool is drinking and smoking and "breaking rules" or getting into fights. At least it has been since the end of WWII. Prior to that, anti-social behaviour was treated as anti social and not tolerated in polite society. "Rough neighbourhoods" were known to house such unsavoury types, but the vast majority of people gravitated toward a much more peaceful existence.
With the advent of television, whole generations have now come to view the "cool" kids as those who act out in arrogant displays of ignorance declaring anyone with the audacity to attempt rational thought as "gay" or "lame" and justifying "kicking their a**". Violence is the immediate response of these neanderthals who think a high score in beer pong grants them the right to breed in a society that worships reality as portrayed by "Survivor".
As a child I struggled with popularity (can you tell?) because I did not understand what cool was. To me at 8 years old, Einstein and Shakespere were cool, So was "The Big Bopper" and The Fonze. Unfortunately it was 1986 and those things weren't cool to most kids my age. Oh I liked Michael J Fox and Back To the Future, Goonies and Gremlins as much as anyone else, but I wasn't exposed to television much as a child, so I didn't see what movies were coming out or what the latest craze in kids toys was on the shelves. I had a big brother who ruled the remote and only watched music videos so I went outside.
As a teen I was exposed a bit more and as a young adult got sucked in entirely. I've found that without TV I tended to explore more and read more. I was more likely to ask questions and to think for myself.
So what makes us cool? TV, Video Games, Sports, Beer seem to top the list of cool things. Cool means popular, popular means a lot of people agree on its merit. I am told Survivor is popular, I don't know anyone who watches it, but then I don't tend to have conversations about TV shows.
Think of everything you've heard of that is generally considered "Cool" and you are likely to see that not a single one of those items is conducive to increasing intelligence. There are at times short-lived crazes for things like SuDoKu but something mindless tends to overtake those things fast (can you say Angry Birds?).
So why is it that everything they tell us is cool and popular only serves to make you think less and react more? Because if you are reacting instead of thinking you are easier to manipulate. If you think about it you will notice that when you go out shopping the items you stare at for the length of time you stand in line are all small tempting items like candy and pop, or small "useful" items that "could come in handy some day". This is why you stand in line when there are twelve closed tills and 25 box-boys in the aisles. They are counting on your boredom to inspire anxiety which is quickly eased by impulse-buying a pack of gum. If you grab at a tabloid because it claims to have secret knowledge of your favourite star, you are less likely to wonder why they are also trying to convince you to lose 20 lbs in 10 days while trying out a new recipe for chocolate cake.
TV, Video Games, Blogs and Social Media all serve to distract you from life and reality, keep you feeling inadequate, excite your baser instincts and keep you from thinking. Ever heard of a little saying "If you don't use it, you lose it"? That is what is happening to our society. All of this cool stuff is making whole generations dumber than their parents. They can't think for themselves so they allow others to think for them. They choose their opinions based on popular consensus instead of logic and reason because it is easier that way.
Try taking your family out of circulation for just one week, no more phones, tablets, computers, TVs or consoles, just imagination and creativity. If it the first time for you go ahead and plan out a few activities by Googling some inspiration, but once the plan is set unplug your world. By the end of the week you should have a whole new list of fun activities for your spare time, and hopefully a clearer mind to boot. For a really effective change try going for a month without those items and see if you ever want to pick one up again.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Lost my log-in...
So I haven't posted in a while because I lost my log in info. I went on vacation and updated my chrome when I got back which reset all my bookmarks and saved passwords. Made a mess of things for me for a while, but I have everything sorted now.
Today is too heavy a workload day for me to post more than this for a bit, but I'll come back soon.
Today is too heavy a workload day for me to post more than this for a bit, but I'll come back soon.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Divestment
I promised you a few posts ago that we'd discuss divestment and what it means, but got a little hung up on other things and forgot, so here we go...
Divestment means to draw away from or stop adhering to a specific course. To divest from the government we simply pay more attention to where we spend our money. Those of you on severely limited incomes might find this more difficult and that is what they want.
Companies like WalMart provide items at significant discounts, but they also promote slave labour, sweat shops and child labour. They carry knock-off products that fool you into thinking you are buying name brand and they push other business out of the market. The products they carry are sub-standard even when they carry name brands - they actually pressure companies like Levis to reduce their prices to insane levels forcing the company to use cheaper methods of production and lowering quality.
If you have a choice of spending your money at a big-name store (think multi-national) or a small independent merchant/craftsman or tailor opt for the personal touch of the local business. If you can't afford the price-tag associated with those little boutiques then opt instead to go to a thrift store or consignment shop instead. At the very least do a bit of research into the business conducted by the companies you spend your money with, ensure that you condone the way that they do business. If you are vegetarian, stop using Clairol since many of their products are tested on or use animal products. If you love kids then stop buying Reebok whose shoes are made in sweatshops.
Divestment is voting with your dollar, and if all you care about is getting the cheapest deal then you'll get it by the least ethical methods. If you don't like Monsanto, stop buying McCain and Kraft, if you don't like the way cosmetics companies advertise to little girls then stop buying make-up. It isn't easy, it is hard to tell your kid that you can't buy them the shoes they want because the company is corrupt, they don't understand anything beyond being "cool", but you will have taught them a valuable lesson and when they grow up and see it for themselves they will thank you.
Millions of dollars a year is spent telling you what you should want, need, eat or wear. The companies that provide these things to you don't care about your health unless you do, they don't care about value unless you do and the only way you will ever get them to stand up and pay attention is to stop giving them the profits the seek unless they conduct business in a way that makes you happy. If adding chemicals to your food so it lasts longer and which cause addiction-symptoms to make you come back for more is all they have to do to keep you paying them then what motivation do they have to make a better product?
Think about it.
Divestment means to draw away from or stop adhering to a specific course. To divest from the government we simply pay more attention to where we spend our money. Those of you on severely limited incomes might find this more difficult and that is what they want.
Companies like WalMart provide items at significant discounts, but they also promote slave labour, sweat shops and child labour. They carry knock-off products that fool you into thinking you are buying name brand and they push other business out of the market. The products they carry are sub-standard even when they carry name brands - they actually pressure companies like Levis to reduce their prices to insane levels forcing the company to use cheaper methods of production and lowering quality.
If you have a choice of spending your money at a big-name store (think multi-national) or a small independent merchant/craftsman or tailor opt for the personal touch of the local business. If you can't afford the price-tag associated with those little boutiques then opt instead to go to a thrift store or consignment shop instead. At the very least do a bit of research into the business conducted by the companies you spend your money with, ensure that you condone the way that they do business. If you are vegetarian, stop using Clairol since many of their products are tested on or use animal products. If you love kids then stop buying Reebok whose shoes are made in sweatshops.
Divestment is voting with your dollar, and if all you care about is getting the cheapest deal then you'll get it by the least ethical methods. If you don't like Monsanto, stop buying McCain and Kraft, if you don't like the way cosmetics companies advertise to little girls then stop buying make-up. It isn't easy, it is hard to tell your kid that you can't buy them the shoes they want because the company is corrupt, they don't understand anything beyond being "cool", but you will have taught them a valuable lesson and when they grow up and see it for themselves they will thank you.
Millions of dollars a year is spent telling you what you should want, need, eat or wear. The companies that provide these things to you don't care about your health unless you do, they don't care about value unless you do and the only way you will ever get them to stand up and pay attention is to stop giving them the profits the seek unless they conduct business in a way that makes you happy. If adding chemicals to your food so it lasts longer and which cause addiction-symptoms to make you come back for more is all they have to do to keep you paying them then what motivation do they have to make a better product?
Think about it.
Self Esteem vs Self Confidence
Self Esteem
Self Confidence
Are they the same? No.
Are they equal? No.
Okay smarty-pants...what's the difference?
Self Esteem = To esteem oneself
Esteem = To hold as best, to think highly of
Therefore self-esteem = to hold oneself as best or higher than others.
Self Confidence = To have confidence in oneself
Confidence = certitude, assurance
Therefore self-confidence = To have certitude in who you are
It may already be clear to you what the differences are between the two concepts, but many people still often confuse one for the other.
Self esteem is unjustified. Since we all agree that "all men are created equal" then it is unreasonable to even begin to consider self esteem a worthy subject of conversation at all. I have met lots of people throughout my life that display amazing examples of self esteem and I am sure you have as well. From the pointy-haired boss in Dilbert cartoons that can't admit he hasn't a clue what he is doing to the Chinese couple running an Italian restaurant, there are some things that self esteem makes ridiculous.
If you spend your life "earning" prizes for showing up or get good grades because your teacher isn't allowed to fail you then I am sure you'll have a tonne of self esteem, but when I ask you what you can do you haven't a clue.
Being told "you suck" might be bad for your self image, but it can go a long way to encouraging the development of self confidence. As a child I was the pariah, teased by everyone on the playground because I was emotionally sensitive and gave them the reactions they were looking for. I was also clumsy, terrible at public speaking and multiplication. I was enthusiastic in gym but my results were laughable. I spent a lot of time being told "I suck" in various different terms. As an adult I find that I now amaze people with the wide variety of talents I possess. It isn't just that we all grew up, it is that I spent a lot of energy in becoming the person I am today. I worked hard to achieve a level of confidence in my duties and can claim to be one of the better professionals in my field because of it.
So I have no self esteem, but lots of self confidence. I do not think I am better than everyone - only most - and that can be backed up by facts and evidence which I'll produce to anyone who asks. When you can line up a hundred accolades, accomplishments or results you have confidence in your abilities and therefore in who you are as a person. If you cannot then all the bluster and self esteem in the world won't matter a hill of beans.
This is why I tried hard to give my kids self confidence and crushed any possibility of self esteem.
Self Confidence
Are they the same? No.
Are they equal? No.
Okay smarty-pants...what's the difference?
Self Esteem = To esteem oneself
Esteem = To hold as best, to think highly of
Therefore self-esteem = to hold oneself as best or higher than others.
Self Confidence = To have confidence in oneself
Confidence = certitude, assurance
Therefore self-confidence = To have certitude in who you are
It may already be clear to you what the differences are between the two concepts, but many people still often confuse one for the other.
Self esteem is unjustified. Since we all agree that "all men are created equal" then it is unreasonable to even begin to consider self esteem a worthy subject of conversation at all. I have met lots of people throughout my life that display amazing examples of self esteem and I am sure you have as well. From the pointy-haired boss in Dilbert cartoons that can't admit he hasn't a clue what he is doing to the Chinese couple running an Italian restaurant, there are some things that self esteem makes ridiculous.
If you spend your life "earning" prizes for showing up or get good grades because your teacher isn't allowed to fail you then I am sure you'll have a tonne of self esteem, but when I ask you what you can do you haven't a clue.
Being told "you suck" might be bad for your self image, but it can go a long way to encouraging the development of self confidence. As a child I was the pariah, teased by everyone on the playground because I was emotionally sensitive and gave them the reactions they were looking for. I was also clumsy, terrible at public speaking and multiplication. I was enthusiastic in gym but my results were laughable. I spent a lot of time being told "I suck" in various different terms. As an adult I find that I now amaze people with the wide variety of talents I possess. It isn't just that we all grew up, it is that I spent a lot of energy in becoming the person I am today. I worked hard to achieve a level of confidence in my duties and can claim to be one of the better professionals in my field because of it.
So I have no self esteem, but lots of self confidence. I do not think I am better than everyone - only most - and that can be backed up by facts and evidence which I'll produce to anyone who asks. When you can line up a hundred accolades, accomplishments or results you have confidence in your abilities and therefore in who you are as a person. If you cannot then all the bluster and self esteem in the world won't matter a hill of beans.
This is why I tried hard to give my kids self confidence and crushed any possibility of self esteem.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Self esteem is what's wrong with the world.
Self Esteem Vs Self Confidence
Sounds like I am comparing MacIntosh apples with MacIntosh apples doesn't it?
There is a difference though, a big one.
Since I like dictionaries so much I'll give you a hint:
From Merriam-Webster -
Sounds pretty good until you think what it means. Esteem is to hold something in high regard. I seem to remember a time when holding yourself in high regard was considered pompous and self-centered and bad. Now we are trying to make our kids be it? Could it possibly be that we were led to believe that esteeming oneself is a good thing for a reason?
Well, first, lets look at confidence:
Now this sounds more like something I want to teach my kids to have! To be!
How do we get there?
In self esteem books they always say that you should never say "No" to your child. That a child cannot be "spoiled" by giving in to them, instead it develops a healthy level of self esteem. I agree. If you never hear your parents telling you that your behaviour is bad or wrong then you will always hold yourself in high regard. If you are never forced to accept responsibility for your own actions and all the people around you cater to your wants and needs, wouldn't you grow up to view everything as being your due without effort? Is this not the way indolent rich aristocrats live? This makes a child feel like the world owes him something for just being alive.
Confidence can only be built by accomplishing things. Knowing you are a great cook or knitter or carpenter or mechanic gives you confidence to pursue a career in the field. Knowing where you are limited allows you to focus your energies on things to improve or mitigate in your own life thereby increasing happiness. Confidence allows you to stand firm in your beliefs, convictions and ideas, but also allows for the possibility and open-mindedness needed for progress. Self confidence makes for better people.
So why the push in the last 20-30 years for more self esteem? I thought it was just lazy and immature parenting, but this freedom movement is making me think it is a little more insidious than that. The facts are still true so we'll examine them. First, let's examine the idea that parents are immature and lazy.
I remember being a little kid and getting sent to my room. I would stomp off mumbling to myself about how my parents were sooo mean and if I ever had kids I'd never send them to their room or say "No" or make them tidy their room or...you get the idea. Does this sound like parents today? So it would seem that those little kids never grew up to understand WHY their parents sent them to their room. I also see parents relenting when their kids push because they are "too tired to fight" or "This is easier", this makes me think they are just too lazy to take time to be a parent. The problem is that as your kids grow their behaviour gets worse, not better. Kids don't just wake up one day and realize that they are selfish, indolent and rude. They don't turn 18 and suddenly know how to wash clothes and cook. These are essential skills they need to survive in the real world or pay someone else to do for them.
My mother taught me to cook, clean, sew, knit, crochet, macramé, build a house, understand what my mechanic was talking about (to a certain extent), drive, raise my kids, apply first aid, and write legibly among other things. She set standards for my behaviour that were met or I was disciplined. She made mistakes of course, she wasn't perfect, but she knew what her role was and did it to the best of her ability. She encouraged me to be myself while teaching me to strive to be a better version of myself. Sometimes she even let me get away with things if I could properly explain to her why I did not agree with her assessment of the level of safety. There was a small area near my home as a child where all the kids loved to play, but it was on property covered with "No Trespassing" signs and had the potential to be a dangerous place if you weren't careful.
I knew what items were really dangerous and knew to avoid them, I couldn't see the issue with playing there but we'd always get in trouble if we were caught. Knowing that my parents were somewhat friendly with the owner but that they were reluctant to give in to us kids, I spoke with him and asked if there were some way that we could play there with his permission. He made me promise to be careful, asked me some questions to determine if I knew what being careful entailed and then gave me permission to enter and any kids with me would be allowed if they listened to me. He did call my mother to make sure that she was okay with it and willing to promise not to sue him if I fell and broke my neck on his property, but in the end I was able to play there.
I got to play in the junk yard, on the sand dunes, in the creek & pond, in the woods and quarry. I was never even injured in any of those areas and I was a clumsy child (still am). I have hurt myself more at work in an office than ever in those carefree days. My mother was worried more about the trespassing than the danger (unlike most of the other parents) so I was the only kid in the area who's mother actually knew where she was most of the time. It also gave me a safer path to get into town than the big highway (which at 5 years old is not a good place to walk) so I could get some penny candies at the local store. It was about a 1 mile walk from home to the store and most of that was along a big highway, by going through "the Pit" as we called it I shaved off 15 minutes from my time, about 1/4 mile on distance and walked along paths through the forest on a mild hiking trail instead. It came out at the cemetery about a block away from the store.
My confidence in my own abilities made all our lives a little easier because I could take care of myself. I never hesitated to take on a project because I knew that if I put my mind to it I could do anything. Today I am a DIYer and won't buy something I can make for myself. I take on big projects like learning to cut copper, weld, do stained glass, carpentry, plumbing or electrical, canning, gardening and so much more. Every day I learn something new, I get one step closer to being able to leave society and live on a deserted island by myself yet have all of the conveniences of modern life, not that I want to, but I could. That is self confidence and that is priceless!
Sounds like I am comparing MacIntosh apples with MacIntosh apples doesn't it?
There is a difference though, a big one.
Since I like dictionaries so much I'll give you a hint:
From Merriam-Webster -
es·teem
noun \i-ˈstēm\
: respect and affection
Full Definition of ESTEEM
3
: the regard in which one is held; especially : high regard
Well, first, lets look at confidence:
con·fi·dence
noun \ˈkän-fə-dən(t)s, -ˌden(t)s\
: a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something
: a feeling or belief that someone or something is good or has the ability to succeed at something
: the feeling of being certain that something will happen or that something is true
Now this sounds more like something I want to teach my kids to have! To be!
How do we get there?
In self esteem books they always say that you should never say "No" to your child. That a child cannot be "spoiled" by giving in to them, instead it develops a healthy level of self esteem. I agree. If you never hear your parents telling you that your behaviour is bad or wrong then you will always hold yourself in high regard. If you are never forced to accept responsibility for your own actions and all the people around you cater to your wants and needs, wouldn't you grow up to view everything as being your due without effort? Is this not the way indolent rich aristocrats live? This makes a child feel like the world owes him something for just being alive.
Confidence can only be built by accomplishing things. Knowing you are a great cook or knitter or carpenter or mechanic gives you confidence to pursue a career in the field. Knowing where you are limited allows you to focus your energies on things to improve or mitigate in your own life thereby increasing happiness. Confidence allows you to stand firm in your beliefs, convictions and ideas, but also allows for the possibility and open-mindedness needed for progress. Self confidence makes for better people.
So why the push in the last 20-30 years for more self esteem? I thought it was just lazy and immature parenting, but this freedom movement is making me think it is a little more insidious than that. The facts are still true so we'll examine them. First, let's examine the idea that parents are immature and lazy.
I remember being a little kid and getting sent to my room. I would stomp off mumbling to myself about how my parents were sooo mean and if I ever had kids I'd never send them to their room or say "No" or make them tidy their room or...you get the idea. Does this sound like parents today? So it would seem that those little kids never grew up to understand WHY their parents sent them to their room. I also see parents relenting when their kids push because they are "too tired to fight" or "This is easier", this makes me think they are just too lazy to take time to be a parent. The problem is that as your kids grow their behaviour gets worse, not better. Kids don't just wake up one day and realize that they are selfish, indolent and rude. They don't turn 18 and suddenly know how to wash clothes and cook. These are essential skills they need to survive in the real world or pay someone else to do for them.
My mother taught me to cook, clean, sew, knit, crochet, macramé, build a house, understand what my mechanic was talking about (to a certain extent), drive, raise my kids, apply first aid, and write legibly among other things. She set standards for my behaviour that were met or I was disciplined. She made mistakes of course, she wasn't perfect, but she knew what her role was and did it to the best of her ability. She encouraged me to be myself while teaching me to strive to be a better version of myself. Sometimes she even let me get away with things if I could properly explain to her why I did not agree with her assessment of the level of safety. There was a small area near my home as a child where all the kids loved to play, but it was on property covered with "No Trespassing" signs and had the potential to be a dangerous place if you weren't careful.
I knew what items were really dangerous and knew to avoid them, I couldn't see the issue with playing there but we'd always get in trouble if we were caught. Knowing that my parents were somewhat friendly with the owner but that they were reluctant to give in to us kids, I spoke with him and asked if there were some way that we could play there with his permission. He made me promise to be careful, asked me some questions to determine if I knew what being careful entailed and then gave me permission to enter and any kids with me would be allowed if they listened to me. He did call my mother to make sure that she was okay with it and willing to promise not to sue him if I fell and broke my neck on his property, but in the end I was able to play there.
I got to play in the junk yard, on the sand dunes, in the creek & pond, in the woods and quarry. I was never even injured in any of those areas and I was a clumsy child (still am). I have hurt myself more at work in an office than ever in those carefree days. My mother was worried more about the trespassing than the danger (unlike most of the other parents) so I was the only kid in the area who's mother actually knew where she was most of the time. It also gave me a safer path to get into town than the big highway (which at 5 years old is not a good place to walk) so I could get some penny candies at the local store. It was about a 1 mile walk from home to the store and most of that was along a big highway, by going through "the Pit" as we called it I shaved off 15 minutes from my time, about 1/4 mile on distance and walked along paths through the forest on a mild hiking trail instead. It came out at the cemetery about a block away from the store.
My confidence in my own abilities made all our lives a little easier because I could take care of myself. I never hesitated to take on a project because I knew that if I put my mind to it I could do anything. Today I am a DIYer and won't buy something I can make for myself. I take on big projects like learning to cut copper, weld, do stained glass, carpentry, plumbing or electrical, canning, gardening and so much more. Every day I learn something new, I get one step closer to being able to leave society and live on a deserted island by myself yet have all of the conveniences of modern life, not that I want to, but I could. That is self confidence and that is priceless!
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Standards
I don't know about you, but it seems to me that there are no such thing as standards anymore. If you look around people actually apologize for being picky when they correct someone's bad spelling or grammatical error. I guess it is because of labels like Grammar Nazi. No one wants to be a Nazi, so being a Nazi over something as silly as a spelling mistake must make you a really bad person! Thing is though, if we don't hold on to standards, they start to get forgotten.
It used to be that you started learning to write in Kindergarten with a big fat pencil, moved on to a standard yellow HB in grade school and then if you could write neatly and without mistakes you got to graduate to ink. Not everyone managed to write perfectly, but there was a certain amount of slack that let everyone eventually move on with the rest. Sure, kids got teased if they were slower than the rest, the last kid to move up to a pen was called a baby or laughed at (although this was usually short-lived as there really isn't much you can say on such a small thing), but everyone eventually felt good about the fact that their maturity was clearly identified by this move from "baby" pencils to "adult" pens.
I remember being so proud when I got my pen, I wasn't the first, but I had worked hard and managed not to be last either. There were all sorts of little tests and steps that we took in school that let us know each step of the way that we had accomplished something, we had learned and we had gotten one step closer to being an adult. I had my share of items where I was the person ridiculed too. My weakness was in multiplication table speed tests. We had 100 small questions on a page and had to answer them all correctly in five minutes and I could never get more than half done because speed tests make my brain shut off.
I was hurt, humiliated and felt about as intelligent as a paper bag. This is probably why these tests don't exist anymore. Thing is though, it really wasn't that bad. I survived. I moved on. I got better at my multiplication tables, but still struggle to do math in my head quickly. This is part of who I am. I no longer let the pain rule me and I can assure myself that even Einstein wasn't quick with the basics and he was a math genius!
Is this new practice of no competition, almost no testing and lowered expectations allowing kids to find their full potential? I don't see it.
Thing is, without standards how do you know where to set the bar? People are inherently lazy, they will do the least amount possible to get by. If a child is not asked to spell correctly because spell check will take care of it, how do we ever get away from sentences like this:
"My mom gave me to many bars in my lunch today, I asked for to and she gave me five, do you want to have one?"
If you don't see the issue in that last sentence then you are a product of those lower standards.
If all the electronic devices stopped working tomorrow what would you do? Would you hand write your letters and hope that the person who gets the note will be able to correct your grammar and interpret your message? Would you guess at the measurements for your flooring and hope you have enough and not too much? Would you add up someone's change wrong and end up getting your pay deducted?
These are legitimate concerns. Computers fail every day, programs go haywire and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Don't you want your kids to have the tools on hand to be able to figure everything out on their own? Isn't the purpose of education to teach a child how to learn? How to think? You don't even really need to tell a kid how things work, how things are, you only need teach him/her how to reason and work it out, he'll do the rest.
A child in today's education system only learns one thing - how to memorize and regurgitate sanctioned and accepted views on a range of subjects. They are not asked to think beyond what is given to them in textbooks and hand-outs. By correctly regurgitating the concepts they can graduate high school without even the smallest ability to think and reason for themselves. They enter a workforce that is quickly degrading into a useless mass of mindless automatons.
A server doesn't know what to do if a customer asks for something outside of her day-to-day efforts, she is stumped, she runs for a Manager who calls head office and after an hour tells you that the lawyer suggested this option or that option. I remember when a displeased customer (even if it is a minor complaint) getting offered the entire meal for free or a coupon/certificate for a free meal next time. The other night my whole table got their orders mixed up, substituted and messed around and the manager had to get advice from the Head Office lawyer to give my son a $5 gift card because they didn't have what he came for and he had to settle for something else when it was his birthday meal.
Heck, due to lowered standards we are expected to tip 10% for BAD service when that used to be the standard for GOOD service. I hold to the old standards in a lot of things. I care about spelling and grammar, I calculate on paper if I can't do it in my head and rarely grab a calculator, I won't switch to an e-reader because screens are bad for your eyes and paper just feels more natural. If I need to do something or if I want something, I try to figure out how to do or get it on my own before I look for someone else's solution.
Even among the craft blogs I like to peruse, I am starting to find a decline in the complexity of the crafts. Slapping some mod podge over a piece of paper on a chunk of 2x4 isn't what I would call crafty, it is a kindergarten project as far as I am concerned yet I can honestly say that this is the basis of one blog I used to visit and the woman has a whole store dedicated to these types of crafts. I can't imagine spending good money on something I could get my friend's 4 year old to make for under $5. In fact in grade two (2 for those of you who had issues with the sentence above) my son was perfectly able to make a wind chime out of copper pipes and fishing wire. I showed him how to cut the pipes and sand the edges smooth and how to tie the pipes to the lamp bracket with each a little longer than the last. It was beautiful and almost looked store-bought. In fact I actually had to go into the school and get into an argument with his teacher who insisted that either I did it all or we bought it. I showed her the receipts and let my son show her how easy it is to cut a pipe.
Just because we can't all be the best doesn't mean we should have to lower the bar to suit those that can't. Those too lazy to try or to work do not deserve our praise, those that try and do not succeed need to learn their personal limits and work within them. Sure, you won't be the happiest person, but at least you will have proper self confidence instead of useless self esteem.
Next time - the difference between self confidence and self esteem and why you never want to promote the latter.
It used to be that you started learning to write in Kindergarten with a big fat pencil, moved on to a standard yellow HB in grade school and then if you could write neatly and without mistakes you got to graduate to ink. Not everyone managed to write perfectly, but there was a certain amount of slack that let everyone eventually move on with the rest. Sure, kids got teased if they were slower than the rest, the last kid to move up to a pen was called a baby or laughed at (although this was usually short-lived as there really isn't much you can say on such a small thing), but everyone eventually felt good about the fact that their maturity was clearly identified by this move from "baby" pencils to "adult" pens.
I remember being so proud when I got my pen, I wasn't the first, but I had worked hard and managed not to be last either. There were all sorts of little tests and steps that we took in school that let us know each step of the way that we had accomplished something, we had learned and we had gotten one step closer to being an adult. I had my share of items where I was the person ridiculed too. My weakness was in multiplication table speed tests. We had 100 small questions on a page and had to answer them all correctly in five minutes and I could never get more than half done because speed tests make my brain shut off.
I was hurt, humiliated and felt about as intelligent as a paper bag. This is probably why these tests don't exist anymore. Thing is though, it really wasn't that bad. I survived. I moved on. I got better at my multiplication tables, but still struggle to do math in my head quickly. This is part of who I am. I no longer let the pain rule me and I can assure myself that even Einstein wasn't quick with the basics and he was a math genius!
Is this new practice of no competition, almost no testing and lowered expectations allowing kids to find their full potential? I don't see it.
Thing is, without standards how do you know where to set the bar? People are inherently lazy, they will do the least amount possible to get by. If a child is not asked to spell correctly because spell check will take care of it, how do we ever get away from sentences like this:
"My mom gave me to many bars in my lunch today, I asked for to and she gave me five, do you want to have one?"
If you don't see the issue in that last sentence then you are a product of those lower standards.
If all the electronic devices stopped working tomorrow what would you do? Would you hand write your letters and hope that the person who gets the note will be able to correct your grammar and interpret your message? Would you guess at the measurements for your flooring and hope you have enough and not too much? Would you add up someone's change wrong and end up getting your pay deducted?
These are legitimate concerns. Computers fail every day, programs go haywire and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Don't you want your kids to have the tools on hand to be able to figure everything out on their own? Isn't the purpose of education to teach a child how to learn? How to think? You don't even really need to tell a kid how things work, how things are, you only need teach him/her how to reason and work it out, he'll do the rest.
A child in today's education system only learns one thing - how to memorize and regurgitate sanctioned and accepted views on a range of subjects. They are not asked to think beyond what is given to them in textbooks and hand-outs. By correctly regurgitating the concepts they can graduate high school without even the smallest ability to think and reason for themselves. They enter a workforce that is quickly degrading into a useless mass of mindless automatons.
A server doesn't know what to do if a customer asks for something outside of her day-to-day efforts, she is stumped, she runs for a Manager who calls head office and after an hour tells you that the lawyer suggested this option or that option. I remember when a displeased customer (even if it is a minor complaint) getting offered the entire meal for free or a coupon/certificate for a free meal next time. The other night my whole table got their orders mixed up, substituted and messed around and the manager had to get advice from the Head Office lawyer to give my son a $5 gift card because they didn't have what he came for and he had to settle for something else when it was his birthday meal.
Heck, due to lowered standards we are expected to tip 10% for BAD service when that used to be the standard for GOOD service. I hold to the old standards in a lot of things. I care about spelling and grammar, I calculate on paper if I can't do it in my head and rarely grab a calculator, I won't switch to an e-reader because screens are bad for your eyes and paper just feels more natural. If I need to do something or if I want something, I try to figure out how to do or get it on my own before I look for someone else's solution.
Even among the craft blogs I like to peruse, I am starting to find a decline in the complexity of the crafts. Slapping some mod podge over a piece of paper on a chunk of 2x4 isn't what I would call crafty, it is a kindergarten project as far as I am concerned yet I can honestly say that this is the basis of one blog I used to visit and the woman has a whole store dedicated to these types of crafts. I can't imagine spending good money on something I could get my friend's 4 year old to make for under $5. In fact in grade two (2 for those of you who had issues with the sentence above) my son was perfectly able to make a wind chime out of copper pipes and fishing wire. I showed him how to cut the pipes and sand the edges smooth and how to tie the pipes to the lamp bracket with each a little longer than the last. It was beautiful and almost looked store-bought. In fact I actually had to go into the school and get into an argument with his teacher who insisted that either I did it all or we bought it. I showed her the receipts and let my son show her how easy it is to cut a pipe.
Just because we can't all be the best doesn't mean we should have to lower the bar to suit those that can't. Those too lazy to try or to work do not deserve our praise, those that try and do not succeed need to learn their personal limits and work within them. Sure, you won't be the happiest person, but at least you will have proper self confidence instead of useless self esteem.
Next time - the difference between self confidence and self esteem and why you never want to promote the latter.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Self Evident truths: conclusion
Well, I have been sucked in.
Nothing I can find disputes what the freemen say except what the cops say, and why the heck would they say anything to lose their power?
Some of what I've found...
1. Section 32 of the Canadian Charter of Rights states that it only applies to government agents.
2. The law says that if a statute or piece of legislation falls under another then it is subject to all provisions of the higher authority and any conflicts between the two are resolved by going with the higher one. So if the Canadian Charter of Rights only applies to government agents then all legislation that falls under the charter can only apply to government agents as well. This includes, but is not limited to (one way to get around includes) the following:
Income Tax Act 40% of your income
Traffic Safety Act $100-$500/year
Firearms legislation $200-$800/year
Fishing legislation $50-$80/year
Property taxes >$2000/year
Anti-terrorism legislation Your life in prison without trial
3. The maxims of law make it really easy to see where the Freemen movement started.
4. Governments around the world have been manipulating the education system, health system, media, technology and all other aspects of our lives in order to ensure we are never thinking too much about why the world is so messed up.
5. It all seems to be leading into the greatest scam ever seen in human history, the creation of a single united world government where the people in power are the only ones deciding what is right for everyone else.
It looks like the only reason the government seems to care about any of their legislation is because it brings in money. If they really cared about fish populations they wouldn't allow companies to get away with polluting our waterways. If they really cared about firearms, they would try to find a way to stop criminals from getting any, not decent people. If they cared about public safety they would eliminate GMO food from shelves, work on alternative energy instead of being petroleum obsessed and would protect wives from dangerous husbands before they were sent to the hospital. Nothing in these legislations speaks to anything more than control and dominion.
Did you know that the federal government was mandated to provide free education for all canadians from kindergarten all the way through post-secondary? Yet we pay for our kids' education through property taxes, tuition and annual book fees. Did you know that when they finally got around to following their mandate to create a constitution they wrote it in such a way as to reduce our rights significantly? Did you know that you can be an artificial person or a natural person and it has nothing to do with your style?
Heck, did you know that Freemen who know what they are talking about are winning court battles every day all around the world? Looks like the only things bogging down the courts are all those people acting like good little slaves and answering to charges that should never have applied to them. Looks like if everyone stopped obeying the legal system then there'd be a lot less need for cops, judges, lawyers etc. One of those nice maxims of law is that you are supposed to attempt every reasonable measure to resolve your differences outside of the courts. I guess ambulance chasers never heard that one.
How do we fight something so big? So established? So daunting? How do we keep ourselves out of jail to protect our families while at the same time letting them know loud and clear that we won't tolerate it anymore?
Divestment, that's how! We'll look a little closer at what exactly that means next time.
Nothing I can find disputes what the freemen say except what the cops say, and why the heck would they say anything to lose their power?
Some of what I've found...
1. Section 32 of the Canadian Charter of Rights states that it only applies to government agents.
2. The law says that if a statute or piece of legislation falls under another then it is subject to all provisions of the higher authority and any conflicts between the two are resolved by going with the higher one. So if the Canadian Charter of Rights only applies to government agents then all legislation that falls under the charter can only apply to government agents as well. This includes, but is not limited to (one way to get around includes) the following:
Income Tax Act 40% of your income
Traffic Safety Act $100-$500/year
Firearms legislation $200-$800/year
Fishing legislation $50-$80/year
Property taxes >$2000/year
Anti-terrorism legislation Your life in prison without trial
3. The maxims of law make it really easy to see where the Freemen movement started.
4. Governments around the world have been manipulating the education system, health system, media, technology and all other aspects of our lives in order to ensure we are never thinking too much about why the world is so messed up.
5. It all seems to be leading into the greatest scam ever seen in human history, the creation of a single united world government where the people in power are the only ones deciding what is right for everyone else.
It looks like the only reason the government seems to care about any of their legislation is because it brings in money. If they really cared about fish populations they wouldn't allow companies to get away with polluting our waterways. If they really cared about firearms, they would try to find a way to stop criminals from getting any, not decent people. If they cared about public safety they would eliminate GMO food from shelves, work on alternative energy instead of being petroleum obsessed and would protect wives from dangerous husbands before they were sent to the hospital. Nothing in these legislations speaks to anything more than control and dominion.
Did you know that the federal government was mandated to provide free education for all canadians from kindergarten all the way through post-secondary? Yet we pay for our kids' education through property taxes, tuition and annual book fees. Did you know that when they finally got around to following their mandate to create a constitution they wrote it in such a way as to reduce our rights significantly? Did you know that you can be an artificial person or a natural person and it has nothing to do with your style?
Heck, did you know that Freemen who know what they are talking about are winning court battles every day all around the world? Looks like the only things bogging down the courts are all those people acting like good little slaves and answering to charges that should never have applied to them. Looks like if everyone stopped obeying the legal system then there'd be a lot less need for cops, judges, lawyers etc. One of those nice maxims of law is that you are supposed to attempt every reasonable measure to resolve your differences outside of the courts. I guess ambulance chasers never heard that one.
How do we fight something so big? So established? So daunting? How do we keep ourselves out of jail to protect our families while at the same time letting them know loud and clear that we won't tolerate it anymore?
Divestment, that's how! We'll look a little closer at what exactly that means next time.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Self Evident Truths: Day 3
I know I promised to walk you through some definitions today, but I have been having issues with the list I originally created. I guess I had a human frailty moment.
In fact, it took me so long to get back because I have been going over all sorts of words found in law. One word led to another and to another and it turns out that INCLUDES is the most important word I've found that isn't defined in ordinary speech the way it is in the legal system. To your average citizen, includes means, well... to contain - in a way.
Example:
This crate of fruit includes apples.
The average citizen would assume that although there are apples in the fruit crate, there may be oranges, bananas or tomatoes too, one wouldn't presume to know. In the legal system, however, includes means "to the exclusion of all others". Now wait a minute... if you use includes you are saying that there is nothing else in the fruit crate BUT apples. THAT is a big difference!
Now it also goes on to qualify that if it says "and includes" or "including" that this leaves the word open to more. So our example for this would be:
"This is a crate of fruit including apples"
This means that although there will be apples in the crate, it is anyone's guess what else may be in there now. If you read an act - and I have read several in this journey - many list definitions of "person" as "includes a corporation" which from what we've discovered means at the exclusion of all else. Therefore, those acts don't mean me and my friends when it talks of a person, it means a corporation. The only problem with that is that corporations can't drive cars, fill out forms or do anything because they are not beings. So why would so many acts include corporations if the corporation can't actually perform any functions?
From what I can find, it looks like the people that make up the corporation do things, but the corporation is the one liable. It also looks like this can't apply to me. Maybe these Freemen are on to something...
Don't worry I'll keep up the legwork for you and report in on what I find. I want to make sure I am thorough, I'd hate to get something this big wrong. If the Freemen are right, then we've been deceived and enslaved by our own democratic government...by public servants! By our servants! That's like if our maid is calling all the shots in our own home! If they are wrong, then maybe one of them will find this blog and read where they went wrong, hopefully we can stop them from fighting with the cops and tying up the courts...right?
In fact, it took me so long to get back because I have been going over all sorts of words found in law. One word led to another and to another and it turns out that INCLUDES is the most important word I've found that isn't defined in ordinary speech the way it is in the legal system. To your average citizen, includes means, well... to contain - in a way.
Example:
This crate of fruit includes apples.
The average citizen would assume that although there are apples in the fruit crate, there may be oranges, bananas or tomatoes too, one wouldn't presume to know. In the legal system, however, includes means "to the exclusion of all others". Now wait a minute... if you use includes you are saying that there is nothing else in the fruit crate BUT apples. THAT is a big difference!
Now it also goes on to qualify that if it says "and includes" or "including" that this leaves the word open to more. So our example for this would be:
"This is a crate of fruit including apples"
This means that although there will be apples in the crate, it is anyone's guess what else may be in there now. If you read an act - and I have read several in this journey - many list definitions of "person" as "includes a corporation" which from what we've discovered means at the exclusion of all else. Therefore, those acts don't mean me and my friends when it talks of a person, it means a corporation. The only problem with that is that corporations can't drive cars, fill out forms or do anything because they are not beings. So why would so many acts include corporations if the corporation can't actually perform any functions?
From what I can find, it looks like the people that make up the corporation do things, but the corporation is the one liable. It also looks like this can't apply to me. Maybe these Freemen are on to something...
Don't worry I'll keep up the legwork for you and report in on what I find. I want to make sure I am thorough, I'd hate to get something this big wrong. If the Freemen are right, then we've been deceived and enslaved by our own democratic government...by public servants! By our servants! That's like if our maid is calling all the shots in our own home! If they are wrong, then maybe one of them will find this blog and read where they went wrong, hopefully we can stop them from fighting with the cops and tying up the courts...right?
Monday, February 3, 2014
Self Evident Truths: Continued
Hey there!
We are examining the freeman movement and trying to sift through the huge amount of information out there to come to our own conclusions. The only way to be sure that you have everything right is to look at it from every angle until you can be certain of your own mind. Only then can you ever be comfortable with yourself and your decisions.
So what have we learned so far?
1. Freeman means someone who is not a slave and who has rights.
2. Sometimes the freemen manage to win in court, so at least some of what they are saying must have merit.
3. Freemen believe in a cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society.
4. Freemen come from all walks of life, enjoy many different careers and seem to be just like me - just a little angrier.
Lets examine some of the things they say to find for ourselves whether or not they have a reason to be angry.
Freeman maxim #1:
Laws and legislation do not apply to a natural person.
Well this is silly you'd have to say since we all know that no one is above the law. I can reject this off-hand, but I am still trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. They seem passionate so they must have something that makes them believe it. If I know why they think this way, maybe I can show them where they went wrong. Let's look up laws and legislation in Canada. Well let's see...we have the Charter of Rights, that is what lists all of our rights in Canada. This IS the document the cops read from when reading you your rights, so this is where I'll start. Looks pretty good until I hit this part right here:
We are examining the freeman movement and trying to sift through the huge amount of information out there to come to our own conclusions. The only way to be sure that you have everything right is to look at it from every angle until you can be certain of your own mind. Only then can you ever be comfortable with yourself and your decisions.
So what have we learned so far?
1. Freeman means someone who is not a slave and who has rights.
2. Sometimes the freemen manage to win in court, so at least some of what they are saying must have merit.
3. Freemen believe in a cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society.
4. Freemen come from all walks of life, enjoy many different careers and seem to be just like me - just a little angrier.
Lets examine some of the things they say to find for ourselves whether or not they have a reason to be angry.
Freeman maxim #1:
Laws and legislation do not apply to a natural person.
Well this is silly you'd have to say since we all know that no one is above the law. I can reject this off-hand, but I am still trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. They seem passionate so they must have something that makes them believe it. If I know why they think this way, maybe I can show them where they went wrong. Let's look up laws and legislation in Canada. Well let's see...we have the Charter of Rights, that is what lists all of our rights in Canada. This IS the document the cops read from when reading you your rights, so this is where I'll start. Looks pretty good until I hit this part right here:
Application of Charter
- 32. (1) This Charter applies
- (a) to the Parliament and government of Canada in respect of all matters within the authority of Parliament including all matters relating to the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories; and
- (b) to the legislature and government of each province in respect of all matters within the authority of the legislature of each province.
- Source: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-15.html
Now this makes it look like only government employees have rights. I know that isn't true, I have rights, we all have rights! So maybe this isn't a document that grants me my rights or indicates what my rights are. Maybe this is just a document telling the government how they are supposed to respect our rights. Maybe there is more to this law thing.
While on the Canadian Law website you can find all sorts of acts and laws that all read like a glossary of terms. One act will refer to another which will address an issue with another or amend still another. Going back and forth I can't seem to find many that don't re-define almost every word. None of them seem to differentiate between a freeman and a regular man and person is used (and re-defined) differently in many of them. I wonder if there is something out there that'll help me sift through all the terminology? Oh, wait, what is this?
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-21/
An act to tell people how to interpret other acts...well that is handy!
According to this:
1. Laws apply differently depending on jurisdiction. Common law is acknowledged and upheld in Canada as per section 8.2:
Terminology
8.2 Unless otherwise provided by law, when an enactment contains both civil law and common law terminology, or terminology that has a different meaning in the civil law and the common law, the civil law terminology or meaning is to be adopted in the Province of Quebec and the common law terminology or meaning is to be adopted in the other provinces.
So Quebec seems to behave differently than the rest of the country, but haven't they always? I wonder why they get away with it? that'll be a discovery for another day.
2. There are some things in law that are suggestions and others that are obligations:
Imperative and Permissive Construction
“Shall” and “may”
11. The expression “shall” is to be construed as imperative and the expression “may” as permissive.
3. If you are going to redefine something, you have to be consistent. If you define something for one act then all other acts that follow must use the same meaning unless specifically indicated.
Interpretation sections subject to exceptions
(2) Where an enactment contains an interpretation section or provision, it shall be read and construed
- (a) as being applicable only if a contrary intention does not appear; and
- (b) as being applicable to all other enactments relating to the same subject-matter unless a contrary intention appears.
So a car in one act is the same as a car in another act pertaining to cars. Makes sense.
4. Power to make laws does not allow you to redefine words in those laws.
Words in regulations
16. Where an enactment confers power to make regulations, expressions used in the regulations have the same respective meanings as in the enactment conferring the power.
5. There isn't much room to move when writing laws:
Gender
- 33. (1) Words importing female persons include male persons and corporations and words importing male persons include female persons and corporations.
Number
(2) Words in the singular include the plural, and words in the plural include the singular.Parts of speech and grammatical forms
(3) Where a word is defined, other parts of speech and grammatical forms of the same word have corresponding meanings.
Reading acts of legislation isn't fun, but some of the things I am discovering are pretty neat. It makes it hard to see how people could have gotten things wrong like the freemen say. I am trying to keep an open mind, but things look legit.
Okay, so just trying to use the Interpretation Act to understand law seems to have confused me more. I can't assume that Freemen are all illiterate, but I have yet to see where any of this applies to me, or the average Joe. Maybe I am still missing something.
Let's look at a law dictionary. When you have so many regular words being defined and re-defined, it is good to have a book that gives you all the possible meanings so you can pick the right context. There are several words I believe I already know that I see repeated throughout these acts and regulations, some of those that stand out to me are:
1. Enactment
2. Contains
3. Includes/including
4. Person
5. Applies
These are pretty basic words, but if they are defining almost every word in an act, maybe there are different meanings for things than I now know. Maybe it is in these simple words that I can find the key to understanding why the freemen are mad or bad...whichever it may be.
We'll talk definitions in our next installment.
Self evident truths
Self evident truths are often not as obvious as we might think. You might find that one truth is all you see until you turn around and look at something from a different angle. Often the culture you were raised in can alter your perceptions so drastically you find that you cannot help but be blinded to real truth and only see what seems self evident.
For example, take this freedom movement rocking through countries that have previously been held as examples of good living in the world. Somehow it seems that the privileged people of the world are whining about how hard our lives are. From one perspective, that is exactly what is going on. If you change your perspective slightly though, the whole picture changes.
Let us suspend our disbelief for a moment - this is that thing you do when you go to a movie and you just accept that all the inconsistencies are logical to accept the story. We are now poised to receive a new perspective because we have decided to accept the following information as true. Once we have this new perspective and we have gone through the process we can then decide if the new perspective is one we can adopt as a personal truth or whether we wish to return to our previous perspective and opinion.
If we are going to examine a rationale we need to do so in a step-by-step manner. First, lets examine the title since this is the only information we have at the moment. FREEMAN MOVEMENT. I have seen all sorts of names, but this seems to be the most widely accepted and well-known. We all know what a movement is, so we'll put that aside and examine what a freeman is. Google had this to say:
free·man
n.
For example, take this freedom movement rocking through countries that have previously been held as examples of good living in the world. Somehow it seems that the privileged people of the world are whining about how hard our lives are. From one perspective, that is exactly what is going on. If you change your perspective slightly though, the whole picture changes.
Let us suspend our disbelief for a moment - this is that thing you do when you go to a movie and you just accept that all the inconsistencies are logical to accept the story. We are now poised to receive a new perspective because we have decided to accept the following information as true. Once we have this new perspective and we have gone through the process we can then decide if the new perspective is one we can adopt as a personal truth or whether we wish to return to our previous perspective and opinion.
If we are going to examine a rationale we need to do so in a step-by-step manner. First, lets examine the title since this is the only information we have at the moment. FREEMAN MOVEMENT. I have seen all sorts of names, but this seems to be the most widely accepted and well-known. We all know what a movement is, so we'll put that aside and examine what a freeman is. Google had this to say:
free·man
ˈfrēmən,-ˌman/
noun
- 1.a person who is entitled to full political and civil rights.
- 2.historicala person who is not a slave or serf.
Well, that seems pretty simple. I would even have to say that those two terms could apply to me. What makes this term seem so malevolent to society? Maybe someone has taken this term and caused it to mean something else? Let us examine this possibility...
A Google search reveals a lot of references to Morgan Freeman, lists dictionary references to the definition above (or similar to) and a few news stories about people claiming the government has no authority...wait, what?!?
This seems to be the source of the issue. I know that I, as a law abiding citizen, hate to see people blatantly ignoring the rules and getting away with it, so why would I ever want to listen to someone when they say that the cops are not allowed to pull me over? When they say that we can go around breaking all their rules and never have to answer for it? Who wants to live in that world? Not me, that's for sure! So now I am done, I took a look and I don't like what I am seeing so we're done.
I feel self-righteous and content in my own ideals now. I feel empowered. If someone asked me tomorrow what a freeman was I could honestly say that I looked into it and they all seem like lazy criminals to me. Okay, so seem like isn't a very definitive term, how about this...I don't think I can get behind this movement. Wait, I don't think? Why don't I know for certain? Maybe I didn't look at things as closely as I could. Maybe the first thing that shocked me or upset me dissolved my ability to be unbiased and examine this fully. Maybe I should go back and try again. Being open-minded is good, being fair is right, nobody ever said being good and fair was going to be easy. Grow up Joelle and let's really try to understand someone very different from me.
Okay...Freeman Movement. I always find it is easier to ask questions than it is to look for answers, so let's figure out what questions to ask. In order to eliminate my already established ideals so that I can be unbiased, I have to understand where the other person's perspective comes into play. Let's start there.
Quetion #1:
"Why do "freemen" say that laws do not apply to them?"
Obviously they have something to back up their claim, not all of them seem to be able to make it stick in court, but enough do to make you stop and wonder how they did it. When you eliminate your anger at what they got away with you can focus on asking why did they? If a judge rules in their favour, even once, they must have a point, right?
Question #2:
"What do the freemen believe in?"
Bad grammar, but please do forgive me for a moment. A lot of sites list a lot of different beliefs, much like religion. Also like religion, they seem to have one central principle to which they hold: No government has the right to tell a living person to do or not do something. This sounds like anarchy to me, am I right? Anarchy is a bad thing, right? Um...oh wait:
an•ar•chy (ˈæn ər ki)
n.
1. a state of society without government or law.
2. political and social disorder due to the absence of governmental control.
3. a theory that regards the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal and that proposes the cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society.
4. confusion; chaos; disorder.
Okay, well 1 I can't imagine, 2 sounds like it is the same as 1 but made to sound worse and 4 is downright scary, but 3 doesn't sound too bad and seems to be the one that applies in this situation. I don't know how we could become a "cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society" but I like the sound of it.
So if anarchy isn't necessarily a bad thing, and judges are occasionally ruling in their favour, what is next?
Question #3:
"If they don't live the way I do, how do they live?"
The government and media make it sound like these people are all freeloaders and on welfare or something. Lazy people do not start movements, freeloaders are lazy above all else. Welfare "bums" (not counting those few who are genuinely struggling) don't tend to care about changing the world and certainly aren't trying to bite the hand that feeds them. Some of the biggest names I can find online are regular people with regular jobs. Contractors, Teachers, Truck-drivers, Labourers and tradesmen, seems like a lot of people who are used to hard work, not lazy "bums".
Now we have a bit more of an idea who these people are and their values, we can start to piece together the truth from all the sources. In my next installment, I'll go even deeper to try and deconstruct what the freedom movement is and whether it applies to the rest of us. For now, I have to say that it doesn't seem all that bad yet.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Don't go too deep!
I love music. No matter what you are going through or feeling there is a piece of music out there that will "fit". Probably more than one, too. Sometimes the same song can even have different meanings depending on how you listen to it. I have recently learned new things that have caused me to back through my whole music collection and really listen to the lyrics of each song. The results are surprising.
I've found that although many old songs I have always loved are still just as good or in some cases better than I thought. There are those however that I simply can't listen to anymore. For instance, I used to like the Waving Flag song. It has a nice beat and is easy to move to. The problem is that it is meaningless. The lyrics are nonsensical and don't really say anything. A flag isn't freedom...even Nazis had flags! A flag is just the fabric that has been printed with a specific pattern to distinguish one country from another to those that are illiterate (yes that was the historical reason - so that illiterate soldiers would know who to fight with). If this is the essence of freedom please, let me off this planet!
One song I now love more than any other is actually a one-hit wonder from the 80's that never seemed to make much sense until I found out what I now know. We are being deceived and manipulated and if we want the truth we have to be able to bend our thoughts. Here it is:
This song has so much meaning for me now. I never got it until I bent my brain and looked at the world. Somehow the way things should be is not the way things are and it is up to us to figure out why and how that happened.
Now I could probably just tell you everything you need to know and you'd probably scoff and go on to the next blog never really learning the truth, or you might be open minded, but now you would be dependent upon me to tell you what is the next step. Neither is the reason I am here in blog-land at all. Yes I want people to wake up, but I also want to re-teach the world to think. We know how to memorize and regurgitate because that is what they teach us to do in school and this makes people think they are educated when in actuality they have simply been sophisticated and institutionalized.
If you are educated you can process any information and learn, if you are sophisticated and institutionalized you can only do exactly as you have been taught and are unable to think and reason for yourself. This is the difference between a doctor that prescribes amoxicillan for every patient in his clinic. Instead of analyzing his patient he has learned that prescribing something useless is more likely to prevent a lawsuit. In fact there are simple ways to avoid over-prescribing antibiotics - 1. if your mucus is clear or white you are fine, it's a virus, drink fluids eat chicken soup and rest. If it is yellow, orange or green, go get some pills from the doctor, it is bacterial and not going away otherwise. - 2. if it lasts more than 7 days you probably have a bacterial infection and need a prescription. These two little thought processes are what our parents and grandparents used to judge when to take us to the doctor, but they forgot to mention it to us when we became parents ourselves.
When our work ethic extends only to doing the least amount necessary or whatever will keep us from getting sued or fired, we lose a huge piece of what makes humanity great. Suddenly everyone I meet is now only concerned with how little they can do to get what they want. Facebook access is more important at the office than what duties you are to perform. Number of vacation days exceeds salary in most University students' requirements for employment. It is now a source of pride for many people that they have managed to skim by on no merit. It was once considered a shame for others to discover that you erred or were less-than-hard-working, now does anyone really care?
One thing I started seeing long before anything else became apparent was the reluctance of my peers to think on any level beyond the most frivolous. If you were discussing anything more meaningful than the latest Simpson's episode (it was the late 80s & 90s) then you were mocked for thinking too much and being a geek. Since I liked Shakespere and preferred exploring the human condition as well as elements of psychology and philosophy as early as 8 years old, I had very few people to talk with.
Next time you are talking with someone and your brain starts to hurt, try listening closer instead of turning away. You might just come away with something that'll serve you better than gossip a la water cooler.
I'll leave you with one song that I used to hate and now I love both for the same reason, this is the mantra of the average person in society today:
What are you?
In the beginning...
Once upon a time there was a bright eyed little baby girl born to a very dysfunctional royal family. Mom (The Queen) was Protestant and English, unpardonable offences to her in-laws, Dad (The King) a French Catholic Canadian Man's man with all his neolithic ideals intact and the Prince of the realm was a 6-year old genius with an identity crisis. Little did the Princess know what she was in for. The Prince wasn't very manly, in fact he was more interested in art than mechanics and hated getting dirty. As an infant he learned how to use a spoon before most babies were learning how to grab a Cheerio with two fingers, could be left on a blanket in a yard for hours because the grass felt icky and was therefore a terrible disappointment to the King. The King believed that all boys had to be tough, love dirt and grime and be able to do anything physically demanding. Since the Prince was more effeminate than expected, the Queen did all she could think of to mitigate the issue and make peace between the two.
When the Prince was four the Queen was told she was no longer able to bear children, however when the Prince was five she was granted a miracle that answered her prayers. The Queen was very excited to be able to have another child, a little worried about the age gap between her children and even more thrilled to find she was having a girl. The King was proud as well, but he had no expectations for girls, he only knew what it was to be a man, not a girl. He was soon delighted to find that his new little girl was about as feminine as a girl ever need to be yet also as masculine as a girl can get. She loved to run and explore, got into more trouble and more messes than the Prince and generally delighted the King in every way. Every complaint he had about his son was remedied in his daughter. The King's love was great for the Princess and she could do no wrong in his eyes, the Queen and Prince were not happy with this turn of events.
Although she didn't like the way the King favoured one child over the other, she couldn't do much to persuade the King that he should give his son a chance. The Prince on the other hand was too smart to let this baby take over his place, he was the only heir until she'd come along and he deserved all the glory and attention. It wasn't fair that he tried so hard and couldn't obtain the King's approval only to watch it go to an infant that hadn't earned a thing. The Prince also had six years of knowledge over his sister, it shouldn't be hard to manipulate her.
And so, the Prince set out to ensure that the Princess would never hold any power in the kingdom. His ability to talk circles around her and the Princesses natural temper (genetic trait from the King) and wish to please everyone became the Prince's tools of revenge. Soon the Princess was confused enough to doubt everything she thought she knew, filled with guilt and suicidal thoughts because she was convinced that she was worthless and stupid and unsure of others. The Queen was too busy taking care of the kingdom and the Princess' naturally cheerful manners disguised the torture she suffered. The King was always travelling to ensure the renewal of funds for the kingdom.
One day, when the Princess was six and her brother twelve, the King had an awful accident and died. The Prince had only recently made strides in his growing relationship with the King and the blow to his goals was more than he could take. He began to rebel almost from the start. The recreational drugs that were once just for fun were now essential to his life. There was no longer purpose to his existence, no longer a reason to strive for anything because the King whose acceptance he needed was now gone and that acceptance so much dust in the wind. In his youth and anger he turned on the Queen.
No matter what the Queen did to reign in her son he became more and more irresponsible. He would party, skip school, do drugs, drink and vandalize. As she watched her brother continue to hurt her mother, the Princess made a vow to always be the "good" child to ease the pain for the Queen. To always support, to always do the right thing and to listen to the Queen's advice no matter what. The King had been the love of her life, her world was gone and all she had were two kids and a mountain of bills to pay on her own, no need to add to her burden; the Princess would help where she could in her limited capacity at six and a half.
The Princess didn't realize though that her limited capacity to help was more limited than she thought. One day she tried to start supper for her mother, she'd helped make cakes and cookies and muffins, how hard could soup be? She filled a pot with water, added spices and herbs from the cupboard and started chopping a few vegetables with the knife her mother let her use when they cooked together. Alas the Prince came in to see what she was doing and proceeded to shout at her for being so stupid and sent her to her room for playing with the stove. He threw away all of the soup she'd worked so hard on and threatened to tell the Queen that she'd been playing and had ruined all that food for fun. The Princess knew this would just upset the Queen and she went to her room and kept silent. This laid out the pattern of the Princess' life. In order not to burden others with her complaints, the Princess simply withdrew into herself and tried to reason it out on her own.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the Princess was to find this out the hard way. She wished only to help everyone she met, she wanted to be useful and hoped one day that if she were good enough and smart enough and pretty enough that she'd earn the right to be loved just like the princesses in the stories she'd read since she was three. No matter what she did though she was admonished and tossed aside. She couldn't understand why her peers reviled her for her efforts, could not understand why her brother hated her so, could not understand why those that were supposed to care never wanted to help. She grew sullen and depressed. None of her questions seemed to have answers.
Why is it that we all agree that being selfish is bad but we all act selfishly in even the most minor of ways? Why do we believe it is bad to be stupid but refuse to put any effort into learning something? Why do we revere those that offer nothing of value to society and ignore those that truly benefit the world? Why do those in power claim to work for the people but refuse to listen when we tell them what we want? Why is it that children no longer listen to their parents and teachers? Why are our elders treated like secondary citizens when their wisdom should be revered? Why do big companies have more power than the people they were created to serve?
It took the Princess 35 years and much heartache to find the answers.
Rethinking Right has the answers, but they aren't pretty. They are incredible and fantastic and totally true, but you really don't want to know. The answers to these and more unanswerable questions will become clear if you stick around, but you really don't want to know. The truth is frightening and unbelievable and probably too late in reaching your ears. If you stick around for more you can't tell me I didn't warn you. All I ask is that you look into your own life for examples of what I am talking about. Don't just look at what I show you as my own "proof" open your eyes and look for it in your own life. If you can't find a single example of what I talk about you can walk away with all your ideals intact, if you do learn to see the signs I am going to show you be prepared to be terrified.
When the Prince was four the Queen was told she was no longer able to bear children, however when the Prince was five she was granted a miracle that answered her prayers. The Queen was very excited to be able to have another child, a little worried about the age gap between her children and even more thrilled to find she was having a girl. The King was proud as well, but he had no expectations for girls, he only knew what it was to be a man, not a girl. He was soon delighted to find that his new little girl was about as feminine as a girl ever need to be yet also as masculine as a girl can get. She loved to run and explore, got into more trouble and more messes than the Prince and generally delighted the King in every way. Every complaint he had about his son was remedied in his daughter. The King's love was great for the Princess and she could do no wrong in his eyes, the Queen and Prince were not happy with this turn of events.
Although she didn't like the way the King favoured one child over the other, she couldn't do much to persuade the King that he should give his son a chance. The Prince on the other hand was too smart to let this baby take over his place, he was the only heir until she'd come along and he deserved all the glory and attention. It wasn't fair that he tried so hard and couldn't obtain the King's approval only to watch it go to an infant that hadn't earned a thing. The Prince also had six years of knowledge over his sister, it shouldn't be hard to manipulate her.
And so, the Prince set out to ensure that the Princess would never hold any power in the kingdom. His ability to talk circles around her and the Princesses natural temper (genetic trait from the King) and wish to please everyone became the Prince's tools of revenge. Soon the Princess was confused enough to doubt everything she thought she knew, filled with guilt and suicidal thoughts because she was convinced that she was worthless and stupid and unsure of others. The Queen was too busy taking care of the kingdom and the Princess' naturally cheerful manners disguised the torture she suffered. The King was always travelling to ensure the renewal of funds for the kingdom.
One day, when the Princess was six and her brother twelve, the King had an awful accident and died. The Prince had only recently made strides in his growing relationship with the King and the blow to his goals was more than he could take. He began to rebel almost from the start. The recreational drugs that were once just for fun were now essential to his life. There was no longer purpose to his existence, no longer a reason to strive for anything because the King whose acceptance he needed was now gone and that acceptance so much dust in the wind. In his youth and anger he turned on the Queen.
No matter what the Queen did to reign in her son he became more and more irresponsible. He would party, skip school, do drugs, drink and vandalize. As she watched her brother continue to hurt her mother, the Princess made a vow to always be the "good" child to ease the pain for the Queen. To always support, to always do the right thing and to listen to the Queen's advice no matter what. The King had been the love of her life, her world was gone and all she had were two kids and a mountain of bills to pay on her own, no need to add to her burden; the Princess would help where she could in her limited capacity at six and a half.
The Princess didn't realize though that her limited capacity to help was more limited than she thought. One day she tried to start supper for her mother, she'd helped make cakes and cookies and muffins, how hard could soup be? She filled a pot with water, added spices and herbs from the cupboard and started chopping a few vegetables with the knife her mother let her use when they cooked together. Alas the Prince came in to see what she was doing and proceeded to shout at her for being so stupid and sent her to her room for playing with the stove. He threw away all of the soup she'd worked so hard on and threatened to tell the Queen that she'd been playing and had ruined all that food for fun. The Princess knew this would just upset the Queen and she went to her room and kept silent. This laid out the pattern of the Princess' life. In order not to burden others with her complaints, the Princess simply withdrew into herself and tried to reason it out on her own.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the Princess was to find this out the hard way. She wished only to help everyone she met, she wanted to be useful and hoped one day that if she were good enough and smart enough and pretty enough that she'd earn the right to be loved just like the princesses in the stories she'd read since she was three. No matter what she did though she was admonished and tossed aside. She couldn't understand why her peers reviled her for her efforts, could not understand why her brother hated her so, could not understand why those that were supposed to care never wanted to help. She grew sullen and depressed. None of her questions seemed to have answers.
Why is it that we all agree that being selfish is bad but we all act selfishly in even the most minor of ways? Why do we believe it is bad to be stupid but refuse to put any effort into learning something? Why do we revere those that offer nothing of value to society and ignore those that truly benefit the world? Why do those in power claim to work for the people but refuse to listen when we tell them what we want? Why is it that children no longer listen to their parents and teachers? Why are our elders treated like secondary citizens when their wisdom should be revered? Why do big companies have more power than the people they were created to serve?
It took the Princess 35 years and much heartache to find the answers.
Rethinking Right has the answers, but they aren't pretty. They are incredible and fantastic and totally true, but you really don't want to know. The answers to these and more unanswerable questions will become clear if you stick around, but you really don't want to know. The truth is frightening and unbelievable and probably too late in reaching your ears. If you stick around for more you can't tell me I didn't warn you. All I ask is that you look into your own life for examples of what I am talking about. Don't just look at what I show you as my own "proof" open your eyes and look for it in your own life. If you can't find a single example of what I talk about you can walk away with all your ideals intact, if you do learn to see the signs I am going to show you be prepared to be terrified.
Introducing myself
Hey there! My name is Joelle (pronounced Joe-Elle kinda like Noel). It is a common enough name in most French speaking countries, but even in Western Canada where I live it is baffling to most people. Not only is it very close to its male counterpart (Joel) but the added letters (making it feminine) confuse people. Therefore for your ease and mine I will mostly refer to myself as Joe.
I've avoided blogging since My Space was new because I just don't seem to have the discipline needed to focus on this kind of thing and don't really feel people want to read what I have to say. So I am starting this blog for me. This is where I plan to put into words those random thoughts I have every day. Where I can rant and rave about the world or share a recipe or craft project if I so desire. This will be what I want it to be on any given day, including ignored.
Being that it is all for me I will not guarantee a new post every day, I won't even promise to stick to a theme or a style. I change every day and so will this blog. I may post 5 times in one day and not at all the next, I may post pictures, but more often than not I won't because my own suck and people tend to get bent out of shape if you use theirs.
I hope some people out there like my kind of crazy and get inspiration or helpful tips from me that can improve their lives, but I am not going to worry about making a living out of this so I am not concerned if you don't like it. I am beyond broke and not affiliated with anyone, so I won't be supplying people with giveaway contests or subjecting them to posts that read more like ads.
I have very solid and defined opinions and most of the time they offend, if you want to make a comment feel free. If there is no intelligence behind your argument then I will simply ignore you. Please refrain from acting like a preschooler and simply insulting people who do not see the world as you do, I may actually have to moderate this shit and that is not my style.
Oh yeah, I swear. Like a sailor. If you can't handle it, leave. Sometimes there isn't a nice way of saying things no matter how broad your vocabulary. I'll avoid it if I can or if it is not appropriate, but there are always occasions where swearing is not only appropriate but vital to getting a point across.
My life has not always been pleasant, my ideals are often controversial, I go from frivolous to serious in 2.5 seconds and I hate people but love humanity. I am a study in contrasts and would probably be the perfect candidate for being dissected in the name of science. I have two kids but I am not a "Mommy-blogger", They are their own entities and separate from me although I love them both a great deal. I am nowhere near the perfect parent, in fact I have made a lot of horrid mistakes, from getting pregnant at 16 to leaving my daughter on her father's doorstep at age 11. I had/have my reasons and unless you've been involved you can't know whether they were good or bad ones, so I don't apologize. Read on and you'll have a chance to learn who I am, who the players are and get your chance to pitch in with comments that would be more than just "OMG! How could you? You are horrible!". I know I am. What else do you have to say?
I've avoided blogging since My Space was new because I just don't seem to have the discipline needed to focus on this kind of thing and don't really feel people want to read what I have to say. So I am starting this blog for me. This is where I plan to put into words those random thoughts I have every day. Where I can rant and rave about the world or share a recipe or craft project if I so desire. This will be what I want it to be on any given day, including ignored.
Being that it is all for me I will not guarantee a new post every day, I won't even promise to stick to a theme or a style. I change every day and so will this blog. I may post 5 times in one day and not at all the next, I may post pictures, but more often than not I won't because my own suck and people tend to get bent out of shape if you use theirs.
I hope some people out there like my kind of crazy and get inspiration or helpful tips from me that can improve their lives, but I am not going to worry about making a living out of this so I am not concerned if you don't like it. I am beyond broke and not affiliated with anyone, so I won't be supplying people with giveaway contests or subjecting them to posts that read more like ads.
I have very solid and defined opinions and most of the time they offend, if you want to make a comment feel free. If there is no intelligence behind your argument then I will simply ignore you. Please refrain from acting like a preschooler and simply insulting people who do not see the world as you do, I may actually have to moderate this shit and that is not my style.
Oh yeah, I swear. Like a sailor. If you can't handle it, leave. Sometimes there isn't a nice way of saying things no matter how broad your vocabulary. I'll avoid it if I can or if it is not appropriate, but there are always occasions where swearing is not only appropriate but vital to getting a point across.
My life has not always been pleasant, my ideals are often controversial, I go from frivolous to serious in 2.5 seconds and I hate people but love humanity. I am a study in contrasts and would probably be the perfect candidate for being dissected in the name of science. I have two kids but I am not a "Mommy-blogger", They are their own entities and separate from me although I love them both a great deal. I am nowhere near the perfect parent, in fact I have made a lot of horrid mistakes, from getting pregnant at 16 to leaving my daughter on her father's doorstep at age 11. I had/have my reasons and unless you've been involved you can't know whether they were good or bad ones, so I don't apologize. Read on and you'll have a chance to learn who I am, who the players are and get your chance to pitch in with comments that would be more than just "OMG! How could you? You are horrible!". I know I am. What else do you have to say?
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