In the last post I commented on negativity when talking about problems and issues and also the use of interpretive techniques to get people to listen more attentively rather than just tuning out. The mass media has done a wonderful job in scaring us about a multitude of issues and Read more…
I was listening to a short U-tube talk by Vandana Shiva, a brilliant philosopher from India. She really put things into simple perspective. It got me to thinking again how we transform the world to one we want to see – I’ve talked about this several times in this blog Read more…
Main future view categories (numbers in parentheses are percentages for each category – 25 years and 100 years, with question three overviews in the narrative within each question). 1. No real change over 25 years (or even 100 years?) (0%/7%). An intriguing category because these people recognize that environmental changes Read more…
“The only thing that can save us as a species is seeing how we’re not thinking about future generations in the way we live.” Erik Erikson In my academic past-life I was doing some research on how people perceive the future might be. My logic was that based on a Read more…
About a week ago I posted on Facebook a cartoon from ‘Collectively Conscious.’ In it a young boy asks his mother, “Why do we have wars?” The mother answers, “Because we are ruled by an elite group of psychopaths who own the banks that control the government and the media. Read more…
A caring, sharing, collaborative world “Our civilized culture is failing us. And to change things we have to start with our children, showing them the importance of love and kindness, of faith and hope, of compassion and non-violence, treating each other with dignity and respect, not as bodies to be Read more…
POPULATION, ECONOMICS, CHOICE and MORALITY I didn’t get to complete my thoughts on this in the last post because of a keyboard problem. Countries that have invested in female education and family planning have demonstrated major drops in total fertility rates. Regardless of which counties are used as comparisons (e.g. Read more…
I decided to subtitle this post a world of possibilities. There are many options for us and many are more desirable than what we currently have. I didn’t say probabilities, which are more likely occurrences, because to get to probabilities we have to have more firm intention of what we Read more…
Do you want to simply exist (life’s a bitch and then you die) or do you want to actually LIVE (to thrive and grow)? If even for a second you, think “I will live when………….” BUT I can’t because……….” you are merely existing. I have said it earlier and I Read more…
In the developed countries, when you have enough monetary wealth to live comfortably, being in the rut is not such an imposition. It might still have problems, but you can afford to suffer through them – or as often happens, you can afford prescription or even non-prescription medications to blunt Read more…
I was clearing out boxes of books I had brought back home from my academic office after I retired and came across ‘The Mis-measure of Man’ by Stephen Jay Gould. In this book Gould lays out the rationale and justification for how scientists used ‘good’ science to ‘prove’ that intellect Read more…
“Change never comes from the powerful and proud [the hierarchy] – they have too much to lose and too little to gain. Change always comes from the common and humble – we have little to lose and much to gain. John Ikerd” If we are to transform the way we live, Read more…
The word Dominion as it is emphasized in the English language, influenced by orthodox Christianity, not surprisingly has come to be accepted as a type of rule over others. Whether this is by a monarch, or by humans over nature, it implies absolute power over. If you look at Dominion Read more…
During the colonialization periods since Columbus, missionaries came across indigenous peoples and automatically labelled them savage pagans simply because they were not European Christians. Not much has changed. This really is a great indictment on how effective the Eurocentric Judeo-Christian worldview has dominated for several hundred years. It is only Read more…
Before we get back to applying all this esoteric stuff to living sustainably. First of all, let’s put in in perspective. Let’s get away from this Pollyanna Attitude that everything will be perfect if we show love and respect for each other. There wouldn’t be any point to experiencing this Read more…
Stephen Hawking died on March 14 and a great many people posted that he was now free, and numerous cartoons showed him walking away from his wheelchair to the ‘light.’ Besides being a major example of ‘Ableism’ in which only fully capable people are assumed to be able to do Read more…
Can you be deeply spiritual and entrenched in the physical Material world? Yes, you can. What seems to happen though is that the more spiritual you become the more you become aware of ‘something’ that connects you to a greater reality. If you never questioned it, your life would still Read more…
Aldo Leopold, in his A Sand County Almanac book published in 1946, said, “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” And “The last word in ignorance Read more…
I started this blog to get people thinking for themselves. I have done some down the rabbit hole material, but I find I fall in to the trap of being merely reformational in what I say much of the time. I realized this when I picked up the latest Read more…
We need to understand how scientists work and research gets done. There is a lot of research out there. Even as an expert in a specific area, it is hard to keep up on the vast amount of research being published in that area. To the lay-person, the research is Read more…
Our culture has all these people throughout history whom we revere for their creativity and inventiveness. The names Gutenberg, Tesla, Edison, Carver, and Bell, are but a few who made great technological changes for society. While today we might use names like Zuckerberg or Musk to show how creativity is Read more…
It is estimated that 90% of people intensely dislike the working week, which is a product of efficiency for the industrial revolution and machine system of living. So, 10% of people have a living that is ideal for them. They could work 15 hours a day and still love what Read more…
Time to talk a little about spirituality and its place in a sustainable world. Let me be clear at the outset in this post, spirituality is NOT the same as religiosity. While spirituality has been generally associated with religions, it is erroneous to connect them directly. I have met many Read more…
Business, just like money, is a tool that can be helpful or otherwise. The reason it holds so much power over us is because it gives us luxuries and comforts that most of us find desirable. The level to which these desires have become addictive, however, is a product of Read more…
As an older person, I have seen technology come from the analog radio, television, and corded land-line telephone to the digital wonders we have today. One of the most intriguing for me is the loss of printed word to the internet revolution. We now all have at our fingertips nearly Read more…
I have just returned from Ouray, Colorado, as spectacular a mountain setting as can be found in many places around the world. The men of European descent who first came here in the late 1800s didn’t come to appreciate the mountains. To them the mountains were just a resource to Read more…
So how is the business world moving forward with all of this sustainability stuff. To read the mainstream news and publications would suggest it is well on its way. The reality? The main driving force seems to be the business worlds perception of how the customers view sustainability. It is Read more…
At this point I may have some divergence from many of my colleagues on what constitutes education for a sustainable world. We train teachers to set up specific curricula with specific goals and objectives – lesson plans. While I don’t disagree with this, I did it myself for many years, Read more…
Some Left brain stuff today. The late Professor Al Bartlett at University of Colorado-Boulder spent many years doing public talks about the concept of growth and sustainability in connection with modern economic business thinking and planning. A lot hinges on the terms growth and sustainability. Is there such a thing Read more…
In the late 1970s I recall watching a BBC science show that showed at least four main different hydrogen fuel options. The researchers were all from the big engineering universities like MIT, CALTECH, and Oxford, so we’re not talking garage inventors. The different options were clearly discussed and demonstrated on Read more…