Time to Share.

We look at it, we know it, we are almost bored with the thought but we carry on doing nothing. We humans have replicated to such a point that our capacity to plunder exceeds our limited Earth's capacity to provide. Been like that for a long time and what do we do? We sail on stripping the Earth of its irreplaceable assets as if there is no tomorrow. At least no tomorrow for our children now born, us, oh we will be all right, be enough to see us through! But we put so much time and energy into protecting our children and giving them best start out possible why bury our heads and ignore that that we know is going to happen? 

It is too big a problem? We are many, we are the cause and we can also be the solution. 'They' will sort it out. No, too set in a rut, 'they' can only carry on the way they always have, too much at stake for them to want to change. Ignore it and it will go away? It just gets to be an even bigger problem the longer we leave it. Scaremongering, just another false crisis made up for some political agenda? No. This is for real. There are so many fronts, each are telling the same story. Many, not just oil, essential minerals have a known finite reserve. Climate is going to change and our food sources are going to suffer. We strip the Earth of its lungs, the rain forest, we trash the soils with monoculture, we poison the ground with insecticides and fertilisers, we drive species to extinction just for our greed, it goes on and on. Wherever you are on the political spectrum, you cannot deny every single aspect. We have a problem.

On another tack we in the West have expectations of what we need to surround ourselves with to cope with life. The whole gamut, homes, furniture, food, transport, leisure activities, technology, we want it, we need it, we cannot survive without our access to it, to it all. China's millions are now waking up to these self same expectations. Their government pro-actively is out there now buying up rights to resources around the world, so their people can have what you take for granted. Not just China, but India, Africa and the S.America's are all looking and their appetite's to have also are awakening. The stuff they want does not come out of thin air, is not 're-cycled', it all comes out of the Earth, in one way or another. We have a problem.

We have to change tack. Put an end to this winner takes all attitude. The biggest, the most powerful take all they want. Be it hundred times, one thousand times, one million times more than the next person. It is their sovereign birth right to take it, to have it, protect it and stop you from getting a morsel. Whether we are thinking about individuals, companies, bank bosses, governments, continents, the same attitude applies. Those with the power take, take all they have a fancy to and those without, do with that much less.

We have to stop. We have to begin to care for that person next to us. They have as much right to what we have as we have to it. Nothing, nothing at all, gives us the right to have more, more than our neighbour. We have to share to make sure that what we enjoy is not disproportionate to what everyone else has. Only when we can be satisfied that others have had the chance to take their portion are we free to go back for more. This is the heart of being human. Whether we think about person to person or country to country, this is the true spirit of humanity. The takers have usurped us, now it is time for all of us to stand up and shame them for what they are. To claim back, on behalf us all, what is rightfully ours. To say no you are not entitled to that bonus, to use those share to your own advantage, to enact that legislation which is inequitable, your title deeds do not allow you sole occupancy, call it out as it is. Stand up, together, and shout out loud, "Fair for All or None at all".

Learn Circumspection

Once facts were immutable, cast in stone. You referred to your trusted fonts of wisdom, be it textbook, encyclopaedia, reference manual or even your grandpa. That was it, the word as it was, beyond any question. Not any more. We are the lucky generation that has been freed from the formalised, ritualised and so often discipline restricted access to precious information. Digitally we have the freedom to access all the world's knowledge almost within our ken. Except we are in overload, we are all at sea in an information morass. Dip your hand in and let all the gems of information trickle through your fingers until one of two tasty or more interesting bits stick out. Then share those bits with the wider world adding to this ever growing morass of information. Very much of this information is just that regurgitated, a few words added there, maybe a spin adjusted here and viola a new author claiming ownership of a unique piece of information.

Not all the information in this morass is bad, there are many pearls, nuggets of wisdom, insightful, understandings that you could hug to your heart they are so insightful, so relevant, so mind expanding. Trouble is these precious nuggets get so easily lost in the morass or so quickly overlaidened with dross. We, the so lucky ones to have the access to it, we now have to train ourselves about how to use this deluge of information. There are a few simple disciplines we must train ourselves to follow when dipping in our toes.

The very first question to ask when presented with any information is what is their authority to speak on the subject, be it proven experience, acknowledged authority, sanctioned spokeperson, lead researcher to gifted paraphraser? Know and understand the source of their authority and therefore their limitations to speak to the subject.

The second question is ask yourself what is not being said. We all talk to agendas, we have information to relay and do not want to sidetrack or confuse that message with stray aside issues, irrelevances that do not reinforce the central message. We all do it, some open handedly striving to be objective some deliberately setting out to obfuscate and some are so partisan they can only see down their narrow tunnelled vision agenda. So the what is not said is almost as important, possible more important than what is being said. We have to use our life skills to wrinkle out what are the corollary issues that have not been touched on.

Thirdly where is the opposition, the alternative contradictory opinion? Their arguments against the pro position are just as revealing as the pro position itself. Again it is our life skills that will enable us to weigh up in our minds the strength of their case against the information we want to trust. Our personal skills are in balancing contradictory positions and then coming to a measured view.

Then finally the weight of probability, how many other minds just like yours have bought into the information. Numbers do not make it right trustworthy information but you can build in a measure of credence. To follow a one in a thousand line of information is a lot riskier than a one in five. Does not confirm or deny but you do have a perception of how much risk is at stake so you can balance that with your reliance on it and the cost of any outcome when using it.

Hey that is all very long winded, drawn out and all I want was the date of the Inquest. Make this your discipline, your routine, have it in mind for all information presented to you whether from the government, insurance company, a comparison website to Wikipedia. The extent that you articulate, check and observe each step is only relevant when the cost of using that information begins to bite hard. Date of the inquest? I'll run with Wikipedia.
What is the cheapest car insurance? I wont be taking a comparison sites word for it, I will certainly be looking around. Which career to take up then I might explore my options spread over several days. You see we have been doing it all along but with so much more information on live stream we need to learn to be more circumspect.

 

An aside

I am seething underneath over two issues.
The amount of adulatory comments about that woman who destroyed so much of the fabric of our society.
The bland dismissive contempt of the government minister telling benefit claimants they should seek work.
Arhh!
 
So she died and so has to be buried. Please spare us all the pomp and circumstance of a feted funeral parade. I really feel like finding a large source of rotten eggs to throw at her coffin I am that incensed. She had her way not from ignorance, nor arrogance but just by contempt and manipulation of all those surrounding her, getting to do her thing, no matter how wrong, misguided and so lacking in a longer term view. Amongst her many crimes, she destroyed the unions, she politicised the, up until then, democratic quasi objective planning system, she gave full reign and encouragement to self seeking gratification, she gave away our social inheritance to profit makers and did everything to encourage greed and nothing to promote compassionate support. The limp wristed that lapped up the cream washing over her rights of passage are the self same trundled out to glorify her 'achievements'. History will condemn them and her in due course.


How dare anyone stand up in public and without a twinge of conscious say to the nation that those on benefits should seek work, That they, the government want to work with them, the benefit applicants, to seek employment. What utter sanctimonious bilge. Does the Minister have any sense of shame? Are their lives so far out of touch with real life exigencies that they actually believe all benefits supplicants have to do is get off their couch and just look for work? That then they will find ample work opportunities and 'it' the benefit problem will magically go away. Are these, the imbeciles we get to vote for and put in power, to make such crass, insensitive and so very out of touch pig ignorant statements to the nations media? Rise up and shout back. Tell it as it is. 


Once the gilded lillies have taken off their rich cream bonuses, what we are left with is a bankrupt nation, in a double dip recession, ruled by a government that sees no merit in stimulating employment and where we scrabble and fight over the few menial jobs left. Ever fearful of being undercut and replaced by the next even more desperate person underneath us. Deal with the rampant excesses and compassionately support the underdog is not a bad replacement policy.