Monday, April 18, 2011

Let your senses guide you


Hans Makart (1872–79) Die fünf Sinne

Senses, touching, hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, our five senses which make us human.

What about those feelings of right and wrong? Often we feel directly what we want to do.

Scientists mean that we use our brain better if we exercise. Why?

What is it to have a conscience?

To have a concern about other people and nature is often something questioned. Why isn't it the opposite?

Why is it so that we have so much feelings, but always need to have a common sense to prove what we mean when talking to others?

And is it so that all is now logic to us, but because of the lack of our senses to issues, we do not care? Use your senses, let them guide you

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Bolivia: Fighting the climate wars



guardian.co.uk, Sunday 10 April 2011

John Vidal reports from La Paz where Bolivians are living with the effects of climate change every day. Their president has called for an urgent 50% cut in emissions - action that is essential for the country's survival.

Monday, April 04, 2011

Remembrance

INTERACTION MAN TO MAN
Symbolic interactionism assumes that man is social, and with, in constant exchange with his surroundings that shapes us as human beings. The individual human being can integrate with others but also himself. This means that the individual at every moment, can be active in defining the situation they are in. What makes up the individual situation is for the individual a result of interpretations of the current situation. When people are described as active creatures who respond to their surroundings, it is also assumed, to understand human behaviour we must focus on social interaction, human cognition, the defined situation, time frame, and the active nature of man. The view of ourselves is how we perceive ourselves through our environment. We are responsible for this interpretation when we create our perspective within us. "The world does not tell us what it is, we actively reach out and understand it and decide what to do with it". Different backgrounds (value/belief) and systems underpinning the way we perceive the world around us and with what tools we read and process our impressions influence the individual interpretations of our self, situations, and reality as a whole.

INTERACTION TO OUR WORLD, “BALANCE”
Underlying of the concept of sustainable future is the conviction that everything in the world is interdependent. We are all part of interconnected systems of humans and nature. These systems change over time, and have more than one equilibrium position. Various feedback loops make the system dynamic and can even lead to chaotic changes. To have a system that, can take some interference and does not not alter it’s state drastically is the key to sustainability (resilient thinking). Adaptability when living in such a system is to have an understanding of not only details but of the whole system, to have strategies for rapid change, knowing how to reorganize after any change and have strategies for dealing with uncertainty and surprises (adaptive approcach). Sustainability is based on the three concepts of ecological, economical and social sustainability. These are called the three legs of sustainability. The legs are seemingly in a conflict with each other and must be discussed and understood to be balanced. One can also infer that if the ecology is in balance, the economy would be in balance and therefore the social meanings. Or simply told, if the ecology of society is taken into consideration it would be good even for people in the long term. But, to get to the point that we can think of ecology, we must begin by arranging the individuals and talk about the problems. Thus, the process towards a sustainable society is only as important as it’s definition (Hallberg and Ljung, 2005).

.. IS THERE A TRUTH OUT THERE?
Objects are constituted of whatever people indicate or refer them to be (Blumer, p 68). People do not see reality as it is, but they interpret what they experience and form a picture of reality. We use perspectives. Each social science brings a perspective on human beings. In each case, reality, as it is, is not open for us.

If—



If, by Rudyard Kipling (1895)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

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Hear and see it in a modern touch here; Typography: IF by Rudyard Kipling from George Horne on Vimeo. Compare to what you thought in the first place. Ask yourself what pictures, music and other peoples thoughts can do to our own, and, in what way they do.

Friday, April 01, 2011

Nonviolent Communication

Practical summary of Mr Marshall Rosenberg's revolutionary theories about NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION: how to communicate, raise children and live together without violence, without punishment, without reward. From scribd.


Nonviolent Communication