Tapsearch Com EditorSolidarity Fragmented (LINK)
February 19th 2008 20:05
Ethics Box is supposed to be about exploring personality and character but frankly it is difficult knowing where to start. If we start with the Dale Carnegie approach on how win friends and influence people, the question of motivation remains. If we go into a similar approach with the bibilical approach - "do unto others has you would have them do to you" as in the Gabriel Richard courses, the question still remains.
In attempting to get started, I re-read parts of Jacque Maritain, Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, Mother Theresa and the Life Ideal course by Father McQuade. They all are very good but how do we relate this to living in a very competitive world. A boss will tell you, all that idealism is great but it does not put bread on the table. I read a study early on in my work career that 70 percent say they can not connect their workday with their spirituality. I am ending my workdays knowing it is true.
I already presented the question at Brian Alger's Journeys site- The Educated Class vs. Real Life Experience - Communications by rank - Unnetted Journeys. It comes down to this : Workers have no voice or real selection about their labor although they are the core of any economy. The workday has to be compatible with your personality and character or else something short-circuits
There was a long period in the history of Rome, where it was better to be a slave than a freeman. A slave had a roof over their head and had to the opportunity of raising a family because that meant a continous supply of slaves for the elite groupings in the empire. Those who chose not to be slaves, had very few options and were persecuted just because they wanted to be free. It was almost impossible to create an independent mercantile venture. This sounds alot like today in the U.S. You have to play the game or else you are outside looking in. Instead many of us just go to watch sports at stadiums just like they did in Rome. We hide from ourselves in the "games".
However, in our times, the impossible dream breaks out of the box once and awhile. Lech Walesa, an electrian and labor leader, caught the impossible dream in the Solidarity movement. Shipyard workers stop working until a dictatorial regime recognized them as workers with human dignity. The Solidarity movement played a great part in the downfall of the Soviet empire. However, it too fragmented later on. Was it too much of a good thing or did it break into pieces because the people were not ready for it. The idea was to not take power but to get away from power and let society transform itself . Is this how it is today? I think it is obvious society is not ready to do its things. In the U.S. we have a two party system both acting as government is god. They insist acting with only carnal knowlege which by itself consists of many broken pieces. The greates good of the greasted number can add up to only two people. The common good which represents the best for all could add up to zero in a vote. Liberalism works this way. Conservatives are not much different with someone like President Bush saying Jesus was his favorite philospher while he instigates pre-emptive wars.
First of all Jesus claimed to be truth and not a search for truth and so it is questionable if he was a philosopher. A philosopher is in search of truth studying being as being. Jesus claimed to be all being - the alfa and the omega - the beginning and the end. How do Christians tie this into their daily work.
I like to end this session with this thought - once you are caught in a debate between liberalism and conservatism - what's right and what's left, you have lost automatically. This is the way the elite works the crowds. While your eyes are on a very limited political process, a great betrayal of the common good is taking place. For example there is very little difference in Bush and Clinton when it comes to be masters over labor. They are as one when it comes to controlling your workday.
Lech Waleska says he is merely a "consumer" and does not know that much about business and economics. He says- all he knows is that 10 percent of the population of the world controls 100 percent of the flow of money and commerce and this is wrong.
Before we get into a study of Personality and Character we must also question who said we had to compete like this in a global arena and how can we confront who ever it is.
How do we bring the monastery to the streets ?
In attempting to get started, I re-read parts of Jacque Maritain, Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, Mother Theresa and the Life Ideal course by Father McQuade. They all are very good but how do we relate this to living in a very competitive world. A boss will tell you, all that idealism is great but it does not put bread on the table. I read a study early on in my work career that 70 percent say they can not connect their workday with their spirituality. I am ending my workdays knowing it is true.
I already presented the question at Brian Alger's Journeys site- The Educated Class vs. Real Life Experience - Communications by rank - Unnetted Journeys. It comes down to this : Workers have no voice or real selection about their labor although they are the core of any economy. The workday has to be compatible with your personality and character or else something short-circuits
There was a long period in the history of Rome, where it was better to be a slave than a freeman. A slave had a roof over their head and had to the opportunity of raising a family because that meant a continous supply of slaves for the elite groupings in the empire. Those who chose not to be slaves, had very few options and were persecuted just because they wanted to be free. It was almost impossible to create an independent mercantile venture. This sounds alot like today in the U.S. You have to play the game or else you are outside looking in. Instead many of us just go to watch sports at stadiums just like they did in Rome. We hide from ourselves in the "games".
However, in our times, the impossible dream breaks out of the box once and awhile. Lech Walesa, an electrian and labor leader, caught the impossible dream in the Solidarity movement. Shipyard workers stop working until a dictatorial regime recognized them as workers with human dignity. The Solidarity movement played a great part in the downfall of the Soviet empire. However, it too fragmented later on. Was it too much of a good thing or did it break into pieces because the people were not ready for it. The idea was to not take power but to get away from power and let society transform itself . Is this how it is today? I think it is obvious society is not ready to do its things. In the U.S. we have a two party system both acting as government is god. They insist acting with only carnal knowlege which by itself consists of many broken pieces. The greates good of the greasted number can add up to only two people. The common good which represents the best for all could add up to zero in a vote. Liberalism works this way. Conservatives are not much different with someone like President Bush saying Jesus was his favorite philospher while he instigates pre-emptive wars.
First of all Jesus claimed to be truth and not a search for truth and so it is questionable if he was a philosopher. A philosopher is in search of truth studying being as being. Jesus claimed to be all being - the alfa and the omega - the beginning and the end. How do Christians tie this into their daily work.
I like to end this session with this thought - once you are caught in a debate between liberalism and conservatism - what's right and what's left, you have lost automatically. This is the way the elite works the crowds. While your eyes are on a very limited political process, a great betrayal of the common good is taking place. For example there is very little difference in Bush and Clinton when it comes to be masters over labor. They are as one when it comes to controlling your workday.
Lech Waleska says he is merely a "consumer" and does not know that much about business and economics. He says- all he knows is that 10 percent of the population of the world controls 100 percent of the flow of money and commerce and this is wrong.
Before we get into a study of Personality and Character we must also question who said we had to compete like this in a global arena and how can we confront who ever it is.
How do we bring the monastery to the streets ?
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