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Tag Archives: Community cohesion

THE BEADY EYE ASKS . IS ENGLAND STILL A COUNTRY FULL OF RACISIM?

17 Thursday Feb 2022

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in 2022: The year we need to change., Racism

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Community cohesion, Discrimination., Eliminating Racism., Inequility, Prejudice., Reverse racism., The paradox of racism.

 

 

(Eighteen-minute read) 

After more than three centuries of deliberate, systematic race-based exclusion, the political system that had intentionally disenfranchised black people continues to do so, yet in less overt ways. Simply by allowing political systems to work as they are designed – to grant advantages to white people and to put people of color at various disadvantages is no longer acceptable. 

However, Racism never goes away, it just adapts. This is why reverse racism is an erroneous concept.

There is no such thing as a race-neutral policy, every policy is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.

Black-lives-matter-protest.

Race intertwines with sex and class in a sticky web of exploitation and oppression but nobody is born racist.

                                         ——————-

The problem with this question is that immigration cannot be discussed properly because anyone who wants to raise the subject is labeled bigoted or racist — even if they’re talking about white Poles/ Romains, Irish, or second-generation English. 

When seeking to get a picture of the inequality and social injustice’s it is starkly evident that major ethnic and racial inequalities are still the problem in many countries. 

To have any meaningful discussion about racism, discrimination, or prejudice one must first understand the difference between them even though they are all intertwined.   

Prejudice refers to irrational or unjustifiable negative emotions or evaluations toward persons from other social groups. Prejudice comes from the words ‘to judge before.  It is forming an unfavorable opinion or feeling about a person or a group of people, without a full examination of the situation. In theory, it is possible for somebody to be prejudiced without anybody else knowing about it. You can’t help but be prejudiced. 

Discrimination refers to inappropriate treatment of people because of their actual or perceived group membership and may include both overt and covert behaviors, including microaggressions, or indirect or subtle behaviors (e.g., comments) that reflect negative attitudes or beliefs about a non-majority group. Discrimination is racism made real. It should never be tolerated.

Racism refers to prejudice or discrimination against individuals or groups based on beliefs about one’s own racial superiority or the belief that race reflects inherent differences in attributes and capabilities.

Racism is the basis for social stratification and differential treatment that advantage the dominant group. It can take many forms, including explicit racial prejudice and discrimination by individuals and institutions as well as structural or environmental racism in policies or practices that foster discrimination and mutually reinforcing social inequalities (e.g., attendance policies that favor a majority group).

Racism can also take the form of unconscious beliefs, stereotypes, and attitudes toward racial groups in the form of implicit bias. 

Other forms of racism are modern symbolic racism in which individuals deny the continued existence of racial inequality while contributing to discrimination and aversive racism through ingroup favoritism for the dominant racial group.

Prejudice and discrimination harm all people but racism is more than just personal biases it is systemic and white people can’t experience racism because they aren’t systemically oppressed.

When it comes to the idea of reverse racism, people are talking about prejudice, not racism.

                                   —————————

Britain, perhaps ironically through her Empire, has become a multi-ethnic state but unfortunately, like most countries that were founded on the sweat of immigrants, its INSTITUTIONS ARE STILL FULL OF RACISM / DISCRIMINATION. ( True of many countries) 

Racism is now such a charged subject in Britain that even outside observers feel they have a right to offer hyperbolic comments about the state of the nation.  

The danger with crying racism at every turn is that it conceals real problems. 

A belief that innate differences make some groups inherently superior to others is generally taken to be the core idea of racism. Britain to this very day personifies this belief with a class system everyone in the UK fits into whether one likes it or not.

The class system’s residue is here to stay. 

The long-term unemployed, homeless, etc. Low-level unskilled or semi-skilled workers, “Chav,”  “Champagne socialists” Middle-class white-collar workers, Toffs  “old money” which means they have been rich for a long time, Aristocrats “Blue-blooded,” the royal family and those with titles, such as lords or barons, fall into this group. 

Explaining the British class system is a hard thing to do even for a Brit. One reason for this is that moving from one class to another is increasingly possible, but the complication is that there are some unwritten rules that mean you can be considered upper class by some people and not by others!

So the class system is alive and kicking in the UK but in today’s society, it doesn’t have the same status as it once did but a substantial minority of the British public subscribe to some form of racist belief an entire kaleidoscope of words exists to refer to foreigners.

If you are a foreigner (black or not) arriving into the country with a label of Refugee, Asylum seeker, Immigrant. Alien, Undocumented, Outsider, it envokes to me, anti-immigrant rhetoric, setting up us and them sort of divide immediately on arrival.

Social class is clearly no longer neatly defined by occupation. So while Britain is looking out for the old bigotry, new ones creep in. ‘Culturalism ’ What the current class system changes into next very much depends on what we do, or don’t do.

The problems, now, in short, are not about race: they are fundamentally social and economic, better seen in terms of social class and economic inequality than in racial terms. 

Perhaps if the overall wealth of the nation was used to introduce a basic income rather than a living wage or leveling up the divides between us and them could narrow and we might in the future be valued more by what we contribute to society, not by how much we take out.

                                     ————————-

So where are we?

Of course, the battle for survival will take the presidency.  

Nations across the world face a vast array of issues and problems, from defense to societal issues and climate change. All of which could be argued to be just as pressing of an issue as the others, so with so much to juggle, what should their focus be?

We are facing the real possibility that the climate crisis could steal the chance at a better tomorrow from people all over the world. 

Immigration has already become a pressing issue across Europe in recent years, as people flee from conflict and unrest in other parts of the globe, add climate change and war in Ukraine and it won’t be who or what color is coming but how many.   

Band-aid solutions must be replaced with a focus on tackling the root causes of systemic racism along with the structural causes of racial inequality within education, employment, and self-responsibility. 

                                        —————————-

In England’s case, the departure from the EU was fuelled by posters like the above that resulted in the middle class fearing losing their privilege voting to leave. We can only institute change when people understand the conversation around racism and prejudice. When white people realize their prejudice holds power that keeps minorities oppressed, they can then work to change the system we live in.

It is now raising its ugly head in Sport, in Policing, in Politics, in every fabric of its economy – Leveling up.

This can be intentional, or not. 

Of course, atrocities were committed by whites in the name of the British Empire, but is that all its white forbears contributed? Did they bequeath no benefits to the world, including to black people?

There is no simple answer to either of these questions. 

Even the charge of colonial guilt is hopelessly one-sided.

The British spread their might but did not share their knowledge.

In England’s case, the abiding poison of white privilege is the rectitude of racism that still remains in its class structure that is the problem. Of course, there are systemic and institutional factors in play here and they must always be kept in sight.

Britain remains a racist country and there is only one remedy for racism that some claim to be an even more lethal virus than Covid: whites must admit guilt, offer an apology, and make amends. But there are other things that affect blacks and whites alike: things such as luck or an individual’s own behavior and sense of responsibility and so on.

 Are we at risk of getting things dangerously out of proportion?

‘Pound Shop Enoch Powell’ is an unsettling reality. 

Legislation has long been on the statute book outlawing racial discrimination for which blacks themselves have no responsibility. Racism is terrible, but I would like racists to feel comfortable expressing their prejudice so we can identify them and be forewarned. 

Unfortunately, Britain has much to show for 150 years of global dominance-  Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, Bermuda. The Empire has gone back to being a small island nation taking the knee in more ways than one. The reality of Britain’s post-Brexit standing, alone in Europe is beginning to become clear.

They talk tough but look pathetic.

All human comments are appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

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THE BEADY EYE SAYS. THE FUTURE ISN’T SOMETHING THAT SHOWS UP FULLY FORMED.

02 Thursday Sep 2021

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in 2021. The year for change., A Constitution for the Earth., Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Dehumanization., DIGITAL DICTATORSHIP., Evolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Human Collective Stupidity., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Human values., Inequality, Modern day life., Modern day Slavery, Our Common Values., POST COVID-19., Purpose of life., Robot citizenship., Speed of technology., Survival., Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., THE WORLD YOU LIVE IN., TRACKING TECHNOLOGY., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, We can leave a legacy worthwhile., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations.

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Algorithms trade., Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Brother., Big Data, Colonization., Community cohesion, Digital Citizen?, Digital Colonization., Digital Divide., Globalization, Inequility, Technology, The Future of Mankind, Visions of the future.

 

 

( Seven-minute read) 

I don’t know if like me you are getting sick to death of hearing and reading the following phrases: 

WE NEED TO. WE VALUE YOUR PRIVACY, WHAT LESSON SHOULD WE LEARN. LET ME BE VERY CLEAR. 110 PERCENT.  ETC.

Unfortunately, we treat the future like a distant colonial outpost devoid of people where we can dump ecological degradation, technological risk, nuclear waste, and the public debt, and that we feel at liberty to plunder as we please. 

If you have a young child, she or he will likely talk to computers — naturally, as he or she does with you — for the rest of his or her life and the computer will not need to or learn lessons.  

We are standing on the precipice of life-altering technologies, but unable to break free from a continuous cycle of surprise and fear because we can’t come together to address collectively the existing problems not to mention what is awaiting us all down the road.

Global warming is the greatest existential challenge of our age, requiring massive societal changes to mitigate and adapt to it.

However, there is another threat that is being ignored to our peril.  

With politicians (the vast majority of whom do not have any background in science or technology) unable to look past the next election, making important policy decisions with little regard to how they will affect the planet and country 20, 50, or 100 years from now.

This is why Governments need to set up a Department for the Future, depoliticized technology and science. 

The citizens of tomorrow are granted no rights. There are no government departments or world organization bodies to represent their concerns or potential views on decisions today that will undoubtedly affect their lives.  

Representative – democracy systematically ignores the interest of future people. 

The world is presently experiencing a new form of colonization not by wars but by Digital Data, combined with climate change.   The Digital Divide: A Technological Generation Gap

This colonization is presently happing between China and the USA.



                                               —————–

The “Digital Divide,” is the gulf between those with access to both the necessary technology and the information accessible with it and those who do not.

The immediate concern is that those with the technology will acquire the necessary skills for the twenty-first century and those without will not, further widening the economic chasm between the lower-income strata and those who manage the data.

Technology has an obsoleting impact on those without the proper skills and, with the speed at which the technology changes, it is very difficult – near impossible for some – to keep current. 

This will become even more of a concern when the wealthier private and public school systems began to acquire personal computer networks and internet connections while schools in poorer neighborhoods will not.

Those who grow up with technology assimilate it into themselves;

“WE value your Privacy “

                                   —————————

There will constantly be new tools – the cloud, big data, location analysis, etc. – and ones of which we have not yet heard.

In A Data-Driven World, it will be too late unless we establish an organization

that can understand the context of all Future interactions. 

Those who do not embrace them may be ambushed by them and by a younger generation pushing them out the door.Shutterstock

When it comes to Robots. 

The Three Laws are:

  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

By Isaac Asimov in his 1942 short story “Runaround.” 

All human comments are appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the

bin.

  

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THE BEADY EYE ASKS. IS IT TIME TO STOP ANONYMITY ON THE INTERNET.?

20 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in #whatif.com, 2021. The year for change., Artificial Intelligence., Communication., COVID-19, Dehumanization., Democracy., Digital age., DIGITAL DICTATORSHIP., Disconnection., Fake News., Freedom, Freedom of Speech, How to do it., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Human values., Humanity., Modern Day Communication., Our Common Values., Post-Covid-19, Social Media, Social Media Regulation., Technology, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Internet., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, We can leave a legacy worthwhile., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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ANONYMITY., Community cohesion, Freedom of Speech, Internet, Social Media, The Future of Mankind, Visions of the future.

 

( Ten-minute read) 

Since the internet was in its infancy, the rights of users to use it to express their opinions were sacrosanct.

However, there is a price for “free” internet, and that we’ve given up more of ourselves than we ever intended to.

Concern already exists that Facebook and similar social media platforms act as echo chambers that validate opinions we already hold – fuelling precisely the type of extreme views that Facebook says it has a right to edit.

Might this new position simply result in more fake news?

The Internet has and is empowering masses of people by access to world-wide information sources, education, and communication but what is now considered permissible and acceptable online is shifting.

The question is with this newfound freedom, that is influencing every aspect of our lives for good or bad, should we be requiring people to register their identity when using the internet.?

If so how.

It would be true to say as we have become constantly connected, none of us are as anonymous as we think.

George Orwell presciently realized that if citizens don’t know what is true and what is false, they can’t make a judgment about what to object to in their lives.

Is it time to introduce an online digital passport to eradicate individual desires, such as credulity, abuse, gender-swapping, exploration, radicalizing, hacking, trolling, spreading false news, promoting popularism groups, bullying, racism, the list is endless? 

( Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says. 

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.”

The GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 give internet users the right to privacy and the right to withhold their personal details.

The Malicious Communication Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003 make it possible to prosecute “trolling” – and many other forms of online harassment are also now covered by the legislation. )

Platforms on the internet avoided liability by claiming they were “mere conduits” of these views and not “publishers” of them.  The argument goes that this includes protection for freedom of expression by the right to remain anonymous online.

So which should remain enshrined: freedom of speech or freedom from abuse?

The world feels smaller and we’ve celebrated this but in any human population, there will be people with irreconcilably different understandings of the truth.

Repressing speech has costs, but so does allowing it.

The world, however, has changed, and many of us may be in the time warp of old values. Human beings are poor witnesses, easily misled by a personal bias, profoundly influenced by their social environment.

As products of their society, social media and journalists are no exceptions. 

The world is now a much more dangerous place, not because of Covid -19 which is plunging it into a Depression with social media exposing a system of governance corseted by greed – profit before the people. Then, on the other hand, social media is like cancer at the heart of societies spreading the news, not what the facts are, but what men wish to see.

The press once seemed to have a conscience, thanks to history’s painful social conflicts and questions of war and peace.

Social media is not concerned with any historical lessons it being a wildfire of the short-term reactions of unfounded populism without any in-depth investigative journalism.      

It is becoming impossible to distinguish between paid news and actual, unbiased news.

You could say that the world has more pressing problems.

However, our current and future problems, like the internet, are all interconnected.

Shifting trends and the advancement in communication technology require a re-examination of the underlying principle and its application in new contexts.

There are attempts to get some control.

Free-speech advocates typically claim that the value of unfettered expression outweighs any harm it might cause, offering assurances that any such harm will be minimal.

Because like several other precious freedoms, free speech must be placed outside the reach of political exigency.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, it is impossible to pass binding regulations or laws that don’t restrict the sanctity of free speech.

Free speech or the freedom of expression is the modern civilization’s most precious gift to human society but it can’t be reaffirmed by drowning out its opponents.

                                                         ————

The issuing of Digital Passports could not be left to the whim of Facebook or any other internet providers.

Also “Digital identity solutions leave us open to data exploitation with the valuable data from these solutions (being) used for other purposes, so governments could not be involved in their issuing other than making supporting laws with large fines. 

The most obvious hitch in this plan is that not everyone has a smartphone,

With the current Pandemic and vacations, there will be an attempt to introduce Covid-19 free digital health certification (Of course, this would only be applicable to people with smartphones.) and they could become a prerequisite for some activities.

But for now, we’re many steps removed from that kind of streamlined process even becoming possible. Widespread adoption of so-called immunity passports would require a level of coordination and organization uncharacteristic of any country’s response to COVID-19 so far.

So here is the challenge. 

Is it possible to create a Digital Passport that is unhackable, that can be applied for online, that would combine your present Passport information, that you could use to vote, to register an internet identity, and carry your medical history. 

People would only accept such a thing if it commands public trust.

As evidence with the recent election in the USA entrusting your democracy to a black-box proprietary system that is subject to hacking, glitches, and errors, but NOT subject to scrutiny, analysis, or independent verification, is the surest and quickest way to lose your democracy. 

However, creating an internet user register could be possible not only authenticating the user but making it more transparent and ensure that users have the right to remedy when wrong decisions are made.

As for platforms, they know what they need to do because civil society has told them for years.

Just in case they have not got the message they should ensure that the decisions they make about speech are in line with global human rights standards, rather than making the rules up as they go.

 

 All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S. IS IT SHAME ON YOU ENGLAND.

28 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., Aid, Civilization., Climate Change., Foreign Aid., G20., G7., GDP., How to do it., Humanity., Inequality., Our Common Values., Politics., Post-Covid-19, Poverty, Sustaniability, The art of a handshake., The common good., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., VALUES, We can leave a legacy worthwhile., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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A 0.05% WORLD AID COMMISSIONS, Aid, Capitalism and Greed, Community cohesion, Development Aid., Distribution of wealth, Foreign Aid., The Future of Mankind, Visions of the future.

 

 

(Six-minute read) 

 

Here is a nation that made its wealth from an Empire that exploited most of the world.

Victoria

It is now leaving the European Union which was set up with the aim of ending the frequent and bloody wars between neighbors. 

Reneging on its commitment to spend 0.07% of its gross national income on foreign aid because charity begins at home.

In the middle of a financial meltdown,  turning its self into a parochial country on the world stage.

Agreed a four-year £16.5bn surge in defense spending in the middle of a pandemic, while 1.9 million of its people are relying on a food bank.   

Spending around 160 billion to save 30 minutes by rail from London to Birmingham. (Creating around 30,000 temporary jobs.) While by this time next year there is every likelihood that its unemployed will reach 3 million must of which will be under 25 years of age. 

Aid is a fundamental reaction of most individuals when they see or hear of someone in need. 

This is why we have appeal’s from saving a donkey to save a penguin to save a child to donate to cancer research to donate to the poor to donate blood to relieve famine. 

It is true that aid on an individual basis comes in many forms with countries’ government foreign aid reflecting our collective compassion.

It is also true that Aid is sometimes abused both by the recipient and the giver.          

Perhaps the toxic environment caused by the excesses of the tabloid media over the last 30 years and now social media has something to do with our harding attitude that Aid starts at home. But with our inability to act as one on climate change we will all have to become better at emergency aid and rather worse at development aid.

Indeed financial aid over the last 30 years or so has proved to be  “an excellent method for transferring money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.” However, in the long run when it comes to aiding it’s cheaper to send them the money rather than them having to come to claim it.

Aid politicized economies and therefore it often comes with a price of its own. 

Rich nations use aid as a lever to open poor country markets to their products and create beneficial trades with aid amounts being dwarfed by rich country protectionism that denies market access for poor country products.

Britain and the USA only believe in free markets that work in one direction.

Aid may be bilateral and multilateral if it is bilateral happens when: the given is from one country directly to another; and multilateral: when is given by the donor country to an international organization such as the World Bank (WB) or the United Nations Agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, UNAIDS, etc.) which in many cases they are the ones who distribute it among the developing countries.

The proportion is currently about 70% bilateral 30% multilateral, according to the World Bank statistics.

Even though the relationship between globalization, development, poverty, and foreign aid is not always clear, as long as the poorest countries are not integrated to work in their own development process, the world has not benefitted or learned from globalization especially from developed neighbor countries, who can give support in many conditions to work from the same goal, the success of development.

Paradox as aid to Africa has grown, the continent has actually become poorer rather than better off.

Of all the aid given to developing countries the smartphone allowed trade to take place without a middle man, and to know the market price has done more than all the billions.

Trade, not aid, it doesn’t have to mean money all the time.

Trade has a long-term impact on international co-operation.

Trade helps developing countries to maintain their dignity,

Trade establishes a strong impression in the international market, 

Trade promotes the economical improvement of the country 

Trade requires investment first.

Trade is treated as an inefficient distributor of resources. The benefit of trade is mostly confined to an elite group of people in the country.

Thoughtful aid can de accelerate this process.

It is not so much trade vs aid – but what quality and type of aid are given.

But more importantly for us to see the difference it makes.  We should be aiding poorer countries to do things themselves, not doing things for them.

( See the previous post on the Solution on how to finance and distribute Aid while maintaining the Mantra Charity starts a home.)  

It seems the brightest people are no longer attracted to politics. 

John Donne wrote in “For Whom the Bell Tolls”: “No man is an island, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

All human contributions appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE ASKS. WHY DO WE HUMANS FIND IT DIFFICULTY TO ACCEPT THE TRUTH.

18 Wednesday Nov 2020

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Climate Change., COVID-19, Digital age., Disconnection., Donald John Trump, How to do it., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Human values., Humanity., POST COVID-19., Robot citizenship., Social Media, Technology v Humanity, Telling the truth., The common good., The essence of our humanity., The state of the World., The world to day., Truth, Truthfulness., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World

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Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Climate change, Community cohesion, Facts, Global warming, Inequility, Internet, Technology, The Future of Mankind, Truth

 

 

(Eighteen-minute read) 

This is a question not easy to answer.

Why?

Because facts and truth are closely related.

The truth takes into consideration feelings and beliefs, whereas they have no place in fact.

A fact is something that is true everywhere and for everyone.

Facts do not change according to region, caste, culture, religion, etc.

That is not to say that facts from the past have been overturned and proven to be false and that some facts from today will be proven false tomorrow- History is written by the Victor.  We no longer know when a fact is going to be true for eternity.

Some of them will. 

Take for example you have to be born to experience death.  Currently true.

However, with the arrival of Artificial Intelligence – it appears that not just robots but humans will have both life and death capable of independence, separable from one another. 

This is not quite yet a scientific fact” but we could be standing on thin ice. 

So what makes a fact a fact?

Facts are hardcore and hence they cannot keep constantly changing; a fact remains a fact until proven otherwise. A fact states something that has actually occurred or happened, but we have no idea what’s outside the visible universe.   

A matter of seeing is believing I suppose. 

The truth is often considered to have a grander scope than facts.

However, something that is true for one person may not be true for everyone.

 Is this true? 

With the arrival of the Internet, the world has shrunk but unfortunately, we are all now on different platforms of truth. 

For example. Facebook discovered that warning users that an article was false caused people to share that article even more.

It seems that the closer you get to the truth, the further you get from the world.

In other words, while you can get people to understand the facts, the facts don’t always matter.

Unfortunately, we don’t care about the truth as much as we typically think our highly social brains make discerning truth more difficult than we might hope because we often protect our previous beliefs rather than face inconvenient truths.

Why?

It’s because we’re all viscerally connected to truth on a fundamental, physical, and spiritual level. It’s part of who we are and like a virus, we instinctively reject dishonesty.

We learn to put on a mask (personality), to present an acceptable display, and hopefully, nobody will see the truth. That process spreads to other aspects of our lives, many times unknowingly.

To think about the future, you have to know about the present

– Prof. Hans Rosling, TEDtalks 2014

My understanding, in a nutshell, is that a hypothesis gets upgraded to a theory (closest you can get to fact) not possibly by chance occurrence. This is evidence that it is true, and will remain true until (if it ever happens) new evidence that disproves it comes to light.

Valid does not equate to true.

Sometimes theories are inducible and then prove by deduction,i.e gravity.

So why do we argue so much when facts about contentious topics are readily available?

If the data are gathered, shouldn’t we all be reaching the same conclusions?

Obviously not. 

Presenting people with information about an issue in a nuanced way, rather than presenting them with pro-con arguments laid out in a simplified manner, leads people to have more complex and satisfying conversations about contentious issues.

True.

But our ears are dull of hearing, and our eyes have closed thanks to algorithms that control what we hear or see.  They warp our perception of reality and reasoning by creating social media echo chambers.

We can share our worldview like never before, yet we often feel worlds apart when assessing our shared reality. Social media typically does not promote positive interactions.

Complacency lures in the comfort of our smartphones or our living room couch and sadly, we’re always the first victims of our lies because we have to believe them first before we can convince others to do so.

The result is that the difference between fact, truth, and opinion becomes blurred. 

What can be changed? 

Any sane person, regardless of nationality, color, or political stance, would aim for the first – truth and facts.

So why don’t we just get indisputable facts on the table? 

Reaching the correct answer required participants to think carefully about the data.

We often reason with desired conclusions in mind and selectively recruit our mental faculties towards reaching those conclusions.

However if the people most capable of accurately interpreting data are at least as biased as the rest of us, how can we hope to find common ground on our most pressing and divisive issues?

Climate Change – Inequality, Covid-19, you name it. It’s hard to find the truth because there is so much falsehood out there making so much noise that the truth gets drowned out.

Everyone wants to be right, but practically speaking it’s usually more important for us to be socially accepted and internally consistent in our beliefs.

To divert from this human automation, we have to make a deliberate choice.

We have to actively decide to put on the brighter light and accept that doing so will sometimes help us in the longer run. Until we find systematic ways to improve our reasoning, we can all take steps towards improving political discourse by making efforts to challenge our personal beliefs and biases. Our values are more meaningful than their political utility, so if you stumble into a heated debate remember that the search for community, happiness, and truth transcends partisan boundaries. 

Without being honest with ourselves we’ll never be honest with others.

Living in our own little world of self-created lies and avoiding the truth of our life experience takes great energy-producing even greater amounts of stress.   

The first lie is the one we tell ourselves. It’s usually, “It didn’t happen” or “It didn’t happen like that.”

Sometimes it’s hard to find the truth because for too many people nowadays truth does not matter, only power.  Donald Trump. 

We have a natural instinct to search for answers and make sense of things.

These phenomena can be described by many different words 

Ondinnink, Qualunquismo, Zlatwic, 

We are constantly bombarded by messages by well-meaning NGOs who desperately try to help people living in poverty. At the same time media throw in a mix of news full of disasters and war, and then they host huge charity shows on TV ever so many times a year.

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

John Adams, 2nd President of the United States of America

Life is making mistakes and that’s the truth.

Here is what Alex Google might tell you. 

  • Something that actually exists; reality; truth: Your fears have no basis in fact.
  • Something is known to exist or to have happened: Space travel is now a fact.
  • Truth is known by actual experience or observation; something is known to be true: Scientists gather facts about plant growth.
  • Something said to be true or supposed to have happened: The facts given by the witness are highly questionable.
  • Law. Often, facts. An actual or alleged event or circumstance, as distinguished from its legal effect or consequence. Compare the question of fact, the question of law.

Truth, on the other hand, is a true state of a certain matter, person, place, thing or event. Truth is considered to be more archaic than fact. It is more subjective than resolute fact. Dictionary.com defines ‘truth’ as:

  • The true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth.
  • Conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.
  • A verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.
  • The state or character of being true.
  • Actuality or actual existence.
  • An obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude.
  • Honesty; integrity; truthfulness.
  • (Often initial capital letter) ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience: the basic truths of life.
  • Agreement with a standard or original.
  • Accuracy, as of position or adjustment.
  • Archaic. Fidelity or constancy.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin

 

 

 

 

 

 

we repress the truth and our feelings about it with a lie to keep the pain at bay.



how do we communicate truthfully





It was like waking up to Hell.

We avoid these realizations


 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE SAYS. CASH IS OXYGEN IN A PANDEMIC AND ECONOMIC DEPRESSION

23 Friday Oct 2020

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in 2020: The year we need to change., Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Climate Change., COVID-19, Democracy, Digital age., DIGITAL DICTATORSHIP., Disconnection., Economic Depression., Face Recognition., Fake News., Fourth Industrial Revolution., How to do it., Human values., Humanity., Inequality., Life., POST COVID-19., Purchasing Power., Reality., Sustaniability, Technology, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The Obvious., The pursuit of profit., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., Universal Basic Income ., VALUES, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Economy.

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Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data, Capitalism and Greed, Community cohesion, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Distribution of wealth, Inequility, Technology, The Future of Mankind, Visions of the future.

 

 

(Three-minute read) 

 In these extraordinary times, I am sure I speak for world citizens that we count on our leaders to bring out their statesmanship and have the courage and imagination to think and work together to fight this pandemic in equally extraordinary ways.

We may be about to face the perfect storm:

 A humanitarian disaster, global recession, severe de-globalization, the crash of healthcare systems, social breakdown, conflicting nationalism not forgetting the power of AI, and its algorithms all point to the need for value realignment.

 Many of the issues have a history of a basis. So potential risks and ways to approach them are not as abstract as we may think.

 How do we actually design a new system that can understand and implement the various form of preference and values of a population?

 The ideal system is, of course, a balance between all the needs of the numerous stakeholders the people, and the earth we all live on.

 So how do our societies reconcile their own historic aspirations while we are struggling with a world of ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE that is isolating us all into data?  

 Neither China nor the US, Iran, Indonesia, or any country can insulate themselves from what is to come.  COVID-19 should be the exception to — not the extension of –geopolitical rivalry. It should be an opportunity to recover trust rather than advance mistrust. 

 HOWEVER, WHAT WE WILL WITNESS IS OUR COLLECTIVE INABILITY TO ACT AS ONE. (DUE TO A MENSTRUUM OF REASONS FAR TO LONG TO ADDRESS HERE.)

 From what we see to date: 

With the erosion of democratic institutions, with the rise of the right, loss of jobs, false news, rising inequality, foodbanks, our inability to tackle Climate change, stop wars, without any robust mechanisms of oversight and accountability for Profit-seeking algorithms there seems little hope for future generations.

Artificial intelligence now embedded in our daily lives has still to show empirical evidence that validates that AI technology will achieve a broad base of social benefit we aspire to.

We need a community of researchers worldwide to really understand the range of potential harms that AI systems pose.  The use of data, machine learning, their applications to society – Face recognition -Track and Trace- all in use without any regulations. 

Therefore there is only one solution to the problems facing us all and that is the introduction of a basic living wage for all. 

Why?“

Because Cash is the best thing you can do to improve health outcomes, education outcomes, and lift people out of poverty. It’s the only solution to an economy where a small group of people is getting very, very wealthy while everyone else is struggling to make ends meet.

It would remove the problem with existing welfare programs that keep people below the poverty line a form of structural inequality.

It would also cost governments less simplifying welfare programs. 

A guaranteed income would give young couples the confidence they need to start a family.

From a macro viewpoint, it would give society a much-needed ballast during a Depression.

It would offset job losses caused by technology.

What are the downsides?

Inflation. 

Who funds it?

Many would support it if tech companies with profit-seeking algorithms paid for it.

High-frequency trading.

Hedge Funds, Sovereignty wealth funds, and currency trading over $50,000  

Cash is King. It’s an idea that is long overdue.

Both the Current pandemic and Automation are fundamentally changing the structure of the economy. Proposals for various forms of regular cash assistance are increasingly part of the political conversation.  And in fact, the cash payments of 2020 are serving as something of a real-life test of the principles behind UBI, even if there are important differences.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S; ARE WE FOOLING OURSELVES WHEN WE SAY UNIVERSAL VALUE’S?

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in #whatif.com, 2019: The Year of Disconnection., 2020: The year we need to change., Artificial Intelligence., Capitalism, Climate Change., COVID-19, Digital age., Disconnection., Environment, Fourth Industrial Revolution., How to do it., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Human values., Humanity., Imagination., Modern Day Communication., Our Common Values., Post - truth politics., POST COVID-19., Purchasing Power., Reality., Religious Beliefs., Survival., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The pursuit of profit., The state of the World., The world to day., Truth, Unanswered Questions., VALUES, We can leave a legacy worthwhile., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Organisations.

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Artificial Intelligence., Capitalism and Greed, Capitalism vs. the Climate., Community cohesion, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Earth, Extinction, Extinction Rebellion, Global warming, Globalization, SMART PHONE WORLD, Social Media, The Future of Mankind, Visions of the future.

 

 

(Five-minute read) 


Never in history is such a question more important. Unfortunately, we live in a world of distractions.

In my previous post to this one, (THE HARDEST THING OF ALL TO SEE IS ALREADY THERE.)   I attempted to say that the truth has no past.

By this, I meant that the truth is reality, and therefore religion and the state must be separated.

Only then can one hope for value with the same value or worth for all, or almost all, people. A value is considered universal when it goes beyond laws and beliefs; rather, it is considered to have the same meaning for all people and does not vary according to the societies that have evolved. 

 In fact, cultural relativism is a belief that opposes the existence of universal values; proposes that a value can not be universal because it is perceived differently in each culture.

Given the ambiguity of the term, the existence of universal values ​​can only be understood as the values ​​that have to do with the basic requirements of the human being. Such as Fresh Air, Freshwater, Food, Clean Energy. 

Now with AI infiltrating our lives, it seems that the faster we travel, the importance of there place is getting lost.

It seems because there are no universal moral values, our command of science simply can not coexist with morals, and our internet fed imaginations 

We talk about the central issues of our times: A universal pandemic, an economic depression, continuing wars, climate change, migration, artificial intelligence, rising inequalities, erosion of the power of the vote, loss of individualism, loss of connection to ecosystems, to mention just a few of the problems to define any values that are universal.

We have many governments doubling down on the blame game and brinkmanship. 

We have bioengineering which alone is now much greater danger than a nuclear war. 

We have the maldistribution of wealth. 

We have world leaders unwilling to see beyond the next election. 

We have the extinction rebellion. 

We have non-transparent digital data.

We have 10.000 to 130,000 species going extinct each year.

We have a population of 7.7 billion   

We have extreme weather and biodiversity loss.

I ask myself why is it that with so many of us tryin’ to improve society, not that much changes but I hope that we don’t make changes to satisfy the noisemakers.

Rather than separating one problem from another, we need to connect them.

i.e. Climate changes to war and war to climate changes. 

The question remains.

> How do we the current guardians of the planet achieve a balance between living our lives and the life of the planet, that allows us to live them in the first place. 

 It is no longer that logic alone will solve the problems, nor protests, or political will but within functional societies, we do still have the ultimate weapon – VIEWING AND BUY POWER  and both are available in every type and form of human culture.

They must be added to the deep emotions of religion if we are to achieve change.

The life of now economies and pay later must come to an end if we are to avoid the hazards of the future. 

If Extinction Rebellion wants to be heard, it will not do so on top of bamboo towers stopping newspapers to be deliveries, or sticking themselves to windows. 

It must use social media digital platforms to encourage its supporters to use their buying power to attack profit for profit sake. 

Certain human characteristics as valuable – life regardless of whether or not it is believed in said characteristic.  

PROFIT WITHOUT CONTRIBUTION TO UNIVERSAL VALUES IS THE ENEMY. 

With these weapons, we can effect change and avoid the hazards to come.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin. 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S. NOW MORE THAN EVER IT’S IMPORTANT TO MOVE PEOPLE BEYOND JUST DREAMING INTO DOING.

14 Thursday May 2020

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., A Constitution for the Earth., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Biotechnology., Civilization., Climate Change., COVID-19, Dehumanization., Digital age., Disasters., Disconnection., Environment, Evolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Human values., Humanity., Modern day life., Nanotechnology, Our Common Values., Post - truth politics., POST COVID-19., Reality., Survival., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., We can leave a legacy worthwhile., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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Artificial Intelligence., Big Data, Capitalism and Greed, Capitalism vs. the Climate., Community cohesion, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Earth, Environment, Extinction, Technology, The Future of Mankind, Visions of the future.

 

(Fifteen-minute read) 

It is now or never to stop dreaming.

No one has the ability to control the outcome of the ovarian lottery, and whether you were born into a life of privilege or disadvantage this COVID-19 business is beginning to ask us all questions about the Capitalist system that has and is failed us.

The one thing that this crisis is doing is making more space to acknowledge that our losses and our failures aren’t our individual faults.

This is now blatantly and brutely clear.

Let’s start with a few very basic questions.

Do people exist to serve the economy, or should the economy exist to serve people?

Can we create an economy that operates on anti-capitalist principles, rather than for private profit? 

With COVID-19, it turns out that we’ve created a whole society with culture and institutions around the idea that people exist to serve the economy.

And now millions of people are waking up to the reality that that’s a misplaced priority.

What we need is a money system that actually is connecting real resources with real needs, creating real community wealth at the community level.

That requires a financial system that is rooted in the community and accountable to community interest and that operates by life values rather than financial values.

The biggest problem with our current financial system is that it’s very short-term obsessed.

So we need to change that whole culture. And that means changing what we measure and that now will come with either rewards or unintended consequences of all of us.

Without fundamentally changing as to how we see the economy the current system which is organized around financial values over life values will continue. 

If we don’t take the same attitude toward nurturing the human life cycle as we do toward saving the environment from global warming and industrial pollutants were fooling ourselves. 

WHAT WE ARE NOW WITTISING ARE COUNTRIES STRUGGLING TO RESTART THEIR ECONOMIES AS IF NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. RETURNING TO WORK WITHOUT ANY NEW VISION AS TO HOW TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM. 

So our era is intensifying the almost daily choice for each of us – faced with a moment of unknowing, a new challenge, do I:

In other words, we all facing a lethal challenge with a profound urge to survive and yet without any guarantee of success.

This current ruthless system where the individual desire to succeed overrule all common sense to look after the real rewards of the value of life has kept us up to now quiet about our countries failures.

There are still nurturant values: Freedom, opportunity and prosperity, fairness, open two-way communication, community building, service to the community, and cooperation in a community, trust, honesty.

The world is a dangerous place and it always will be, so let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

We’ve come a long way but the question remains do our lives have any meaning, any purpose?
Every life has two bookends—the day we’re born and the day we die.

Each of us is born with tremendous potential, but ironically, we often end our lives much like we began—weak and helpless and if we are to learn anything from this pandemic it is that the meaning of life is a demanding question, and many dismiss it as simply unanswerable.

The truth of the matter is that every stage of life is equally significant and necessary. 

Where do you fit into this story of human life?

In general, worldview has been most influenced by religion and science.

The belief system determines what we think is possible, and what we think is possible influences the results we create or allow in life.

If you think that you are connected with all of life, you will be more apt to steward your environment with care and treat others with compassion. However, if you think that only your race or social class should rule, your behavior will most likely be very brutal.

On a larger scale, however, our beliefs are predominantly determined by those who control our access to information (media) and our social structures, (including schools), because these institutions dictate what beliefs and behaviors are rewarded and which are punished.

So the prevailing worldview of the 21st century, in which war is considered a viable or necessary means of problem-solving, that starvation is inevitable for some people on this planet, and that it is right for some people to tax and control others against their will, is the result of a well-organized elite who own the systems through which information and values are disseminated.

We are careening into a world of a few haves and billions of suffering have-nots.

It is critical to consider this if we want to protect one another, as well as our planetary home, and to turn the direction of humanity toward thriving.

Above all what we need is. To consider the motivation and funding sources of those who are shaping our worldview.

We are at a critical crossroads where our information and our courage enables us to choose to create a thriving world based on protecting the rights of every individual or as our recent trajectory of misinformation and confusion continues to lead us into a global  Data police state – seeking daily permission to act from the dictators of one-world tyranny run by Global Data platforms. 

We must learn ethical evolution quickly…

What can be done? 

First, we must stabilize our climate. 

Our sentience, our feelings of wonder and awe emerge out of the universe… These profound feelings are not just ours; they are the universe reflecting upon itself… To live is to enter this beauty, surrounded by enchantment, summoned by magnificence.

Secondly, we must overcome the powerful addiction of our smartphones, of money, power, career, and ego needs of every type. This momentum has kept suffering alive despite the enormous changes in human existence from age to age.

Then, we must not allow Artificial Intelligence to control our minds. Rather than just doing the next centralization of power into the hands of a few as we wake up, do our own thinking, connect with others, and take action, humanity has what it takes to thrive. 

Furthermore, we must stop experience every aspect of our lives through the lens of our set of beliefs, personalized social media filters, racism, greed,.    

Which is more primary in finding our way, the rights of the individual, or the opinion of the majority about what’s good for the group?

Finally,  “Everything we need is already here and we can access it by recognizing and acting from our oneness.”
      – Kimberly Gamble

Will we do any of it? 

Not likely. 

Why?

Because we are unable to act as one.

The world’s population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks.

The number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years.

As I see it, the economy is just a social construction that lets people produce and exchange goods and services. You can’t serve a social contract. In the end, the agreed-upon valuation between sellers and buyers is all that matters.

What’s it all mean then? 

I think the worst thing we could do would be to actually throw out capitalism and I think what we…the second-worst thing we could do would be to actually fail to reform it.

We need to re-orientate capitalism and the financial markets to make them more long-term focused, not let’s put it back in a box.

There is only one way that we might act together is by creating a perpetual funded World Aid fund, ( See previous posts) with a Constitution for the Earth and the use of all technology.

Remember that the economy depends on millions of factors that can have both a positive and negative impact, while the stock market is only affected by one factor, the supply and demand of stocks.

So, again, the stock market is not the economy. And the economy is not the stock market.

GDP is not a means to a healthy economy unless it protects the smallest ant to the biggest 

All of us will be a long time dead so hopefully, your legacy will continue after your stages of life have ended.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE SAYS: AT THE MOMENT THERE IS A LOT OF HYPE THAT AFTER THE CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC IS OVER THE WORLD WILL HAVE CHANGED.

29 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., CORONA VIRUS., COVID-19, Emergency powers., Fourth Industrial Revolution., GPS-Tracking., Human values., Inequality., Lock Down., Modern day life., Modern day Slavery, Pandemic, Post - truth politics., Post-Covid-19, Reality., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The pursuit of profit., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, World Politics

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Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Capitalism vs. the Climate., Climate change, Community cohesion, CORONA VIRUS., Coronavirus (COVID-19), Distribution of wealth, Inequility, Post-Covid-19, Technology, The Future of Mankind, Visions of the future.

 

 

(Fifteen-minute read) 

Obviously, where will we be in six months, a year, 10 years from now is unknown but what Covid-19 is throwing into sharp relief is just how false our beliefs about markets are. 

We all know what is needed and one could compose a list as long as your arm but all are connected to where and what we live on the Earth.

In the face of Covid-19, this has never been more obvious.

“We’re all in this together and nobody has a clear answer to a way out.”

However, when all of this is over together in lockdown will become more than an appropriate word in more ways than we might like.  

As with sheep, it is easier to control a flock when they are enclosed. 

There is a chance that the herd scenario will be the most dangerous scenario, with profound implications for all. 

Big untransparent data is a minefield to the civil liberties we enjoy at the moment.

We won’t be clapping when the freedom of choice disappears. 

So as responses to the virus evolve, how might our economic futures develop?

The main fact exposed in our societies by COVID-19 is that so many people work pointless jobs because, they make lots of money we have lots of consultants, huge advertising industry and a massive financial sector. Meanwhile, we have a crisis in health and social care, where people are often forced out of useful jobs they enjoy because these jobs don’t pay them enough to live.

In a society where exchange value is the guiding principle of the economy, the basic goods of life are mainly available through markets. This means you have to buy them, and to buy them you need an income, which comes from a job.

In other words, people are compelled to work in pointless jobs.

This is partly why so many countries were so ill-prepared to respond to Covid-19.

There are a number of possible futures, all dependent on how governments and society respond to coronavirus and its economic aftermath.

So, will, we take the opportunity of prioritization of one type of value over others.

(This dynamic has played a large part in driving global responses to Covid-19.)

First, it is quite hard to make money from many of the most essential societal services.

The best-paid jobs only exist to facilitate exchanges: to make money. They serve a no wider purpose to society.

We need a very different kind of economics if we are to build socially just and ecologically sound futures.Civil liberties under attack during COVID-19

From an economic perspective, there are four possible futures:

Descent into barbarism, robust state capitalism, radical state socialism, or a transformation into a big society built on mutual aid run by unregulated AI. 

If we want to be more resilient to pandemics in the future (and to avoid the worst of climate change) we need a system capable of scaling back production in a way that doesn’t mean loss of livelihood or our civil liberties. 

From the economic point of view, this has to be is a Green sustainable Economy because the challenge of producing less is also central to tackling climate change.

(Coronavirus, like climate change, is partly a problem of our economic structure. Although both appear to be “environmental” or “natural” problems, they are socially driven.)

From an individual point of view, the solutions are not so clear.

Should we give up our liberties for the common good?

When faced with a complete lack of evidence about a tracking policy’s long term effects crisis situations afford the state the opportunity to stretch its power into areas of life that were before beyond its reach.

Politics is plagued by a do-something bias and this question is unanswerable because we cannot know how much the forcible suppression of civil society will cost and we won’t know the benefits.

The actions of governments if not reversed when the pandemic is over or under control to date if not reversed are of magnitude more dangerous than this virus.

Thinking critically we are now confronted nonetheless with the question of who gets to make such a decision on tracking, the government on a compulsory law backed bases or the individual on a voluntary base.  

It’s a social theory question, not a medical one: how does a comparatively tiny group of people at the top of government acquire the right to make this call for all other people. How could anyone or any group attain to such a power?

This leads us to some troubling questions.

For example, What kinds of communicable diseases function to void one’s right to free movement? How deadly does the disease have to be? How contagious? 

It is not worth giving up for a problem that has existed even before our time.

After giving up this right, what other rights will follow?

Where will be the balance? Do we become mindless government slaves?

Where is the line between where our right to choose is more important than the government’s right to impose their standards on us? Even if it’s for our own good?

Governments don’t give us our rights. Our rights are ours.

If we let freedom and liberty slip away a little at a time, then we are a people who don’t deserve to be free.

Just as the government has a duty to serve us, we as a people have a duty to defend our freedom and to understand and appreciate the rewards of being a free and open society. If we as a people fail in our duty to protect our freedom, then we no longer deserve to be a free people.

Once you give up even just a little, it is unlikely you will ever get them back. The individual is all that matters when it is you.

Philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote, “Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of great fear.”

These times of crisis are when we must be vigilant, guarding our rights and liberties, watchful of overreach, as transparency of who, what, and how we are governed will disappear into big data run by algorithms that learn from each other owned by god only knows.   

Will the world change as we are told?  Will the draconian laws revert?  

Will this happen?

More than likely not to all three.  

Why?

Because we are in a capitalist system that cannot or is unable to manage greed, inequality, and profit for profit sake.

Because businesses, of course, want to be able to meet demand when the economy picks back up again. But, if things start to look really bad, then they won’t. So, more people lose their jobs or fear to lose their jobs. So they buy less. And the whole cycle starts again, and we spiral into an economic depression.

Because we are now facing a serious recession if not a global depression.

Our modern generations have lost so much of the sensibility, practicality, frugality, and “know-how.”  Very few of us alive today have experienced an economic depression.

The fan is spinning and something very brown is beginning to hit the economies of the world at some point they will be unable to sustain themself.…so be preemptive.

Preparing for that eventuality now is really the only way to be ready when we will actually need to be much more self-reliant for our food.

A full-on economic collapse isn’t simply a disaster threat we should look out for, if you can’t appreciate what you have, you’ll never be content even if you exceed every goal you set for yourself.

Initially, chaos will reign but people will start banding together and not spending money. Debt will become a dirty word. You can’t eat money or your smartphone so start digging your garden. Get your village to open communal gardens.

Before you throw something away as it could be re-purposed.

The prescription for solving this is simple – the government spends, and it spends until people start consuming and working again. 

However, it is my belief that this type of intervention won’t work here because we don’t want the economy to recover (at least, not immediately). 

Businesses exist to make a profit. If they can’t produce, they can’t sell things. This means they won’t make profits, which means they are less able to employ you. 

What is needed is an “anti-wartime” economy and a massive scaling back of production.

A key task for us all is demanding that emerging social forms come from an ethic that values care, life, and democracy. The central political task in this time of crisis is living and (virtually) organizing around those values.

Yes, climate change is caused by certain gases absorbing heat. But that’s a very shallow explanation. To really understand climate change, we need to understand the social reasons that keep us emitting greenhouse gases.

The dominant idea of the current system we live in is that “exchange value” is the same thing as “use value” and currently, the primary aim of the global economy is to facilitate exchanges of money. 

However, Governments are now providing people with an income in order to stop them from going to work reducing people’s dependence on a wage to be able to live.

This is viewed both by the market and governments as a temporary necessity to keep their economic where-with-all to deliver a good quality of life, so it must be protected. 

The market will always return to normal after short periods of crisis.

We do not have the right “mindset” in order to adopt the protection of life as the guiding principle of our economy. The use of profits as the primary way of organizing an economy can only continue if it is used to remove inequality on all fronts.

If it delivers a good quality of life, for all so it must be protected.

Barbarism is the future if we continue to rely on exchange value as our guiding principle and yet refuse to extend support to those who get locked out of markets by illness or unemployment.

It describes a situation that we have not yet seen.

Citizens no longer rely on employers as intermediaries between them and the basic materials of life.

We must be careful to avoid authoritarianism and massive austerity after the pandemic has peaked that will only consolidate wealth into tracking apps.

We can expect the lure of tracking citizens to infect politicians. The ideals of democracy will be surrendered to the relative security of authoritarianism. 

Likewise with Covid-19. Yes, the direct cause is the virus. But managing its effects requires us to understand human behavior and its wider economic context.

It is hard to believe but there was a time when computers didn’t control every aspect of the world, just like it is hard to believe that the world survived before electricity.

Nowadays it is hard for most to believe that people lived without cellphones.

I believe that sooner or later we will be facing a Greater Depression. While I certainly ‘hope’ not, logic is telling me that it is inevitable.

I do believe when things change, people will change also because it will become necessary. 

Which of the overwhelming number of urgent global issues should I focus my attention on first? 

Maybe you can’t save the world, but you can save your backyard.

Imagine what would happen if we all did the same?

Rather than waiting for the elected leaders to listen to your concerns, the quickest and most effective way of making a difference is to do it yourself.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin. 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S. YOU CAN’T MANAGE THE TRUTH. WE ARE OR WILL WE BE LOOKING A SOCIAL BOMB WITH THE CURRENT PANDEMIC.

07 Tuesday Apr 2020

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Civilization., Communication., CORONA VIRUS., COVID-19, Dehumanization., Disasters., Disconnection., Environment, Evolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Humanity., Inequality, International solidarity., Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Political Trust, Reality., Survival., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, Telling the truth., The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Truthfulness., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, VALUES, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations., World Politics

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Capitalism and Greed, Capitalism vs. the Climate., Community cohesion, CORONA VIRUS., Coronavirus (COVID-19), Earth, Extinction, Globalization, Inequility, The Future of Mankind, Visions of the future.

 

(Four-minute read)

We already have the power to destroy ourselves without the wisdom that we don’t, but this Coronavirus pandemic is another kettle of fish altogether, there is no need to press a button. 

Most species live for millions of year so we are at 200,000 are teenagers. 

If we play our cards right we could be around for hundreds of thousands of years to come. 

Now that we realized the truth, of the fragility of our present times we need to revamp our World Institutions to get the risk of living down and keep it down forever. 

Perhaps after this Pandemic, we as a species need to write a constitution for humanity to set us on the right course to sustainability. 

Why? 

Because no one individual, no president or politician has been able to solve in the last century even if they wanted to, the problems that Earth our home must tackle as a species. 

———————————————————————————————-

Worldwide we are now looking at more than 838,000 cases of COVID-19 leaving the majority of citizens jobless, broke, and without options.

You’d think people would be used to it by now. Every couple of years the world is thrust into hysteria by the latest virus that is threatening to wipe out a significant portion of the population.

How many shocks can an international economy sustain?

How many shocks are likely on their way?

Forests are burning. Glaciers are melting. Ecological systems are collapsing. Resources are running out.

Coronavirus has and is changing everything and not everything.Post image

We just haven’t noticed it yet.

But those changes will become more apparent by the day.

Suddenly, we may have to think about things we’ve never needed to consider before.

Like a social bomb that can explode at any moment.

In our global society, this outbreak moved from a remote village to a major city on the other side of the world in under 36 hours.

Despite generous government-mandated disaster pay, unemployment, and stimulus checks, it’s only a matter of time before many issues combine to become the flashpoint that leads to an explosion of civil unrest.

The consequences will be very different in countries where political institutions are weaker and where the illness or death of a leader has been known to generate the kind of power vacuum that might inspire rival leaders, opposition parties, or the military to launch a power grab. 

HOWEVER, ultimately its impact will not be counted in human fatalities.

Nor in the cost of treating the sick.

It will be in our minds. It’s in our economic system. In our societies that are all linked to the overwhelming extent of globalisation, urbanisation and ecosystem collapse.

Our interconnected world – and its ultra-efficient flow of trade, investment, knowledge and people – has been revealed to have feet of clay.

Globalisation will have to be rethought because most of the population is the urbanised disassociated from even basic agriculture, NOT TO MENTION THE WORLDS ECOSYSTEMS. 

We have skewed supply chains so far to the extremes that when they are perturbed, people get into a lot of strife and our way of life isn’t built to cope with it.

What COVID19 is emphasising is that our system is set up ideally to transmit such a disease and is extremely susceptible to even small interruptions.

It jumped into a world humans have moulded to their own purposes. But that world is also nirvana to a virus.

We’ve actually put ourselves in an ideal position from the perspective of a virus, which is why we see estimates of anywhere between 30 and 60 per cent of the population likely to get it.

It has burst on an unready world.

COVID-19 will eventually pass and become more controllable with vaccines and developed natural immunity, but not yet and not before it could wreak profound change on those who currently hold political, economic and military power around the globe.

It has set in motion a chain of events that will bring consequences, that none of us  IMAGINE NOW.

Everybody is suddenly very aware of just how reliant we are on China for everything from medicines and machinery to electronic components and rare Earths.

There is a big judgement call to make such are the levels of interdependency built by reliance on global just-in-time supply chains that the developed economies will largely sink or swim together.

But it’s not just China. It’s the whole globally specialised network of supply.

Diversification is now a necessity, not just strategic aspiration.

Suddenly the logic of many belts and many roads is plain.

It is not possible to manage the truth.

When benefits run out on a national scale, fear, lack of food, employment, the number of people dying with the potential for much more yet to come there is risks of a domino effect leading to Civil unrest.

Fear becomes the default emotion. The very emotion that motivates people to take to the streets to engage in civil unrest and protest.

Exceptional conditions of imbalance between needs and available resources.

Historically, larger outbreaks of civil unrest tend to occur in largely populated areas.

But most people don’t go further and ask the question; “What exactly are people afraid of?” Is it death? Of course, that is mankind’s greatest anxiety, especially for those who have children. 

South Korean soldiers, in protective gear, disinfect the Eunpyeong district against the coronavirus in Seoul, South Korea. Picture: Woohae Cho/Getty Images

Civil unrest affects more than just the civilians involved and the law enforcement that are called on to subdue it. It isn’t limited to riots. Violence and destruction aren’t necessary to classify civil unrest. It can start for many reasons. Of course, any prediction is hard to make given that infections haven’t yet peaked.

The sooner you accept the need to go into lockdown, the better.

The sacrifice isn’t fun, and borders on tragic. Hopefully, people will see fit to prepare for such setbacks in the future as history has shown that this will not be the last impending “catastrophe” to derail us from our lives. 

All human comments appriciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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All comments and contributions much appreciated

  • THE BEADY EYE ASKS. HAVE YOU EVER ASKED YOURSELF JUST WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES YOU HUMAN? July 4, 2022
  • THE BEADY EYE ASKS. SHOULD SCOTLAND GO INDEPENDENT? July 2, 2022
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  • THE BEADY EYES PROPOSAL TO END THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF THE UKRAIN AND THE WAR. June 19, 2022
  • THE BEADY EYE ASKS. WHO DO YOU THINK WAS THE GREATEST EXPLORE OF THEM ALL? June 17, 2022

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