Hegel's Hotel is about life -- and about man's relationship to his world, his culture, and to his/or her self. Thus, there is no such thing as a 'false direction' or a 'side-track' because every potential direction has the potential to be meaningful. It's just a matter of timing -- and the evolution of the writer/reader, teacher/student dialectic -- between you and me.
It is this evolving dialectic that will tell us what is best to write about -- not some righteous, anal-retentive, pre-planned agenda that doesn't fit with our mutal ongoing dialectic.
The 'Table of Contents' of Hegel's Hotel can -- and will -- be changed a hundred times before it is finished. It is not this that determines the particular direction and timing of Hegel's Hotel except in some broad, general -- always subject to change -- manner.
Rather, it is the teaching/learning dialectic between me as writer and you as reader with even our so-called 'roles' changing as you give feedback and I listen, or you write and I read -- that will determine the direction -- and particularly the timing -- of 'which floor and which rooms are built first and last' -- in the building of Hegel's Hotel.
In this regard, it is a hundred times better to write to a 'concrete motivated, intelligent reader' who reads, reflects, and asks meaningful questions -- than it is to write to 'The All-Encompasing, Unknown Reader' who may know a lot about philosophy, a little, or none at all -- but any way you slice it -- is basically 'without existence', a 'blank screen' who has no lifeblood pulsating through his or her arteries, no reflections to build from, no feedback that I can engage with -- all so badly needed to push the dialectic forward, in a creative, meaningful manner and direction.
'Blogsite writing' has the potential to be a much more powerful form of teaching and learning than 'old style book writing' because it has the capability of being much more concrete and more immediate -- adapting to one reader, one dialectic -- and/or many.
It brings with it the lifeblood of fresh engagement -- and the ability to turn corners, and/or make new and creative adaptations, on the basis of this fresh engagement.
Blogsite writing brings with it the aliveness of the 'fresh gestalt' as determined by the ongoing, evolving, always subject-to-change, dialectic between writer and reader.
dgb, April 27th, 2008.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
On Promises...Gold...and Fool's Gold...
This is not rocket science nor profound wisdom -- just simple common, pragmatic civil and social sense. Promises are worth nothing unless they are followed through and acted on. Promises --kept -- are gold; promises -- not kept -- are fool's gold. Integrity (and congruence) -- or the lack of it -- is the defining, resulting difference. -- dgb, April 26th, 2008.
Friday, April 25, 2008
What I learned from Gestalt Therapy -- and from Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy'
One of the things I learned from Gestalt Therapy was this: Go with the freshest and strongest 'gestalt' (stimulus) because where it takes you will be alive and spontaneous; not stale and dead. For better or for worse, this is how I am mainly writing Hegel's Hotel -- each new essay bearing the fruit of my latest, freshest, strongest gestalt.
It is not the most organized and/or 'Apollonian' of approaches -- it is more like a dialectic dance between Apollo and Dionysus with the slower, more methodical essays showing the domination of Apollo and the faster, more frenzied essays showing the domination of Dionysus. I view these as my two main 'writing archetypes'.
Dionysus carries the greater speed, sponaneity, creativity, and passion; Apollo shows the slower, more methodical organization. Without the internal, creative -- partly chaotic -- passionate frenzy of my Dionysian archetype, Hegel's Hotel will never be finished before I die. What's more -- people would not want to read it any more than they would want to read tax instructions or court papers. Cheers to Dionysus -- and to Nietzsche who introduced me to Dionysus! And let us not forget Apollo functioning in the background -- sometimes in the foreground -- as organizational and ethical advisor, topdog, drill sergeant, and conscience.
Without the Apollonian archetype within our personalities, there would be no organization and ethical responsibility in our lives, no law and order, no drive to work our way through the mundane repetitions that are necessary in life to get better and better at what we most want to do and be. All would be chaotic, disorganized, and hedonistically narcissistic. There would be no law and order, ethics and/or morals.
Dionysus looks after these latter things -- God of wine and dancing, celebration, narcissism and hedonism, biological impulses. Working together, Dionysus and Apollo help to create in man a 'balanced whole'. Working apart and dissociated from each other, man collapses in self-destruction, either stale and existentially dead (Apollo by himself) or obsessed with narcissistic and hedonistic addictions (Dionysus).
Apollo and Dionysus need each other just as we need their mutual archetypal influence on the growth and evolution of our personality in order that our personality stay balanced, harmonious, and whole. Either side dominating the other will lead to pathology and/or self-destruction (too conservative -- Apollo; or too liberal -- Dionysus).
-- dgb, April 25th, 2008.
It is not the most organized and/or 'Apollonian' of approaches -- it is more like a dialectic dance between Apollo and Dionysus with the slower, more methodical essays showing the domination of Apollo and the faster, more frenzied essays showing the domination of Dionysus. I view these as my two main 'writing archetypes'.
Dionysus carries the greater speed, sponaneity, creativity, and passion; Apollo shows the slower, more methodical organization. Without the internal, creative -- partly chaotic -- passionate frenzy of my Dionysian archetype, Hegel's Hotel will never be finished before I die. What's more -- people would not want to read it any more than they would want to read tax instructions or court papers. Cheers to Dionysus -- and to Nietzsche who introduced me to Dionysus! And let us not forget Apollo functioning in the background -- sometimes in the foreground -- as organizational and ethical advisor, topdog, drill sergeant, and conscience.
Without the Apollonian archetype within our personalities, there would be no organization and ethical responsibility in our lives, no law and order, no drive to work our way through the mundane repetitions that are necessary in life to get better and better at what we most want to do and be. All would be chaotic, disorganized, and hedonistically narcissistic. There would be no law and order, ethics and/or morals.
Dionysus looks after these latter things -- God of wine and dancing, celebration, narcissism and hedonism, biological impulses. Working together, Dionysus and Apollo help to create in man a 'balanced whole'. Working apart and dissociated from each other, man collapses in self-destruction, either stale and existentially dead (Apollo by himself) or obsessed with narcissistic and hedonistic addictions (Dionysus).
Apollo and Dionysus need each other just as we need their mutual archetypal influence on the growth and evolution of our personality in order that our personality stay balanced, harmonious, and whole. Either side dominating the other will lead to pathology and/or self-destruction (too conservative -- Apollo; or too liberal -- Dionysus).
-- dgb, April 25th, 2008.
On Imperfection
Unless we are talking about '2+2=4' -- in other words, the tautology of mathematics -- man is forever condemned to a life of partial imperfection, with greater or lesser negative consequences relative to the severity of the 'error' involved in his degree of imperfection. -- dgb, April 25th,
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Be Re-Born -- Every Day of Your Life
Be re-born every day of your life -- or succumb over time to a 'lifeless existence' -- land of the boring routine, land of the living dead. The bridge between 'being' and 'becoming' is not hard to find -- simply a combination of good contact with yourself and others, and creativity. --dgb, April 20th, 2008, updated April 29th, 2008.
Friday, April 18, 2008
On Unilateralism In Business
The worst mistake a management team can make is not to listen to the feedback of its employees. It shows blatant arrogance and organizational disregard of the value of dialectic dynamics in the ongoing functional operation of the business. Two minds working together are better than one working apart. Many minds working together towards the solution of the same business problem(s)can offer even better solutions to this (these) business problem(s). Who better to help solve these problems than the people who are actually exposed to these problems in the working environment day after day after day? For management to neglect this huge business asset -- many minds working together to solve the same business problem(s) -- is a collosal case of old-fashioned, authoritarian, 'we know better than you' mis-management. This unilateral attitude on the part of management exasperates a 'righteous, either/or, divisional, them against us' mentality that breeds alienation, resentment, anger, and despair instead of cohesiveness and a positive integrative optimism. You tell me which attitude is going to be better for the ongoing functioning of the business?
-- dgb, April 18th, 2008.
-- dgb, April 18th, 2008.
On The Dialectic Dance Between Life and Death, Living and Dying
Freud doesn't seem so outrageous anymore. The older I get the more it doesn't seem so stupid to talk about a 'life instinct' vs. a 'death instinct'. Oxygenation vs. oxidation. We need oxygen to live and we need to 'burn energy to live' but the toxic bi-product of oxygenation and burning energy is 'oxidation' -- which eventually leads to dying and death the more we age and the more we are deficient in all the proper 'anti-oxidants', vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, essential fatty acids, liquids, rest, and exercise that we need to live.
Death can strike suddenly or death can sneak up on us slowly one day at a time. The older we get the more it becomes important to do the 'right' things to preserve and/or enhance our health. There reaches a point where we start to realize that 'death is chasing us' -- I had one friend tell me that. He is only months removed from a heart attack so he knew what he was talking about. Mistakes in proper nutrition, mistakes in judgment relative to our health may not seem so important when we are young and seemingly invulnerable.
But over time life has less and less toleration for 'health errors'. Sometimes it only takes one critical slip up to bring this message home. Other times, it might require a number of slip-ups if life grants us that many chances. Or it may take a 'slow, concerted slip-up over time' to realize that we are not invulnerable, not invincible.
To age and age happily with dignity is a blessing -- a second friend told me that. What we do with that blessing comes from us -- it can only come from us.
I am reminded of an old 'Hot Tuna' song that comes back to haunt me ever so often, sometimes in an unhealthier moment or after a fresh tragedy has struck: 'Death Don't Have No Mercy In This Land'.
What we do with the blessing of life comes from us -- it can only come from us.
-- dgb, April 18th, 2008.
Death can strike suddenly or death can sneak up on us slowly one day at a time. The older we get the more it becomes important to do the 'right' things to preserve and/or enhance our health. There reaches a point where we start to realize that 'death is chasing us' -- I had one friend tell me that. He is only months removed from a heart attack so he knew what he was talking about. Mistakes in proper nutrition, mistakes in judgment relative to our health may not seem so important when we are young and seemingly invulnerable.
But over time life has less and less toleration for 'health errors'. Sometimes it only takes one critical slip up to bring this message home. Other times, it might require a number of slip-ups if life grants us that many chances. Or it may take a 'slow, concerted slip-up over time' to realize that we are not invulnerable, not invincible.
To age and age happily with dignity is a blessing -- a second friend told me that. What we do with that blessing comes from us -- it can only come from us.
I am reminded of an old 'Hot Tuna' song that comes back to haunt me ever so often, sometimes in an unhealthier moment or after a fresh tragedy has struck: 'Death Don't Have No Mercy In This Land'.
What we do with the blessing of life comes from us -- it can only come from us.
-- dgb, April 18th, 2008.
On Being With You
Every day I'm with you is better than a day without you. -- dgb, April 18th, 2008.
On Deconstruction(ism)
'Deconstructionism' (with or without the 'ism' attached to it) by itself leads to 'Nowheresville' -- or stated differently -- 'Philosophical Anhilism'. Deconstructionism needs 'Constructionism' or 'Structualism' as its 'dialectical dancing partner' -- just as Liberalism needs Conservatism and Conservatism needs Liberalism and Capitalism needs Socialism and Socialism needs Capitalism and the Republicans need the Democrats and the Democrats need the Republicans. Every form of 'structuralism' needs its 'alter-ego' to keep it 'honest' and keep it more 'wholistic' as opposed to one-sidedly 'reductionistic'.
-- dgb, April 18th, 2008.
-- dgb, April 18th, 2008.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
On The Dialectic Between New and Old Relationships
New relationships often spring up as 'counter-theses' to existing relationships that may be stuck and/or stale in one particular area...These new relationships and/or new encounters are 'growing points'; the danger is that they may be growing points out of one relationship and into another unless the first problem in the first relationship is addressed and fixed properly...This may or may not happen. The longer the first problem is left to 'fester' and get 'infected', the less likely the problem is ever going to 'heal properly'. New energy, new creativity, and new chemistry is needed or old relationships with old problems are likely to fade away...
-- dgb, April 16th, 2008.
-- dgb, April 16th, 2008.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
On Life and Living...
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
-- Soren Kierkegaard
-- Soren Kierkegaard
Friday, April 11, 2008
On Courage
Recognize that you have the courage within you to fulfill the purpose of your birth. Summon forth the power of your inner courage and live the life of your dreams.
- Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
- Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
Thursday, April 10, 2008
On Understanding Hegel's 'Dialectical Logic' -- An Excerpt from Wikipedia on Hegel
One especially difficult aspect of Hegel's work is his innovation in logic. In response to Immanuel Kant's challenge to the limits of Pure Reason, Hegel developed a radically new form of logic, which he called speculation, and which is today popularly called dialectics. The difficulty in reading Hegel was perceived in Hegel's own day, and persists into the 21st century. To understand Hegel fully requires paying attention to his critique of standard logic, such as the law of contradiction and the law of the excluded middle, and, whether one accepts or rejects it, at least taking it seriously. Many philosophers who came after Hegel and were influenced by him, whether adopting or rejecting his ideas, did so without fully absorbing his new speculative or dialectical logic.
If one wanted to provide a big piece of the Hegel puzzle to the beginner, one might present the following statement from Part One of the Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences: The Logic:
"... a much misunderstood phenomenon in the history of philosophy — the refutation of one system by another, of an earlier by a later. Most commonly the refutation is taken in a purely negative sense to mean that the system refuted has ceased to count for anything, has been set aside and done for. Were it so, the history of philosophy would be, of all studies, most saddening, displaying, as it does, the refutation of every system which time has brought forth. Now although it may be admitted that every philosophy has been refuted, it must be in an equal degree maintained that no philosophy has been refuted. And that in two ways. For first, every philosophy that deserves the name always embodies the Idea: and secondly, every system represents one particular factor or particular stage in the evolution of the Idea. The refutation of a philosophy, therefore, only means that its barriers are crossed, and its special principle reduced to a factor in the completer principle that follows"
-- from Wikipedia
If one wanted to provide a big piece of the Hegel puzzle to the beginner, one might present the following statement from Part One of the Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences: The Logic:
"... a much misunderstood phenomenon in the history of philosophy — the refutation of one system by another, of an earlier by a later. Most commonly the refutation is taken in a purely negative sense to mean that the system refuted has ceased to count for anything, has been set aside and done for. Were it so, the history of philosophy would be, of all studies, most saddening, displaying, as it does, the refutation of every system which time has brought forth. Now although it may be admitted that every philosophy has been refuted, it must be in an equal degree maintained that no philosophy has been refuted. And that in two ways. For first, every philosophy that deserves the name always embodies the Idea: and secondly, every system represents one particular factor or particular stage in the evolution of the Idea. The refutation of a philosophy, therefore, only means that its barriers are crossed, and its special principle reduced to a factor in the completer principle that follows"
-- from Wikipedia
An Email Transaction Between My Father and I...On Education, Focus, Hard Work, and Achievement
Dave,
I have heard it said, experience is the jockey; education is the horse.
I am just going back on your letters, reading them again, and bringing them forward...
Dad
...................................................................................
On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 5:43 PM, david bain wrote:
Dad,
To add a little more to what I just said,
egotistically speaking, I would like to show people --
fully educated and not fully educated alike -- with
particular emphasis on my nieces perhaps, that you do
not necessary need the highest of high 'academic'
educations in order to deliver a very good -- or even
great -- piece of work to the world. To be sure it can
help alot but in the end great pieces of work are
based mainly on talent, endless hours of hard work,
and the driving motivation underneath to not stop
until you have fully accomplished -- to the highest
self-standard possible -- what you set out to
accomplish.
Again, you don't need to have a PHD to accomplish what
you want to in life. To be sure, it is great if you
can get it -- and it can help you a lot towards the
goals you want to achieve in life.
But still in the end -- the ultimate creative
dialectic is between ourselves and ourselves, between
'being' and 'becoming' -- between 'striving' and
'accomplishing' -- with or without a full education.
And this we can continue to do until we die.
It doesn't matter if you are a farmer, a fisherman or
a Harvard Phd grad. Talent and hard work is the main
'dialectic combination' that we need to get us to the
top of whereever we want to go...with some good luck,
fortune, and timing along the way...Good luck usually
smiles back at those who work the hardest to create
their own 'luck' and be ready for it when it comes.
'When opportunity knocks, you have to be ready to open the door.
(Somebody said that.) Or conversely, you have to keep knocking until you create your own opportunities. Maybe I've missed my main chances in life in terms of being a well-known and well-respected teacher, writer, philosopher... Or maybe I will still have opportunites and/or achievements yet to come...
I prefer to optimistically believe in
the latter -- just as I believe you can still continue
to re-create yourself as a 'romantic Canadian poet'.
Cheers again...To education, focus, hard work -- and achievement...
dave
I have heard it said, experience is the jockey; education is the horse.
I am just going back on your letters, reading them again, and bringing them forward...
Dad
...................................................................................
On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 5:43 PM, david bain
Dad,
To add a little more to what I just said,
egotistically speaking, I would like to show people --
fully educated and not fully educated alike -- with
particular emphasis on my nieces perhaps, that you do
not necessary need the highest of high 'academic'
educations in order to deliver a very good -- or even
great -- piece of work to the world. To be sure it can
help alot but in the end great pieces of work are
based mainly on talent, endless hours of hard work,
and the driving motivation underneath to not stop
until you have fully accomplished -- to the highest
self-standard possible -- what you set out to
accomplish.
Again, you don't need to have a PHD to accomplish what
you want to in life. To be sure, it is great if you
can get it -- and it can help you a lot towards the
goals you want to achieve in life.
But still in the end -- the ultimate creative
dialectic is between ourselves and ourselves, between
'being' and 'becoming' -- between 'striving' and
'accomplishing' -- with or without a full education.
And this we can continue to do until we die.
It doesn't matter if you are a farmer, a fisherman or
a Harvard Phd grad. Talent and hard work is the main
'dialectic combination' that we need to get us to the
top of whereever we want to go...with some good luck,
fortune, and timing along the way...Good luck usually
smiles back at those who work the hardest to create
their own 'luck' and be ready for it when it comes.
'When opportunity knocks, you have to be ready to open the door.
(Somebody said that.) Or conversely, you have to keep knocking until you create your own opportunities. Maybe I've missed my main chances in life in terms of being a well-known and well-respected teacher, writer, philosopher... Or maybe I will still have opportunites and/or achievements yet to come...
I prefer to optimistically believe in
the latter -- just as I believe you can still continue
to re-create yourself as a 'romantic Canadian poet'.
Cheers again...To education, focus, hard work -- and achievement...
dave
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
My Ideal and Not So Ideal Day
I love to have my mornings free to myself -- to write; I hate to have my evenings alone to myself -- to brood, be lonely, and accentuate other negative features of the dialectical dance between 'being and nothingness'...At best, my lonely evenings may give me an assortment of new self-awareness aphorisms for Hegel's Hotel..
-- dgb, April 8th, 2008, modified and updated April 11th, 2008.
-- dgb, April 8th, 2008, modified and updated April 11th, 2008.
Monday, April 7, 2008
On Sarcasm
Sarcasm undermines intimacy, close friendship, and love.
Better to be upfront and direct about whatever your complaint
is and get through it -- a dialectic integrative resolution and/or
forgiveness -- than to carry a 'hanging on pitbull bite of
resentment and sarcasm' into a path of less and less intimacy.
-- dgb, April 7th, 2008.
Better to be upfront and direct about whatever your complaint
is and get through it -- a dialectic integrative resolution and/or
forgiveness -- than to carry a 'hanging on pitbull bite of
resentment and sarcasm' into a path of less and less intimacy.
-- dgb, April 7th, 2008.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
On Addictions: Chasing The Wrong Type of 'Candy' into the 'Candy Shop'...
When you feel an addiction start to come over you, start to consume you, take over your life, lead you down the wrong path, down a path of self-destruction - grab hold of yourself, give yourself a shake, a real good shake...and assuming you can - without help - grab hold of your addiction, and throw it by the wayside where it belongs, like a poisonous snake, before it can strike you again. If it's disguised as candy, stay away from the candy shop, because beneath the candy is poison, and quickly or slowly, if you keep going back to the candy shop, you're going back for more poison...and that can only have one eventual outcome...death and/or self-destruction...one is a real death...the other is a living death...to you and the people who love you...it basically amounts to the same thing...- dgb, April 7th, 2008.
In memory of Kim: You were a pretty little 15 year old with a smile that could light up a room, and give life to a party, when I met you through your sister back about 1980-81. I was fresh out of university, about 26 years old and spent the next 11 years living with your sister, having two children with her, 5 or 6 good years, 5 or 6 bad years. We all spent too much time at the bars in those early days, partying, consuming too much alcohol, but you got into something much worse. Around 25 if I have my years right you got into 'crack'...When you were around 30 to 35, I saw you for one of the last times, briefly at Sunnybrook...By then you had serious internal organ problems...I knew you had to radically change your lifestyle or this 'disease' was going to get you...I don't judge you, I don't blame you, I just wish I could have said something better to help you. I didn't. Whatever I said was not good enough to change your path. You went back to your neighborhood, back to your network of friends, back to your lifestyle...and about 4 years later (between 35 and 39), I cringed and cried to hear my son describe the way you died in a Midland? hospital. You leave behind you two young kids with serious unfinished issues in their closet, trying to sort out what you did and didn't teach them. Your crack-candy was poison. Too much alcohol is poison. Too much gambling is poison...
Stay away from all candy shops that feed you poison. Casinos feed you poison disguised as candy. Go to the wrong website and you will get poison disguised as candy. Take the wrong medication and you will get poision disguised as candy. Listen to the wrong politician and you will get poison disguised as candy. The worst of our culture, our society, wants to sell us poison disguised as candy. That's what 'narcissistic capitalism' is - capitalism that plays upon our narcissism to sell poison disguised as candy.
The seller makes and markets the candy and the buyer takes the poison. The employer takes the candy and the employee takes the poison. Or the employee takes the candy and the employer takes the poison...Or the union takes the candy and both the employer and the employee take the poison. Or the court delivers the verdict and either the single mother or the single father takes the poison -- more often the father in my opinion these days. Or the politicians take the candy -- overloaded pensions -- while our middle class senior citizens take the poison -- all of their hard-earned -- and taxed -- pension money has been spent and/or kept by the politicians...Or the campaigning politicians promise us the moon -- promise us candy -- and later deliver nothing, little -- or poison. Or China, Mexico and the 'Global Corporations' that use China and Mexico take the candy while our homegrown manufacturing companies in Canada and the U.S.A. -- and all the people who used to work in them -- take the poison (lost jobs and careers through closed down plants that moved to China or Mexico or anywhere else in the world with 'dirt-cheap, sweatshop labor'.
This is 'Global, Narcissistic Capitalism' in the 21st century.
It's all about taking a lot and delivering little.
It's all about marketing nutrition, pleasure, and/or candy -- and delivering empty promises and/or poison.
- dgb, April 7th, 2008, updated April 11th, 2008, and May 30th 2008.
In memory of Kim: You were a pretty little 15 year old with a smile that could light up a room, and give life to a party, when I met you through your sister back about 1980-81. I was fresh out of university, about 26 years old and spent the next 11 years living with your sister, having two children with her, 5 or 6 good years, 5 or 6 bad years. We all spent too much time at the bars in those early days, partying, consuming too much alcohol, but you got into something much worse. Around 25 if I have my years right you got into 'crack'...When you were around 30 to 35, I saw you for one of the last times, briefly at Sunnybrook...By then you had serious internal organ problems...I knew you had to radically change your lifestyle or this 'disease' was going to get you...I don't judge you, I don't blame you, I just wish I could have said something better to help you. I didn't. Whatever I said was not good enough to change your path. You went back to your neighborhood, back to your network of friends, back to your lifestyle...and about 4 years later (between 35 and 39), I cringed and cried to hear my son describe the way you died in a Midland? hospital. You leave behind you two young kids with serious unfinished issues in their closet, trying to sort out what you did and didn't teach them. Your crack-candy was poison. Too much alcohol is poison. Too much gambling is poison...
Stay away from all candy shops that feed you poison. Casinos feed you poison disguised as candy. Go to the wrong website and you will get poison disguised as candy. Take the wrong medication and you will get poision disguised as candy. Listen to the wrong politician and you will get poison disguised as candy. The worst of our culture, our society, wants to sell us poison disguised as candy. That's what 'narcissistic capitalism' is - capitalism that plays upon our narcissism to sell poison disguised as candy.
The seller makes and markets the candy and the buyer takes the poison. The employer takes the candy and the employee takes the poison. Or the employee takes the candy and the employer takes the poison...Or the union takes the candy and both the employer and the employee take the poison. Or the court delivers the verdict and either the single mother or the single father takes the poison -- more often the father in my opinion these days. Or the politicians take the candy -- overloaded pensions -- while our middle class senior citizens take the poison -- all of their hard-earned -- and taxed -- pension money has been spent and/or kept by the politicians...Or the campaigning politicians promise us the moon -- promise us candy -- and later deliver nothing, little -- or poison. Or China, Mexico and the 'Global Corporations' that use China and Mexico take the candy while our homegrown manufacturing companies in Canada and the U.S.A. -- and all the people who used to work in them -- take the poison (lost jobs and careers through closed down plants that moved to China or Mexico or anywhere else in the world with 'dirt-cheap, sweatshop labor'.
This is 'Global, Narcissistic Capitalism' in the 21st century.
It's all about taking a lot and delivering little.
It's all about marketing nutrition, pleasure, and/or candy -- and delivering empty promises and/or poison.
- dgb, April 7th, 2008, updated April 11th, 2008, and May 30th 2008.
On Judging
I don't need you to judge me; I just need you beside me, to hold you and be held by you. dgb, -- April 7th, 2008.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Aphorisms
On Aphorisms
An 'aphorism' is the smallest of small 'philosophical essays', ideally usually only a sentence or two long. Nietzsche - one of the most powerful of all philosophical writers - used aphorisms to his greatest of advantage. In his words, he used them to 'philosophize with a hammer' - he wanted to make his point quickly, concisely, and with a flourish. There was no one better at this than Nietzsxhe. He packed a powerful philosophical punch in a small amount of words. I would recommend that Helium have a spot where their aspiring philosophical writers can practise the art of the aphorism - philosophizing with a hammer a surgeon's scalpal or something with less of a violent image attached to it but just as fast, sharp, concise, and effective. - dgb, jan. 26th, updated mar. 16th, 2008.
......................................................... .
On Essays As The Bridge From 'Being' to 'Becoming'
An essay a day keeps the alienation bug away - by keeping the 'creativity juices' flowing. Our creativity juices are our defense against wasting away from 'being' and 'becoming' to 'non-being' and 'non-becoming'. - dgb, dec. 16th, 2007; updated jan. 26th, 2007.
......................................................
On Possibilities
Life is too short for hanging on to regrets and lost possibilities; move forward to new possibilities - and how shall I say it? - don't blow it this time; create yourself anew. - dgb, mar. 16th, 2008.
.......................................................
On Structure vs. Process; Familiarity vs. Unfamiliarity
In general, most people seem to prefer structure and familiarity to process and unfamiliarity (Structuralism vs. Process Theory). Structure and familiarity is easier to 'perceptually recognize, cognitively process, and give 'associative meaning to'. We all tend to evaluate things and experiences today based on our experiences from the past. Call this the 'bias of past experiences' which may or may not apply in the case we are now judging. Life however, is full of surprises and unpredictabilities - and the 'curveballs of non-expectation'. That is why DGB Philosophy aims to teach the Heraclitean, General Semantic, and Gestalt Principle of Process Theory and Change (Heraclitus, Aristotle, Korzybski, Hayakawa...) more than the Principle of Structuralism. We need both - a good 'dialectical- homeostatic balance' between structuralism and process theory - but in general, at least relative to my experience, people are more prone to making too many bad generalizations rather than not enough good ones. (Or often, they both tend to occur in the same package - too many bad generalizations, and not enough good ones.)
- dgb, Jan. 26th, updated Feb. 16th, 2008.
.........................................................
On The Fear of 'Going Across'
Man sometimes finds himself on the plank between the dread of a meaningless existence and the fear of failing or looking foolish. These are the twin abysses of man's existence looming precariously below him on both sides of his bold or petrified, progressive or regressive, 'going-across' of the proverbial Nietzschean tightrope - the tightrope from being to becoming. Have courage my friend, have courage. Don't look back and don't look down.
- dgb, September 13th, 2007.
.........................................................
On Passion
When you find your passion diminishing, it is time to free yourself up, to be courageous and creative, to do what little and/or big things you need to do, to re-invent yourself...and in so doing, to re-inspire yourself. As I heard a musician say not too long ago, you have to be inspired yourself in order to inspire others. db, jan. 11th, 2008.
........................................................< /p>
On Sexuality
Sexuality is the deepest, most intense, passionate form of playing out the multi-dialectic paradox in man's nature - in effect, playing out the discord between the opposite poles of his and her innermost values, impulses, and restraints in a way that satisfies (or doesn't satisfy) each person's individual striving for homeostatic (dialectic) balance. - dgb, Mar. 15/08
.....................................................
On War
War turns more and more live people into dead people, good people into bad people, happy people into miserable people, financially solid people into financially unstable people, friends and allies into enemies, trusting people into distrusting people - have I missed anything? The only thing that is going to stop a war that has not been totally dominated by one side over the other is people on both sides of the war getting sick and tired of all the negatives of war - particularly people dying. Don't we - or won't we - ever learn that there are no winners in war, only losers? And expanding a war - turning a regional war into a global one - that is pure, unadulterated, psycho-sociopathic thinking. Dr. Strangelove meets 21st Century Schizoid Man. - dgb, mar. 22nd, 2008.
........................................................
On Academic Institutions
Don't let yourself be victimized by how academic institutions judge you based on their oftentimes questionable ethical standards; rather, judge academic institutions by how relevant they are, and by how much they contribute to the growth of society and the individual as a whole, and/or conversely, allow themselves to be victimized by the same narcissism, the same special interests groups, and the same bias towards money that negatively affects all of our society and each individual in our society - again as a whole. - dgb, Mar. 23rd, 2008.
....................................................
On Academic Technicalities
Don't let academic technicalities supersede the importance of, and the need for, pragmatic function, relevance, and vision. - dgb, Mar. 23rd, 2008.
..................................................
On Business, Humanism, and Family
Don't allow the chase for the 'holy grail' - money - squash the huge importance of treating people like people in business - of treating people with respect, integrity, dignity, and compassion. Everyone in the workplace has the right to live a balanced life and lifestyle outside of work; work can never replace family, and to the extent that an emplooyer and/or employee tries to replace family with work, they are undermining and sabotaging the very fabric of our society - family. Too much work can - and often does - lead to no family. And that leaves both the individual and our society as a whole prone to a very shallow, uprooted and unrooted existence. Work and family need to be 'dialectically in balance with each other' - they both need to support and enhance each other, not undermine each other. - dgb, Mar. 23rd, 2008
.................................................
On Humanism and Government Protection In The Workforce.
The sad reality is that there is very little humanism and goverment protection for the individual in most business workplaces. Money, narcissism, disrespect, dehumanization, and alienation replace respect, dignity, integrity, and compassion - this still in our so-called 'enlightened, democratic' society. Money and narcissism supersede humanism and humanistic-existentialism. - dgb, Mar. 23rd, 2008.
On Rating Systems
The essential questions are: Who does the rating? How qualified are they to rate what is being rated? How much time is being spent on the rating? Is the rating being done with care, respect, and professionalism? Or is it a 'fast food' type of rating system where what you put into it is what you get out? No rating system will ever be perfect because it will always involve some greater or lesser degrees of subjectivism and imperfection. But I say this again - if you want people to respect the rating system, then it has to be done with care, respect, and professionalism by someone who knows what they are rating. - dgb, udated mar. 16th, 2008.
.........................................................
On The Dialectic Process, Debate, Democracy, and Evolution
Free debate - utilizing the dialectic process in an efficient, productive manner - is the essence of democracy and healthy evolution. - db
Free debate - utilizing the dialectic process in an efficient productive manner - is the best means a society and an individual has to stay in touch with 'truth and value'. - db
Free dialectic debate functions as the 'truth and value police'. - db
Two brains - hearts, spirits, souls - working well together are better than one. It's often called 'chemistry'. - db
A study group on the internet - particularly if everyone comes to the group prepared - can be a fast and effient form of high-end learning. Is this 'cheating'? Or is it a 'better form of evolution'? Can our politicians learn something from this process? Is time spent in parliament, Congress, the Senate, any business or political meeting better utilized trash-taling and bringing each other down - or behaving like an urgent study group working together with the clock ticking towards the same goal? Is it fair to say that maybe our students on campus have 'reached a higher form of evolution' - than our politicians? Should our Facebook student be condemned and expelled? - or honoured and copied for his creative ingenuity and power of organizing people towards a common goal? - db
- dgb, Mar. 13th, 2008.
.........................................................
On The Canadian (American) Domestic Justice System and The War of the Sexes
It is funny. When men and women are getting along well together, they can generally share income and expenses fairly easily. However, when the top or bottom of the relationship blows apart, explodes or implodes, and when all mutual trust, respect, and compassion is gone, then the situation becomes like Lord of The Flies. Both parties are running and screaming and lying to protect their money and assets, as well as often, to get what they can from the other person. The goal now is not to share and care but to grab and conquer. Do we call that 'human nature'? Or do we call that 'human nature in the context of a narcissistic Capitalist socieity?' All I know is that the domestic court system (Canada and probably the U.S. too) wreaks of bias, subjectivism, and narcissism, and needs to be completely re-thought. It is devastating the Canadian family situation and the level of trust between men and women who have had to go through it. Both sexes lose as no one wants to risk going through this process again. The Canadian Domestic Courts are driving - or at least exasperating - a huge wedge between the sexes. Money is usually the main issue. Both sexes should be able to walk away from a court system without going broke on lawyers and/or without being povertized by the court judgment. Compassion for both sexes - both by the government and by the court system -is absolutely not happening. This is absolutely tragic in its short and long term consequences.
- dgb, March 14/08
An 'aphorism' is the smallest of small 'philosophical essays', ideally usually only a sentence or two long. Nietzsche - one of the most powerful of all philosophical writers - used aphorisms to his greatest of advantage. In his words, he used them to 'philosophize with a hammer' - he wanted to make his point quickly, concisely, and with a flourish. There was no one better at this than Nietzsxhe. He packed a powerful philosophical punch in a small amount of words. I would recommend that Helium have a spot where their aspiring philosophical writers can practise the art of the aphorism - philosophizing with a hammer a surgeon's scalpal or something with less of a violent image attached to it but just as fast, sharp, concise, and effective. - dgb, jan. 26th, updated mar. 16th, 2008.
......................................................... .
On Essays As The Bridge From 'Being' to 'Becoming'
An essay a day keeps the alienation bug away - by keeping the 'creativity juices' flowing. Our creativity juices are our defense against wasting away from 'being' and 'becoming' to 'non-being' and 'non-becoming'. - dgb, dec. 16th, 2007; updated jan. 26th, 2007.
......................................................
On Possibilities
Life is too short for hanging on to regrets and lost possibilities; move forward to new possibilities - and how shall I say it? - don't blow it this time; create yourself anew. - dgb, mar. 16th, 2008.
.......................................................
On Structure vs. Process; Familiarity vs. Unfamiliarity
In general, most people seem to prefer structure and familiarity to process and unfamiliarity (Structuralism vs. Process Theory). Structure and familiarity is easier to 'perceptually recognize, cognitively process, and give 'associative meaning to'. We all tend to evaluate things and experiences today based on our experiences from the past. Call this the 'bias of past experiences' which may or may not apply in the case we are now judging. Life however, is full of surprises and unpredictabilities - and the 'curveballs of non-expectation'. That is why DGB Philosophy aims to teach the Heraclitean, General Semantic, and Gestalt Principle of Process Theory and Change (Heraclitus, Aristotle, Korzybski, Hayakawa...) more than the Principle of Structuralism. We need both - a good 'dialectical- homeostatic balance' between structuralism and process theory - but in general, at least relative to my experience, people are more prone to making too many bad generalizations rather than not enough good ones. (Or often, they both tend to occur in the same package - too many bad generalizations, and not enough good ones.)
- dgb, Jan. 26th, updated Feb. 16th, 2008.
.........................................................
On The Fear of 'Going Across'
Man sometimes finds himself on the plank between the dread of a meaningless existence and the fear of failing or looking foolish. These are the twin abysses of man's existence looming precariously below him on both sides of his bold or petrified, progressive or regressive, 'going-across' of the proverbial Nietzschean tightrope - the tightrope from being to becoming. Have courage my friend, have courage. Don't look back and don't look down.
- dgb, September 13th, 2007.
.........................................................
On Passion
When you find your passion diminishing, it is time to free yourself up, to be courageous and creative, to do what little and/or big things you need to do, to re-invent yourself...and in so doing, to re-inspire yourself. As I heard a musician say not too long ago, you have to be inspired yourself in order to inspire others. db, jan. 11th, 2008.
........................................................< /p>
On Sexuality
Sexuality is the deepest, most intense, passionate form of playing out the multi-dialectic paradox in man's nature - in effect, playing out the discord between the opposite poles of his and her innermost values, impulses, and restraints in a way that satisfies (or doesn't satisfy) each person's individual striving for homeostatic (dialectic) balance. - dgb, Mar. 15/08
.....................................................
On War
War turns more and more live people into dead people, good people into bad people, happy people into miserable people, financially solid people into financially unstable people, friends and allies into enemies, trusting people into distrusting people - have I missed anything? The only thing that is going to stop a war that has not been totally dominated by one side over the other is people on both sides of the war getting sick and tired of all the negatives of war - particularly people dying. Don't we - or won't we - ever learn that there are no winners in war, only losers? And expanding a war - turning a regional war into a global one - that is pure, unadulterated, psycho-sociopathic thinking. Dr. Strangelove meets 21st Century Schizoid Man. - dgb, mar. 22nd, 2008.
........................................................
On Academic Institutions
Don't let yourself be victimized by how academic institutions judge you based on their oftentimes questionable ethical standards; rather, judge academic institutions by how relevant they are, and by how much they contribute to the growth of society and the individual as a whole, and/or conversely, allow themselves to be victimized by the same narcissism, the same special interests groups, and the same bias towards money that negatively affects all of our society and each individual in our society - again as a whole. - dgb, Mar. 23rd, 2008.
....................................................
On Academic Technicalities
Don't let academic technicalities supersede the importance of, and the need for, pragmatic function, relevance, and vision. - dgb, Mar. 23rd, 2008.
..................................................
On Business, Humanism, and Family
Don't allow the chase for the 'holy grail' - money - squash the huge importance of treating people like people in business - of treating people with respect, integrity, dignity, and compassion. Everyone in the workplace has the right to live a balanced life and lifestyle outside of work; work can never replace family, and to the extent that an emplooyer and/or employee tries to replace family with work, they are undermining and sabotaging the very fabric of our society - family. Too much work can - and often does - lead to no family. And that leaves both the individual and our society as a whole prone to a very shallow, uprooted and unrooted existence. Work and family need to be 'dialectically in balance with each other' - they both need to support and enhance each other, not undermine each other. - dgb, Mar. 23rd, 2008
.................................................
On Humanism and Government Protection In The Workforce.
The sad reality is that there is very little humanism and goverment protection for the individual in most business workplaces. Money, narcissism, disrespect, dehumanization, and alienation replace respect, dignity, integrity, and compassion - this still in our so-called 'enlightened, democratic' society. Money and narcissism supersede humanism and humanistic-existentialism. - dgb, Mar. 23rd, 2008.
On Rating Systems
The essential questions are: Who does the rating? How qualified are they to rate what is being rated? How much time is being spent on the rating? Is the rating being done with care, respect, and professionalism? Or is it a 'fast food' type of rating system where what you put into it is what you get out? No rating system will ever be perfect because it will always involve some greater or lesser degrees of subjectivism and imperfection. But I say this again - if you want people to respect the rating system, then it has to be done with care, respect, and professionalism by someone who knows what they are rating. - dgb, udated mar. 16th, 2008.
.........................................................
On The Dialectic Process, Debate, Democracy, and Evolution
Free debate - utilizing the dialectic process in an efficient, productive manner - is the essence of democracy and healthy evolution. - db
Free debate - utilizing the dialectic process in an efficient productive manner - is the best means a society and an individual has to stay in touch with 'truth and value'. - db
Free dialectic debate functions as the 'truth and value police'. - db
Two brains - hearts, spirits, souls - working well together are better than one. It's often called 'chemistry'. - db
A study group on the internet - particularly if everyone comes to the group prepared - can be a fast and effient form of high-end learning. Is this 'cheating'? Or is it a 'better form of evolution'? Can our politicians learn something from this process? Is time spent in parliament, Congress, the Senate, any business or political meeting better utilized trash-taling and bringing each other down - or behaving like an urgent study group working together with the clock ticking towards the same goal? Is it fair to say that maybe our students on campus have 'reached a higher form of evolution' - than our politicians? Should our Facebook student be condemned and expelled? - or honoured and copied for his creative ingenuity and power of organizing people towards a common goal? - db
- dgb, Mar. 13th, 2008.
.........................................................
On The Canadian (American) Domestic Justice System and The War of the Sexes
It is funny. When men and women are getting along well together, they can generally share income and expenses fairly easily. However, when the top or bottom of the relationship blows apart, explodes or implodes, and when all mutual trust, respect, and compassion is gone, then the situation becomes like Lord of The Flies. Both parties are running and screaming and lying to protect their money and assets, as well as often, to get what they can from the other person. The goal now is not to share and care but to grab and conquer. Do we call that 'human nature'? Or do we call that 'human nature in the context of a narcissistic Capitalist socieity?' All I know is that the domestic court system (Canada and probably the U.S. too) wreaks of bias, subjectivism, and narcissism, and needs to be completely re-thought. It is devastating the Canadian family situation and the level of trust between men and women who have had to go through it. Both sexes lose as no one wants to risk going through this process again. The Canadian Domestic Courts are driving - or at least exasperating - a huge wedge between the sexes. Money is usually the main issue. Both sexes should be able to walk away from a court system without going broke on lawyers and/or without being povertized by the court judgment. Compassion for both sexes - both by the government and by the court system -is absolutely not happening. This is absolutely tragic in its short and long term consequences.
- dgb, March 14/08
Thursday, April 3, 2008
On Conflict
When friendship, values, and integrity clash -- who wins? What wins? Who loses? What loses? Resolve the differences, my friend, resolve the differences. Or be forever looking for new friends. -- dgb, April 3rd, 2008.
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