Can we save our planet by reasoning together?

[hug]

coberst, I'll provide my thoughts on that question in awhile, because I'd like to first see the early results of the poll about what morality means to people. My view is also provided in the book. But, I'll comment on it more here, once I try to learn about people's current views from the informal poll. Thanks for participating!

 

By the way, If you are interested in a personal story, see my post in the community poll regarding earthquakes.

[Michaelangelica]

Whoo! You are a great help!!

I did not mean it as aput-down.

 

It is just that greater minds than yours or mine have grappled with this and failed.

We have unprecedented environmental degradation on this little planet. Chemical, ocean, biosphere, atmosphere, water, soil salinity soil poisoning, unuseable soil because of cluster bombs or land-mines, desertification of soil, eco-system collapse, biological extinction, Artic melting, GW, war and poverty

 

Against this we do have farmers who care and look after their land as best they know how; volunteer land care groups,; growing environmental awareness; David Suzuki, Amnesty International, Green Peace etc.

 

It is just that if you are hungry or cold you may need to chop down the tree that shades you, binds the soil from erosion, shelters various bugs and other "critters", so you can burn it to warm you, eat or cook your food.

 

So I ask you Can we save our planet by reasoning together?

Reason seems to have got us in this mess. Perhaps we need something else?

What about a feeling anger, love, concern, fear - will any of these help?

International leadership-no, just a contradiction in terms.

The Internet- for the privileged few perhaps.

We will see when the $100 computer comes out.

 

There is another thread here on poverty and I mentioned Mini or micro banks how they give loans ( like $10) to women that empower them to start their own businesses. This is something your local community group can support. This is practical, real support and change for poverty at least. It has been shown to work and so far has helped millions. We need it to help Billions

 

How many trees have you planted this year?

 

How many letters did you write for amnesty?

 

Do you recycle everything you can?

 

How much have you helped local environmental groups? etc many questions.

 

Talk is cheap, we have no time left for it.

 

We need to do something now in our own backyards.

Otherwise my answer to your question is a resounding NO.

and

Perhaps the next dominant species on the blue planet will have better luck than us. I wish them well, they will need lots of good luck.

 

PS Just read you last post (no pun intended) we may have been posting at the same time

I agree with all you say.

I have tried to give my children adiinterested education. (You are one of the few people I have seen use the word correctly)

I suplimented their schooling with clases in art, swimming, music, guides,books and lots of sillyness like the Goons and Dr. Who and tried to disrupt their logical thought patterns and any idea of a catechism of answers to anything (I was bought up on it (Catholicism) too I could never remember any of it -terrible memory and got into heaps of trouble)

Must go now Robin Hood is on TV!!

[coberst]

Michael..

 

But feeling without reason seems a deadly cocktail. We need to be motivated by feeling but guided by reason.

 

If we cannot reason together can we feel together? Trust in feeling rather than trust in reasoning? That scares hell out of me. I think that we need to establish a confidence in reason. People are born with a trust in feeling that I think is what we must learn to control with our reason.

[Michaelangelica]

Michael..

We need to be motivated by feeling but guided by reason.

OK I'll buy that.

 

So, do we need more motivation (than a dying planet) ie feeling?

If so how do we get it?

 

Many people believe there is nothing they can do.

"The problem is too big."

"What can I do about it?"

They have tried and failed.

They feel, and often are, disenfranchised, powerless.

"Anyway it might'n happen anyhow."

"By then I'll be dead. My kid's problem."

 

Reason and feeling working to achieve nothing

 

Hitler seemed to be a past-master of motivation.

Has he anything to teach us?

 

PS

You may be interested to read this journalist's view.

I don't know if I agree.

Maybe I haven't looked for evidence of it.

AlterNet: EnviroHealth: A Global Democratic Movement Is About to Pop

[coberst]

Michae..

 

My answer is contained in this message 'Hey! Get a Life--An Intellectual Life'.

 

Hobbies are ways in which many individuals express their individuality. Those matters that excite an individual interest and curiosity are those very things that allow the individual him or her to self-understanding and also for others to understand them. Interests define individuality and help to provide meaning to life. We all look for some ideology, philosophy or religion to provide meaning to life.

 

When examining psychosis the psychiatrist advises either the establishment of an interpersonal evolvement or for finding interests and perhaps new patterns of thought. Many of us find that our work provides that means for identity and personal fulfillment.

 

None of us have discovered our full potentialities or have fully explored in depth those we have discovered. Self-development and self-expression are relatively new ideas in human history. The arts are one means for this self-expression. The artist may find drawing or constructing sculptures as a means for self-discovery. The self-learner may find essay writing of equal importance. Consciousness of individuality was first become a possibility in the middle Ages. The Renaissance and further the Reformation enhanced the development of individual identification.

 

The word “individual” moved from the indivisible and collective to the divisible and distinctive. In this we see the development of an understanding of self-consciousness thus illustrating the dramatic change taking place in our developing understanding of the self as a distinct subject not just a cipher in a community. This was part of the Renaissance.

 

I recommend that each of us develop the hobby of an intellectual life. We could add to our regular routine the development of an invigorating intellectual life wherein we sought disinterested knowledge; knowledge that is not for the purpose of some immediate need but something that stirs our curiosity, which we seek to understand for the simple reason that we feel a need to understand a particular domain of knowledge.

 

 

 

 

The question is why do we behave in the manner that we do? We have the sciences of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and psychiatry to study such things and to acquire a comprehension of such matters. We do not ‘see’ what is going on all around us because we have lived in the middle of such behavior all of our lives. We can ‘see’ only what we are prepared to ‘see’.

 

Some wise person said “know thyself”. We have no way of knowing our self until we begin to study what these sciences have learned and can tell us. If we wish to follow the wise admonition “know thyself” we will begin the process of learning about the findings of these sciences.

 

I think that one of the steps in the process of self-actualization is to read what the best thinkers have to say about their comprehension of human nature.