Society

Day 2016, In the clouds?

Daily picture

If I talk to people about life, politics and what is important for them in life the one thing that gets mentioned a lot is tolerance for each other’s views. I cannot agree more if, and I say if everybody would follow that rule.

But if I think about it more, I immediately see some problems with this ideal of respecting each other’s way of life. It is the wet dream of all the libertarians in the world off course, a society of loving egoists but we all live in some kind of group. At work you live in a small group where you might have a lot of freedom, but the workplace expects from you that you follow certain rules like safety instructions and the expectance that you deliver some sort of work or added value for the money you get paid. You cannot go to work and expect your boss to respect your personal opinion that following safety rules is wrong, your boss can’t be tolerance towards you, he can at most tolerate that you want to work unsafe in your own time.

Continue reading →

Day 1775, lion’s.

Daily picture, Poetry

I sometimes wonder if the animal, or the human in us, takes life so dam serious. I don’t think that animals think in words and concepts like we do. A lion is not thinking about his vacation the coming summer, or why it is so hot. A Lion has urges and needs, and he moves with them. The animal in us moves also with our needs and urges, but we can reflect on them, and sometimes react on them.

Both the lion and human attack when threatened, because they feel like it. Humans can also attack because they “think” it. Attacking is pretty serious, you can get wounded yourself, even if you don’t loose. You might say that the lion takes life unwillingly serious, he acts on his instincts and this is no game for him. We humans act also partially on our instincts, and are serious in this, and when we reason our way into a war, we don’t joke around either.

It makes me sad if I see all these man and woman in suites, standing tall, growling in the air. They send their planes to spy, provoke the other, and look the other way when it suits them. Has there ever been a crossroad in our past, where we could have decided that the thinking part in us, was their to tame the non thinking part. It just amazes me that whole countries, with all their people in it, still feel the need to react like a lion, when a stranger comes near.

All these people in suites, they seem so important. They probably feel so important. I wonder if they still know what it is to wonder. Their concept of the nation they represent, this mighty construct that drives their moves, like the urges and needs that the lion feels from its instinct.

I think that the animal instinct in us, is the one that takes life so dam serious. That’s why no one wants to think about it, afraid as they are for the realization that it is not necessary. We are afraid for our thoughts, they can give us freedom, the freedom to overrule our animal instincts. Freedom in this case means free from our destructive urges and needs, freedom means letting go of the hand that guides. Because the hand that guides is no longer needed, this is the reason why freedom has a bad name with all the leaders that worship the state* as the savior of all.

Day 1590 was the inspiration for today.

I live above

and below you

~

I hear footsteps

and your music

~

I hear your door

and a toilet

~

I see someone

in the lift

~

and I wonder

if you wonder

*or church, philosophy, party etc.

Day 1760, a past line.

Day's pictures, Poetry

We are

on the same

line

~

but

still far

apart

This poem is from Day 1421. I have no way of proving this, it is just an idea. The idea of the poem is that we are all capable of coming to similar conclusions, in similar circumstances. Lets say that you are a liberal progressive, if you, for whatever circumstances, move to a more conservative area, and start hanging out with the people that live there, there is a chance that your idea’s slowly change. Our first reaction is off course that, that wouldn’t happen to you, but are you so sure, that you have not changed in the last 10 or 20 years. Maybe not in your political orientation, but it would be strange if you didn’t adapt some habits and customs from the people you live with that are different from the once you had in a different time.

Fashion is a good example, we all think we are choosing the clothes , and hairstyle we like, but if you look back long enough, you will realize that, that’s not completely true. There is no reason to believe that this also works for your thoughts and idea’s. Your thoughts and idea’s are more private than the clothes you wear, so it is not so easy to look back in time, and compare. You can’t interview your past self, to you can find out how you changed, maybe your lucky, and have an old diary. Just remember that you change slowly, and you will change again. Even if this is not true, it is still healthy for you, and society to realize that what you feel is true, is true from where, and when, you are.

This place where you are, is represented in the poem by a line. Maybe a straight line, maybe it is a circle or oval. We might be far apart in our idea’s and values, but “we are on the same line” in regards to our believe in our truths, and we share the believe that we would, or have ever, changed. We might share more with others, than we would likely admit.

Communication

Society

The human mind sees the world, like looking through a reflective window.

I like to share some experiences I had with communication on the work floor, not so much about communication between two people, like a wife and husband or two friends but within groups. Communication between two or more people is hard, that is a statement that most people will agree on. Why is it hard, and what can you do to improve it is another thing entirely. People disagree why this is hard, you can read thousands of books about it. Ironically we probably misunderstand each other also when we discuss these matters.

I have no special knowledge about communication, the only thing different between me and most other people is that I not only ask these questions, but I also like to look for answers endlessly, as some kind of obsession. I learned the most from others by reading there books, specially about philosophy and psychology. There are also many good lectures on the internet from all kind of sources like universities and companies like the great courses. You will enter a “rabbit hole” if you search for answers but that should not stop you.

IMG_20190811_211435.jpg

One of my first jobs was for a small company with two owners and up to 4 employees. I was a surveyor there Communication was pretty straight forward, go to this place in that country and measure this and that, you have 5 day’s. That was more or less the extent of our communication. I drove with my assistant, in most cases to former east Germany, booked a hotel and worked the rest of the week. This was in 1996 and we used one of the first GPS systems to make a grid that other surveyors could use. The equipment needed several hours to get a fixed point within a couple of centimeters, pretty slow compared to the modern equipment.

Continue reading →