One of the things I'm learning as I get older is that the maxim "you can't please all of the people all of the time" is true. No matter what I do someone will complain about it, someone will complement it, and someone will ignore it.
One of my goals with my writing to is reach people. I want to convey what I am thinking in a way that causes others to think. This will make some interested, but it will turn many people off. As an American I am used to this.
I find it interesting how many of the "cultured" people among us think that Americans are hated around the world. I have travelled to western Europe and Central America and have found that people like Americans and want to get to know more about America. When I watch the news I don't see caravans of people headed to Venezuela, I see them headed north to the USA. We are portrayed by the media as being brash, rude, pushy, and other things. Yet when I attempt to speak broken Spanish or French people respond politely and helpfully with a smile on their face.
All of that is to say that I am pouring myself out through this blog. I hope that you gain something from it but I also understand that it may not be for you. And that's OK.
Monday, February 25, 2019
Friday, February 22, 2019
Individual vs Group effort
In a recent class I was part of the instructor demonstrated that our management team could accomplish more working together than if we worked independently.
In today's "networked technology" lifestyle people work together to solve puzzles, share insights, and lift the bar together.
But where is the individual? What about people doing things alone to get ahead?
Is this collective "wisdom" and networked world we live in promoting socialism? That is one of the fears that I have - that we are teaching socialism. And as we teach it we are falling into that trap.
Be an individual! Do it your way as you pursue life, liberty, and happiness! Go for it!
In today's "networked technology" lifestyle people work together to solve puzzles, share insights, and lift the bar together.
But where is the individual? What about people doing things alone to get ahead?
Is this collective "wisdom" and networked world we live in promoting socialism? That is one of the fears that I have - that we are teaching socialism. And as we teach it we are falling into that trap.
Be an individual! Do it your way as you pursue life, liberty, and happiness! Go for it!
Monday, February 18, 2019
Being kind is viewed with distrust
What do you want?
What's in it for you?
How do you gain from helping me?
These are usually the questions asked when someone is kind for no reason other than because it's the right thing to do.
What's worse is how "comedy" has made being polite something that is laughed at in entertainment but distrusted in real life. People tend to think you're hiding something when you're polite.
But for Americans it's what many of us try to do. We're nice until we're taken advantage of, then we can be mean and hard to get along with. Like the Hank Williams Jr. song says, "We say grace, and we say ma'am, and if ain't into that we don't give a damn."
So go out and be kind and polite. It's part of being American (at least in my world).
What's in it for you?
How do you gain from helping me?
These are usually the questions asked when someone is kind for no reason other than because it's the right thing to do.
What's worse is how "comedy" has made being polite something that is laughed at in entertainment but distrusted in real life. People tend to think you're hiding something when you're polite.
But for Americans it's what many of us try to do. We're nice until we're taken advantage of, then we can be mean and hard to get along with. Like the Hank Williams Jr. song says, "We say grace, and we say ma'am, and if ain't into that we don't give a damn."
So go out and be kind and polite. It's part of being American (at least in my world).
Monday, February 4, 2019
Thinking while driving
Why is it that I can think and get more clarity on puzzles and issues in my brain when I go out and drive, even in traffic around the city.?
One of the things that freedom and the American way has allowed us to do is get out on a long stretch of highway and let our minds go and enjoy the sensation of the road. That seems to occupy enough of my brain so that my subconscious and the other parts of my brain can churn and actually come up with some pretty good ideas. Why is that? And does that happen in other countries or societies?
One of the things that freedom and the American way has allowed us to do is get out on a long stretch of highway and let our minds go and enjoy the sensation of the road. That seems to occupy enough of my brain so that my subconscious and the other parts of my brain can churn and actually come up with some pretty good ideas. Why is that? And does that happen in other countries or societies?
Friday, February 1, 2019
Sowing Americanism
I don't evoke our current president's name very much because I feel that as an American the president is no better than me - the president just has more support and a more developed apparatus around the position.
But as I write this there is a lot of discord in my country. The president is all for us, and the mass media and the president's political opponents on both sides seem to be all for reducing us. Watering us down. Making our country less exceptional by burdening it with non-citizens.
I often wish that we as Americans could sow Americanism everywhere. Then I remember - we do that every day! The internet, the blue jeans, the movies, the air conditioning, the cars, the entertainment, and everything else we take for granted because it's always available to us is what people outside of the USA want. And the opportunity to pursue our own goals and riches - this only comes with freedom like we have in America.
I hope we continue to sow Americanism across the world. The capitalist model we follow has created untold opportunities for freedom. That's why the opponents of liberty work against it so much - because they think if they can control those opportunities for freedom they will control us. Give up now, opponents of liberty!
But as I write this there is a lot of discord in my country. The president is all for us, and the mass media and the president's political opponents on both sides seem to be all for reducing us. Watering us down. Making our country less exceptional by burdening it with non-citizens.
I often wish that we as Americans could sow Americanism everywhere. Then I remember - we do that every day! The internet, the blue jeans, the movies, the air conditioning, the cars, the entertainment, and everything else we take for granted because it's always available to us is what people outside of the USA want. And the opportunity to pursue our own goals and riches - this only comes with freedom like we have in America.
I hope we continue to sow Americanism across the world. The capitalist model we follow has created untold opportunities for freedom. That's why the opponents of liberty work against it so much - because they think if they can control those opportunities for freedom they will control us. Give up now, opponents of liberty!
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