- I set up my site to work more like a journal.
- I taught the Lesson in Primary – (Primary 6 – Old Testament – The Creation)
- Copied School Readings to Google Drive
Violence, Society, Religion, And The Progress Paradox
How can we make the lives of people better?
The synthesis of my ideas today has stemmed from a couple of sources. First is a book I am studying. Second is an article about jobs and wages from the Wall Street Journal yesterday, 2017-11-04.
Over the past several weeks I have been listening to the book The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker a Harvard professor. it was published in 2011
His thesis is the world is becoming less violent. Before reading this book and as he points out most of us feel like the world is becoming worse off as time goes along. He has lots and lots of research to back up his theories, eight hundred and twenty-three pages of smaller print worth.
Of course, he asks the question; “Why are people becoming less violent?” He talks about a civilizing process the societies of the world have been going through over the past several centuries. He talks about how violence in the developed world has become less and less acceptable. He infers that through the spread of information and as people become more educated people become more sympathetic of one another.
While violence is declining I believe we have aways to go to be more empathetic and sympathetic to people. Capitalism is still about exploitation of people that are weaker and more ignorant than yourselves.
As I read the story about Jobs and wages in the WSJ it pointed out that the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in years however wages are not increasing. Companies complain that they cannot find workers. However, it’s more about they are not willing to pay what I am going to call an “Honorable Wage.” There are endless stories of people being laid off because the company needs to show more profit. I had a friend who wrote a song about 20 years ago one of the lyrics said “People love money more than people” I believe this is why people are not happy. I have felt it many times. Businesses care more about money than they care about me. Banks and institutions like banks are the worst.
I digress.
I believe if people cared more about people and their well being than they cared about profit things would get better. Sometime in the future, more people are going to realize happiness comes from our interactions with other people, not money, not fame and not sex.
My quest has now changed into how can we get people to care more about people than they care about these other things. How can we get people to realize the best way to happiness is helping others. My hope is that people will care about how people feel like they care about violence, hunger, animal cruelty, and other social causes. I am talking about the stress fast food workers feel when they are underpaid and under-appreciated by the clients that are paying and begging for these people to make their food. I am talking about the call center employees that are tied to their computers and have to listen to irate customers because their company produces an inferior product. I am sure there are other types of jobs like these that are high stress, maybe dangerous where the people feel trapped with no way to get out; Construction Workers, other laborers, commissioned salespeople, and maybe even teachers. I believe a certain amount of stress can help motivate people, I enjoy the stress I feel as I attempt to solve a problem and the joy I feel from overcoming that problem. There have been times in my career where the situation seemed hopeless when I could not deliver what was expected, not even close to what was expected; I know how to work hard, smart, and long hours. In these situations, I realize I did not have the skills these companies needed. I either quit, once I was fired, and several times I was laid off because the company couldn’t offer a service to customers that was profitable enough to stay in business. Many times I was forced into situations that required me to change. I know some of those people are still in the situations where I was kicked out. I know many still helpless, hopeless and dejected.
I want to find a way for people to feel hope.
Another trip to the MTC
Our daughter entered the MTC this week on her way to Japan. I am more excited this time for a couple of reasons. I know it will be good for her and I think she is better prepared than our son. We’ve also been through this before, and everything turned out fine, so I am less afraid that things will go badly. Roman has been home for a couple of years, and he is doing really well. I suspect it will be the same for Paige when she returns. I am also looking forward to hearing from her and hearing about her experiences. I have high hopes that everything will go well.
The tour of Utah is starting again this week. I didn’t see any stages last year, and probably the year before that. Since they took the stage out where we could go to the park by the University of Utah. However, I am less and less motivated to watch cycling. This is the first year in the last several that didn’t watch any of the tour de France. I am disappointed in the cycling industry’s eagerness to make rules that they know everyone is going to break and then punish the riders. It just seems the governing body for cycling is just a bunch of angry people. So it demotivates me to care.
It is also tiring to listen to people complain about the leaders of organizations. If I think there is a problem I try to band together with a tribe of like-minded people and we figure out a plan to make a change. However, if I start to complain and nobody gets on my bandwagon and is willing to take some action, I realized a change is not going to be made. However, there are a bunch of people that are complaining through blogs and on social media about the way they are mistreated and misunderstood, and there are people that claim to agree with them. However, there are no plans being made to do anything about their grievances. However, because they believe people are with them, they continue to make comments about whatever leadership person is standing in the way of their happiness. I get caught up in the belief too that if people agree with me, I will be happier. If I am not happy, only I can make a change. Getting others to agree with me, or what I believe, is not going to make me happy. I have to find my own way to be happy, and I cannot expect that getting other people on my wagon is going to make me happy. Sometimes it’s hard to remember I am the one in charge of my own happiness.
Things I learned this week
Or maybe a better way to explain the learning process for me is what things have come into better focus this week. Because learning for me a lot of the times it little bits of information from here and there start to gather into a bigger realization and then it comes into focus and becomes more clear.
Yesterday I had breakfast with a fellow I recent met at work. He stated that marketing is more about the conversation you are having with a person. I have to say something that is relevant to the person and they have to care about it. This reminded me of something Kenneth Galbraith said in his book “The Affluent Society” He said people will only listen to you if they understand what you are talking about and they also have to believe what you are saying.
I can see where the good marketer is the one that can craft a message that speaks to the person in such a way they feel they are having a conversation with someone they understand and believe.
Books I started this week. “Me Be Do We: The Four Cornerstones of success” I came into contact with this book because of a headline I saw trending on the video section of the www.wsj.com website. It said “Want to be a millionaire, Make your bed” That was intriguing so I watched it basically it gave five behaviors or habits millionaires have. “Then make their beds first thing in the morning, they wave to their neighbors, they don’t have rode rage, they don’t smoke and they pick up trash”. But I realized as I watching a promotion for Paul Randall’s new book. When I find a new book I want to read I usually check out the library to see if they have it. They didn’t and it appears that no library’s have it yet. It was published or released March 14th. The Kindle book was only a dollar so I purchased it and started reading. I realized looking through the book there are 100 behaviors or habits the book is advocating. The book is more about being a successful person and leading a full filling life than trying to become a millionaire. I will finish reading the book soon. I am already starting to see the message that happiness comes from caring about and doing things for other people.
Another book I started this week is “The Great Game of Business” by Jack Stack. The reason I started reading this book is because I got this book from an inter-library loan and I have to return it next week. It’s from a library in Houston Texas. This is good book to that tries to help people change the way they think about and do their work in a business. I will eventually buy this book. I probably won’t get it all read before I have to turn it into the library. But I’ve read enough to know I like the book and the message it is portraying. I’ll have to write something later when I finish reading it.
My real choice for leadership
My heart was heavy with despair over the several weeks after the election. The noble United States has been sinking into a quagmire of desecration for some time. The great country which founded by men who were religious and believed in God. They created a wonderful form of government that would protect freedom of religion and speech.Which really put the government into the hands of the people.
What is even more alarming to me is the number of people that are proud to say they voted for Donald Trump. These people completely ignore the deplorable actions this man has done in his life. However, I would be saying similar things if Hillary had been elected. All of the Hollywood types would have been declaring victory. The fact that many of the rich and famous wanted Hillary to win should be a warning to anyone.
How did we get to this point where we were given the choice to pick to evil and wicked people as our leader. Even more alarming is the realization that we are now treading in very dangerous water. This is why I am alarmed; It is obvious the majority of people in our country are now choosing wickedness over righteousness.
The founders believed that the majority of people will choose the right. That is why they set up the government in the way they did. They did not want a small group of people with evil intentions to be running the country. However, when the majority of people are evil they will choose evil leaders. The evil leaders will corrupt the laws so that the wickedness will go unpunished and the righteous will be condemned for trying to do what is right.
Look at the laws of our country now. Adultery may not be completely legal, but it is not punished. Men can father children and completely walk away from that responsibility. These things are devastating our society It is creating a giant class of single parent households. Most financial companies today are set up to take advantage of these poor, the uneducated and weak of society. Basically, the poor, the widow and the fatherless. Murder is not severely punished in this country.
People complain that religion is too restrictive and that they should not be constrained by principles that keep them from having a good time. More and more people want to legalize and have less laws against addictive substances. The irony about Alcohol, Tobacco and Marijuana is that once people are addicted to these substances they have given up the freedom they complained religion was denying them. They cannot stop, they cannot give it up and they cannot quit paying for their slavery.
The truth of this matter is that the laws have not suddenly become corrupted. This did not happen over the last four years or the last eight years. This corrupting of our laws and standards has been happening for many years. It is just now alarmingly more obvious that majority of people in this once wonderful country are not choosing the right.
As prophecied by Mosiah, “And if the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.” (Mosiah 29:27)
I realize what I write is not going to make any difference because I am not someone that people listen to. No one really reads this and no one probably ever will. However, I am going to write it anyway.
The solution to this problem is choosing the right leader. That leader is Jesus Christ. We need to look to him for inspiration we need to more fully follow his example.
My belief is that all people know there is a God. The reason they try and convince themselves that there is not a God is because if they believe if there is no God then there are no rules. They believe that if there are no rules they will be happy. Happiness does not come from lack of rules. Happiness does not come from lack of restraint. Happiness does not come from anarchy.
Reality shows there are consequences to actions. If you get addicted to substances it will severely limit your access to happiness. Interestingly enough, Following the teachings of Jesus will keep us from the slavery of addiction. Following the teachings of Jesus Christ will keep us from the devastating effects of heartache, sorrow and affliction that come from fornication and adultery. Following the teachings of Jesus Christ will keep us from the isolation and paranoia that comes from greed.
People like to believe the lake of rules will make them happy. It is easy to prove that having rules and living by those rules is what will bring real happiness.
We need to choose Jesus as our leader. I will continue to choose him as my leader because I know in the end that is what is going to bring me real happiness. And I know that is the real purpose to my life and to my existence is to find the way to be the most happy.