Friday, February 10, 2006
Being Challenged:
The REAL issue between the two billions of people doing fairly well in the global economy (per capita income over $7,300) $20.00 a day vs. those four billion people who live on resources closer to $2.00 a day or $730.00 a year. The countries of the middle east (unless they float on oil) are young (median age under 25) unemployed, and limited education and that education being mostly medieval. This creates a culture that is anti-liberal, anti-intellectual, anti-modern, and (as in the backwards parts of America and other "modern" countries) called populism or the tyranny of the masses led by demigods and despots:
Absolute, autocratic, tyrannical, dictatorial, totalitarian, authoritarian:
There are many forms of despotism, but they are all defined by force and violence. Domestic oppression, Hitler, Mao, Stalin, various gangs and war law lords, crooked cops, racism, all depend on threats and force.
The base of civil society is this basic idea that conflict is natural and dealt with in a civil non-violent manner and competition - competition is always a challenge - and people don't really like having to compete freely and are always looking for an edge or fix. Liberal capitalism is dynamic because of the constant need to respond to competition. People don't like free speech, civil rights (except their own) and having to put up with people different from themselves. It takes a strong culture to protect political and economic competition and accept global challenges from foreigners.
What is the meaning of citizenship and being patriot in the global economy? American has had an historic mission to the world. At this time of mass media, talking heads, and much noise and distraction it is important we remind ourselves of our traditions and highest ideals.
America is the only country founded on ideas. Other countries have been taken over by an ideology but remain tied to historic roots. Communist China was still China, Revolutionary France was still France, but The United States of America was created by an ideal. The core of the original radical idea is that government is the creation of the people. The people are the sovereign and the government serves the people not the other way around. The people are citizens not subjects. This comes down from British tradition from Magna Carta but had a whole new meaning in the new world. The idea of equality was quite new.
Our traditions are a drastic idea in a time of war, and are being tested on the limits of state power in the Constitution. The ideology of the Declaration of Independence is threatened. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” As Lincoln said “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure” He asked all of us to see to it “that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." Gettysburg Address
The American Ideal was an example to the world, we are, “The city on the hill” which is a message and mission to all humanity. John Winthrop's City upon a Hill, 1630
“Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our god in this work wee have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, and we shall be made a story and a byword through the world”
http://www.originofnations.org/books,%20papers/quotes%20etc/Reagan_The%20Shining%20City%20Upon%20A%20Hill%20speech.htm
"our nation is chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model to the world"
(President George Bush, - statement during the 2000 election campaign)
The Shining City Upon A Hill
“I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.” President Reagan
http://www.presidentreagan.info/speeches/index.cfm
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/winthrop.htm
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html
Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, and even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, and every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
Science, engineering, and business is going through the third great transformation (articulation point) in human history. The first was the renascence and enlightenment based on classical knowledge leading to the age of discovery based on national states and empires, the second on the industrial revolution based on industrial technology and multi-national corporation and the third based on globalization where individual and groups can work together – without limits over space – so India and China are our near neighbors.
B. I know what it takes be a success in the world (American needs people like me) and have shown I have what it takes I am very excited by the test of one's abilities and resources of character in a demanding but stimulating undertaking: a career that offers a challenge and opportunities in the present and future. Have to be aware of what is happening in the world – read the economist –
Use mathematical skills – creative – intuition -
Have traveled
Hard work and focus –
Work well in groups –
Quality jobs – competition is global -
Science, engineering, and business is going through the third great transformation (articulation point) in human history. The first was the renascence and enlightenment based on classical knowledge leading to the age of discovery based on national states and empires, the second on the industrial revolution based on industrial technology and multi-national corporation and the third based on globalization where individual and groups can work together – without limits over space – so India and China are our near neighbors.
D. Conclusion
So what do these great trends mean to me and my future in college, graduate school, and in a successful career – a rewarding life –
References:
Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim, in his new book, The World Is Flat,
http://mitworld.mit.edu/play/264
President Bush's State of the Union Address, as delivered to Congress
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013101468.html
Academy of Sciences released its report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm.".
http://www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/
http://www.nap.edu/webcast/webcast_detail.php?webcast_id=313
Presidents' Statement
Rising Above the Gathering Storm
Listen to Academies' 10/12/05 report public briefing (requires free RealPlayer)
White House press release: "American Competitiveness Initiative"
http://fermat.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html
little in advance of the news
What will in the news in a few days or weeks or months or years - the news media while fast in the short term but it lacks reflection - and the reality of events comes more slowly - The wiredbrain puts you ahead of the masses and tell what the news media will say in the future.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Science, magic, superstition and finding answers:The natural human desire to find explanations underlies both science and magic. People like or need to find reasons for what is going on. Anthropologist found that tribes will use evidence and facts when they have them. They are very material and practical. They also have magical solutions to everyday problems when there are no better alternatives. Questions of weather, animal migration, disease and other natural phenomena are natters of life and death, so people want some control over these events. Magic gives them that sense of doing something and having an input into the process of lifer and death. All religions are based on faith and magic where performing certain ceremonies have powers of healing, rain making, even eternal salivation and the triumph over death. Gods and saints can give hope to the hopeless and direction, rules, order to civilizations. The claims are magical and hysterical calls to worship or patriotic emotions that underpin civic order. A spiritual and traditional sense of purpose, direction, order and meaning are required by humans to organize their societies.Everyday the news reports give explaining reasons why the “market” has gone up or down. They sound like the market has purpose and intention. In fact no one knows why markets have day to day variations beyond there are more buyers or more sellers at a moment of time. Thousands of individuals and computer programs make thousands of individual choices partly based on what all the other actors are doing and making assumptions about the reasons behind these decisions. Except when there are great events most of the time there is a random element that defies explanation. Never the less some magical words are used to explain the unexplainable.The desire to find purpose and intention in evolution and human existence is quite natural and also impossible. Disposing with the idea of an external, perhaps even supernatural, vitalizing force, describes how we have arrived at the picture of ourselves and all organisms as Self-Made Things. Our creations include governments, constitutions, institutions, magic, superstitions, ceremony, ritual, flag waving, songs, etc. Our gods are made by us not the other way around. They are made because we need them. They should not (but often do) become a Frankenstein.So we have to take things for what they are. Social conventions, religious ceremony, national character, are useful and even necessary. They are NOT science or material facts. There are very important ideas and beliefs beyond or outside science – arts and literature, song and dance, mystery and magic, wonder and dreams – Santa Claus and the tooth fairy the lands of wonder and magic – the problem arises when belief systems make material judgments (stem cell research) outside their competence. Science can be arrogant about people’s useful and practical beliefs. (Alternative medicine). Science must support the moral and useful desire to do good works, spread truth and justice, equality and fairness which have no material meaning (you can’t find the stuff of kindness and measure it) or do these beliefs have a scientific basis.
The REAL issue between the two billions of people doing fairly well in the global economy (per capita income over $7,300) $20.00 a day vs. those four billion people who live on resources closer to $2.00 a day or $730.00 a year. The countries of the middle east (unless they float on oil) are young (median age under 25) unemployed, and limited education and that education being mostly medieval. This creates a culture that is anti-liberal, anti-intellectual, anti-modern, and (as in the backwards parts of America and other "modern" countries) called populism or the tyranny of the masses led by demigods and despots:
Absolute, autocratic, tyrannical, dictatorial, totalitarian, authoritarian:
There are many forms of despotism, but they are all defined by force and violence. Domestic oppression, Hitler, Mao, Stalin, various gangs and war law lords, crooked cops, racism, all depend on threats and force.
The base of civil society is this basic idea that conflict is natural and dealt with in a civil non-violent manner and competition - competition is always a challenge - and people don't really like having to compete freely and are always looking for an edge or fix. Liberal capitalism is dynamic because of the constant need to respond to competition. People don't like free speech, civil rights (except their own) and having to put up with people different from themselves. It takes a strong culture to protect political and economic competition and accept global challenges from foreigners.
What is the meaning of citizenship and being patriot in the global economy? American has had an historic mission to the world. At this time of mass media, talking heads, and much noise and distraction it is important we remind ourselves of our traditions and highest ideals.
America is the only country founded on ideas. Other countries have been taken over by an ideology but remain tied to historic roots. Communist China was still China, Revolutionary France was still France, but The United States of America was created by an ideal. The core of the original radical idea is that government is the creation of the people. The people are the sovereign and the government serves the people not the other way around. The people are citizens not subjects. This comes down from British tradition from Magna Carta but had a whole new meaning in the new world. The idea of equality was quite new.
Our traditions are a drastic idea in a time of war, and are being tested on the limits of state power in the Constitution. The ideology of the Declaration of Independence is threatened. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” As Lincoln said “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure” He asked all of us to see to it “that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." Gettysburg Address
The American Ideal was an example to the world, we are, “The city on the hill” which is a message and mission to all humanity. John Winthrop's City upon a Hill, 1630
“Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our god in this work wee have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, and we shall be made a story and a byword through the world”
http://www.originofnations.org/books,%20papers/quotes%20etc/Reagan_The%20Shining%20City%20Upon%20A%20Hill%20speech.htm
"our nation is chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model to the world"
(President George Bush, - statement during the 2000 election campaign)
The Shining City Upon A Hill
“I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.” President Reagan
http://www.presidentreagan.info/speeches/index.cfm
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/winthrop.htm
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html
Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, and even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, and every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
Science, engineering, and business is going through the third great transformation (articulation point) in human history. The first was the renascence and enlightenment based on classical knowledge leading to the age of discovery based on national states and empires, the second on the industrial revolution based on industrial technology and multi-national corporation and the third based on globalization where individual and groups can work together – without limits over space – so India and China are our near neighbors.
B. I know what it takes be a success in the world (American needs people like me) and have shown I have what it takes I am very excited by the test of one's abilities and resources of character in a demanding but stimulating undertaking: a career that offers a challenge and opportunities in the present and future. Have to be aware of what is happening in the world – read the economist –
Use mathematical skills – creative – intuition -
Have traveled
Hard work and focus –
Work well in groups –
Quality jobs – competition is global -
Science, engineering, and business is going through the third great transformation (articulation point) in human history. The first was the renascence and enlightenment based on classical knowledge leading to the age of discovery based on national states and empires, the second on the industrial revolution based on industrial technology and multi-national corporation and the third based on globalization where individual and groups can work together – without limits over space – so India and China are our near neighbors.
D. Conclusion
So what do these great trends mean to me and my future in college, graduate school, and in a successful career – a rewarding life –
References:
Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim, in his new book, The World Is Flat,
http://mitworld.mit.edu/play/264
President Bush's State of the Union Address, as delivered to Congress
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013101468.html
Academy of Sciences released its report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm.".
http://www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/
http://www.nap.edu/webcast/webcast_detail.php?webcast_id=313
Presidents' Statement
Rising Above the Gathering Storm
Listen to Academies' 10/12/05 report public briefing (requires free RealPlayer)
White House press release: "American Competitiveness Initiative"
http://fermat.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html
little in advance of the news
What will in the news in a few days or weeks or months or years - the news media while fast in the short term but it lacks reflection - and the reality of events comes more slowly - The wiredbrain puts you ahead of the masses and tell what the news media will say in the future.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Science, magic, superstition and finding answers:The natural human desire to find explanations underlies both science and magic. People like or need to find reasons for what is going on. Anthropologist found that tribes will use evidence and facts when they have them. They are very material and practical. They also have magical solutions to everyday problems when there are no better alternatives. Questions of weather, animal migration, disease and other natural phenomena are natters of life and death, so people want some control over these events. Magic gives them that sense of doing something and having an input into the process of lifer and death. All religions are based on faith and magic where performing certain ceremonies have powers of healing, rain making, even eternal salivation and the triumph over death. Gods and saints can give hope to the hopeless and direction, rules, order to civilizations. The claims are magical and hysterical calls to worship or patriotic emotions that underpin civic order. A spiritual and traditional sense of purpose, direction, order and meaning are required by humans to organize their societies.Everyday the news reports give explaining reasons why the “market” has gone up or down. They sound like the market has purpose and intention. In fact no one knows why markets have day to day variations beyond there are more buyers or more sellers at a moment of time. Thousands of individuals and computer programs make thousands of individual choices partly based on what all the other actors are doing and making assumptions about the reasons behind these decisions. Except when there are great events most of the time there is a random element that defies explanation. Never the less some magical words are used to explain the unexplainable.The desire to find purpose and intention in evolution and human existence is quite natural and also impossible. Disposing with the idea of an external, perhaps even supernatural, vitalizing force, describes how we have arrived at the picture of ourselves and all organisms as Self-Made Things. Our creations include governments, constitutions, institutions, magic, superstitions, ceremony, ritual, flag waving, songs, etc. Our gods are made by us not the other way around. They are made because we need them. They should not (but often do) become a Frankenstein.So we have to take things for what they are. Social conventions, religious ceremony, national character, are useful and even necessary. They are NOT science or material facts. There are very important ideas and beliefs beyond or outside science – arts and literature, song and dance, mystery and magic, wonder and dreams – Santa Claus and the tooth fairy the lands of wonder and magic – the problem arises when belief systems make material judgments (stem cell research) outside their competence. Science can be arrogant about people’s useful and practical beliefs. (Alternative medicine). Science must support the moral and useful desire to do good works, spread truth and justice, equality and fairness which have no material meaning (you can’t find the stuff of kindness and measure it) or do these beliefs have a scientific basis.
