Sympathy/Empathy

Comparing sympathy to empathy is like comparing a candle flame to the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. The first just takes a match. The second requires real power.

Rationalizing vs. Rationale

Logic can be used to make what sounds like a good argument to justify opinions or actions. This is rationalization. An argument that sticks to proven facts and real evidence is more likely true. This is rationale.

"Be Here Now" equals denial.

Just as the act of denial acknowledges that what is denied exists, the"now" in the admonishment Be Here Now acknowledges that the past exists. The "past" once did exist, but does not now. The way to emphasize this is to say that living in the moment, which is concerned with now, is not the same as Be Here Now, which actually addresses the past by first, acknowledging it, then trying to correct it. The past is gone--it  can't be corrected. What can be corrected is the mistakes, or errors, that were committed in the past, which can only be done now. Errors made in the past created their own future: corrections made now have their own future, too. Live it.

Illness = Mental Illness?

Does it surprise you that someone who is habitually angry, habitually anxious, or some other habitual negative emotion may eventually, because of that mental condition, suffer a physical one?

Large unconscious effect.

 Which spatial body has the most personal effect? The sun, the moon, the planet: Venus, Mars. Jupiter, Saturn, etc. I guess they all do, but the planet that has the most effect is the one we're on. What is its effect?

Capitalism/Socialism/Communism

Socialism is wide socially oriented rule.
Communism is narrow dictatorial rule.
Socialism is NOT communism.

After spending years examining complex issues, their reduction is accomplished by observing results.
Beyond obfuscating blather are these summarizing descriptions.

Capitalism creates problems,
Socialism solves them.

Free Market

How do subsidized and deceptively marketed products create a "free market"? The US market is not free, but "authorities" say so. It reminds me of the aphorism: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. But if authorities think the pig is beautiful, it is presented in the language of beauty. Yet it's still a pig.

Solve problems or retire issues.

Seeing a concern as a real problem suggests that there is a real solution Seeing a concern as an issue pretends that resolving the issue is the same as solving the problem that caused it. Too often, the issue is made to go away with expedient action while the problem remains. As long as the problem remains the issue  returns, sometimes with a different symptom and different appearance.

Evolution

Don't believe in evolution?

Don't evolve.

Darwin & Cooperation

The quotation (with underlines added):

There can be no doubt that a tribe containing many members who...
were always ready to give aid to each other and sacrifice themselves
for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes,
and this would be natural selection.                     ~Charles Darwin

Since Darwin actually wrote this, why is it assumed that he believed
the opposite—that takers would win in the long run? 

Communication

To some, communication is transmitting. To others it is receiving. Communication is not only transmitting and not only receiving. It is a two-way shared process of sending and receiving words, moods, thoughts, expressions, etc.—whatever a medium can carry.

Denial: When helpful & not helpful

Denial of truth implies approval of mistaken thinking, which is not helpful.
Denial of mistaken thinking implies approval of truth, which is helpful.

When truth is "known" and insight shows it wrong, the "truth" was based on mistaken thinking.
Mistaken thinking is due to an error. Errors manifest as mistaken behavior.

Some say there are many truths, and that one might be truer than another. This implies one most true, which means ultimate truth exists, truer than all "beneath" it. But a "most true" implies that lesser truths are at least partially false. Partially false can exist—can partially true also exist? I think not. Ultimate truth is absolute—no conditions exist that undermine it with the falsity of mistaken thinking—it's just true.

This is the kind of truth referred to in the first two sentences above.

Congress over-reacting!

Only two (2) (that's tight, only two) of 22,000 deaths in Toyotas last year were vehicle malfunctions: the rest were driver malfunctions. Why is congress wasting time on recalls (which demonstrates conscientiousness) with important things to do--FOR THE PEOPLE (which is real conscientiousness).

Also, a tear stained lady said her Lexus involuntarily went 100 miles per hour, she was so scared, and: "why is Toyota so greedy?" Couldn't someone who drives an expensive Lexus also be called greedy?

Down the Tube - Poem

The afternoons, we watch TV,

our eyes glued to Another World,

pretending it’s reality.

We spend The Days Of Our Lives

stuck in quiet desperation,

hoping for, in The Guiding Light,

glimpses of a real relation.

As the World Turns beneath us,

rolling heedlessly on and on,

and All My Children are neglected,

hypnotized, automatons.

So we sit and stare, letting

mind and blood congeal,

aptly forgetting:

if there is One Life To Live,

make it real.

*****

Believe in something

Act in agreement or in opposition, but always in agreement with what you believe—IF IT HAS BEEN PROVEN TRUE. Always act for your own best interests, which most do, but with a view that, in the long run, is against their best interests. Any way, believe in something, IF IT  HAS BEEN  PROVEN TRUE!