Category: history

gandhi, world blunders and google’s idea of 21st century

Mohandas Gandhi gave to his grandson Arun Gandhi a piece of paper on their final day together, shortly before his assassination, which had a title “Seven Blunders of the World”:

  1. Wealth without work.
  2. Pleasure without conscience.
  3. Knowledge without character.
  4. Commerce without morality.
  5. Science without humanity.
  6. Worship without sacrifice.
  7. Politics without principle.

Doesn’t sounds like a value-based 21st century vision, does it?

A Google search for “21st century vision” gives more than 55 million results. Google Trends would only take “21st century.” The result: Philippines and Tagalog language have more trending of “21st century” than America and English.

what is money?

Banks create money based on borrowers’ promise (in exchange for bank loans) to pay back, i.e. money is created out of debt.

The Bible:“One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor but has great wealth” (Proverbs 13:7). Or: “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.”(Proverbs 22:7).

Buddhism states  money complex is a demonic religion – demonic because it cannot absolve our sense of lack.

French classic-liberal Bastiat‘s collection includes an Achilles-Tortoise-styled polemic about money.

P.S. Bush’s grandfather used money helping Hitler rise to power.

good and evil – lessons from zen and nietzsche

The image is of young “mud-addict” enjoying himself at Reading Rock Festival, taking place on 26-28 August in Leeds (UK).

Is he good/evil/crazy/stupid?

Bodhidharma, founder of Zen Buddhism, is credited saying:

Buddhas don’t keep precepts. And buddhas don’t break precepts. Buddhas don’t keep or break anything. Buddhas don’t do good or evil. To find a buddha, you have to see your nature.

Nietzsche despised classic philosophers; he identified qualities of “new philosophers”: imagination, self-assertion, danger, originality, and “creation of values.” He thought will to power (realization of human potential) is what matters and is beyond good and evil.

success in life according to coolidge, einstein and gilberto

Coolidge, 30th American president, said:

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Einstein thought imagination is our biggest weapon, music is life, and curiosity is our biggest gift. Brazilian music-legend Gilberto, father of bossa nova,  claimed, to become successful, one needs to develop in isolation.

mind and learning – from trenches of science and buddhism

How does our mind/brains recognize objects?

Neuroscientists retrained monkey brains to blur the distinction between two objects — a Dalmatian dog image and a rhinoceros image – via the learning process temporal contiguity. The mind usually assumes that images appearing rapidly one after another belong to the same source/group/entity.

Science loves/attracts those with attachment to/obsessions for objects; Buddhism despises attachment/obsession.

As Saint Manora, 22nd patriarch of Zen Buddhism, said:

Mind turns along with myriad situations,
Its turning point is truly recondite,
When you recognize nature and accord with its flow,
There is no more elation,
And no more sorrow.

dictators, tyrants, despots and autocrats

We often blur lines between an autocrat, despot, dictator and tyrant. For many, they are different names of an oppressive, cruel and powerful person. But are they?

Despot (“my lord”) was originally the title given to the Byzantine Emperor, while tyrant was the title of a leader in ancient Greece called upon to bring internal/external political/economic stability.

Tyrants in business might have moderate success. Shaw and others expressed admiration for modern dictators/tyrants such as Mussolini, Stalin, …

Among top ten worst dictators, many can be nicely described by the dictators’ poem.

Lastly, check your innate dictatorship level by passing this test.

Stanford prison experiment and modern management practices

Stanford University, 1971. From a group of volunteers, half were to play prisoners, half wardens, placed in a makeshift jail. Stanford prison experiment, aimed to study psychological effects of being/treated as a prisoner/warden, lasted six instead of planned fourteen days.

It became a classic demonstration of the power of situations and how good intentions of participants were overwhelmed by transformation of ordinary/normal young men into sadistic guards or prisoners with emotional breakdowns.

Conclusions? Managers, treat employees with humour/equality/consideration, but fertilize confusion as it is at the roots of creativity and innovation.

Confused things kindle minds for great inventions – da Vinci.

Common treats of crazy and geniuses

Beethoven. Michaleangelo. Dickens. Common treats?

Mentally ill/psychotic.

Brahe. Morse. Tesla.

Crazy habits and behavioral patterns.

According to Hans Eysenck, psychotic tendencies translate well into creative endeavors via overinclusiveness (drawing upon many ideas/connections/treats no one else sees and formulating original/effective approaches/solutions), a basis for divergent thinking, in itself a hallmark of all geniuses.

Geniuses are in most cases successful innovators; they question, observe, network, experiment and think associatively.

Modern/fresh tentatives? Reliable energy VS. poverty = EnergyInCommon. Charity VS. social change VS. fair-trade = LemonAid.

P.S. To prove he was a god, Empedocles jumped into a volcano…

Happiness in ancient Greece and modern era

Tetrapharmakos is the four-part cure Epicurus recommended for leading the happiest possible life:

Don’t fear god,
Don’t worry about death;
What is good is easy to get, and
What is terrible is easy to endure

Gandhi ‘s formula for happiness H = R/N (H-happiness, R-your resources, N-needs).

China’s Comm-Party perceives happiness as that which “makes their [people’s] wallets bulge.”

Faisal Sethi read a study which found those who keep “gratitude journals” about what they’re grateful for in their lives were generally happier, slept more, had lower blood pressure, are more successful in their career. He turned those insights into a business.

How religiousness affects economic development

In 2007, I was writing an essay I submitted for St Gallen university’s prestigious annual symposium. Instead of conventional and well-trodden topics such as leadership/entrepreneurship, I vied to seek out correlations between a nation’s religiousness, leadership, availability of natural resources and economic development.

Based on extensive research of modern Norway, KSA, Hittites and post-Gutenberg Europe, the essay concluded (formula is pretty straightforward):

D = 0.25*N-R + 0.3*R + 0.45*L

where

  • D=development (probability)
  • N-R=natural-resources
  • R=religiousness (if religion is dogma/fixed, R<0)
  • L=leadership

I didn’t win – Churchill’s infamous words came to mind:

A modest little person, with much to be modest about.

Your thoughts?