Universal Worthiness .....

[Donner]

( Heres some of the offline answers I got earlier --- without the authors name for privacy of course --- some place names are edited with X~~~~Xs )



Tibi ipsi dic verum - To thine own self be true.

Hypocrisy is somehow inherent to our design. We all function under a skewed
sense of right and wrong - that is, "there's right and wrong, and then
there's right and wrong for ME."

Realizing this, and forcing oneself to adhere to the same rules we apply to
others is difficult, but not impossible.
..............................

If you can sleep at night that's a good thing!!!!

also best to simplify your life...

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What should we aspire to Don?

Well, my personal perspective is that the overarching thing that we
should aspire to is compassion.

I don't care whether one arrives at being a compassionate person from
being moved by experience, by religious belief or some other method but
that's the big one for me.

If you want a longer discussion about how prosperity seems to make
people more selfish and less compassionate I'm up for that one too!

.........................................

Don,

Notwithstanding the relatively recent world financial crisis my hometown
X~~~X , and my state X~~~~~~~~~X has been at the centre of a
massive commodities (mining) based economic boom over the last decade &
particularly the last 5 years.

China in particular has been buying our coal, iron ore, gas in huge
quantities at top prices. This place has grown at a huge rate. A big
influx of engineers, geos and other professionals from all over the
world created a real estate boom and also created a lot of good paying
jobs for tradesmen and even people who previously would have been
working some relatively unskilled, low paid jobs are now getting cashed
up either working in or servicing in the mining industry.

Boom times are good right? Lots of money to go around to spend, to
create jobs, to build infrastructure, look after people right?...well
no, not really. It seems that this new generation of "haves" who have
basically become haves in many cases simply by being in the right place
at the right time have a sense of entitlement that says to them that
anyone who doesn't have what they have basically isn't trying and
doesn't deserve any help. The real fact is that for people who work in
moderately payed jobs or worse still don't have a job are struggling
with a massive increase in the cost of living with everything, food,
housing. Aid agencies and charities are reported donation levels falling
through the boom!

For the first time in my life we have a significant homelessness problem
here in X~~~~X . This is X~~~~X . A society that for a long time had an
almost utopian balance between the free enterprise model of the USA and
the more socialist welfare regimes of the UK and Europe. We have
universal health care etc but we're still finding ways for people to
fall between the cracks and attitudes have changed to not want to help
them.

The other thing is that we've somehow abandoned the desire to examine
China's human rights record as they've become our major trading partner.
In the past I've been quite proud of Australia's diplomatic record but,
money and greed trumps compassion again.

.................

I simply believe that different people carry with them different strengths and weaknesses, and therefore everyone should strive for different goals. There is no single list of universal attributes that "anyone of any age, gender, religion, race, etc." should be striving for

.............................

*I'm going to be a daddy at the end of June so I reserve the right to change anything that I may say right now.

I've always been a 'one foot in front of the other' kind of guy. You know - do well what you're doing right now. That involves patience and also the ability to accept the 'here and now' and look for whats good and working in that ... as opposed to always wishing for or looking for something else.

Siddartha - Hermann Hesse
Zen in the Art of Archery - Eugen Herrigal

I'd recommend these two to anybody at any age. They helped to teach, as well as re-affirm to me, my above stated 'way of approaching life'.

Thanks. I'm honored that you'd ask me.

Peace,

..........................................

Interesting question. This remind me of something that our pastor said earlier this year really stuck with me, as it seemed to sum up a lot about me. Anyway, I'll include that, and some other thoughts:

Whatever you do, ask if it will COST society anything in the long run. In other words, if you are going to build a product, will the fact that product exists in the end have a detrimental cost to society. Or will it have a positive impact on society. An example would be child pornography. In the end we spend billions of dollars on counseling for the children, as well as the cost to house the offenders. So that has a net negative cost to society. On the other hand, an Oven, I would guess, would have a net Positive cost (pays for itself) to society. You can use the oven to feed many people.

"Do it like it's yours", (assuming you like yourself). What I mean by this is if I'm fixing something for a customer, I treat it like my own. If I do something to it that I would not like done to something of mine, I'll go back and fix it. I always strive to make sure the item is better than it was when I got it. In the back of my mind I assume that someone else in the future is going to tear this thing apart, and will see the work I did to it. This applies to everything from fixing a guitar pedal, to hanging drywall, to mowing the lawn.

If you are an employee, work as if the business is your own. If you are the Boss, pay your employee what you can afford, and treat them well. They are building your product, and if you want them to care about your products, you need to care about them.

Never have a "good enough" mentality. I have seen the negative of this over and over in my life. If everyone in a production line builds their part to the exact "edge" of tolerance, the end product will not be of a high quality. Tolerances assume that not ALL of the pieces are out of tolerance. If you can spend a little more time to make it "perfect", why not just do it? Are you hurting anyone by doing better than expected?

Help people when they "need" help. If you are in a position to help someone, whether it's giving them a job, or money, or a ride, do it. On the other hand, make sure that you are really helping. Giving an irresponsible person $500 to pay his rent, when he just bought a new TV last week would not be helping. It's better to let people hit bottom before helping them back up.

I few thoughts, tying this to the current economy and Boutique industry:

What is Behringer doing to help society? They have slave labor, build crappy quality, and in the end lower the value of all products in their market. They are teaching the consumer that it's OK to just dump another item into the landfill when it's broken. So, they don't appear to care about people, the quality of their product (other than to get it past the warranty period), or the earth.

Compare that to a boutique pedal manufacturer. I'll use myself as an example. I am actively trying to create more good jobs in America, while building a product that the customer will never "have" to replace. Even if he get's sick of it, he can sell it to the next guy. The chances of it ever ending up in a landfill is pretty slim. So, I care about people, as I am TRYING to create jobs. I care about the products, as I don't want the customer to ever have to replace it, and I care about the environment, because I don't build something that I know will end up in a landfill within a few years.

While I can't prove it, I feel that if you do good work, and have a passion for something, then you will be more likely to succeed, and more likely to be happy.

It's not about money, as soon as it is, you've lost. There's always someone with more money, and a better car. Nobody wants to hang out with that guy, they want to hang out with the guy who helped the little old lady that dropped her groceries in the parking lot.

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How about inner peace because if you are well within yourself you will be
well with others

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[EyeFly]

Excellent!!

cork

[DocRock]

This is a great thread.

[Donner]

I love this planet