I Am CFF notes

Ethnosphere - a sort of spiritual layer of knowledge and such things that humans have emitted throughout our existence as a species - probably similar to the concept of Chi,

“Scientists don’t make mistakes - they just learn new things.” -- Mike Hamann

Humans tell ourselves stories in order to live.

If we fashion our entire existence on separation, isolation, and “human as machine” then we are sort of setting ourselves up to create the problems that many of the people end up suffering from - economic, social, religious, and emotional persecution. It’s not surprising to see the results and the lack of care about those beneath those that wield real power in society - those on the top of the social food chain through $, political connection, etc.

From another perspective, sometimes it seems as if art, made and distributed to the masses by those that wield immense power, often times carries the message of being happy without money and what you have, which is a (not really that subtle, really) method of keeping the rigid social structure in place. If those that are in the proletariat class are told that what they have IS “the good life,” then they don’t strive to take back from the rich what would equalize them from the Bourgeoisie - thus keeping society separated into classes from which most do not ascend.

Teachers are a prime example of this - we preach the opposite through literature, film, etc., but are a member of the social class and told we’re the honorable profession - which of course I believe to be true (I am a teacher from a family of educators through 3 generations now), but all one must do to look at our status socially is look at our salary and the “fire” under which we constantly suffer - that of being attacked and abused by those with power in society for not doing our jobs well enough while being paid in quite minimal increments that keep us solidly rooted in the lower-middle class, with little hope to move up.

Cooperation is of the lowest value (teachers!) whereas competition is of the highest value (business!). Darwin was refuting Huxley’s theory that it was just “survival of the fittest” - he repeatedly states that it’s both cooperation and competition.

The deer analogy is an interesting one - democracy is the key, and the “alphas” are usually the last to know about the changes - definitely mirrored in our society.

Sympathy is the strongest of the human emotions, they are saying.

“Elevation” is the concept that shows that we are “hard-wired” to respond to helping others - we feel a sense of elation when we either see or help other people in a time of crisis.

Einstein believed that the “spooky action at a distance” meant that we were all connected by a field that surrounds, us, binds us, and makes up the universe - thus, the Force is real, and the heart is probably the link to where we can find and utilize them.

All of life is biological kin, as we all share argon particles that were once possibly breathed by dinosaurs, Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, and Gandhi.

The claim by writers and journalists, is that once we accept that we are indeed all one, then we will start to change things. However, often times the ones that change things are not the ones that had to endure and experience it - it’s like a generational progression. Also, one has to ask oneself whether those that are in power will ever fully adopt such an ideal, or keep manufacturing new ones in a sort of perpetual cycle of discrimination - it’s been happening throughout our history as a country and world, so will it truly stop? Doesn’t seem likely, although those population shifts happen slowly and over time.

The thing about people who change society, the heads of the movements, is that they have to be willing to lose their lives in order to slowly change society, which is the case almost across the field - those in power kill them, and then the populace slowly change out those in power.

Critical thinking followed by action. Figure out where one’s talents will help to change the world for the better, and take action to do so. This is an interesting idea to link some sort of senior seminar service project to an essay or piece of writing.

It’d be interesting to compare the message of this with the essay by E.M. Forster - Tolerance. He states that loving everyone is an unrealistic ideal, and is rooted in emotion, which won’t help to change it completely - one must consciously make the decision to tolerate others, and it must be rooted in logic and consciousness - that way, it’s linked to critical thinking and morality, rather than emotional response to stimuli, which can be a misleading thing - one can’t always trust their emotions - in fact, trusting them in many instances can be a bit of a mistake or misnomer.

1. Universal connection, making the world better through universal tolerance and stuff.

2. Sympathy is our strongest state and emotion - it encourages us to help each other.

Our society encourages the mindset of thinking of humans as competitive machines. This is bad and encourages the division of class.

3. I disagree with the notion that love is the thing that’s going to enable change in the world. It is premised on emotion, and conscience, and those things can be wrong. I’d rather it be based upon tolerance - a more logical, morality-based method of critical thinking. It’s more reliable and encourages consideration and a view of multiple factors.

-  nature doesn’t take more than it needs- that is not the current model of our society. 


My "New story"
To wake up the forces of good in my students, I'm going to tell them about the force that binds us all together like a cosmic magnetic field. I will also actually have them write how they're going to change the world for the better on a personality notecard that they get back from me when they graduate - it's a reminder of what they think they should be working toward as they pursue their higher educations. I also teach an essay called Tolerance by E.M. Forster that talks about how Tolerance is actually the superior method for making the world better, and that's also an eye-opening exercise in thinking critically.