The actions we undertake daily and seem to be such ‘little things’ we do in our everyday life, go further than we anticipate in solidifying or weakening the relationships in families. At the end of the track they proof to be very important and a necessity to have been structured in solid clay.
Many may think that annual family vacations have to be going abroad and that we all have to be partakers of worldly traditional feasts, like Christmas celebrations and Valentine’s Day gift-giving practices which have become integral consumption rituals in contemporary families. These man made artificial celebrations are no guaranty to family happiness. It is a wrong idea to think a family can not be happy when it does not celebrate Christmas, Easter or any other heathen or so called Christian feast.
Those who want to keep to God’s Will and as such abstain from the heathen feasts like Halloween, Christmas, Easter, still can enjoy very happy moments together. All the material presents may be very nice surprises with bring joy, but they also can be given at other moments. And all family members should be aware that it is not the material which brings happiness, but the feeling of being together and sharing a happy time with each other.
We have been socialised by media, family and other social institutions to dedicate more attention to these rather conspicuous consumption experiences and have gradually become less concerned of the importance of the mundane, everyday consumption behaviour to our relationships and overall family wellbeing.
In many families we can see that parent buy their children. When divorced and one parent gives something the other parent want to give something more expensive and bigger.
we fail to recognise and appreciate the underpinning significance of these frequently taken-for-granted consumption experiences to happiness, satisfaction and stability in our family relationships. Instead we seek to construct family bonding through perhaps rather superficial, conspicuous consumption acts such as buying expensive gifts for loved ones, committing to elaborative annual family holidays and following extensive Christmas rituals.
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Preceding articles:
Families with four or more kids most happiest
++
Additional reading:
- Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
- Focus on outward appearances
- Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
- Holidays, holy days and traditions
- Thanksgivukkah and Advent
- Autumn traditions for 2014 – 6 Bonfire night
- Halloween custom of the nations
- Autumn traditions for 2014 – 1: Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet
- Christian values, traditions, real or false stories, pure and upright belief
- Why we do not keep to a Sabbath or a Sunday or Lord’s Day #3 Days to be kept holy or set apart
- A season of gifts
- Irminsul, dies natalis solis invicti, birthday of light, Christmas and Saturnalia
- Wishing lanterns and Christmas
- Christmas, Saturnalia and the birth of Jesus
- God’s Special Gift
- Christmas customs – Are They Christian?
- The Evolution Of Passover–Past To Present
- Who Celebrates Easter as Religious Holiday
- Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection
- Easter: Origins in a pagan Christ
- 14-15 Nisan and Easter
- 14 Nisan a day to remember #4 A Lamb slain
- Easter holiday, fun and rejoicing
- Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
- Seven Bible Feasts of JHWH
+++
Related articles
Tag Archives: Satisfaction
Family happiness and little things we do
Filed under Lifestyle, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs, Social affairs
Summermonths and consumerism
Summertime seems to have difficulties to show her face this year. Over a few days the days will shorten again and we did not have yet some real good nice warm days.
In the supermarkets they feel the consumption of meat not taking off like they want and therefore they are presenting special bargain prices, advertising against other trying to present the cheapest products. If they would be the best products would be an other matter. Also if they would be produced in a decent ethical way is for many of no concern.
We can imagine Middle School teacher Bob James throughout the year has to face his pupils with all sorts of gadgets, disturbed and tempted by lots of consumer products and market activities.
Real teachers do find it necessary to help others. Bob James also is firmly convinced that all of us need to be more proactive in helping others.
We need to help them when disaster strikes, when they are recovering and then when developing their lives to be the people that God intended them to be. We are meant to be independent of all except for God. On Him alone should we be dependent. Thus, as I seek to help others, I seek to move beyond mere relief and am focusing on rehabilitation and reconciliation. We are to be reconciled with God, with our fellow human beings and with our environment. If any one of these is missing, we will have problems. This is a tall order, but I will always seek to bring reconciliation. {About Me}
He, like many teachers are daily confronted with the non-interest for God, is probably also seeing that today the kids, but also their parents, have made new gods and have more interest in the material belongings than the spiritual.
The Human Use of Human Beings (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In previous articles on this blog we pointed out to this behaviour which is destroying our society like CO poisoning, not seen, not smelled, not heard. We are living in a society where eyes are directed on gaining capital, even if we need not to take notice of necessary protection for man or do not mind bringing shortage or harm to others, to get more money.
Our economy is based on consumerism. Ads are designed to appeal to people like me and make me not just want, but Need, the latest thing – whether that be a soft drink or the latest model car. {June 8 – What I Really Need}
In the years straight after the World Wars people seemed to know again the value of the necessities of life. Folks appreciated again the small things. (We remember sitting with three on a bench, having one study book, which we savoured like the best we could have to receive knowledge. We never wanted to have it for ourselves alone and where pleased when we could share things with others.) They were pleased with what they could get. They also wanted to show to others who they were and used their cloths to present their identity.
Today everybody seems to be hiding behind their clothes. They now have to be from one or the other brand, design and colour which is in fashion. All want to belong to the group and hide their own self behind brands which are ‘in’. Everything must be dictated by the market. Nobody wants to go against what the market dictates.
RedEye Sailboat one of the things people like to have for enjoying themselves and to show off (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In Summer this is made even more clear by everybody wanting to go in the garden and show off with what the market advertises and wants to press on everybody. As such, once it is beautiful weather, we can not sit outdoors without having to smell all the combustion products, from the people who do not know how to use properly those advertised and bought barbecue sets.
Having holiday also became equivalent to travelling. When people to day are saying they go on holiday, they mostly mean and want the other person to think they are going to travel abroad. For many taking a holiday in the own garden or in the own country is not having a holiday any more. The market made them to believe to relax and to take vacation or to take leave has to be going abroad and spending a lot of money at enjoyment, entertainment parks, luxury meals and pampering and health treatments.
People have to believe they only count in this society when they can show that they are using the latest gadgets and are ‘by the time’. All people who have not the newest things are ‘old’ or ‘out of date’. They best are ignored or put aside, as not being the right people to associate with. Or they are laughed at as old fashioned or ‘nerds’.
Bob James remarks:
How easily we buy the latest thing and throw away the old. One of the problems is that we not only throw away things, we also tend to throw away people or relationships if they don’t “meet our needs.” {June 8 – What I Really Need}
Those needs have become very selfish. Everything is directed to the ‘I’ and to the ‘what can I gain from this relationship’. Most people want to associate with other people in such a way that they may be sure others will find them interesting for the knowledge and acquaintances of such people. Most relations are build on the use they can provide for the self. Not the giving away has become important, nor the meaning something for some one else, but the meaning for the person him or herself, has become the landmark.
Clearly the focus of most people came on to the wrong things. This also made many relationships not last and break down. Often we see the other person has become of no real value, when not usable any more. We see that at work. As son as a person gets to ‘old’ or to ‘experienced’ and to ‘expensive because of ‘seniority’ he is made redundant.
But also the material things do not get time to stay in use as valuable. As soon there is a new model, the old one is considered as ‘passée’ .
Most people have placed their mind on things which are disposable.
What we should be thinking about is not “things,” but people. {June 8 – What I Really Need}
writes Bob James.
What we should be focusing on more than anything is our relationship with God. {June 8 – What I Really Need} (Though in his article gives a quote about focussing on Jesus, who is not God but the son of God, but who also deserves our attention.)
Today, we can see that a lot of people who are debtors to the material things of this world. Most have forgotten that their body should be a temple, a place for clean things. Natural products for many are a laugh-stock. Biological products for many are either for the ‘loonies’ or have become a way to show off, because they are much more expensive and a way to proof they can afford it and belong to such a class of people, having enough money to buy such things.
Instead of respect for nature and respect for the Creator of all those things man shows more interest to the highly perishable idols presented on television and more and more on the internet, which brings totally new sorts of idols in the living room. All those living according to flesh, often forget that they too, like anybody else, are going to die, but if in spirit they kill the deeds of the body, and that they have much better prospects. For those who live in the spirit can find real intense worthwhile life.
Part of our problem with this issue is that our desires have been made to seem like needs. If we began each day with a focus on Jesus Christ, many of those things we think are “needs” would be shown to be desires. {June 8 – What I Really Need}
Christ Jesus is the man of flesh and blood who gave the world an example how to live according to the will of the Only One God, Whom we should consider the Most High and the Most Valuable. Jesus knew he could not do anything without God. Jesus never did his own will but always wanted to do the Will of God. Today most consider God a flaw or useless invention.
Lots of people, having all those modern gadgets still do not feel happy. Having so many things they do not yet feel satisfied. They still have a hunger …
They are starving for the real better thing which they do not seem to see by the mist of consumerism. Lots of people are running into problems when they work so hard to take care of all their desires for material things, that they forget to spend more time to build up good relations.
Most people do not see or forget about what they really need.
Bob James thinks about a strong relationship with Jesus Christ, but seems to forget an even more important relationship, namely that with the heavenly Father of Jesus, the Only One True God.
This world needs to find the way back to God. It has lost connection with the Creator. The world has become strayed. We have to take care we become not astray by the temptations around us.
Keep your eyes on Jesus and as such find the Way to God and the way to God’s Kingdom.
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Preceding articles:
Misleading world, stress, technique, superficiality, past, future and positivism
How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace
See the conquest and believe that we can gain the victory
Engagement in an actual two-way conversation with your deities
A Snippet of Advice on Cultural Analysis
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Find additional literature:
- Capitalism
- Increasing wealth gap of immense proportions in the Capitalist World
- Classes of people and Cronyism
- Uncertainty, shame and no time for vacillation
- Because men choose to go their own way
- Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #9 Consumption
- A risk taking society
- What IF you’re only driven by stress?
- Ecological economics in the stomach #2 Resources
- How do you keep people from stealing your joy?
- 2014 Social contacts
- Justififiable anger or just anarchism
- Ability for a community to come back from a crisis
- Green Claims in Europe
- Greenpeace demands scale up of ecological farming
- Happy International Happiness Day!
- Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience
- Being Religious and Spiritual 3 Philosophers, Avicennism and the spiritual
- Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
- Looking for True Spirituality 2 Not restricted to an elite
- How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
- Sharing thoughts and philosophical writings
- Lovers of God, seekers and lovers of truth
- Fools despise wisdom and instruction
- In a world which knows no peace sharing blessed hope
- The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places
- Cleanliness and worrying or not about purity
- Cognizance at the doorstep or at the internet socket
- Jehovah steep rock and fortress, source of insight
- Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach
- Bringing Good News into the world
- How should we preach?
- Thanksgiving wisdom: Why gratitude is good for your health
- Food as a Therapeutic Aid
- Remember there’s a light in the next day
- It is a free will choice
- To know Christ is filling life with meaning
- Heed of the Saviour
- Songs in the night Worship God only
- Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
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Related articles
Filed under Economical affairs, Food, Lifestyle, Spiritual affairs
How the Story Ends
Related articles
Mixed feelings
when a good book ends
leaving me wanting more
yet satisfied at the same time.
I want my story
to end the same way,
wanting more
yet also happy
to have lived
a satisfied tale.
Filed under Being and Feeling, Poetry - Poems, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs
Lonely in the crowd
Population growth rate world (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When I started writing this article there where 7 238 080 161 people on this globe. When I finished writing there where already 7 238 100 805 living human beings, thriving on only 17% of the earth its surface. Find out how many there are now when you reading this, at Worldometers info: world-population. Current UN projections show a continued increase in population in the near future with a steady decline in population growth rate; global population is expected to reach between 8.3 and 10.9 billion by 2050. {“World Population Prospects, the 2012 Revision – “Low variant” and “High variant” values”} {“World population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050 – UN report”}
World population (Photo credit: Arenamontanus)
With the millions living around us we are like a very tiny ant or even more like a microbe. But those microbes which we know are often more in symbiosis or unity than those human beings. With six of Earth’s seven continents being permanently inhabited on a large scale, we may find Asia as the most populous continent, with its 4.3 billion inhabitants accounting for 60% of the world population. In our own region many people do think they are already with too many living on the small space which is around them. Though finding themselves living in an overcrowded area, many of those people do feel so lonely. Even when they search on the internet and add so many people on their social media profile, many people feel very lonely. You could not say they are really isolated, but what matters is that there is no real connection with the others in their surroundings.
Many invite people they meet on the internet to join as ‘friends‘ and to ‘register’ on this and that and to ‘vote’ for this and that. Voters can start and join voting blocks for the issues, sites, and groups they care about, and gather massive followings. But hose followings do they bring up something? And do the joiners really feel connected, supported or find they all can work for the same good cause?
Looking at this world
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have 509 friends on Facebook, but I still feel lonely.
he writes in Look Up and See the World Around You at his jukebox of writings by him and by the straight forward and happy go lucky girl of sixteen Navneet Kaur. Saswata Mitra is an eighteen year old (or was) who declared himself to be selfless and caring about everyone. He also feels like everybody else the need to feel that others also would care about him. And that is normal; We all need that feeling. We all need to feel that somebody else cares about us. this feeling or want to be cared and loved does not always get answered. People to get more satisfaction from having the assurance that many like them, got so entangled or chained by social media where they can build up friends like nothing.
facebook (Photo credit: dkalo)
On that virtual platform many “friends” are made, but not so many contacts made into silver and even less are converted in silver or redeemed for gold.
I see what they do everyday yet I barely know them. In this Global Neighborhood, we share and post everything we see, hear and experience. We have somehow managed to convince ourselves of the illusion that updating everything we do will get us connected to everyone around us. But hey, life your head from your screens and look around you. You’re alone. {Look Up and See the World Around You}
Having 509 friends on Facebook does not say anything about having real friends or having real communication with others. As such in this world there may be many who have lots of connections on their social media sites, but who still feel very lonely.
The whole virtual worlds sucks many into a world of belief but even more of a world of wishful thinking. On one site there are those who boast with their holiday trips to far away places and with all the gadgets they may retrieve. Lots of chit-chat and backbiting or malicious gossip can be found at those social media platforms.
We may see what they want us to or like us to see. Do they let us see their own self? Give they really something from their own which they want to share to get into a better relationship with the other?
Do those people in their everyday postings on that Global Neighbourhood really share and post everything they see, hear and experience and how much are they involved with it or want to be involved with it?
How many do not live in that illusion that updating everything we do will get us connected to everyone around us? Or is that really the intention of many?
As you say we better come to look for real connections by looking around us in the real world, living our head from our screens, seeing but also willing to become connected with that real world.
Though I think lots of people today prefer to stay connected in their virtual world, playing games and ‘doing as if’. They seem to find more indulgence by enjoying the distraction by the games and chit-chat, instead of going to spend time in having serious discussions or a real serious talk. Lots of youngsters can not read or concentrate on long texts any more. It has to be all telegram style short messages, and by preference not asking too much thought.
God’s Will and Design For Your Life – Inspirational Bible Verses, who is well aware that one of the problems might well be that most people use not their eyes to see further than this world around them personally and do not want to grasp a little bit of what the Plan of the Planner of this universe might be.
We only see mere seconds in part of God’s plan as a whole. As such we cannot grasp what is the blueprint for our life. We all have a definite past, but with God we have an indefinite future that is infinite by His grace, full of hope and wonder. There is unity and harmony in God’s plan for our life and we must embrace it. So, have faith in the Lord and in His providence as all things work together for good for them that love Him and are called according to His purpose. {God’s Will and Design For Your Life – Inspirational Bible Verses}
Being so self focused many of us have you become so tired, worn out, broken down, frustrated, stressed out, hopeless and discouraged that they feel like they can’t even make it through the day and dread facing tomorrow.
We all know that feeling of being pushed in the corner by others, or by awkward situations. Many of us even have the impression it are they who are in the picture for the bad.
Sometimes in life it seems that the only experiences that we are having are all bad ones. There are times that it seems that today is worse than yesterday, and we are in fear of what tomorrow will bring. Life seems to be one disaster after another, and we seem to be going from crisis to crisis. There are times when life drains all the energy from us and we find ourselves wiped out from the stress we are dealing with on a daily basis. {Bible Verses for Hurt, Broken, and Discouraged Lives – God Has a Plan}
All of us seem to grow fearful and anxious as we wait for things to get better. {Bible Verses for Hurt, Broken, and Discouraged Lives – God Has a Plan}
Many think they shall find answers in their virtual world of the internet social media. After work, or many already at work, do not mind forgetting what they really have to do at the workplace or at home, and get into their own little world of virtual friends and games of building farms or villages. They try to forget the real world with its many stressful situations.
We rush through life without stopping to check where we are going, or what we are doing.{Bible Verses for Hurt, Broken, and Discouraged Lives – God Has a Plan}
We should know that we better get into the real world and dare to face all its problems. We for sure can not solve all those problems. We should not worry that we are not able to solve everything. We should just try to do our best and get together with others to help each-other to grow strong in this tempting world.
The Nazarene Jeshua (Jesus Christ) was a Master-teacher, who was totally not concerned about himself. He put himself totally at the side and only wanted to do the will of his heavenly Father. He brought the Words of his Father to many and asked them to spread the same Good News he gave them. Jesus asked them to go out in the world and to look for like minded people who are willing to share the same hope as he gave them.
He warned them they also could feel lonely and hated, because others would not like it they being followers of him, worshipping the Only One God of gods. But he assured them that when they would come to look for each other and join in meetings, they would find the brotherly love he gave them and which could bring us all united in a world where there would be no war or pain any more.
By sharing that love Jesus gave to us, and finding believers who also want to worship that Only One God we shall be able to find those friends who can build us up and together would be willing to build up that community in which Jesus is the cornerstone. There we shall be able to find the real friends, who we shall be willing to call ‘brothers‘ and ‘sisters‘. With them we shall be looking forward to the fulfilment of God’s Plan.
Part of the process of God’s wondrous ability to bless our lives is you and I taking the time to slow down petition the throne of Grace and listen for His voice. As we slow down and wait on Him, we will be reminded of our complete and utter dependence on His strength. When we take the time to stop, pray; slow down and wait on Him – He will bring the resolution to our problems as and reveal His plan for our lives. {Bible Verses for Hurt, Broken, and Discouraged Lives – God Has a Plan}
As disciples of Christ we can come to counting lives and friends dear to us. Today this can happen in a less dangerous manner than in the first century of this era. The message did keep the same and the reason to make friends in Christ has become to be quickened, because time runs out. Day by day we shall be coming closer to the end times and when World War III will be a fact, it would be to late. Today our priority should be to form a loving brotherhood. It is now that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us by sharing true riches with as many as we can. Knowing that tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair we should be giving out our hand to many around us in love speaking words of kindness. Willing to walk with all kinds of people in love by faith, not by sight, together making church as united people under Christ.
When you are feeling lonely do know you are not alone. Tsundukani Baloyi writes:
The thing about feeling lonely is that it doesn’t matter who you choose to waste your time with whether it may be with friends, a lover or any significant other, you will still feel lonely. You could be in a room filled with people and still not feel as though you are part of the crowd. I don’t know, feeling lonely sucks at times. It drains the living hell out of you and the worst part of it is that you won’t even know why you feeling lonely in the first place. {Lonely}
When you are feeling lonely then, it is perhaps because you do not feel the mediator Jesus close to you, nor his heavenly Father who shall always be there by those who are looking for Him.
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When this article was published there where: 7 238 140 550 people on this earth.
Additional literature:
- Internet absurdities
- Changing screens
- Words to push and pull
- How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
- When you think you have nothing to say or to show
- Sharing thoughts and philosophical writings
- Putting your feelings into words and sharing them
- Hello America and atheists
- Message of Pope Francis I for the 48th World Communications Day
- Be Honest
- Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #12 Prayer #10 Talk to A Friend
- From Winterdarkness into light of Spring
- To be chained by love for another one
- God won’t ask
- Man’s plans prevailed by God’s purpose
- A goal is a dream with a plan
- If You want to start winning the war
- Engaging the enemy
- Intellectual servility a curse of mankind
- We should use the Bible every day
- People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
- Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
- A participation in the body of Christ (CdEcclesia)
- A participation in the body of Christ
- Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
- Congregate, to gather, to meet
- Meeting – Vergadering
- Parish, local church community – Parochie, plaatselijke kerkgemeenschap
- Reasons to come to gether
- Fellowship
- Integrity of the fellowship
- Feeling-good, search for happiness and the church
- Making church
- What’s church for, anyway?
- The Church, Body of Christ and remnant Israel synonymous
- Many churches
- Synagogue, Church or Ecclesia for the Christian
- When we love we do not need laws
- Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
- Priority to form a loving brotherhood
+++
Related articles
- Not So Lonely, After All (galinbluejeans.wordpress.com)
I thought you came back for me. So I’d not feel lonely, especially ’cause Priya & Sahana weren’t at school, and neither was Shyam. It was really sweet of you, RB - Now 7.2 billion humans, and counting (earthsky.org)
United Nations demographers declared a day last week (July 11, 2013) as World Population Day, at the same time saying that our global human population has now reached 7.2 billion and counting. The 7.2 billion number appears in the most recent of the biannual reports from the UN Population Division called World Population Prospects, which you can find here. This report also gave current projections for future population: - Nigeria’s population will outstrip US as world’s population will rise to 9.7bn in 2050 (vanguardngr.com)
The world’s population will rise to 9.7 billion in 2050 from the current level of 7.1 billion and India will overtake China as the world’s most populous nation, as Nigeria’s population will outstrip that of the United State a French study said Wednesday.A bi-annual report by the French Institute of Demographic Studies (Ined) projected there would be 10 to 11 billion people on the planet by the end of the century.The projections ran parallel to forecasts by the United Nations, the World Bank and other prominent national institutes.A UN study in June said the global population would swell to 9.6 billion in 2050 and the number of people aged 60 and above would catapult from 841 million now to two billion in 2050 and nearly three billion in 2100. - Think the U.S. Is a Crowded Place? Check Out This Cool Map Showing Where Nobody Lives (theblaze.com)
Unless you live in the middle of nowhere and witness this first hand, it’s probably hard to imagine that inhabitants haven’t covered the whole of the U.S., especially if your abode is in a city where it might feel like humanity is so dense that people are living on top of each other.But a new map drummed up by mapsbynik shows just how much room there is left in North America to spread out, where not another soul is reported to live — where the population is exactly zero. - My Poem ‘The Lonely Word’ (poetofthesphere.com)
You can sometimes think you are walking alone
even when you are in a crowd;
you can sometimes feel you are hearing nothing
even when the world sounds so loud;
you can sometimes see the world distorted;
you can sometimes hear the distant call
of someone who you may not have seen for a long time,
who is nowhere even near you at that exact time-
like the voice of a ghost,
but even though you can’t see that person
you have no doubt as to its origin,
and you will swear on your life
that you heard the person that you heard say what they said
in the way and in the voice that they said it. - You’re so used to (lynneadam.wordpress.com)
You’re so used to being lonely.
Not alone, but lonely.
Lonely,
Because alone is only for a while,
But lonely is a state.
Lonely is forever. - Philly’s Population Still Growing (phillymag.com)
“In its estimate for 2013, the Census Bureau put the city’s population at 1,553, 165, an increase of about 25,000 residents – or two percent – over 2010. … Nineteen of the nation’s 20 largest cities rose in population between 2010 and last year. The lone exception is Detroit, which saw its population decline by 3 percent.” Here’s the full list of America’s biggest cities and their growth since 2010. - ‘Lonely’ bacteria increase risk of antibiotic resistance (scienceblog.com)
Scientists from The University of Manchester have discovered that ‘lonely’ microbes are more likely to mutate, resulting in higher rates of antibiotic resistance. The study, published today in Nature Communications and jointly funded by The Wellcome Trust and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, explored the mutation rates of E. - Lonely (tsundukanibaloyi.wordpress.com)
Filed under Being and Feeling, Religious affairs, World affairs
Contentment: The five senses
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© Kamalpreet Singh, 18th December, 2013
You should be satisfied,
As you have been beautified,
With the splendid senses five,
Without which you can’t imagine to thrive.
With Your excellent eyes,
You can see the superb sunrise,
The sweet smile of your lover,
And your charming face in the mirror.
With your eager ears,
You can hear the words so clear,
The romantic rhythm of the song,
And the laughter of your friends along.
With your not-numb nose
You can smell the aroma arose
The fantastic fragrance of the rose
And the stall of the momos
With your tangy tongue
You can taste everything among
The flavor of your favorite ice-cream
And the spicy spaghetti extreme
With your screening skin
You can touch everything here-in
The feel of lover’s kiss
And the bliss you can’t miss…!
There are people without these boons,
Who have to suffer the typhoons.
View original post 46 more words
Filed under Being and Feeling, Poetry - Poems, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs
Misleading world, stress, technique, superficiality, past, future and positivism
I am convinced that in case we try to bend all our negative thoughts into the direction of good thoughts we can manage better. Very important to avoid stress situations simply is avoiding those people who could bring us into such a situation. We best avoid negative influences and associate better more with people who can contribute positiveness in our life.
Eliminative Materialism (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We should be careful not to be taken in, by not be focusing on the distribution of material power because that are the matters which can bring us down. Materialism in the end always will kill the person. Always being aware that no way we ever shall get a good working system or any political system that can solve everything. For that we shall have to wait until the return of Christ, when the Kingdom of God shall at last become a full reality. Before that the reality of a perfect world is an illusion. The reality that surrounds us is not in itself a product of the objective forces but one of our shared perceptions, ideas, social values and understanding. We would be fooling ourselves if we believed the state and the inter-state systems, would not be artificial constructs, meaning that they are constructed by humans, and they can be changed and developed in new ways in extreme cases leading to anarchy and a huge security dilemma.
We all should work on coming to understand how the world evolves and what for influence we as human beings have on nature. when you look how we treat nature it more seems that we are very good at destroying it instead of living in symbioses with it.
At the moment how people are making a mess of the world they are also putting stress on the whole community, using everything and every one to get as much material gain as they can. Not many people are really interested in the spiritual site of life. Most people are also not interested to come to know or to come to an understanding of the universe and the world around us.
All the things that happened in the past can never be undone. This can be hard to swallow and it can bring much sadness to us. But it has no use to linger on such bad events, sad happenings and to keep facing depressing thoughts. the world must go on, and we with it.
Instead of having people to succeed to push us in a hole, getting us not believing in ourselves any more, we better try to understand why such people became so envious, jealous, and so frustrated that they like to bully others. They would like to kill all initiative others would take, because that would put them in the shadow. Often such people looking to get all the power would not mind putting all those on their path, standing in their way,to not only put them in the shadow, but to get them in the dark, not having to play any significant role any more. it is all a matter of control. And when we lose control we might come into a phase of stress and they think they also would come in a phase of no power any more.
Sharing control and sharing tasks has not to mean you would or the other would loose control. Together more can be managed than on your own. Often when people start feeling their loosing control they do come in afraid to loose their position in the comfort zone. Some may take on the defence mode and try to suppress the other, others may come in the discomfort zone and feeling stress. at first the one feeling the pressure at work might thing he or she could solve the problem with working harder, giving himself or herself more for the job, but many of such hard-working and optimistically minded individuals have lost their jobs and have come so depressed, taken over by the stress or worries.
We best take care we do not get in a position were we could start dwelling on the negative spiral to nowhere. It leads to nihilism. We too can avoid that others get in a stress situation and loose their optimism. By encouraging others to focus on the positives is an act of ‘brotherly love‘. It also shows a faith in other individuals as well as a faith in what is around you or in the organization you are working for.
Captain Edward Rickenbacker, America’s premier “Ace” officially credited with 22 enemy planes and the proud wearer of the French War Cross as he appeared upon his arrival on board the Adriatic. Underwood and Underwood., ca. 1919 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We all should remember what World War I ace and aviation entrepreneur, Eddie Rickenbacker said:
“Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in experience and achievement.” That is an attitude worth maintaining and nurturing especially when times are so severe.
A big problem today is that most people are so focused on the materialism they do not see that there are more important matters and they think somebody else can destroy them. Several people consider atheism as being more useful for the development of life forces and the worldly satisfaction of the larger masses of mankind. {“Materialism Destroys the Eternal Spirit.” Articles by and on Berdyaev, Returning to Berdyaev at the Return to Materialism}
The triumph of the bourgeois spirit led Berdyaev to declare that history was a story of failure. Berdyaev lamented that the will to power and affluence had triumphed over the will to holiness and genius.” (Peter Maurin: Prophet in the Twentieth Century, Paulist Press, l98l.) {Nicholas Berdyaev, Prophet for the Catholic Worker Movement Materialism Destroys the Eternal Spirit}
This world is taken over by materialism, idolatries of power, lust and comfort. Normally you would think all the luxury would bring much satisfaction to the people, but by comparing what others have and what they do not have the jealousy took them down in a spiral of envy and bring them in a stress situation. Lots of people have created their own god. They do not understand that the for them useful and practically effective god of capitalism cannot be the True God. When you look at their god or gods you might come to see that it is no problem at all to unmask their new and popular gods. We can see that many adore the money and have put away The Only One God of religious revelations far away. For them That God can not be seen nor felt and therefore has no value for them. You could ask them: whenever did you try to look for Him and tried to see Him?
We have become surrounded by technique and many are totally taken by it and also have become very dependant on it. Their relationship with all that technical stuff however did not help to bring them into closer communion with their inner life and soul of nature. they might think it brought them closer together, and has created them having more ‘friends’ on the social networks. But they do not see that many of them are ‘virtual friends’ and have not a real social connection at all. We even see that more people become more isolated in their environment of Linked-in and Facebook relatives. They might have many so called ‘friends’ in their circles but they are very lonely … on their own. They, in their isolation, also seem to loose track of their own possibilities.
The machine sets its stamp upon the human spirit and all its manifestations. Thus civilization has neither a natural nor a spiritual, but a mechanical foundation. It represents par excellence the triumph of technique over both the spirit and organism.
The machine and technique are the product of the mental development and discoveries of culture; but they sap its organic foundations and kill its spirit. {Nicholas Berdyaev, Prophet for the Catholic Worker Movement Materialism Destroys the Eternal Spirit}
With all the focus on material goods not much interest can be found for culture. those working in the cultural field may be tampered and losing positivism as well. They have to find a way to earn their living and are persuaded to greater concessions. Many artists having lost the artistic soul, becoming part of the mainstream ‘civilization’ where spiritual matters are discounted and where quantity has displaced quality.
The assertion of the will to “life,” power, organization and earthly happiness, brings about mankind’s spiritual decline; for the higher spiritual life is based upon asceticism and resignation. Such are the tragedy and fate of historical destinies. {Nicholas Berdyaev, Prophet for the Catholic Worker Movement Materialism Destroys the Eternal Spirit}
Vyacheslav Ivanov, Lev Kobilinskij-Ellis, Nikolai Berdyaev (standing) and Andrei Bely (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I do not think like that civilization as opposed to culture, which is given up to the contemplation of eternity, tends to be futurist. I do agree that machinery and technique are chiefly responsible for the speeding up of life, but that some might have lost the reason why we could make advantage of such tools. and its exclusive aspiration towards the future. the technique should have helped our society to come more at ease and to be less stressful. Many let the machine take over and concentrated more on the material gain it could bring instead of making use or advantage of the time it could make free for them to do other things.
Organic life is slower, less impetuous, and more concerned with essentials, while civilized life is superficial and accidental; for it puts the means and instruments of life before the ends whose significance is lost. The consciousness of civilized men is concentrated exclusively upon the means and technique of life considered as the only reality, while its aims are regarded as illusory. {Nicholas Berdyaev, Prophet for the Catholic Worker Movement Materialism Destroys the Eternal Spirit}
may think that spiritual culture is unreal, but for me culture is fundamental for a healthy community. Culture is is not a mere instrument of technique, it is the gear transmission of society. It is the sociological controller and instigator for a good relation between end and means. Culture is also the mirror for man to put everything in perspective and the golden thread in history. Today we may see the loss of any sense of purpose in human life, culture and religion.
All historical tendencies which have striven to create harmony, to overcome the dark premise, to subdue the turbulence of freedom and supersede it by compelled and necesary good, are concerned only with the secondary signs of the unique and primal mystery of divine freedom. {Nicholas Berdyaev, Prophet for the Catholic Worker Movement Materialism Destroys the Eternal Spirit}
We as human beings should remember we are only a very tiny element in the universe. We would love to believe that everything turns around us, but we are thoroughly mistaken.
21st Century Materialism (Photo credit: tomislavmedak)
I do agree with that humankind has a solution in front of them, which was already given to them early from the start. And that it is this fundamental moral contradiction we are facing today that invalidates the doctrine of progress, turning it into a religion of death instead of resurrection and eternal life.
There is no valid ground for degrading those generations whose lot has been cast among pain and imperfection beneath that whose pre-eminence has been ordained in blessedness and joy. No future perfection can expiate the sufferings of past generations. Such a sacrifice of all human destinies to the messianic consummation of the favoured race can only revolt man’s moral and religious conscience. A religion of progress based on this apotheosis of a future fortunate generation is without compassion for either present or past; it addresses itself with infinite optimism to the future, with infinite pessimism to the past. It is profoundly hostile to the Christian expectation of resurrection for all mankind, for all the dead, fathers and forefathers. This Christian idea rests on the hope of an end to historical tragedy and contradiction valid for all human generations, and of resurrection in eternal life for all who have ever lived. {Nicholas Berdyaev, Prophet for the Catholic Worker Movement Materialism Destroys the Eternal Spirit}
Our habit of breaking up time into the past, present and future does not entitle us to endow the last with more reality than the first. From the standpoint of the present, the future is no richer in reality than the past, and our efforts should be with reference, not to the future, but to that eternal present of which both future and past are one. {Nicholas Berdyaev, Prophet for the Catholic Worker Movement Materialism Destroys the Eternal Spirit}
More people in this world should make the choice on what they really want to focus. Too much we have forgotten the importance of the choices we have to make and on the direction we have to focus our eyes and mind. We should all be convinced how much we ourselves can regulate our own life and how much depends on the focus on what we want is directly proportional to what we can achieve.
To many of us are more concerned to prove ourselves for man, instead of proving ourselves for the Higher Being. How many of us are not willing to change themselves, just for the sake of wining someone’s approval.
Geetika Garg, who is trying to know more about everything around her, writes on her blog:
You don’t have to prove yourself worthwhile by doing what others wish; it’s certainly not your job. Be confident for who you are, for who you had been all those years, stand strong for all the decisions that you have made and have faith in yourself. You are enough for your ow. {You Matter}
Too many people have forgotten to be their own self and to dare to speak out for themselves. A lot of people who would have loved to have more affinity for the spiritual have been pressed against the wall by the materialists. they put their own inner soul aside, thinking they would be less than the other. they looked for ways outside themselves to prove themselves by doing what others wished them to do. they should know that is not the right way and is neither to help them nor the ones they are hoping to please.
May I quote the lady who believes whatever we are seeking is seeking us too, and has hopes that the day the two will meet, it will be complete, perfect as it is meant to be!
Be confident for who you are, for who you had been all those years, stand strong for all the decisions that you have made and have faith in yourself. You are enough for your own self; you are capable of achieving what all you desire and you require absolutely none to tell you how worthy you are. Instead of focusing on what critics have to say why not concentrate on those who praise you. Those people are the ones with all positivism and happiness. We often tend to forget that they exist and keep believing on all bad about us. They are the people who matter. Let go of rest. Don’t let your ears used to of those cruel words that inhibit your growth, that steal a part of you and things that change your entire being. {You Matter}
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Recommended readings:
- Social Constructivism and Positivism in the Context of International Relations
- Put Positivism to Work
- Returning to Berdyaev at the Return to Materialism
- Berdyaev on the Nature of Spirit and Reality in Relation to Apologetics
- The Practice of Philosophy and Modes of Knowing: Hart’s Rejoinder to Zuidervaart?
- Searching for fulfillment and meaning through own efforts, facing unsatisfaction and depression
- Depression, Anxiety, Pressure and megachurches
- Philosophy hand in hand with spirituality
- Aligned
- Malefactors becoming your master
- Control your destiny or somebody else will
- Control and change
- Science and God’s existence
- Do we have to be an anarchist to react
- Getting out of the dark corners of this world
- Value Positivism
- Patience is the ability to count down before blasting off
- He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger
- To whom do we want to be enslaved
- Power in the life of certain
- Know Who goes with us and don’t try to control life
- God is my refuge and my fortress in Him I will trust
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Related articles
- Nihilism Cannot Be Disproved (Except by Positivism) (pensatwar.wordpress.com)
Pure nihilism (and not any of the subcategories of it) can be defined simply as: The belief that there is no truth. Positivism is the opposite; that there is truth.
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Nihilists, pure nihilists, do not have a profound effect on society. They can’t. If one truly believes in 100% Nihilism, why do anything? If a person is dedicated to nihilism all the time for their entire life, they will have had no extra effect on reality whatsoever. They will have simply existed and passed, with no meaning.
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Nihilism can only be disproved by Positivism. Its a purely democratic philosophical clash. - Positivism and The Quantity Theory of Money (syesworldview.wordpress.com)
The doctrine of positivism is a form of arch-empiricism that tries to crystallise the supposed process of ‘scientific thought’. An adherent of positivism believes that there are general ‘laws’ of cause and effect in the natural/social sciences and the only way to uncover these ‘laws’ is via the tool of research. An adherent of positivism believes that objective analysis – whatever is meant by this – is the only form of analysis; indeed there exists a zero possibility of the observer influencing the observed. Nature is orderly and regular; scientific knowledge is cumulative in character and all objective phenomena are eventually knowable – all characterize the approach of positivism. - If you’re afraid to do it, do it afraid. (carolynhughesthehurthealer.com)
What are you frightened of? Anything that stops you living your life to the full, whether it’s fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of the future can all impact on your life. Yet it is possible to overcome that detrimental negative thinking. You may never be completely fearless but you can learn to break out of your comfort-zone and find the freedom to take your life to a new level. - Positivism for Millennium 3 (politicalpipeline.wordpress.com)
Positivism describes a process to discover and authenticate knowledge (within reality) via the scientific method, which examines and then verifies (it’s positive). There is an initial hypothesis: this is a folded piece of paper, all swans are white, democracies start wars, etc., and then verification would validate or invalidate the hypothesis. Knowledge, in this manner, forms—and there is something for scientists to teach.In order for this scientific method to move forward, we have come to know six basic understandings of positivism. They are: unified science (created an ideology of a one-layered world, reality may be reduced to physics), empiricism (knowledge gained through mental or physical experimentation), objectivism (uninvolved observer), value freedom (no normative value is placed on the object of study), instrumentalism (observing it as a thing in the world), and technicism (value methods over results) (PSS, 13-14). Positivism took root in western philosophy in the 18th century and decayed in the winters and sprang in the summers of the 20th century. - The Future of Capitalism according to Nikolai Berdyaev (channelclimate.wordpress.com)
Most educated people in the West have heard of Fyodor Dostoevsky. But how many have heard of Nikolai Berdyaev? He was a Russian religious philosopher of the first half of the 20th century. And he had some interesting (albeit controversial) insights regarding the future of Capitalism. In his book The New Middle Ages (1933) that I’m currently reading he made several important observations on the issue.
First, in Berdyaev’s view development of society resembles cycles rather than spirals (in his view, it is somewhat similar to the day-night pattern). Second, the terms progressive and reactionary are relative if not utterly meaningless in a debate; for example, Christianity was progressive compared to the Old Gods but reactionary compared to the Capitalist New History. Third, the philosopher predicted that the 20th century frontier would be between Communism and Capitalism, or between God and The Godless (and he wasn’t referring to the production possibilities frontier). Fourth, he claimed that Russia had never fully embraced the Western way of life, including its rationality, laws, and norms. In fact, Russia has stepped directly from the old Middle Ages into the new Middle Ages. How, you’ll ask? By way of the Bolshevik revolution. According to Berdyaev, Communism is a Satanic religion, but a religion nonetheless, that sent Russia back into the Middle Ages (but note: when he used the term “the Middle Ages”, unlike modern Liberals he didn’t think of it in a condescending way).
- Legal Positivism and the Common Law (allenmendenhallblog.com)
Legal positivism, in the most basic sense, holds that laws are the manifestation of sovereign commands. It stands in contradistinction to natural law or the judicial conformity with human reason that supposedly defines the common law.
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What distinguishes the common law from a civil law system is the doctrine of stare decisis (“let the decision stand”), which requires judges to follow precedents established by prior decisions or to distinguish the facts of new cases from the facts of previous cases in order to reach an applicable rule. - Surrendering to positivism (thehimalayantimes.com)
The world is progressing in the field of science and technology, but peace cannot be attained through that. The fact is that peace can be acquired only through spiritual ideas. Until one imbibes the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, peace cannot be understood.
In today’s context, everybody is striving to be perfect, but there still is inequity everywhere. That is the reason why revolution took place in Nepal and other places — because there is lack of proper attention to every individual’s need. People who lead the country should be selfless, but unfortunately, they are corrupt. They lack spiritual ideas. - Negative Positivism (hasarla.wordpress.com)
Help arises when you arises. But if you stand and watch, they will do the same and feel your loss and you been d positive dude/girl programmed to rise after every fall (which is right), stay positive when all looks downright bleak, just keep moving on. - Positivism and Utilitarianism (arulinside.wordpress.com)
According to Dias the positivist movement started at the beginning of the 19th century. It represented a reaction against the a priori methods of thinking which turned away from the realities of actual law in order to discover nature or reason the principles of universal validity. Hart pointed out that the term positivism has many meanings which one of them is that laws are commands. Law as command is associated with Jeremy Bentham and John Austin that both are the founder of the British positivism. - Logical Positivism and the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (unfspb.wordpress.com)
Logical positivism is a more or less loose collection of philosophical theses- some of which are incompatible- which have their genesis in the scientific inclinations of the Vienna Circle members (on this see Friedman 1999 and Uebel 2009). However, one may identify two broadly unifying themes within logical positivism: (1) a verificationist epistemology and (2) an instrumentalist stance toward scientific theories.
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