Cooperation and competition both play a role in our collective life — sometimes more of this, sometimes more of that. However, a self-styled ‘capitalist’ sees red at the mere mention of cooperation, whereas a self-styled ‘communist’ argues for forcefully imposing cooperation on the whole society.
Suppose we put all such western ideologies to one side and ask: What does our lived, empirical reality say?
Our earlier two posts (here and here) discussed the war economy, and the fact that nations must also face the consequences of their actions. Thus each of these posts was a specific instance of the inexorable laws of karma at work. That should not surprise anyone, given that the blog aims to seek out root causes of the multifarious phenomena we see around us!
At this stage, we thought that a brief discussion about the laws of karma was also needed – and so here it is!
Imagine that, for the first time in your life, you are passing through a thick forest. Foliage is so thick that daylight barely reaches ground level. Turning back is not an option, because you know your life’s goal lies ahead. As you move, you walk into branches and bushes, slip, stumble, hurt yourself, tire, be bitten by bugs, be fearful, be thirsty … and much more. You curse your fate. You curse the forest. But if you are wise, and if you persevere, you will make it through the forest and achieve your life’s goal.
Over the last few weeks, a truth has dawned on this seeker.
Internet is flooded with opinions … answers … narratives … theories … viewpoints … self-promotions … whatever. Almost every person on our beloved planet is able to share something of that kind with almost every other person on the planet. This is in fact a mind-boggling gift of technology.
Thank you, Internet!
But there is clearly a HUGE down side to all this. What is an individual to make of this unprecedented, incredible information overload?
THE TRUTH LIES WITHIN, AS DOES THE TEST OF TRUTH.
In the absence of these two crucial elements, an individual is literally lost — drowned? — in the flood of information.
Therefore, instead of hawking yet another opinion … answer … narrative … theory … viewpoint … whatever … Why not try something else?
Why not prompt … provoke … nudge … prod … the search for answers in the recesses of the individual mind? That should be fun!
Questions will be posted — or, to be more precise, points to ponder. The hope is that these will generate answers. Not ‘perfect’ answers, of course, because there is no such thing. But honest and authentic attempts, offered to others in the spirit of sharing.
Our species today has a total headcount of some 7.6 billion, spread all over the unique and beautiful planet Earth. The species originated a few hundred thousand years ago in a region of the great continent of Africa. In this evolutionary ‘blink of an eye’, heroic individuals and groups of our species have migrated to the remotest parts of the planet − overcoming in the process innumerable and enormous challenges and adversities. Continue reading A FALSE DUALITY→
The English word ‘gut’ is rich in its range of meanings. In Biology, ‘gut’ means ‘intestine’ – as in ‘gut bacteria’ or ‘gutting a fish’; this meaning extends to the racquet strings used in sports such as tennis and badminton. In common usage, ‘guts’ refers to ‘courage’, as in ‘having the guts to take on the huge challenge of _______’ (fill in your favourite). Continue reading Gutless Wonders→
The human child needs protective nurture which stretches from birth to at least teenage. The earliest part of this nurture – that is, the first few years after birth – provides to the child the innermost core of ‘identity’, including core values. A child’s eager young mind takes in whatever is offered by parents, teachers and other trusted adults. This is the ‘ABC’ of healthy childhood nurture. Continue reading Identity & Peace→
seeker-of-root-causes 