Turil
I am for youArchive for November, 2010
Personhood
Consider the following approach to defining a “person” in a legal and moral sense:
A person is an individual in any form that shows at least some signs of internally created intention, rather than only simple automatic mechanical responses, in its action.
In other words, if a thing changes it’s responses to external input through some apparently internal process, and isn’t clearly entirely and directly being controlled by external forces, then we might say that this thing is an individual person with what appears to be at least some awareness of it’s own actions (it is self-aware, at some level) and thus probably has some personally driven motivation.
This doesn’t mean that things that by our assessment don’t show unpredictable behavior, and thus some internally motivated intention, don’t have any rights, it simply means that we have an option for a simple test of how to prioritize our morality and relationship with other individual things in our environment. We can still value things that are simple and mechanical, but we might choose to place more value on things that do show uniqueness and variability of action.
In other words, we might value diversity!
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taking a stand
I stand for creativity, love, evolution, health, growth, and life – the earth, generally, and more specifically, my close family and friends, especially my husband, and my own self.
What do you stand for? What are you willing to risk your comfort to defend/support/create?
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giving thanks
I am grateful for the rare few individuals who are willing to stand up for a better world. I am thankful for their inspiration, as we collectively face challenging times, and work to create a world where EVERYONE is taken care of, unconditionally, so that we can all be our best, most healthy, compassionate, creative, and inspiring selves.
And I am grateful to those of you who support me and/or David in our journey to a better, healthier, more stable future. Your support means so much to us.
Thank you, so very much!
Love,
T
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the reason why you deserve to be loved
In answering my recent question Why do you deserve to be loved?, I offer you the following:
You deserve to be loved – meaning being supported in getting your basic needs for food, water, air, warmth, light, and the freedom to express your body’s excess matter and energy – because being loved allows you to grow into your best, most beautiful, compassionate, creative, and inspiring self. And this is important because the world very much needs all of us functioning at our peak physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual abilities as we collectively enter into the future of increasingly complex global challenges, here on our precious home of planet Earth.
Are you convinced yet?
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freedom of expression
The freedom of expression side of human needs is, perhaps, the least understood in mainstream culture. Or at least the least socially supported. Sure, we all have some sense of freedom being important (and worth dying for, or maybe even killing for), and it’s even written into the US’s statement-of-purpose-like Declaration of Independence in the form of declaring that all (hu)Men, by their very existence in life, share the inherent rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We invest a reasonably good amount of resources in understanding our input needs, and have a decent idea of what “nutritious food, clean water, fresh air, warmth, and sunlight” mean when it comes to human health. But how much research and knowledge is there when it comes to understanding the output needs, of “freedom to express the body’s excess solids, liquids, gases, and energy”? And, furthermore, how often do we make a point of ensuring these things?
For example…
Do we know how to ensure that the body can readily eliminate toxins such as heavy metals and industrial chemicals?
Do we have a good grasp on human sexuality, and it’s role in not just biological procreation, but emotional health as well?
Do we understand what role exercise and sleep play in the elimination process?
Do we offer effective venues for sharing the creative ideas that people have with the world.
Do we recognize the importance of finding ways to help individuals share their emotional energy with the world, even when it is very strong?
And finally, how are we working to support people in being free to control their own lives, so that they don’t become “out of control”?
Perhaps the real meaning of freedom, and how to approach increasing it, is something that we can bring to the table next time we sit down at it…
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two wrongs don’t make a right
Imagine if the folks in leadership situations (from government, to smaller groups such as schools and organizations and families) had honestly learned this back in kindergarten?
-1 + -1 = -2
A negative plus a negative does not equal a positive. Instead it equals two negatives, which puts things even more out of balance. This is the beginning of the downward spiral because if others follow the same logic of two wrongs making a right (aka tit for tat, in game theory) that second wrong will also be countered by yet another wrong, leading to three negatives, and so on.
Instead, try this logic:
-1 + 2 = 1
To get from a negative to a positive, so as to bring the overall balance of things into the positive side, you need to add two positives.
This is the natural positive spiral of healthy life. One step back and two steps forward.
This is the “logic” of the laws of nature and evolution – overall constant growth, with some periodic fluctuations that lead to sometimes having gross losses (mass extinctions) and sometimes having gross gains (more diversity), but always with a small net gain. (At least this is the case in our present universe. It’s definitely possible that this is just a temporary expansion in life, the universe, and everything that we know. But it seems to be safe to say that this very slow net growth will continue to be the case for at least as long as humans are around.)
So next time you encounter some wrong in the world, and you want to be evolutionary, or progressively revolutionary (as in a spiral), consider doing two things that are right. They can be as related or unrelated to the particular wrong as you want, as long as they are overall positive actions. And by positive, I mean promoting growth, physically, emotionally, intellectually, and/or spiritually. For humans that means increasing the availability of whole foods, clean water, fresh air, warmth, sunlight, and the freedom to express their excess solids, liquids, gases, and energy.
Maybe a clearer way to say it is “A wrong plus two rights makes a right.” What do you think?
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Turil 