They only want a better world for them.
This is the case for almost everyone, which makes their position seem impregnable. "Might makes Right" they are fond of feeling.
But underneath this lies the Truth: We are in this together, whether we like it or not.
To put this in practical terms: Afganistan is two countries, a poor one (most of the country) and a rich one (which we can defend easily).
By the rest of the world.
And if you are the product of a dysfunctional family (as most of us are) this is certainly true. Your family is against you, all the way.
If you are trying to do a good job (no matter what that is) you will find almost everybody is against you.
One of the big events of my life was when I tried to work at Adaptec. Which was a complete failure, because they wanted it that way.
They thought they were making something wonderful when they were not making anything at all.
TED has a service now that allows you to specify the kind of presentations you want to watch, and delivers them to your inbox.
The ones I selected are very upbeat and antidepressive. But evidently, this is what I wanted: cheerful food without limits.
Let me know how it works for you.
I can remember when I was in college, and very eager to become a success, what an impact the book The Organization Man had on me. This was the Gospel Truth, and I knew it was!
I was becoming an Electronic Engineer, but what I really wanted was to get a job. And when I graduated, I grabbed the first job that was offered to me, which kept me out of an office.
I went to work for the FAA. They gave me a car, and I drove to my first job in Sioux City, Iowa. This was at a remote location, that was patrolled by a skunk and her young.
In town, I spent much of my time at the Library, which was a disappointment to the young women there.
It wasn't long before I was working out of NYC, and I got married to a woman who helped me spend my money.
The Prophet I am referring to was Joseph Smith III, who I am learning about by reading his Memoirs, published by the Herald House.
This is not read very much, and I can see why. It tells us too much about him. It shows us how determined he was to follow in his Father's footsteps and move people from his father's church into his church.
If he was a normal boy, he would have asked his mother "Why is Daddy in jail?" But he was not normal, he was Religious, and seemed to think Being in Jail was a normal state of affairs.
There is a passage in the Memoirs that indicates a bribe was paid to get them out of jail. Why they were in Missouri in the first place is not explained.
Somehow, he ended up in Lamoni, Iowa, and stayed there quite a while, building up his RLDS church, before moving to Independence, Mo. He spent a lot of money there on building projects. Especially the Auditorium, a huge building, where General Conferences could be held.
I was standing in the Checkout lane in Walmart. When the woman ahead of paid her bill with a 100 dollar bill. The Checkout clerk called for the Store Manager, who looked at it, and told the clerk to give her the change for the bill, and walked off with the bill itself.
What happened here?
Drug salesmen come in two types: wholesale and retail. The wholesale type wants to make a quick buck and then disappear before they get arrested. Our jails are full of these types, mostly uneducated black people.
The woman with the 100 dollar bill will ger a shopping cart full of groceries, but nothing else. She will give the change to the person who gave her the bill, who will also disappear.
This operation has taken dirty money (from drugs) and turned it into clean money (in a bank account).
Americans love war, especially since WWII made them the most powerful country in the world.
When they lost that, especially after 9/11, they freaked out, and became obsessed with Terror.
And became terrorists themselves in the Vietnam War, which they lost.
Now, the most observant of them, ask "What's next?" Or they get involved in another endless war.
Object Oriented Programming
This was a popular programming strategy for a while but quickly lost out to Java. And most companies never noticed.
They ended up on the garbage heap of failed startups.
You start off by defining the objects. Then you define what they do (their algorithms).
But this is not enough, and Javs fill in the gaps
For me, this was Southern California in the Eighties. We were just getting used to the Computer. and didn't know how important it was yet, so we called it High Tech.
I worked my way down the coast, from Ventura County, LA County, Orange County, and then San Diego.
This new industry was unethical and consisted of hundreds of groups stealing were from each other. It took thirty years before there were only four companies left (Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft).
This was happening in Silicon Valley, in the Nineties.
To succeed in this latest industry, you had to contribute something important (that made lots of money).
For most people, looking on at all this craziness, it was too hard to understand, so they didn't try. Anything technical just became Tech, something they could safely ignore (they thought).
Making the move to this latest Industrial Revolution was too difficult for them, and they got left behind. Most people have been left behind, and this is the most serious situation that can be imagined.
I went to college and became an Engineer, which meant I could use the tools made available to me, mainly the vacuum tube. But Solid State made these obsolete.
A whole generation of people was also made obsolete. Something they could not understand in the least. So they elected Trump, who promised to make America Great Again.
When this did not happen, they elected Biden (the only choice they had), who is doing slightly better but understands little.
The Electorate is still baffled: What went Wrong?
This is brilliant writing, and the Kindle version is cheap.
It shows it can be hazardous to have a girl too.
It is an example of a poor Mother/Daughter relationship and a good Mother/Daughter relationship, with the same Mother and Daughter.
It has taken me a long time to realize this. His biggest mistake was marrying my Mother, instead of his Haitian girlfriend.
He is most often compared to Ed Mckiernan. They both grew up in Ft. Madison, Iowa. and Ed's son Larry married my sister Rogene.
His most important contribution to my life was when I moved to Costa Rica. I only had my Social Security income to live on. which is not enough for the States. But Dad had lived Overseas for a while and enjoyed it. Why couldn't I do that?
I wrote a search app, looking at every country, to see which was the best. The answer was Costa Rica, someplace I had never heard of before. To make a long story short, I am still here.
This is not the best solution for most Americans, however. Most of them go back after a few years.
When did it get Out-Of-Date?
Sometime in the Nineties, when the Computer took over. I was working as an Electronic Engineer, and that career was finished. The transition from Hardware to Software was messy and somewhere along the line, I dropped out.
Now I am trying to catch up with my 84-year-mind. But this is not easy.
Many places are more than willing to teach me the app Angular, and I am working on that.
I have found that Coffee and the Computer are compatible, and that is a help.
This was Joseph Smith's particular talent. and he used it a lot. But in the end, it killed him.
His son, Joseph Smith III, also had this talent. And my Grandmother (my mother's mother) and both her husbands, believed in him entirely.
He did not pass this on to his sons.
The 20th Century was full of those. Big shocks, ending with WWII.
When that was over, we organized the UN, so the 21st Century wouldn't be quite as exciting.
Little did we know that the next big shock would be a doozy. So much so that we turned ourselves off so we would not feel it.
When I turn on my Laptop in the moning, the first thing I see is Wikipediaa (so I can see what has happened while I was asleep). A lot has happened, and a lot of it is not very nice.
But smack dab in the middle of all this are Computer advetisements. You must learn this! And this! And this!
What happenes if you don't leran all this, is not specified, but it must be terrible.
I won't even finish this, because it is not too polite.
But it does put you in your place, which believe me is not too high.
That is why I moved to Costa Rica. The pwople down here are just rordinary people, but that is good enough.
Exactly when this happened I am not sure. But sometime in the middle of the night. I found myself sitting in a puddle of poop on the floor of my bathroom.
I did some hasty cleanup (using plenty of toilet paper), crawled back to my bed, and slowly got on top of it.
The next day, Ray cleaned all of it up, using a mop and a towel. This guy is an angel.
For Ray, any big tree is a problem, and he has to cut it down.
And this is extremely common.
You should bere interested in this because it is going to happen to you. And it is not going to make you any smarter.
And the smarter you are, the more you will notice the difference.
You can get smarter machines, that should make you smarter - but for some strange reason, this does not happen
This leads me to a similar topic "Smartness cannot be defined'"
This will be some help to you because people cannot be sure if you are dumb, or just acting dumb - except in extreme cases, of course.
First, a short history of the situation:
joseph Smith III was four when his father was murdered by a mob in 1844. This precipitated a Mormon War when everyone left town, including Emma and her four sons, children of Joseph the Prophet (JS II).
But she soon returned to take possession of her property (she owned most of the town). This was not smart, because she also acquired his debts which were numerous
Her sons acquired their father's religious mind, snd could make no money, but married anyway and had children. Her situation w.as going from bad to worse.
But another church had been formed in Northern Illinois that called itself the RLDS. Her sons joined this church. The details of the transaction remain vague to this day. Bur this severed any connection between Emma and her children
Emma stayed in Nauvoo and tried to operate the Nauvoo House as a combination family residence and hotel. But could not, died in poverty.
Meanwhile, JS III had formed his own church in Lamoni, Iowa, which was a modest success. He had money, but never spoke to his mother again.
If I had mentioned my feelings about this to my Grandmother, she would have said "He should have, but things were different back then."
These are sacred texts uncovered at various places in the Holy Land.
I downloaded the Kindle version for only $2.
It's good to be reminded that Christianity has been around for a long time, and is well-known to the young, as well as the old.
It seems painful to them.
For example, I am reading Making Globalization Work, which easy for me, but not for most people.
Jn fact, that one word "ecosystem" says it all and explains why most people have no idea what it is.
As soon as I turn my computer on, it starts telling me about all the latest things. And I have to chose which latest thing I want to know about.
We live in a rapidly changing world, which is leaving steam-age people behind.
In Afghanistan. a place nobody wants but everybody wants. get rid of it. As reported by Wikipedia,
This a Coursera course produced by the University of Toronto.
It starts off with long history of this subject in India, one of the most talkative people in this world.
I have been surprised by how easily this has improved my life. If you like being nice, warm, and comfy, it might be good for you too.
Amazon ships my packages to Aeropost in Miami. This international company then ships it. on an Airline of its choosing, to Costa Rica.
Usually. But like all companies, it sometimes gets things mixed up, and your precious package can end up anywhere. A blood pressure pill may come in handy.
In Afghanistan, we do not understand the enemy, or ourselves.
Understanding ourselves is most critical. Without that, we can do nothing.
We need to understand ourselves before we can do anything.
What are trying to do over there?
