One of my favorite posts presents a functional definition that authority relative to one entity is when some other entity has information needed. And talked a LOT on that subject in one of the most popular posts on this blog.
And we can check people on authority, like with seeing if a medical doctor is properly credentialed, or verifying that a lawyer has passed the bar. While often will admit will not necessarily check authority THAT way, though haven't needed to lately, so just making up examples. Ok.
Um, where was I? Oh, so yeah often will find that I rely on signs of authority. Like in a hospital? I expect those people who look like doctors, to actually be well trained doctors where others have verified such things.
But out here on the web--what are the signs of authority? That is, someone having information you need?
That is the hard question of the web I think, and there can be help. Like you can go to government websites for certain kinds of authority. Have heard web search engines are working more with medical information to link people to established authority.
Am someone who likes the web authority aspect of the web, which yes can have problems but over time I think is getting better. However, also I recognize that for someone like myself can push others into difficult territory.
Like have lots of ideas. Where many may not be sure about me or those ideas, especially if looking for established authority. Which I highly recommend doing! That means less likely to cheer those ideas. While others who dislike those ideas, seem to be much more likely to put up negatives. And I like that process.
The burden then on someone like myself becomes substantial which helps to clear out people who cannot meet it. While I also will admit it does push your audience more into people who can check.
So yeah, very much promote checking authority. Benefit is knowledge. And figure will keep being a hard problem as long as humans have to work to be sure what they think is knowledge IS knowledge. Where yeah, like to keep it simple there as well, with knowledge being useful information which is what I know I want.
How do you check authority? Well that is extremely valuable knowledge. Is good to promote it.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Promoting concepts around equality
The idea that each human has a basic right to a personal space is one I like. And is one have promoted in various ways.
And helps to understand what that means to consider an opposite position where a person believes that a powerful person can leverage against subordinate humans at a whim, for own pleasure. My view is that such invasion of a human being's personal space is wrong. My belief that is wrong is one consistent with a certain set of values.
Others might say that say, a famous celebrity should be able to leverage, as a reward, pushing upon some other human for sexual pleasure against that person's wishes. I say, no.
Also I believe that MY interest in a woman, should never be HER problem. Where to me that also covers photography. One of my favorite posts has:
From my post: Art is not just about you
Will admit have learned some things from hard lessons. Yes, been abused myself and talked some, and have worried about my own behavior. Where like to think have been ok. But have in the past looked at women in certain ways, only to grow older and wonder how that happened. And discussed some on this blog:
From my post: With real equality boundaries will be respected
So I have ideals. Living up to them can be about constant effort. But I like to say, better regardless to have them.
How is it when humans feel there can be rights to breach personal boundaries? Well for one, when they are saving you, like in a medical emergency. Or when legal authorities, including police, believe you have broken laws. And those are situations when even an adult is at the mercy of others, with a social function giving them the right.
It is interesting in a society, what rights people believe people have based on status though.
Equality pushes against certain things in ways that fascinate me, which I explore often.
Respect for personal boundaries when people exist together as equals can be very important to feeling safe. To me that also helps in figuring things out.
Some promotion of posts on the blog itself on Promotional Tuesday as well as concepts that run throughout.
James Harris
And helps to understand what that means to consider an opposite position where a person believes that a powerful person can leverage against subordinate humans at a whim, for own pleasure. My view is that such invasion of a human being's personal space is wrong. My belief that is wrong is one consistent with a certain set of values.
Others might say that say, a famous celebrity should be able to leverage, as a reward, pushing upon some other human for sexual pleasure against that person's wishes. I say, no.
Also I believe that MY interest in a woman, should never be HER problem. Where to me that also covers photography. One of my favorite posts has:
But when you see that art, which can be about so many things, like a picture with a model in a photograph, or a great painting, and she's smiling beguilingly at you? No she isn't. Or he isn't. Or someone transgender is not.
Why is worth it to remind that art at its best can appeal to millions or maybe even billions? That's not about me.
That is about art.
From my post: Art is not just about you
Will admit have learned some things from hard lessons. Yes, been abused myself and talked some, and have worried about my own behavior. Where like to think have been ok. But have in the past looked at women in certain ways, only to grow older and wonder how that happened. And discussed some on this blog:
There is a scary training where a pushy man forces himself upon a woman with the idea she needs to be conquered. Which is thankfully going out the window as unacceptable in our more modern society. Echoes of it are throughout older entertainment though. Or that a guy can say anything, lie or whatever to get a woman. Also echoes of that in fiction as well. I don't think that's ever funny.
From my post: With real equality boundaries will be respected
So I have ideals. Living up to them can be about constant effort. But I like to say, better regardless to have them.
How is it when humans feel there can be rights to breach personal boundaries? Well for one, when they are saving you, like in a medical emergency. Or when legal authorities, including police, believe you have broken laws. And those are situations when even an adult is at the mercy of others, with a social function giving them the right.
It is interesting in a society, what rights people believe people have based on status though.
Equality pushes against certain things in ways that fascinate me, which I explore often.
Respect for personal boundaries when people exist together as equals can be very important to feeling safe. To me that also helps in figuring things out.
Some promotion of posts on the blog itself on Promotional Tuesday as well as concepts that run throughout.
James Harris
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Pondering people pressure and reality
We humans depend on our fellow humans for much, which can be a GREAT thing. Like people can even put people in space, thanks to MILLIONS of humans back here on our planet, or else, not possible. And went dramatic for emphasis, but daily reality is so much that depends on lots of people, working together, and mostly working well.
Naturally that does not just happen.
Get born, and people tell you things.
Which should be helpful to learn how to be your best human. The ideal am sure of--but how well society manages is a subject for endless debate.
Reality I think is, most of it IS rather useful.
Know I learned a lot from my parents which I appreciate, and then lots more from teachers, and VASTLY more from books and now from the web. Really, was it vastly more? Or do I like to think it was for ego reasons? Well, parents taught me for so long through that childhood thing, school teachers for a bit longer as went to college, and now web is for the rest of my life. Ok. So yeah is about right.
And there is a fierce desire to learn when young, thankfully, which does most of the work, of getting us to work, at learning, especially early.
So we do things like learn a language without even remembering all that effort. Which is one of the most massively intensive things most humans will ever do. Thankfully long before most can remember much.
Though people can get perspective later when try to learn another, even though is easier with the foundations in place.
Yet as much as we gratefully learned with joy or relentless effort we barely understand, much else we are told we need to know. Which is so much about school. And there also, usually is correct where can take a LONG time before get that perspective--which is usually adult.
And then there are areas where your fellow humans can get beyond the needed, beyond even the true, and test your ability to check authority. If you can muster the courage. Challenging authority is something completely different and is a harder area. Checking authority is more about verifying that the knowledge IS correct. And how often does anyone do that?
Just because some humans CLAIM to know, does it mean really do? No.
Motivations DO matter of course. And thankfully enough, present without proof that it can take people more motivated to spend energy telling a lie, than the truth. Truth has a solidity which can actually make truth easier.
Lies tend to keep needing support.
The pressure to know is the reality. And there is pressure from people for us to know, and people pressure forces us to learn, something.
But, what if that people pressure is for lots of wrong reasons?
How hard it is to know, especially if what taught has to be challenged? And how do you know to challenge unless things really do not seem to work well with what knowledge you have.
Which am thinking has been a modern problem. The web has shifted so much for so many people as opening new possibilities, pushed people, like myself, to learn new things.
People are aware that even when wrong, can still want you to do something, so lots of people may try to convince you.
Is a very common reality of course that if some humans need you to do something? They probably will tell you some things.
Whether those things are true or not? Well it can depend.
Luckily the younger you are the less likely those things are deliberately not useful, as what's the motivation? Best parents have none. Even not so good parents have little, I'd think. Worst parents are terrifying to consider. But in-between, may lie relentlessly to you to try to get you to clean the house and THEIR childish messes when they are messier than their own kids...um. Where was I?
Oh yeah, so checking authority is really about verifying that information you need, or you're told you need, is actually valid. And good news is society works hard for you. Like in the US, you can trust that a medical doctor needs lots of training, and proof of accomplishing that training, and has to work to maintain a medical license! The government really wants those doctors to work, in many ways.
In lots of areas you will find that people are checked on their knowledge. And thankfully in our times the web helps you to check, both on how to check, and on details which some person may give. Then if get suspicious, on ways to have appropriate authority, check them.
In some areas is good to start skeptical is my opinion: like with romantic relationships.
Question much. It does seem to often be presented too easily the path to finding a stranger, who will become closer than a friend. And how can it be so little taught, a process by which someone you barely know, becomes someone you feel like you cannot live without? Or wouldn't it be nice to find such a person. And how many actually do in life?
We do our best with what we know. And find it very difficult to challenge, usually. Which I know from my own experience and watching others. As people pressure pushes us, when you feel it? Then you know you're at the limits of your knowledge.
Is so much better when you can go with the flow. Even feel like your life is too mundane, as so much seems unexciting, when complex decisions really, look like the only ways to go. With training that has become so much a part of you as the difficult has turned to the natural.
Like with language, and we speak more easily than we remember how we learned. Where again we do not remember actually unless getting a hint from how hard by working later at a second language.
The language then of much of our lives is like a roadmap that means less pressure so much may rarely feel it at all. Or more usually, back with that relationships thing, where no one seems to have a great handle there.
So lots of checks and balances--to go with a phrase--are available. And when feeling people pressure? Especially the older you are? Probably best with checks and balances versus waking up daily in some weird situation where some person has abused your trust, and you're paying the consequences.
We live with consequences no matter what. Makes sense to work at how you get yours.
Knowledge IS power in so many ways. And sure people pressure is reality for getting so much done, which is great, most of the time, for most in societies that are advanced. Your fellow humans need you to know things, and you need your fellow humans to know vast amounts of information thankfully where millions are available? Like in countries like the US?
That is a done deal.
James Harris
Naturally that does not just happen.
Get born, and people tell you things.
Which should be helpful to learn how to be your best human. The ideal am sure of--but how well society manages is a subject for endless debate.
Reality I think is, most of it IS rather useful.
Know I learned a lot from my parents which I appreciate, and then lots more from teachers, and VASTLY more from books and now from the web. Really, was it vastly more? Or do I like to think it was for ego reasons? Well, parents taught me for so long through that childhood thing, school teachers for a bit longer as went to college, and now web is for the rest of my life. Ok. So yeah is about right.
And there is a fierce desire to learn when young, thankfully, which does most of the work, of getting us to work, at learning, especially early.
So we do things like learn a language without even remembering all that effort. Which is one of the most massively intensive things most humans will ever do. Thankfully long before most can remember much.
Though people can get perspective later when try to learn another, even though is easier with the foundations in place.
Yet as much as we gratefully learned with joy or relentless effort we barely understand, much else we are told we need to know. Which is so much about school. And there also, usually is correct where can take a LONG time before get that perspective--which is usually adult.
And then there are areas where your fellow humans can get beyond the needed, beyond even the true, and test your ability to check authority. If you can muster the courage. Challenging authority is something completely different and is a harder area. Checking authority is more about verifying that the knowledge IS correct. And how often does anyone do that?
Just because some humans CLAIM to know, does it mean really do? No.
Motivations DO matter of course. And thankfully enough, present without proof that it can take people more motivated to spend energy telling a lie, than the truth. Truth has a solidity which can actually make truth easier.
Lies tend to keep needing support.
The pressure to know is the reality. And there is pressure from people for us to know, and people pressure forces us to learn, something.
But, what if that people pressure is for lots of wrong reasons?
How hard it is to know, especially if what taught has to be challenged? And how do you know to challenge unless things really do not seem to work well with what knowledge you have.
Which am thinking has been a modern problem. The web has shifted so much for so many people as opening new possibilities, pushed people, like myself, to learn new things.
People are aware that even when wrong, can still want you to do something, so lots of people may try to convince you.
Is a very common reality of course that if some humans need you to do something? They probably will tell you some things.
Whether those things are true or not? Well it can depend.
Luckily the younger you are the less likely those things are deliberately not useful, as what's the motivation? Best parents have none. Even not so good parents have little, I'd think. Worst parents are terrifying to consider. But in-between, may lie relentlessly to you to try to get you to clean the house and THEIR childish messes when they are messier than their own kids...um. Where was I?
Oh yeah, so checking authority is really about verifying that information you need, or you're told you need, is actually valid. And good news is society works hard for you. Like in the US, you can trust that a medical doctor needs lots of training, and proof of accomplishing that training, and has to work to maintain a medical license! The government really wants those doctors to work, in many ways.
In lots of areas you will find that people are checked on their knowledge. And thankfully in our times the web helps you to check, both on how to check, and on details which some person may give. Then if get suspicious, on ways to have appropriate authority, check them.
In some areas is good to start skeptical is my opinion: like with romantic relationships.
Question much. It does seem to often be presented too easily the path to finding a stranger, who will become closer than a friend. And how can it be so little taught, a process by which someone you barely know, becomes someone you feel like you cannot live without? Or wouldn't it be nice to find such a person. And how many actually do in life?
We do our best with what we know. And find it very difficult to challenge, usually. Which I know from my own experience and watching others. As people pressure pushes us, when you feel it? Then you know you're at the limits of your knowledge.
Is so much better when you can go with the flow. Even feel like your life is too mundane, as so much seems unexciting, when complex decisions really, look like the only ways to go. With training that has become so much a part of you as the difficult has turned to the natural.
Like with language, and we speak more easily than we remember how we learned. Where again we do not remember actually unless getting a hint from how hard by working later at a second language.
The language then of much of our lives is like a roadmap that means less pressure so much may rarely feel it at all. Or more usually, back with that relationships thing, where no one seems to have a great handle there.
So lots of checks and balances--to go with a phrase--are available. And when feeling people pressure? Especially the older you are? Probably best with checks and balances versus waking up daily in some weird situation where some person has abused your trust, and you're paying the consequences.
We live with consequences no matter what. Makes sense to work at how you get yours.
Knowledge IS power in so many ways. And sure people pressure is reality for getting so much done, which is great, most of the time, for most in societies that are advanced. Your fellow humans need you to know things, and you need your fellow humans to know vast amounts of information thankfully where millions are available? Like in countries like the US?
That is a done deal.
James Harris
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Thinking about pressure
Found myself pondering the subject of pressure we humans can put on each other. Which will be the subject of my first scheduled post of 2018. And seems political to me, so is a Political Wednesday post.
Where again format here is that there are at times scheduled posts where that is announced on Sunday.
Where again format here is that there are at times scheduled posts where that is announced on Sunday.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Adults reborn
There is that appeal to claim tragic in being an adult trying to remake at 48, though started well before. Find your appeal, a voice tells me. Am trying I lie to myself. I like the quiet.
But am not adolescent; was so long ago, over 30 years then at least reached that legal maturity, and is far enough ago, should barely remember. And wonder now when looking at younger people, is their knowledge an excuse? Still must learn, must make money.
Seemed so easy in a past now gone so dismissed it, even if the call was to make LOTS as if that were a real goal. Why do some people make so much money? When so many watch emptiness inside play out of them as only thing really of interest.
We barely remember the names of the rich, if rich is all they have. And that of course, will be taken from them, in time. There is a cruel master of them, far greater than money. There you do see the fear in their eyes, or in their faces, maybe more plastic as chase youth...gone regardless.
To be commercial is that a thing? Yes. Of course it is. Is in the title. So must be.
If the blog is Seriously Commercial, then it must be, right?
Challenge myself to grow up. Am only 48, it's not too late, right.
I challenge myself.
But am not adolescent; was so long ago, over 30 years then at least reached that legal maturity, and is far enough ago, should barely remember. And wonder now when looking at younger people, is their knowledge an excuse? Still must learn, must make money.
Seemed so easy in a past now gone so dismissed it, even if the call was to make LOTS as if that were a real goal. Why do some people make so much money? When so many watch emptiness inside play out of them as only thing really of interest.
We barely remember the names of the rich, if rich is all they have. And that of course, will be taken from them, in time. There is a cruel master of them, far greater than money. There you do see the fear in their eyes, or in their faces, maybe more plastic as chase youth...gone regardless.
To be commercial is that a thing? Yes. Of course it is. Is in the title. So must be.
If the blog is Seriously Commercial, then it must be, right?
Challenge myself to grow up. Am only 48, it's not too late, right.
I challenge myself.
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