[AccessD] OT - John Colby - volunteer work with Prisons - Minnesota Public Radio program

I rarely make OT comments, but here's the exception:

I see a lot of similarity between political belief and religious belief.
Virtually all of us today were told of the political or religious framework
we adhere to. Even those who seek almost never invent a novel set of
beliefs, but simply pick from available alternatives. We choose our belief
systems for reasons that have very little to to with logic, and everything
to do with emotion.

Proof of this is that our tenets rarely hold up to unbiased, scientific
scrutiny. If a particular belief was provably correct, shouldn't it be
universally accepted, like the laws of gravitation, or the Pythagorean
theorem? And yet, problematic as they are, our beliefs are very real to us,
perhaps more real than any other aspect of our existence.

So, we find ourselves today in this setting of global competing passed-down
dogmas, that are fiercely believed in and passionately championed, in spite
of scarce proof. In the old days, the obvious and often-used resolution to
these conflicts was to kill or imprison the others, the infidels, the
political apostates.

For all their problems, frailties, and pitfalls, there is one thing that can
be unequivocally said about modern, religion-neutral democracies: the
streets are almost entirely free of bloodshed when power changes hands or
religious movements gain ground, and the prisons are remarkably free of
political and religious prisoners.

So, before we give up, and condemn our current systems to the dust bin, let
us consider the achievements of our more enlightened societies and their
political systems. We have difficulties because these systems are imperfect.
But anyone who suggests, or implies, that we should revert to the political
systems of old has forgotten what truly horrible things those historical
regimes could be.

The only real way forward is to invent new structures that address our
current grievances, while embedding even more deeply respect for our
differences, based on a more solid, fundamental and complete understanding
of who we are as as species.

That is the current belief I irrationally and emotionally adhere to.

-Ken

---------- Forwarded message ----------

> From: jwcolby <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving <
> accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:36:41 -0400
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT - John Colby - volunteer work with Prisons -
> Minnesota Public Radio program
> Dan,
>
> Sadly politics is broken, not just in the US but around the world.
>
> I did an 8 month training, one full weekend a month to learn to be an
> advocate for people with disabilities.  My daughter Allie has many
> disabilities caused by a genetic duplication.  One of the weekends was
> dedicated to educating us on the political system, what special interests
> means, lobbying and so forth.
>
> Elections are won with advertising, advertising costs money, and companies
> (mostly) have money.  But in the end it all comes down to people.  Everyone
> believes what they believe, are (have been) convinced of the "truth" of
> their belief system.
>
> Republicans really do believe that government has no business being in the
> "help" business, that it is the job of the people to help each other.
>  Democrats believe the opposite.  People have become jaded and believe that
> nobody cares any more and so stop caring themselves.
>
> Ignoring the names of the political parties, this is not an American
> problem it is a world problem, which occurs any time there are so many
> people that we no longer know our neighbors.  I don't mean "know their face"
> I mean "get to know" our neighbors.
>
> What we were shown in that weekend is that the primary job of a politician
> is to get re-elected. The politician him/herself has a belief system but
> unless (s)he can get (re)elected (s)he cannot implement the belief system.
>  Once elected, there are so many conflicting interests that (s)he cannot
> really function effectively.
>
> The system truly is broken, and probably always has been.
>
> The only hope for mankind is for us to realize that we all stand together
> or we all fall alone. People have to individually make an effort to help
> others less fortunate than ourselves.  Which is a lot of work, and there is
> a college football game on... and after that is Dancing with the Stars...
> and besides, what difference can I really make?
>
> :)
>
>
> John W. Colby
> Colby Consulting
>
> On 10/4/2011 5:17 PM, Dan Waters wrote:
>
>> John- some of this will change in the next election.  Unfortunately, too
>> many people need to learn things the hard way.  And learning that voting
>> carefully, not emotionally, is actually important.  Politics is not a
>> reality TV show - it's real people really getting hurt.
>>
>> Dan
>>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Arthur Fuller <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving <
> accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2011 11:10:51 -0400
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT - John Colby - volunteer work with Prisons -
> Minnesota Public Radio program
> I think that you are onto something here, JWC. And I am seriously unsure of
> the consequences that I draw, but here they are:
>
> 1. Political parties of whatever stripe are by definition attacks on
> popular
> opinion. I don't see any other way to see this. Let us for example take a
> hypothetical voter who is against abortion and also against religious
> instruction in public schools. No party represents this theoretical person.
> The inevitable result is that I choose the party that shares the most
> number
> of values and propositions with me, and that SUCKS.
>
> Tomorrow is Election Day in Ontario, and various polls indicate that either
> the Libs or the Cons are slated to have a minority win, and in either case
> that means that my party, the NDP, is going to hold the balance of power.
>
> On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 10:36 AM, jwcolby <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
> >wrote:
>
>