MY CONTROVERSIAL CONCEPTS #3

> I will concede that a lack of trust in our government, as well as a lack of trust in corporate America, is justified. But I will also concede that in mostly every situation, heads of state, and corporate executives, still know more than I do with regard to their particular lines of work. I am able to balance a ‘trust/mistrust’ perspective, by being well informed, and by remembering that, everything I am hearing, from any and every source, right up to and including the Commander in Chief, is somewhat suspect, and might likely not be true.

> It is a mistake for us to continue to accept the unacceptable. Instead of adapting to hunger, and the poor education system, and lack of jobs, lack of housing, lack of civility… We need to prevent it. Not treat it. We need to educate people so that they can be a doctor or be a lawyer or be a painter or be a carpenter. Be a skilled person or an intelligent person with an above average income, so that society will not need to intervene.

> When we meet someone who has radically different creeds and viewpoints than your own, we are best to concern ourselves with the fact that that kind of thinking actually exists. If we can separate the viewpoint from the individual, it will go a long way toward maintaining social decorum. For we have little hope of changing anyone’s opinions, with words. It is actions and deeds, and ultimately time, that combine to change the hearts and minds of our so-called opponents. They will not care about, nor pay any heed to, anything we say, if we have not shown them and their opinions, the respect they feel they deserve.

> I don't get involved in reacting to the loss of the perceived guarantees of life. I don't mind the quarantine. I don’t get upset at all, at the so-called loss of our ‘freedoms’. Because nothing that we have, and nothing that we do, is guaranteed to us. I come from a people that knew NO freedom, so I may have a heightened sense of what it means to be denied basic rights. I don’t see how being asked to wear a mask to protect yourself and others, is a denial of freedom. No matter how you spin it. We need to have a better understanding of the nature of things. We're lucky to have what we have. It can all be taken away. Ask Afghanistan. It is a waste of your resources to get upset. We need always to be focused on balance, survival, and compassion for others. Not overreaction, complaint, and selfish righteousness. That will accomplish very little in the long run. Social cooperation is integral to social success. Just ask the ants.

> Instead of being young and wise, and using the aggregate wisdom of elders, to guide their decisions and improve their outcomes, today's young people feel empowered to make decisions independently. The results are that their wide sweeping changes, innovation, tenacity and improvement, is tinged with the pallor of inexperience and nagging failure. (This knowledge comes to me by way of being a chronically unemployed senior citizen. Taking a few jobs in industries that are conceived and engineered by really wealthy twenty year-olds, has been… enlightening).

> I know this goes against everything we believe, but go to your open minded place for a moment. I think we have the process of youth and aging, bass-ackwards. Why is there such a need for young children to be carefree, and for those approaching adulthood, to party till dawn? I think we would be better served if the younger we were, the more serious we were. I think we should save partying until about the age of 40 to 55 , thereabout. Think about this. Our children require so much more training than they are getting. AND, from a scientific standpoint, children have much better brain function, and unappreciated powers of retention. Why would we not load them up with all the serious critical thinking and knowledge that we can? Partying is better left to the old people. We’re better at it, there’s less at stake, and we deserve it 😊