The Most Powerful Word In The Human Vocabulary: Perspective
blog.sokanu.com
blog.sokanu.com
> Growing up in the Western world, most of us are used to the luxuries that we receive on a daily basis. And no matter how hard we try, we still take these things for granted. If we truly appreciated what we had, each and every one of us would wake up and start jumping up and down because we are living with shelter, have instant access to electricity and can eat anything we choose.
This is indeed true, but people often don't ask the question - "Why?" Or, if they do, they come to the wrong answers. Why? Why do we have shelter, electricity, and food? Why do we have technology and all these amazing things?
Last week, I committed to giving 10% of my income to charity henceforth forever. I figure it's a good thing to do. I'm researching starting my own charity, hence the discussion I had this morning. I'm aware that we're lucky. And my question becomes - "Why?" "We're so lucky" - yes, we are. Now, let's figure it out. "Why are we so lucky?"
I thought about this, and I looked into it.
And the answer is, we're lucky and we have all these wonderful things because someone worked to build it. Our ancestors, our family and countrymen typically, if you live in the Western world. By and large, everything you use, you get to use as the result of someone's effort. I say this, because I see a lot of charity going about things the wrong way. They give a man a fish, instead of teaching him to fish. Whenever I see the, "We're so lucky..." line of writing, first I completely agree and I'm so incredibly grateful for all the amazing things we have. Second, I'm amazed at the people who built them and sacrificed, and I want to build and sacrifice for the future. Somehow, a lot of people feel guilty when they read something about how good they have it - don't! Feel strong, feel good. You have these things because hard work was paid forwards to you. Do the same for others. No guilt - guilt is crippling, guilt ruins your thinking and emotions, guilt ruins your rationality. Feel strong, feel proud, be grateful to the builders who came before you, and build as well to help others. This is the way forwards.
I've been doing this for about 3 years now and not once have I found myself regretting it or unable to afford anything that I want.
I was originally inspired by some Muslim co-workers who told me about the compulsory charity that Islam prescribes for them, and the voluntary charity that they then make on top of it. 2.5% is compulsory for all Muslims, and then most top up to 10% as the voluntary portion is their way to give what God gave to them and by doing so show appreciation for what they have. This happens regardless of how much or little people earn.
Now, I am not religious by any definition, but I was embarrassed and ashamed at how most of my friends and especially myself were not really giving much at all. And I also felt that I could also appreciate what I have by giving some of it away.
Somewhere in an Orwell book I recall reading a bit where Orwell tried to tip a taxi driver a large amount. The taxi driver refused, "I will still be poor tomorrow". That 10%, I don't need it... that alone isn't the definition of rich that I use. Even a bonus once a year won't make me as happy as just working on things I am interested in. So it seems clear to me that I have more to gain by helping others less fortunate with those things than I do.
Something else that I recommend: Bump this up by 5% every few months and see how it works out. We can often get by with so little (especially people like me who have lived the miserly university life) and we can actually be /happy/ with it, that it just does not make sense to hold back.
I also like the idea of dedicated goals: For e.g. sponsor x children, feed x families etc. This helps solve the problem in manageable chunks and is easier for others to understand. (i.e. if every person helped x other people, we'd get rid of poverty/hunger).
1. Are you focusing on foreign or domestic charities (or just playing it by ear)?
2. Settled on anything yet?
While it seems most of HN would agree with our opinion, you also need to keep in mind most of it came from a combination of work, and the enslaving of another people. Should you not feel guilty for the people your ancestors screwed over to get you into the position you are in today?
Informative learning adds to our current bucket of knowledge.
Transformative learning examines the buckets themselves – our worldview and our various frames of reference relevant to this aspect or that aspect of what we are studying.
While both learning are valuable. Maybe our current education system focus too much on the latter. It might be good to have more Transformative Learning to facilitate shifting of Worldview and Frames of Reference in school.
Every human being in the world should read this article; if we can all truly comprehend this text, the world would be a better place.
And the choice of words in the title is irrelevant! It doesn't even make sense to argue about the "power" of a word, without a useful definition of power. So don't!
The discussion so far falls squarely under http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-i-stopped-reading-hn/
I live for when people say thanks.
"Yes" keeps things going as they are - because with every question comes an expectation of "Yes" - if the many single men afraid of approaching a woman are any indication, most frequently, when we ask a question we expect a positive response - the times when we expect a negative reaction, the questions don't get asked.
For that reason, "yes" is - in my opinion, which I feel could be substantiated by data - not nearly as powerful as the opposite, no.
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