„Confortul din timpul somnului este direct proporțional cu efortul depus pentru pregătirea culcușului.”

religie-da-educatie-nu

Una dintre temele disputelor postelectorale a fost dezinteresul tinerilor pentru viața publică în general și pentru cea politică în particular.

Și de ce, mă rog, și-ar bate ei capul cu așa ceva?

Nu zic că nu ar trebui, mă întreb doar de ce ar face-o …

Până la urmă foarte mulți dintre tinerii de astăzi au crescut departe de părinții plecați la muncă peste hotare tocmai din cauza unor decizii luate de înșiși membrii clasei politice.
Având părinții ‘afară’, au ajuns să cunoască ambele lumi. Și să compare lucrurile.

Chiar dacă în magazine se găseasc mai mult sau mai puțin aceleași mărfuri, la prețuri destul de apropiate, asta nu înseamnă că situațiile ar fi echivalente.
Medicii pleacă, și ei, unde vad cu ochii, tot ca urmare a deciziilor politice.
Drumurile sunt sub orice critică din același motiv.
Profesorii sunt demoralizați nu doar din cauza lefurilor insuficiente ci și pentru că întregul sistem de educație este la coada prioritaților aceleiași clase politice.
Oamenii de afaceri se plâng de lipsa a suficient de mulți muncitori cu o calificare adecvată timpurilor de astăzi.
Cum răspunde ‘clasa politică’?

„Termenul de adoptare a trecut fără ca proiectul sa fi primit raportul Comisiei pentru învățământ”….

Las la o parte inconsecvența principială… religia poate fi predată fără acordul expres al părinților dar nu si educația sexuală…

Problema este că nici măcar nu s-au ostenit sa întocmească un raport în termenul stabilit de lege.

Păi dacă lor nu le-a păsat de tineri, atunci tinerilor de ce ar trebui să le pese de ei?

Sau de noi?
De niște părinți atât de ‘inconștienți’/neisprăviți încât să le lăsăm țara în halul în care este acum?

Să vezi ce pumni o să ne dăm în cap, cu toții, atunci când vom înțelege câte prostii am facut până am ajuns aici…

donald-trump-grab-them-by-the-pussy-cartoon

Or is it the (unforeseen?) consequence of some very ‘intelligent design‘?

Prin anii ’70 cineva mi-a spus bancul care da titlul postarii de astazi.
E atat de porcos incat nu pot sa il reproduc aici.
In contrast evident cu ‘burduful de caine’ este morala intamplarii.
‘Niciodata nu poti scapa de consecintele faptelor tale.’

In esenta, viata politica post-decembrista a Romaniei poate fi rezumata cu ajutorul a trei fire narative.
Lupta fratricida dintre PD-FSN si PDSR, agonia urmata de decesul PNTcd-ului si lungul ‘Divort in stil italian’ in care se complace PNL-ul.

Coagulat in timpul – sau poate putin inaintea? – Revolutiei din Decembrie, Frontul Salvarii Nationale i-a grupat pe toti cei care aveau habar despre cum se guverneaza o tara si despre ce beneficii pot fi culese de cei care fac acest lucru.

Numai ca tara era una iar ei erau multi…

Asa ca s-au impartit in doua. N-am de unde sa stiu sigur dar estimarea mea este ca a fost o actiune ‘nepregatitia’.
Erau foarte multi oameni ambitiosi acolo, care nu ‘aveau loc’ unii de altii.
In atmosfera aia era suficient un cat de mic pretext pentru arama sa fie data pe fata.

Disensiunile dintre Petre Roman si Ion Iliescu au fost pretextul perfect.

Ca Petre Roman nu avea experienta, si nici expertiza, necesara sa ii faca fata lui Basescu… mai putin important.

Cu adevarat importanta in toata tarasenia asta este originea comuna a acestor doua organizatii politice. Si caracterul lor autoritar/centralist.
Una a ramas, declarativ, la stanga iar cealalta a trecut, tot declarativ, la dreapta… Amanunte de fatada.
Amandoua au fost animate de oameni care au stiut sa ramana ‘strans uniti’ in jurul conducatorului lor, indiferent care a fost acesta.
Abia prin 2014 o parte din membrii PDL s-au prins ca Traian Basescu ii condusese intr-o fundatura si s-au gandit sa se reinventeze.
Asa ca s-au adapostit in PNL.
Inca nu e clar ce efecte, pe termen lung, va avea aceasta miscare pentru PNL dar nu asta e subiectul de astazi.

In orice caz, o alta parte a vechiului PDL i-a ramas fidela lui Traian Basescu. Impreuna au constituit Partidul Miscarea Populara.

Care a reusit sa intre in parlament!

Unii cred ca a luat din voturile PNL-ului. Nu stiu. Ba chiar nici nu cred chestia asta. Votantii vechiului PDL aveau tendinta de a fi aproape la fel de disciplinati precum cei ai PSD-ului – de unde si reputatia de bun ‘organizator de alegeri’ de care s-a bucurat  Vasile Blaga.
Ei bine, parerea mea este ca tocmai acesti alegatori disciplinati sunt cei care au votat cu PMP si ca genul acesta de alegatori nu ar fi putut niciodata sa voteze PNL. Mai degraba cu PSD-ul decat cu PNL-ul…

Si exact aici este si ‘drama’ intregii situatii.

PSD-ul, pretins reprezentant al unei paturi de oameni modesti care isi inchipuie ca statul ar putea sa le ofere un pic de liniste si de ocrotire, nu are majoritate in Parlament tocmai din cauza mobilizarii unui alt grup de oameni modesti – care, nedumeriti de ceea ce ei percep ca fiind mezalianta dintre PNL si PDL, isi inchipuie ca ‘Basescu’ (?!?) este singurul obstacol care mai sta intre bugetul statului si cei pe care ii considera a fi ‘penalii din PSD’.

Si uite asa PSD-ul va trebui sa faca o alianta cu ALDE, o ramura desprinsa din trunchiul PNL pe acelasi gen de pretexte pentru care Roman s-a certat acum 25 de ani cu Iliescu…

Inainte de vot, multi dintre cei cu mancarime la buricele degetelor se apuca sa ii sfatuiasca pe alegatori. Votati cu aia sau cu ceilalti pentru ca altfel nu stiu ce nenorociri or sa se intample.

Dupa ‘despuierea urnelor’ – asa se cheama, in termeni tehnici, ‘contabilizarea primara’ a voturilor, aceiasi logoreici se apuca sa consilieze partidele. Cum ar trebui invingatorul sa isi nuanteze pozitia si sa isi adapteze programele si ce ar trebui sa faca invinsii pentru a nu mai repeta experienta la urmatoarele alegeri.

Ei bine, s-ar putea ca exact maniera de a caracteriza rezultatele alegerilor in termeni ‘competitionali’ sa ne fi adus in starea in care suntem acum.

Dupa cum ati observat, nu am sfatuit pe nimeni cum sa voteze. Nici nu aveam cum sa fac asa ceva, avand in vedere ca eu plec de la premiza ca cititorii – toti, nu doar ai mei – sunt cel putin la fel de rezonabili ca ‘scriitorii’. Cateodata poate chiar mai rezonabili. Nu de alta, doar pentru ca multi dintre cititori citesc mai mult decat cele scrise de un scriitor pe cand multi dintre acestia au tendinta de a se rezuma doar la o rasfoire sumara a celor scrise altii. Asa, ca sa fie si ei la zi…

Destul cu intepaturile, sa revenim la cestiune.
Deci, cu atat mai putin ma voi apuca sa dau sfaturi combatantilor dupa incheiera ostilitatilor, avand in vedere ca”halul” in care ne aflam se datoreaza exact modului in care aceste partide se razboiesc intre ele in loc sa conlucreze.

Sunt naiv?

Chiar si razboiul adevarat, cel din transee, poate fi inteles ca o forma de colaborare.
La inceput, la inceput de tot, oamenii se bateau ca chiorii. Masculii invinsi erau omorati, femelele erau luate in robie si apoi siluite, copiii foarte mici erau omorati iar cei mai marisori transformati in sclavi.
Putin mai tarziu, dupa aparitia mestesugurilor, singurul lucru care s-a mai schimbat a fost acela ca artizanii/artistii au inceput sa fie crutati atunci cand cineva reusea sa cucereasca o cetate sau alta.
Si mai tarziu, pe vremea cand razboaiele erau purtate mai degraba intre seniorii feudali – care aveau nevoie de brate de munca pentru a munci la camp – decat intre migratorii pradalnici si oamenii locurilor, au inceput sa fie introduse si regulile ‘cavaleresti’. Invinsii erau mai mai ales capturati in loc sa fie omorati si apoi returnati familiilor contra unei rascumparari in loc sa fie folositi ca sclavi.

Incununarea tuturor acestor eforturi a fost introducerea notiunii de crima de razboi. Odata cu aceasta intreaga activitate ‘razboinica’ a fost codificata si a devenit clar, pentru toata lumea, ce ai voie sa faci, si ce nu, pe campul de lupta. Ca unii n-au respectat regulile… asta e alta problema, rezolvata dupa aia, cu ajutorul tribunalelor ‘de razboi’. Numai ca esenta problemei e clara. Odata codificat, razboiul a devenit si el o forma de ‘colaborare’.

Si atunci de ce mai vorbim despre invingatori si invinsi in politica?

Activitate care presupune identificarea problemelor de interes public si rezolvarea lor, nu stabilirea vre-unei ierarhii intre personajele ‘scenei politice’…

Acum, ca am stabilit ‘cadrul teoretic’ in interiorul caruia am de gand sa conduc discutia, sa trecem la subiect.

Situatia in care ne aflam este clara. S-ar fi putut sa fie mult mai buna si alegatorii sunt constienti de chestia asta. Din pacate nici unul dintre programele propuse de catre partidele participante nu a generat vre-un mare entuziasm si nici unul dintre partide nu s-a bucurat de vreo mare manifestare de simpatie.

Asa se explica prezenta extrem de scazuta la vot. Nu neaparat in procente ci in cifre absolute. 72120000 in 2016 fata de precedentul minim, 7238000, inregistrat in 2008 – dupa o alta crestere economica desfasurata concomitent cu o apriga infruntare intre personajele politice ale momentului, Basescu si Tariceanu.

Sa vedem acum ce sugereaza numarul de voturi contabilizate in dreptul fiecaruia dintre partide.

Grupul politic cel mai disciplinat si ale carui promisiuni s-au adresat in principal persoanelor ‘lipsite de initiava’ – sau a caror raza de autonomie/aspiratie este relativ mai mica – s-a bucurat de o mai mare atentie din partea electoratului decat partidele care s-au adresat unui electorat mai ‘sofisticat’ si cu ‘pretentii’ mai ‘elevate’.

Luand in calcul si faptul ca in ultimii 26 de ani nici una dintre aripile politice care s-au perindat pe la putere nu prea si-au respectat cu adevarat promisiunile putem concluziona ca electoratul ‘lipsit de initiativa’ este relativ mai indulgent fata de cei care l-au ‘pacalit’.
Nu pentru ca nu si-ar da seama ca au fost pacaliti ci, mai degraba, dintr-un fel de inertie… dar, de fapt, nici nu prea conteaza chestia asta.
Cert este ca exista un numar de electori dispus sa voteze pentru un anumit gen de program, chiar daca cei care tot vin cu astfel de programe in fata alegatorilor reusesc sa le puna in practica cel putin la fel de prost precum cei din tabara cealalta.

Si mai interesant este ce s-a intamplat cu cei aflati pe partea dreapta a spectrului politic.

Prima oara au ajuns la putere in ’96, mai degraba ca un fel de razbunare experimentala a electoratului fata de excesele post-revolutionare decat ca urmare a vre-unei maturizari politice a populatiei. Aceasta lipsa de maturitate a fost evidenta si printre membrii clasei politice – cei de dreapta s-au certat intre ei in loc sa guverneze tara.

Dupa aceea au preferat mai degraba sa isi vada fiecare de treaba lui, grupati eventual in gasti.
Unele dintre acestea au fost, poate, mai bine organizate decat altele….
Cert este ca nici una nu a priceput ca electoratul de dreapta este mai greu de pacalit si mai greu de mobilizat decat cel din stanga. Pentru ca are pretentii mai mari, pentru ca intelege mai repede ca a fost pacalit – si se supara mai tare, pentru ca este mai mobil – inclusiv ‘fizic’, multi dintre cei de dreapta au plecat din tara cu prima ocazie … definitiv sau temporar.., pentru ca, statistic, cei care il compun au impresia ca se pot descurca foarte bine si singuri, fara ‘ajutorul statului’ – ceea ce ii face foarte sensibili la propaganda care incearca sa-i convinga ca ‘democratia este o vorba goala’ si ca lumea este oricum condusa din ‘umbra’

Fac o paranteza pentru a ma intreba, aici si acum, in ce masura sunt constienti ‘politologii’ de dimensiunea efectelor secundare care sunt generate de strategiile ‘de comunicare’ folosite de toti combatantii aflati ‘in conflict’.

Poate de acum incolo.
Daca omenirea a invatat sa transforme chiar si razboiul intr-o forma de cooperare, poate vom reusi si noi sa colaboram in ceea ce priveste destinul tarii noastre.

Altfel ne furam singuri caciula.
Si dupa aceea ne plimbam cu ea pe Coasta de Azur pentru ca aici nu prea are cine sa ne-o admire.

Politica poate fi vazuta, intr-adevar, si ca o ‘lupta pentru ciolan’. Mai ales ca bugetul unui stat poate oferi o gramada de ‘oase de ros’.

Numai ca genul asta de atitudine seamana putin cu agricultura extensiva.
Folosesti un teren agricol pana se secatuieste pamantul. Dupa aceea mai aprinzi o parcela de padure si te muti acolo.
Din pacate metoda asta functioneaza doar pana cand se termina padurea. Ce te faci atunci cand incerci sa te intorci de unde ai inceput si descoperi ca acolo s-a instapanit deșertul?

Nu cumva era mai bine sa fi avut, de la bun inceput, grija de pamantul tau? Mai o rotatie a culturilor, mai un ingrasamant, natural de preferinta… lucruri cunoscute de multa vreme de altfel…

Democratia reala este despre ce se intampla inainte de momentul votului.

Corectitudinea numaratorii depinde doar de cinstea celor din comisiile electorale iar comportamentul alesilor de caracterul cu care au venit de-acasa.
Daca alegatorii coopereaza eficient inainte de momentul votului – adica daca discuta deschis si civilizat,  daca practica o democratie autentica – atunci intreg procesul devine o incercare de a gasi solutii la problemele comunitatii.
Inaintea alegerilor sunt identificate problemele si propuse solutii, in timpul lor sunt selectati unii care par capabili sa duca la bun sfarsit acel set de solutii care pare mai potrivit iar dupa momentul electoral alesii se apuca de treaba, avand ca obiectiv principal indeplinirea programului. Urmand ca electoratul sa le multumeasca reinnoindu-le mandatul, in masura in care programul a fost indeplinit.

Daca suficient de multi dintre alegatori se lasa ‘aburiti’ de pescuitorii in ape tulburi atunci intreg procesul electoral degenereaza intr-un  concurs de manipulare in care se infrunta diversele tabere care se bat intre ele pentru ‘premiul cel mare’.

Accesul la resursele pe care le ofera ‘puterea’.

Iar alegatorii, toti – atat cei aburiti cat si cei care n-au fost in stare sa-i trezeasca pe primii, se vor trezi ca trebuie sa achite nota de plata pentru dezmăț.

 

For John Locke and his followers “what makes a person identical with herself over time is her remembering or being able to remember the events to which she was witness or agent.” (According mostly to the followers. What Locke actually said is something else, to which I’ll come back shortly)
Jesse Prinz has another opinion.

 

In this video Prinz seems to advocate that we maintain the continuity of our selves by sticking to a set of values. But this is only ‘skin deep’.
He didn’t actually say ‘what keeps us ‘together’ over time but ‘what people think that is ‘keeping us together’ as time passes’.
These two are not necessarily the same thing.
The way I see it memories are just the ‘resource’ from which our identity is continuously being built and the ‘values’ we stick to are the ‘blue-prints’ we use/update during the process but that the ‘driver’ behind all this is our self-awareness/free willing soul.
All three are interdependent.
As Locke observed, without our memories we would be like balloons drifting in a cloud of deep fog. We wouldn’t even be able to determine whether we were moving or not.
As Prinz said, without our values we’re like ships which have lost their ‘compass’.  Just imagine a boat sailing during a starless night or in a cloudy day. There are ways that experienced sailors can use to determine whether the ship is moving – relative to the surrounding water – but not even Black Beard nor Magellan would have been able to reach their destinations without ever seeing the Sun, some stars or using a compass.
Not to mention the fact, sorry Jesse, that without our memory we wouldn’t be able to remember today what set of values we had been using yesterday.
Finally, but not lastly, without our self-awareness/free willing soul we would be like perfectly sea-worthy ships which have been abandoned by their crews. Adrift in the middle of the sea, at the mercy of the elements. Elements themselves being not merciless but amoral…
 I’m sure that by now you have already figured out what I mean.
It is “we” that ‘compares’ and ‘considers’ things, that forms “ideas of identity and diversity”, that sees “anything to be in any place in any instant of time”, that is “sure” of anything (or not)… and so on and so forth…
Without this “we” no discussion about memory nor values would have ever been possible
Without memories the “we” would go ‘hungry’. Or nuts.
Without values the “we” would be ‘toothless’. Or antisocial/in jail.
And all these have already been mentioned, albeit in different terms, by both Humberto Maturana and Stephane Lupasco.
PS.
Don’t tell me that none of you have ever thought, however passingly, of the other meaning of ‘stool’.
ganditorul

 

Until not so long ago it was possible to buy unlimited coverage against the risks that scared you.
After things became too complicated and fraud a too widespread occurrence even the Lloyd’s gave up and started to introduce caps on insurance policies.
In fact Lloyd’s of London was the only place – that I knew of – where risk was understood, at least in part, in a ‘functionalist’ manner.
Risk is something that can be seen in two ways.
As yet another opportunity for making profit or something that has to be mitigated for the profit of the entire community.
Let me deal with the latter ‘option’ first.
Somehow I don’t buy it that Bismarck was primarily motivated by the well-being of the workers.
But what the German industrial barons of the day needed in order to catch up with the British ones – the Albion was the industrial power house of that time, o tempora…- was more and more people willing to leave the relative safety of the country-side and come to the city to work in the newly built factories.
In order to appreciate the huge difference between these two situations we must remember that in those times families were a lot larger than they are now and that their members used to help each other in times of need. But this could happen only if the members of the same family remained in close vicinity and worked on very flexible schedules – agriculture or family owned shops. You cannot go help your ailing mother if you work in shifts and live two hundred miles away from her.
So, in order to ‘lure’ more and more people out of the fields, and in a very short time, Bismarck had to offer them a ‘safety net’.
OK, let’s accept the idea that, maybe, there are some risks that the society, as a whole, should concern itself with.
But how to fulfill this ‘social need’?
How to identify which risks should be dealt with in a collective manner and which should be left alone. Then how to manage the whole process?
‘State-wide’ or through privately owned/operated initiatives?
Does it really matter?
I don’t think there is a universally valid recipe here.
The Bismarck’s social insurance system worked in Germany.
Lloyd’s has functioned almost seamlessly for 3 centuries. In England.
Both systems, one centered mostly on profit and the other on the safety of those who took part in it, worked because they spread out both the risks and the profits.
Current systems, where only the risks are being mutualized while the benefits tend to become more and more centralized – by ‘design‘, by corruption or both – are no longer functioning properly.
Take ‘Obama Care’, for instance. Most people, including Donald Trump, agree that something has to be done about ‘public health’ but the whole thing isn’t yet working properly.
Instead of fighting among ourselves on whether the state/government should have anything to do with risk management how about considering for a moment where our current infatuation with ‘profit‘ has brought us?

sf_filofteia_w180

Nascuta la inceputul veacului al XIII in Tarnovo – capitala imperiului romano-bulgar condus de fratii Petru si Asan.

Mama sa, despre care se crede ca ar fi fost de origine romana, moare pe vremea cand viitoarea sfanta era copila, dar nu inainte de a o invata pe fiica ei “dragostea de Dumnezeu si de aproa­pele, faptele de milostenie, rugaciunile si postul si alte virtuti care trebuie sa impodobeasca sufletul unui adevarat crestin

Dupa moartea mamei sale, Filofteia continua sa locuiasca in casa tatalui sau – care s-a recasatorit relativ repede – si sa se comporte asa cum a invatat de la mama sa: “traind mai mult pentru Hristos si pentru cei aflati in suferinta.

Comportament care se pare ca a iritat-o pe mama cea vitrega, ba chiar si pe tatal fetei: “acesta a urmarit-o ca sa vada ce face cu mancarea pe care trebuia sa i-o aduca la camp. Incredintandu-se ca o dadea celor lipsiti, s-a infuriat atat de tare, incat a scos securea pe care o purta la brau si a aruncat-o asupra fetei. A ranit-o grav la un picior, incat dupa putina vreme si-a dat sufletul in mana Ziditorului a toata faptura.

Filofteia ajunge sa fie considerata sfanta iar moastele sale, pentru a nu fi profanate de turcii care au ocupat Tarnovo, au fost adapostite la biserica Sf. Nicolae din Curtea de Arges.

In scurt timp Sfanta Filofteia devine “o adevarata ocrotitoare a Tarii Romanesti“.

Daca stai bine sa te gandesti chiar se potriveste.
O sfanta ucisa de chiar tatal ei – si nu de pagani, ca de obicei – din cauza zgarceniei – si nu din motive ‘religioase’, ca de obicei – ajunge sa fie considerata ocrotitoarea unei tari ai carei copii sunt lasati de izbeliste prin orfelinate, parasiti de parintii plecati la munca in strainatate si dispretuiti de guvernanti.

In realitate suntem cu totii vinovati de destinul copiiilor nostri.

NB, astazi este 7 Noiembrie, ziua in care este “pomenita” sfanta Filofteia.
A doua zi dupa Sf. Nicolae.

 

Some people believe that “racial prejudice” is “the natural human inclination … to identity (sic) with members of one’s own tribe, race or ethnic group” and “Post-racial multiculturalism is the exact but equally extreme and insane opposite of Nazi racial ideology“.

Compare this to “Religion, which should foster sisterhood and brotherhood, which should encourage tolerance, respect, compassion, peace, reconciliation, caring and sharing, has far too frequently — perversely — done the opposite. Religion has fueled alienation and conflict and has exacerbated intolerance and injustice and oppression. Some of the ghastliest atrocities have happened and are happening in the name of religion. It need not be so if we can learn the obvious: that no religion can hope to have a monopoly on God, on goodness and virtue and truth“.

What’s going on here?

Where does all this ‘confusion’ come from?

Let me start from the ‘bottom’ of it.

“No religion can hope to have a monopoly on God, on goodness and virtue and truth”.

While I fully agree with Desmond Tutu on the gist of his words I must contradict him on something very important.

Religions cannot hope at all. About anything. Anyway you look at them. No matter which definition you use, religion – all of them – is something that people do together. A common effort.
It is the individuals who are the actual doers. Who love and hate. Or hope, in this case.
Who pretend that their religion is the only true one. Or understand, as Desmond Tutu did, that each religion is yet another manifestation of God.

“Religion has fueled alienation and conflict and has exacerbated intolerance and injustice and oppression.”

Again, it was individual ‘religious’ people who have done all of those things, not religion per se.
All sacred texts have been written by human people. I can even accept that the first manuscript of each religion was directly inspired by God. Only each of them have been copied a thousand times over. And heavily editated.
Then came the individual human people who have read those texts, interpreted them, passed them on and acted upon those interpretations. Upon their convictions, actually.

And this is how “Some of the ghastliest atrocities have happened and are happening in the name of religion”. Not because of ‘religion’ but ‘in the name of religion’.
Simply as a consequence of how certain people have chosen to interpret/use religious teachings.

And not only ‘religious’ teachings.

People are able to interpret – and use in their own (perceived) advantage, every bit of information that comes their way. And now, that we have started to understand more and more about how our brain is working, the manners in which we use that information have become more and more ‘convoluted’.

“Post-racial multiculturalism … began as an understandable overreaction to Nazi racial ideology…before being consolidated by academics into an instrument of socio-political intimidation, rewards, punishments, manipulation and control, a modern, secular replacement for the power-political role of medieval church ideology.”

So.
It was the academics/priests who have done the damage. Not their religion nor the information they had at their disposal.

But why?
How come people whose religions – all of them do this – are adamant about ‘respect your neighbor’ become involved in wars?  Sometimes even in ‘religious’ wars ….
How come academics, whose very job are to teach their students to think autonomously, use their ‘rank’ in order to subdue ‘their’ file?

Could the religious warriors have something in common with the intransigent academics?

How them sharing the unbreakable conviction that they own the truth?
Forged inside the ‘echo-chambers’ where they have grouped themselves according to their specific beliefs? (No matter whether those beliefs are of a religious or ‘rational’ nature…)

Only after I had reached this point in my discourse I was able to fully appreciate Desmond Tutu’s words: ‘Religion … should encourage tolerance, respect, compassion, peace, reconciliation, caring and sharing’.

He doesn’t say anything about giving up on your own kind.
Or about leaving your roots behind.

All he actually says is ‘Be very careful. If all of you will accept to see only the same side of things you will become a herd. And while there is indeed ‘safety in numbers’ all herd members are ultimately headed for the abattoir’.

Diversity isn’t something to be forcefully, hence falsely, celebrated. Or imposed on others.

What we need to preserve, and celebrate, is our ability to ‘walk around’ the things that we encounter. To entertain, and discuss among ourselves, different – even conflictingly different – versions of what we see around us. This ability would only enhance our chances to solve the problems we’ll certainly be faced with.

‘Culture’ is nothing but layer upon layer of place-specific information which have accumulated in time while ‘religion’ is how a certain group of people have learned, again in time, to cooperate in a certain environment.
It doesn’t matter whether that ‘environment’ has been created by a God, has evolved according to Darwin’s theory or both.
What really matters is how we react – conditioned by our cultures and by our religious upbringing – to what is happening to us. Both individually and collectively.

In this sense, each culture we manage to preserve will only add to our chances of long term survival. As long as we’ll learn to sincerely respect each-other, of course.
Again, both individually and collectively.

PS.
A comment on my FB wall, “True religion is God entering history and the lives of humans and revealing Himself. All other religions are man’s attempt to explain the world around him in terms of god or attempts to control lots of other people in the name of some god“, helped me to understand that “There is ‘religion’ – the shared attitude that helps us to cooperate, and there are religions – specific ways that individual communities have traveled in order to attain that attitude.
And something else. What if ‘God entering history’ and enough of us reaching the shared understanding that it is far better to cooperate amongst us – love thy neighbor – than to fight each-other are the same thing?
How to put this understanding into practice? In the various, and continuously changing, circumstances we have to face?

How about this being the very reason for us having so many religions/cultures?

People are very passionate when discussing about their future and their rights.
As they should be.

Children are a very strong ‘avatar’ for our future while the rights to live and to freely dispose of our bodies two of the most important rights.

And this is where things get really complicated.

Some people advocate mandatory vaccination against the most dangerous diseases.
Some people advocate women’s absolute freedom to have an abortion – a few of them extending this right up to the last moment of the pregnancy.

Other people believe that vaccines are mostly benefiting the big pharma and choose not to immunize their children.
Other people believe in the absolute right of the fetus to live – so much so that some of them would even ban all contraceptive methods.

The ‘interesting’ thing here is how this four categories of people intersect each-other.

A lot of the people who advocate women’s right to have abortions also advocate the mandatory vaccination of children while a lot of people who consider abortion a mortal sin also consider vaccination to be inspired by the devil.

Now let me get this straight.
You have the right to ‘kill’ your baby inside the womb but you should not be allowed to let them die of a preventable infectious disease?
You are to defend a fetus, at all costs and against all consequences for the mother, as long as they inhabit the womb only to let them catch whatever preventable infectious disease might come across their path?

Consistency is over-rated?

We really need to restart using our common sense?