becomingandbeingcommon-blog

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Why Should You Vote? Should You Vote?

Why Should You Vote? Should You Vote?

Question 1: Why should I vote?

Question 2: Do I have a duty to vote?

Question 3: Do I have a duty to NOT vote?

One might be tempted to respond to question 1 with something like, “You have a right to vote, so you should vote.” However, the right to do something is not the same as a duty to do something, and there are clear cases when somebody has a legal right to do something while also…

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

What is Tyranny? What's the Big Deal?

What is Tyranny? What’s the Big Deal?

John Locke – what is the government for, and not for? Government is for –precisely– for securing your liberty. That’s it. Everything should be pursued through other means. (rational non-coercive means)

What is liberty? Liberty is the freedom to what you should be able to do, without getting permission from someone that doesn’t have authority over your ability to act within your own sphere.

What is…

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

How to Be Optimistic- Part II

How to Be Optimistic- Part II - Four Steps to Nourish Your Optimism

Four Steps to Being More Optimistic

First, remember how you know that there is something more to the feelings.

Second, make vivid your transcendent vision of reality, by spending time fleshing it out, dreaming about it, nourishing it. Suggestions: good fiction, good non-fiction, surrounding yourself with others that cultivate the vision.

Third, establish concrete habits that affirm your…

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

(via How to Be Optimistic: 3 Major Steps)

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

How to Be Optimistic: 3 Major Steps

How to Be Optimistic: 3 Major Steps

Problems were solved centuries ago

Serenity Prayer

Know that there is a transcendent meaning

Some examples of transcendent meaning:

Homer’s idea of living on in the Odes of their posterity (Alexander the Great, it is said believed in this conception)

Legacies of families

Nirvana, from Indian philosophy, or Reincarnation

Christianity, where one lives as an Image-Bearer of God, and reality…

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

(via “Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other.” — Brian Tracy)

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

“Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other.” — Brian Tracy

“Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other.” — Brian Tracy

Why is this the case? Five Reasons that Optimism is Associated with Success and Happiness:

You find what you look for.

Your vision motivates you (or not)

Long-formed habits become your autopilot when things get bad (and life is full of struggles)

Relationships are built with good-will and vision, and optimism is related to both of these (good relationships enable success and happiness)

Optimism…

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

You Are What You.... Do...Not What You Look Like (Dimension of Character)

You Are What You…. Do…Not What You Look Like (Dimension of Character)

There is a sad trend of treating surface aspects as if they were deeply important. Consider how race and group membership are emphasized while the character is often overlooked. In these cases, it would be helpful to discuss things that truly are important. Here are seven important aspects:

You are what you do– day-to-day, week, year, or now.

You are what you believe, and why- as a system, and…

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

You Become What You Glorify

You Become What You Glorify

Six ways you become what you glorify:

Your Worship- Love of money vs Love of Creator, Love of Persons vs Love of Stuff

Your Habits- Virtues or Vices, repeated activities train yourself to be a kind of person (What habits do you seek to possess?)

Your Standards- Pleasing to God or Man?, Satisfying Principles or People? (What is the standard of success?)

Your Wealth- Career or Passive Income (Do…

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

Reasons to Define Your Terms and to Admit That You Don't Know What Is Going On

Reasons to Define Your Terms and to Admit That You Don’t Know What Is Going On

Want to be more intelligent and wise? Rather than appearing ‘in the know.’ Here are some things to avoid to make you a smarter person, and the world a grade better.

Defining One’s Terms Avoids (or, reasons to be wary):

1. Misunderstanding (wrong conceptions of the topic/idea)

2. Error (wrong conclusions based on the misconception)

3. Zealotry without Knowledge (fanaticism)

4. Irrational…

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

(via The Accident Fallacy: A Beginning to Solve Many Issues)

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

The Accident Fallacy: A Beginning to Solve Many Issues

The Accident Fallacy: A Beginning to Solve Many Issues

Want to help the world be a little bit better? Master the Fallacy of the Accident, and Apply It

What is it? Confusing an accident (non-essential attribute) with an essential attribute?

Racism: Surface vs Character

Education: Degree vs Knowledge and Ability

Religion: Nominal vs Actual

Appearance vs Reality

For Other Resources:

Accident Fallacy – Logically Fallacious

Accident (fallacy)

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

5 Insights for Your Life, from Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning

5 Insights for Your Life, from Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning

1. Man can heroically resilient with a firm meaning. 2. Transcendence of Tragedy, Requires a Kind of Indifference 3. Responsibility and Meaning are Connected 4. The Confrontation of Fear Allows the Fear to Be Overcome (paradoxical intention) 5. Humanity Did Create the Gas Chambers-but Humanity Also Can Fight Evil, Suffering, and Exhibit Heroic Endurance: Humans can say ‘yes’ despite horrible…

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(via Reflection on Love (Biblical))

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Dont be an idiot!

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

Don't Be an Idiot!

Don’t Be an Idiot!

The classical idea of ‘Idiot’ really means ‘private person,’ detached from the society around you. 

-Aristotle’s conception of human’s as ‘Political Animals’ -The trends are overwhelming getting better (poverty, education, literacy, child mortality, cures to disease) -If you are a historical idiot (in the ancient Greek sense), you’ll definitely be really idiot, in the pejorative sense

Don’t…

[becomingandbeingcommon-blog]

Make Ideas Great Again

Make Ideas Great Again

3 Ways to Make Politics Great Again

“Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas.”

Henry Thomas Buckle

Three Steps to Take, to Ideas Great for You