Escape to Here Now

  And so, here is a good question.  Can there be a " system " of justice? Clearly there are systems of justice.  I am not sure that the issues related to  examining the difference in how systems of justice interact and how systems of justice  differ and what are the similarities of systems of justice has been closely or clearly examined.  For me that would be an interesting and exciting  topic in so far as it connects with other very important notions such as diplomacy and generally how diverse groups interact. Clearly there are many and significant issues connected to this entire topic.  My thought is that justice is not a static quantity or quality.  Like life, for example it, it has somewhat nebulous qualities which leads to the question of nebular justice, which may be an entirely different subject. Here follows some interesting links on this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_and_Justice_for_All https://goodfaithmedia.org/what-...

  Interesting to speculate on how much this word is worth. Clearly there is a feeling aspect to the notion of respect. For example, most people respect fire on account of the immediate consequences connected with not respecting it. Likewise for traffic lights.   On a social level, of course, the concept of respect is  often connected to authority.  Of course, the issue of  authority is somewhat complicated, but more often than not authority is associated with institutions of various types and so an element of complexity is connected to it. Often there is the question:  "Who is in charge here?" But certainly in personal relationships, by which I mean the relationships of individuals respecting others plays a key role.  At least for me it seems the more respect to have for someone, and the more respect you can show, the better goes the relationship, and in contrast to actions or feelings connected with dis-respect are good indicators of relationship...

  When I was young, I became infatuated with rockets, and the concept of traveling in or through space.  I remember being glued to the T.V. watching Alan Shepard and John Glenn. Something which seemed to me at the time to be very special was going on, and in some vague way, I felt connected to this.  I somehow felt like I belonged. Referring to John Glenn, Wikipedia says: He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the  Earth , circling it three times in 1962 This is from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn I wonder what would have happened to these , pretty sure you could call them, courageous men, if  some mis-guidance had occurred.  Well, you might imagine how that would have gone down.    I am glad to have witnessed these things, in real time, so to speak.   I guess, I should also mention, because these events occurred in a similar time, the intense emotions provoked by  Too Kill A Mocking...

  Just for some reference, a link to an article about some of Carl Jung's thoughts about fear , views connected to that: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/12/08/dont-fear-your-own-shadow/?sh=63b3b201a8ba Some observations:  Certainly fear can be s source of motivation, but in society it has tremendous effects in terms of how people organize them selves.  A simple example of this might be how health care in organized in connection to our fear concerning disease. One of the responses to fear is sometimes called courage and indeed in certain situations< I think, courage can be an extremely appropriate response.  Sometimes courage seems like a form of ignorance.  I think that courage when appropriate has to be a counter to ignorance.  Seems like ignorance when combined with fear has some terrible consequences.   One source of fear, of course, is other people.  Certainly, we have to  examine these particular fears with...

  Well, currently 50% of the population is crabby, some even excessively crabby, and in my opinion, not the 50% you would really like to be crabby.  Then 15% don't know, 15% don't care, and 15% believe Paradise just arrived.  Let me be quite clear about Paradise, Paradise came from John Prine and that was sometime ago.  Also, about the last 5% ,,,, good question .... very good question ....

  Okay, so list some systems, financial system, health care system, religious systems, , political systems, communication systems, weapons systems, educational systems ,transportation systems,, this is a long list  ... and for institutions you also have a similarly long list but with some special distinctions. There are diplomatic institutions, but not so much with the diplomatic systems ? In the English language, that might suggest you just can't sort out diplomacy? There are other examples of this, I am pretty sure. One addition to this, is I would suggest that a method we use " socially ", might indicate, that we (do or do not) organize ourselves personally in similar ways.

  I think that many people experience something called nostalgia.   It's kind of like the blues, mostly concerning how the past has by some kind of mysterious process become the present.  Therefore, there are events, in our personal lives and even events connected to our social lives, that generally we would prefer to be more real than memories in our present.  It must be extremely rare for someone to experience nostalgia about the future.  Generally, it would be hard for us to even imagine how that would work. Nevertheless, we do have emotions about the future.  Sometimes it is exciting for us to imagine events that my take place in the future and there is also the experience of looking forward with anticipation about some personal events, and even to look forward to events socially which we can have strong emotions about seeing  take place, and of course, sometimes, they just don't. Of  course, the main under lying point of this blog is try...

  What's up with that ?

 Mostly research, following are definitions: Humanism: an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters.  Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems. a Renaissance cultural movement which turned away from medieval scholasticism and revived interest in ancient Greek and Roman thought. noun: Humanism (among some contemporary writers) a system of thought criticized as being centered on the notion of the rational, autonomous self and ignoring the unintegrated and conditioned nature of the individual. Secular Humanism: humanism, with regard in particular to the belief that humanity is capable of morality and self-fulfillment without belief in God. Christian Humanism: a philosophy advocating the self-fulfillment of humanity within the framework of Christian principles. Phycological Humanism: humanistic psyc...

  In a foreword to a book on perl programming, Larry Wall discusses his experience with the early development of perl, and uses the words magic at least once, in how perl  came to be.  Actually, I think I have the book, but I have to search for it.  The actual link follows: Foreword, Learning Perl Nevertheless, it seems like, one of the best descriptions for magic that I have heard is that magic is technology that hasn't been invented yet.  However, and here's where the whole thing gets confusing; the rate of change in technology has become so rapid, that what was the future may become the past in a short period of time and therefore  in this arena it becomes somewhat more difficult to make an accurate distinctions, because " new " technology is always being developed. However, we can say a few things about technology as it applies in out daily life.  Magic might be an entirely different conversation. One thing is we are generally learning something ab...

 Now one good question you can ask about both freedoms and algorithms is where do they come from? Certainly in the case of algorithms we might want to investigate Donald Knuth, and  The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-4 But where ever these things come from, one curious thing about algorithms is the way that an algorithm , which may almost appear like non-sense, can work with data, that is difficult to understand, and in a " relatively " small number of steps, turn it into something that not only makes more sense, but also may be helpful in some ways. To make this a little more concrete you can consider sorting algorithms. Somehow, I am guessing that freedom, my be connected more to algorithms in different ways. When we make steps towards, maybe things like better people and a better world, and find out those steps, don't work so well, and then make corrections, and even perhaps improve our algorithms, we can achieve greater successes. Maybe, even --- good or bette...

  And so, consider a bit of an usual freedom, one that a lot of people might not wish to have, but, what if you could just fall to the center of the earth? Why you might not enjoy this so much is that suppose you are walking a long and your desire or ability to fall to the center of the earth - accidentally - kicks in.  That might make for a more difficult day, than expected. Nevertheless, we do all possess this freedom in that we have the ability to imagine falling to the center of the earth.  This ability turns out to be involved in a lot of our daily activities, in that, we anticipate future actions or activities, and this anticipation does possess at least some measure of imagination, because we are imagining events that will or a least should occur in the future. This activity of imagination of course has a broader  effect particularly in culture.  Certainly the activities of many authors and novelist to include imagination on lots of levels, as well as, mu...

  Someone might likely suggest this is a trick question. It might not be so bad.  It seems like economics and being economical would be connected in some ways, or a different word would have been chosen entirely. For me, personally, I think economics strongly reflects in the issues relating greed and generosity, which I think is frequently reflected in our personal lives.    We must make choices.  And interesting how we make these choices goes back to an important personal issue as well as an important social issue which is justice.  In other words, how we use and apply justice connects directly back to how we make various choices as much as previous out comes of those choices.   So what does that all mean?  I think it means that in the face of " economic difficulties ", justice, as we apply it in our personal lives, is really important.

  And bettin' on who won the election ... which one ? If 2020 was stolen, I am pointing the finger on the Portuguese, after all who would suspect the Portuguese? Juneteenth , ( 16,17,18, 19 th ?)  is celebrating ...  

??? What ???   So, it appears I have become agitated by this whole conversation about who won the 2020 election, when what is really important about  the 2020 election is that we had one.   Let us assume for a moment that everybody got it wrong.  Nevertheless, Joe Biden is the current occupant of the White House.  What now ? The only way to completely resolve the issue is,   that that 100% of everybody agree.  Okay, now assume that 100% of the people agree that the 2020 election was stolen.  What  now?  Are we going to pass a law that says that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have to share the White House?   Like what then?   Donald Trump gets the Oval Office on Tuesday and Thursday and Joe Biden, Monday and Wednesday and they flip for it on Fridays.   Beyond that they each get their own staff?  So that means something like where are all these people going to be?  Share an office or what?...

  So much seems to be happening, it reminds me of " Almost Famous ", " it's all happening ". Back to puzzles, it seems kind of intuitive that you want good light, when putting together a puzzle, but more accurately  what you're generally concerned with is clarity.  To have a thorough understanding of clarity, is not where I am heading. Actually, when you start to think more about puzzles, it seems really, that most of our life is concerned with puzzles.   Consider the simple example of the ignition in an automobile.  If you've ever tried to get into it from the repair perspective,  it seems pretty clear it's a bit of a puzzle.  But, even if you are just putting a key into the dash of some auto, you can see,  that by itself it can be a bit of a puzzle. Looking at the puzzle of all the problems in the world, it should be pretty clear we have quite a bit of background or experience collectively as regards assemblies of that type.   The...

  Seems like a lot of discourse these day revolves around the notion of legitimate and illegitimate.  Two references are relevant I believe ... " I am not a crook " "When the president does it that means it is not illegal" also for reference: On June 17, 1972, police arrested burglars in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.   50 years ago ....

  It seems to me that one  activity which many people enjoy as well as participate in or engage with is puzzle solving.  Part of the enjoyment  in puzzle solving is the actual conclusion where all the pieces are in place. There is also a related area of culture like mystery novels and various kinds of mysteries in art and culture. The standard model in physics could also be viewed in that way. This may not be a particularly good analogy, but it seems like you could view all the problems in the world or at least most of the big ones as one giant puzzle.  And in this picture many people are working on arranging these pieces, trying to figure out the patterns which might suggest how to orient or position a given piece.  Sometimes we have more than one group or individuals which are trying to place  a particular piece into place, but it seems like these efforts often contradict  each other, creating sometimes a lot of frustrations, and other difficult...

 Over the last 50 years an incredible investment has been make in various kinds of control devices.  It is truly amazing how important this has become, and how little fore thought has been made into the investment.   The overwhelming basis of these devices in based on a relatively simple mechanism sometimes referred to as a  von Neumann  machine, and although a great deal of study and education has been focused on the device and although relatively speaking it is fairly simple, it is not well understood, but it does emulate to a certain degree what we could describe as mind.  What mind has to do with, in this context, is in fact control of various aspects of physical " stuff ".   Regardless of how control is developed it is quite important to understand what is being controlled as well as  the result of what this control means.  That requires, of course, a good deal of effort.  Ultimately it requires some reflection, as in the ...

 " Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth, "rip down all hate, " I screamed Lies that life is black and white spoke from my skull, I dreamed Romantic facts of musketeers foundationed deep, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now " Bob Dylan, My Back Pages. Starship Toopers was published November 5, 1959, by Robert A. Heinlein.  It won the  Hugo Award for Best Novel  in 1960. At any rate " bugs " feature prominently in the novel.  One idea that is interesting certainly is the notion of bugs in  relationship to God.  Many would ask why that God as Creator would come up with this idea of or in fact reality of bugs.  Well that's what you might call a --- good question ---, in that you can spend an incredible amount of time concerned with it or maybe just read Starship Troopers.  For me it comes down to, who is really in charge here ?,  people or bugs?   Another interesting idea  is the relationsh...

One aspect of reality is the concept of distinction, because we make distinctions about what is real and what is not.  In Wholeness and the Implicate Order    David Bohm distinguishes between what appears explicit and what may be implicit in in an observation.  I have previously suggested the idea  of different types of reality. If we look at a  bigger picture, I am not sure how we we can distinguish types of reality.  For example, spiritual reality certainly merges into physical reality in various ways, like implicit and explicit observations. In many  traditions the concept of making that kind of distinction is not necessarily a meaningful one. At some level I think the distinctions between realities is not  all together valid, but I also feel this is a somewhat difficult idea to grasp in a very concrete way.  I think it is somewhat subtle to view a sort of blending of these realities into one.  Like lights into colors and colors ...