Colombia: General, Strike

So far, police and army brutality has not gone beyond the usual. That's a plus. But it is a country wide strike of persons in varied sectors of the economy with little communication or considered cooperation yet.

The strikers all have very good reasons and call to strike. Among the various major causes for the strike is the way small set of oligarchic power wielders in Colombia relate to and collude with a set powerful among US power wielder's.

That is US citizens may see the strike as an example of their tax dollars at work.

Individual Development Suggestions

Consider reality; if it seems difficult to contemplate, try meditating on it.

The power with which you are conscious is essential to  your individuation (coming out from among them). Consider attending to it.

In your thoughts and in your speech, words with clear referents can help you toward purity.

You have a power to give. You deserve to find joy in its use.

You don't have to do anything.

Timeline of United States military operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Timeline of United States military operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Citizens blood and money at work .

Which are your favorite battles?

People Power: one

The act of workers uniting for mutual aid was feared and vilified by ruling classes. Workers used the power of unity to motivate rulers to more fairly share with workers the fruits of the labor of workers.

Your True Story

Mostly I'm interested in my story. However, I do believe that your understanding of your history makes you more powerful too. Attending to your history puts you on a high road to understanding and power.

I believe that your story hooks you up. It gets you together.  It connects you to your family, your people, mankind, and the world.

Your history is about truth and reality. It begins with awareness and alertness; awareness and alertness not only to the world around you, but also to yourself, your motives and feelings, your inner self. It continues with better observation of your own experience. It gets on the road with conscious improvement of your interpretation of your observation.

You don't have to have a favorite color, but you may find it useful to know more about what you find attractive. Yourt aunt Sara's love life? Your cousin Jake's Career? Small airplanes? Your left foot? A passage from the Bible? Saints? Kings? Find out what interests you today and find out more about it. Get its story;its history. Your self is likely greater than you believe it is. Exploring that which attracts you may enliven that self.

Today I was attracted by Og. Og may be the name of a giant in a kids story I heard log ago. I believe that following my attraction to Og can increase my power and understanding today. To each his own, right?

My imagination, like yours, is a very valuable tool. However, imagination is what it eats. I try to feed mine on truth and reality. Much that I taste I do not swallow. I find that flavoring my history with goodness and reality is to my advantage. Badly fed imaginations may sicken. However, just getting some information that seems good in mind and letting your mind get used to it being there may be a good start. You can hold something in mind for a time without taking it as real or true, can't you?

Your mind is not exactly the same as mine or as anyone else's. Minds differ in a variety of ways. One mind wants, needs, and benefits from information that consists of doubly or triply validated fact before it is given much time in mind. Another mind wants, needs, and benefits from gathering bits and pieces of information which seem to begin to define the parameters of an attractive area.

My mind tends to work a bit like the the outer limits defining way I suggest above. I am grateful that it works at all.

Now, I find that there has been an Og called a giant in places besides a kid's book. Or, it seems, was: an Amorite king of Bashan; a person of the time of Noah; a canaanite; a neighbor of Shihon and Hesbond. I have discovered that there are those who believe that Og may be related to Magog, Gog, Ogma, ogham, Ogias, and, perhaps, Mago.

I have also learned that translations of ancient works have sometimes confused the idea of big men and great men, with men who were physically much bigger than other men.

Then again, I find that learned men have found evidence that man-like beings well over seven feet tall walked the earth for 400,000 years.

Og data may provide me with a seed that will grow into a tree of power and understanding. An acorn grows to a mighty oak. A tiny mustard seed grows to be a plant of considerable size. Still it may take a whole lot of good evidence to form a vital seed.

Knowing that I find much joy at being where I can see wild flowers bloom is probably a greater thing in my life than any Og can be.

You are your best historian. Even so, you can learn much from the great historians, giants among men. One of those great historians is Herodotus. Herodotus is a dead Greek, but he is still a great historian. He read, but he didn't like to very much. He would travel far to hear a good story or to see for himself. I suspect that he knew that his ongoing inner story was intimately connected to the whole world of all time. He may well have known that it extended beyond world and time.

Your history begins with your personal history. Your personal history is very important. The history of your thoughts, feelings, and doings color your understanding of everything. Those thoughts, feelings, and doings of yours tints the world of each of us. Your motives, experiences, and observations make up your history and the way you see your life. May you enjoy the understanding and power of your truth and reality. Make it a good story.

History

The best part of history, for me, is the story. Much of histories value lies in how closely it approaches reality. A good story which is true is hard to beat. I would love a history that contained no intention to deceive.

History is the presentation of:
~ knowledge or a source of knowledge,
~ an interpretation,
~ a scholarly synthesis of events,
~ what we value from the past (the taste of this mornings toothpaste?)
~ that which is worth remembering,
~ knowledge obtained by inquiry,
~ an account of one's experience,
~ an account of actual events,
~ the study of a human past,
~ a pointing of the way,
~ knowledge brought to the present,
~ systematically related phenomena,
and stuff like vision, wit, and order.

There may be a history for each category of human experience: love, music, martial arts, smut, science, racing, family, you, war, politics, kings, natural events, blood lines, religion, philosophy, magic, history and everything else.

As each of us preserves and interprets happenings, each of us is a historian. Some historians have been judged to be better than others. Some pass on greater power to us. Some try to pass on attractive lies. Many are learned men or women of fine vision from whom we may learn truly.

I have enjoyed and benefited from well told stories of real events told by worthy persons with deep respect for rules of evidence. There are strange histories that may be a sort of travelogue of happenings and experiences out of time which may have their own value. There are chronologies, tiny and grand, which give order to the doings of man. I like best the well told story told honestly by an honest fellow.

The doing of history includes using a variety of methods of research, analysis, and interpretation. A historian may examine and analyze a sequence of events and present his interpretation to you. He searches the happenings and chronologies for causes and effects and tells one what he sees. A historian may follow a trail back in time until finds a primary source of evidence or until he gets a story which seems complete. He is pleased when he finds an eye-witness. A historian may seek and find patterns, order, and laws in the doings of humanity. He may discover imperfect, but useful cycles and other movements in our activities and teach you how to recognize them and to use them for your benefit.

From a history one may learn a good way of living and doing. Processes of making glass or steel may be learned from histories.

You can find power and joy in history; I do.

PBS

Or is NBS?

What is a public broadcasting system? Who is the public in that system? What part does the public play and what part pay? Who controls PBS? Who benefits from PBS? Who benefits most? Who least?
How is PBS set to move beyond radio and TV?

I have a lot to learn and could use some help.

Of History

Here are a few words to suggest how I see history.


The word 'history' meant knowledge. It means that now, but its meaning has been greatly broadened. Then, as we know, knowledge is broad. A 'histor' was a learned man, a knower, a seer, a person of good wit. More recently we have called 'knowledge learned by inquiry,' history. Now we know history largely as a written account of ones inquiries. There are also those who know history as a historia, a history, a story. It could be fictitious, a partially true excuse, or a big lie.

I take the above into my understanding of history. Using history as a noun I take it to mean 'knowledge useful in the development of wisdom.' I usually expect it to be presented as a narrative. I also take 'history' as a synonym for 'the search for knowledge useful to me.' I use it as the name for the tool and method for finding that knowledge.

'To enquire' or 'to inquire' I use to mean 'to question.' 'To question' is the process of formulating questions and of finding answers. If you go to history without a question, you may be only entertained or diverted. To get an answer you must have a question, even if it be the question of another.

So, to me history is an activity, it is a doing.

Most dictionaries you may consult will 'say' something like 'history is a narrative of past events.' So, if I tell you how I made coffee this morning of how I got Susie to sleep with me last night, that's history. If you don't pay the money you owe, you might be history. You can learn from your history or from the history of another. A history may very well be an explanation of developments. Each historical narrative is an interpretation of happenings.

Speaking a bit of the history of history you may find it useful to realize that much history has been the work of rulers and philosophers. You might call a ruler a leader, and a philosopher a scientist. These are persons who have questions of power. They read and write history to extend and enhance their power. A teacher of history may be paid to help you to develop and enhance your power.

Knowing

I believe that that knowing is a process as believing is a process. Believing and knowing are very probably part of one reality. I believe that realizing is a very similar process. I believe that experiencing the process is more important than the word.


I believe that their are qualities of knowing which might be named: good, better, and best.


I bet that I can list more than 17 phrases which point usefully to parts of the process of knowing:
~ Attend to the wise men of the past.
~ Decide to honor and value your Personal experience.
~ Be aware of trying and attempting.
~ Intend to understand.
~ Observe your trials and attempts and attempts and the ensuing results.
~ Consider the nature of a wise man.
~ Attend to and focus on here and now happenings.
~ Evaluate the rules, principles and laws you use.
~ Review your memory of previous evaluations and happenings.
~ Improve your understanding of evidence.
~ Allow your imagination to create using true to life facts and the your best rules, laws, and principles.
~ Attend to degree of probability.
~ Be alert to ways of knowing.
~ Attend to reasoning and rationality.
~ Recognize your use of ways of knowing.
~ Embrace and honor your knowing.
~ Evaluate witnesses, experts, and documentation.
~ Quantify data when you can.
~ Check to see if doing the 'same' thing gets the 'same' results.
~ Be grateful for your power and tools.


I don't have any more phrases in mind just now, so it seems time to count. If you found a useful phrase, you may thank me. I will thank you if you add a phrase. I count twenty. How many do you think are good. Which one do you believe is good. Which one are you closest to knowing is good?

The Most Toys

After decades of study and travel I was easily able to see why our underhanded, dangerous, neo-colonialism disturbed the peoples of nearly every nation on earth with our corporate tentacles distorting the political, economic and cultural aspects of their lives with its wringing exploitation.


However, criticism of another of our 'national characteristics' surprised and disturbed me. It was something I knew well and thought I understood pretty well. It was something I a accepted and had found acceptable. What had surprised and disturbed me was how deeply it was felt by the peoples of the earth and how profoundly disillusioned and betrayed many felt because of it.
They called us materialistic and it was our materialism which disturbed them. What touched and disappointed them so deeply was to observe that our concern with money and possessions seemed  stronger than our concerns with spiritual and intellectual values. We might say, "Right, he who dies with the most toys wins." Do we value dollars, gold, goodies, and the power of material wealth more than, say, church and school? Were dollar values very much greater than spiritual values in our lives. What surprised  and disturbed me was that I had not even noted that much in our lives was biased toward the material.


The more I saw us as many others do, the more the more I thought about our apparent prioritization of values, the more I felt a sort of disappointment. My earlier surprise turned a bit sad upon realizing how easily I had gone along with fellow American attitude that the buck and the stuff came before mind and spirit.


How many prominent Americans value monetary power over others more than they value the quality of their own spirit and intellect?


Who are we?

democracy

There is a lot to be said for democracy. I'll begin by saying a little of it.


I tend to think of democracy as a target and as a process.


Democracy means 'government by the people at large.' It means rule by the common people. Whoever 'the people' is, democracy is government and rule by all of them.
How might such a thing be done?


I don't know anyone who has seen such a government. Still, I like the idea and believe that it is a good thing to shoot for. I'm not talking about war. I'm just suggesting that it seems a decent way to direct ones civic activities. Directions in ones activities often proves useful.


A democracy does not necessarily call for majorities or votes. It is a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly. It may be carried out in a variety of ways.


Democracy is a way of doing things that keeps power with the people. For some it may be an ongoing process of democratization. For me, it is the measure of my government.

Jobs

Its the job of a corporate man to increase the power of the corporation.

Its the job of a military man to increase the power of the military

Its the job of a president to increase the power of the presidency.

Its the job of a Congressman to increase the power of the Congress.

Its the job of a member of the Supreme Court to increase the power of the court.

Its the job of a person to increase he power of the people.

Power

There is power.
You have some.
Take charge of it.
Get better at directing it.
Recognize it.


Power manifests as movement.
You can detect movement.
You have all you need to detect enough of it.
You can detect it.
You can recognize it.


Power is everywhere.
It is inside and outside.
It is above and below.


The power in you seems to vary.
You may feel a vibration within your body.
Or feel a movement finer than a vibration.
You may feel it in certain areas.
You may feel it along your spine.
You are aware of flexing your arm, of running.


You may have felt the power of your car as a kind of vibration.
The car may become mobile with power.
You can learn to drive.


There is a power with which you think.
That power worked before you thought about it.


You can learn to direct you thinking.
You may, for example, purposefully think rationally or logically.


You may note that your ability to detect power is less than perfect.
You may know that your ability to see, touch, smell power is less than perfect.
You may have heard talk of atom power without having heard the actual power.


Have you thought of tree power?
Have you detected the movement of that power? the process?
Have you seen the actual power?
You know something of the power of burning wood.


You may known that your vision of the tree is not a true vision of tree power. It may not be a true vision of treeness.
You understand that there is more to reality than your vision of tree.


Your ability to understand and use power can improve. You do not have to perfect it. It is likely to get a bit better on its own.


There are those who purposefully learn to better know and use the force with which the function.
There is an ongoing tendency to do so; something like growing up.
That ongoing tendency is a process with which one may learn to cooperate.


Not to fight against the process may be wise.
There is a functioning force with which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
The butterfly seems to go with the flow and so may we.


Cooperation is a human way of dealing with power.


What can you and I learn about cooperation, 

Learn from One Another

I have been thinking about us.


Lots of things about us have come to mind. Learning has come up most. Thoughts of instruction, education, and teaching have arisen.I've thought of ways of knowing and understanding.


I have consciously and unconsciously resisted learning from time to time. Most often I have been pleased to learn, pleased to be taught. I think that often man of us would be pleased to learn, to be taught, to be educated, to be instructed.


We desire the power, the knowledge, the understanding, the skill.


Many a husband could learn to better educate his wife about a thing or two. I think that he could learn to do it in a way his wife found acceptable, perhaps even a pleasure. I am sure that a father has a skill he can help his child to develop. The child would love to receive the father nurtured skill.


A wife can find an area in which her wants instruction. She is capable of learning to instruct him in a way that honors him. A mother can learn to teach her child something in a way that is pleasing to her and to the child.


A father and a mother can learn to more appropriately applaud a child's respectful attempt to help a sibling learn.


A family member might learn to encourage a grandparent to share skill or knowledge wit another family member.


You have some willingness to learn, so do I.


Like brothers and sisters we can help each other to the power, knowledge, understanding, and skill.

Appropriate Trust

The power in knowledge may be tapped by organization.


The power of knowledge is manifest through use.


Gather and share valuable information through cooperation.


Communicate to organize. Talk honestly.


To talk effectively we need more than trust, we need skill.


What is the source of skill?
What is the source of trust?  

Colombian

           There is great power for good from your past available to you right now. Tap it and share it. You may find that power in the words of your poets, your story tellers, your philosophers, your theologians, your historians, your men, your women.


There is little power in the dollar or violence,  Liberal or Conservative.  


Your power is in the best of your past and the best of right now. The power may work slowly, but it begins immediately.


There are those who wish you the best.  

What To Do

They tell you what to do because you don't get together on what you want to do.
They have the power to move you to do what they want you to, because they get together on what they want you to do.

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