Ontario Works -- isn't working.
The whole program -- from top to bottom -- needs to be re-thought and re-worked.
A better anti-poverty network of systems needs to be put into place, involving the municipal, provincial, and federal levels, co-ordinated with each other. The Churches need to be involved. The Communities need to be involved.
If Ontario Works -- is going to work -- then people need to be helped onto their feet; not kicked back into the mud.
Around $590 is the top end of what people get -- or at least single people get -- on Ontario Works. These days, that will be lucky to land a person a room and a washroom. Maybe a separate entrance. More likely, a room in a shared boarding house. Maybe a separate kitchen. More likely not. Maybe laundry facilities. Quite possibly not. Maybe a separate shower. Maybe a shower shared with a house full of people.
By the time the rent is paid, what does the person have left.
Maybe enough for a week of food. Or maybe not even.
No transportation money. Walking becomes the necessary mode of transportation. Not all bad -- good for the body -- but maybe not good enough to land the necessary job that could land a person back on his feet -- and off Ontario Works.
No clothing allowance. Another job deterrent, especially if the person's clothes smell foul when they arrive at their job interview. Trying to wash one's clothes in the bathroom sink may not cut it on interview day. The person may have even become immune to the odour they are carrying around with them.
I'm reacting to the plight of a local woman in Newmarket who I have seen off and on wandering the streets, sometimes homeless, sometimes in a shelter, sometimes barely hanging onto a bad accommodation situation, most often the latter. She has a part-time retail job that maybe nets her $600 to $900 per month. The $900 per month was during the Christmas rush. That chopped her OW cheque down to $100 since they deduct half of what you make for the month, and then subtract that from what is her regular $550 a month cheque.
This woman -- if I am trust what she says, and I have no reason to disbelieve her -- came, or rather ran, from a million dollar home, at about 16, and then finally left for good in her mid 20s. Abstract, partial stories of teenage and adult sexual abuse at the hands of her father and brothers have surfaced a couple of times now. I haven't pushed for details but I don't think we are talking about any 'Oedipal Complex' here. Anyway, she won't go back to her family looking for money.
With a dollar in her pocket, and payday over a week a way, not having paid February rent yet, her landlord overseas, possibly using up her 'last month's rent' which she had given to her landlord, things didn't look too good for her. She seemed sincere in her wish to land another part-time job, and to get off Ontario Works altogether. She asked if I could spot her a $5. Call me naive and manipulated if you wish, but I pulled the $5 change from our 'dinner' at Harvey's. She ordered French Fries and a garden salad -- but couldn't or wouldn't eat -- even thought she said she hadn't eaten since last Saturday.
I told her not to expect this on a regular basis. I have my parents to worry about on a limited government pension. I have an Ontario Works tenant at home who I partly subsidize although he helps me with my bookkeeping, and with keeping the townhouse clean. I have another tenant whose Employment Insurance must have come to an end, and perhaps he is paying out of his savings now. He used to have a good 'trade' job -- the operative two words being 'used to'.
Finally, I have an old time friend who I hadn't seen in about 10 or 15 years. He called me up before Christmas and said he was living in a downtown shelter. Since his divorce over ten years ago, things have gone progressively down hill for him.
I asked him why he didn't go on Ontario Works. He laughed, and said 'Do the math. I live at this shelter, have the trust of the workers, get $30 allowance a week, and get cooked meals. I wouldn't get that from an Ontario Works cheque.'
I shook my head and said, 'Whatever works.'
I'd paid for a couple of rounds of beers that night and didn't have much money left in my wallet. I fumbled in my pocket for change and embarrased, partly for him and partly for me, he seemed to have grown partly desensitized to it, said: 'Sorry, but I only have change left. It's the best I can do right now... I wish I could say that I was still making $50-$60,000...but I'm not right now. We're all pinching pennies.'
And we parted company, him going back downtown, me coming back to Newmarket.
The collapse of a big chunk of the middle class.
And the widening of the gap between the upper, middle, and lower classes...
And then there is -- or was -- ORNGE. As our Ontario MPP, Frank Klees dryly stated: "When they took the 'A' out of ORNGE, that must have stood for 'Accountability'."
Neither of my friends want to deal with Ontario Works. Apart from being a social stigma -- Ontario Works -- simply doesn't work.
Most people, I believe -- apart from the social assistance abusers -- are looking for a helping hand that can help bail them out of an emergency crisis until they can get back on their feet, and re-stabilize in the workforce again. Some can't, or won't get it back together again.
However, there is a percentage that can, or would, greatly benefit from a service that does not essentially 'kick them back in the mud' again.
Even if you are a Conservative, we still all need to be as concerned with the people at the bottom of the food chain as we do with the people at the top of the food chain. Our employers and our workforce. They both need each other. If one side collapes, both sides will eventually collapse. Canada will collapse. We see partial signs of this all around the world.
And there is evidence of the possibility of this type of collapse happening in our own back yard -- in Canada, in Ontario, in Newmarket.
We all need to be 'NDP-Conservatives' -- or 'Conservative-NDPs'.
Concerned about ourselves and our own budgets -- accountable for ourselves and our own budgets -- in the worst recession that I have lived through in my 50 years of living in Ontario.
But concerned about others in our community around us as well.
Because we all need each other. And it doesn't matter whether the 'triangle of wealth and poverty' starts to collapse from the foundational base of the triangle first -- and/or from the top downwards. We are all in this together.
Remarks like 'I don't care about the poor'....
And 'I like to fire people'...
Just don't cut it...
And Ontario Works -- isn't working.
-- dgb, February 8th, 2012,
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Jack Layton: A Beacon In The Political Night...
Dear Jack Layton,
That I could find half the passionate social energy and drive that you had -- even when you were very sick.
I wish I was 20 years younger and could run longer and harder with your democratic ideals -- and build on them, until I could finally help you get your 'Canadian Majority'.
And it will probably have to be on my own writing platform here in the confines and 'lecture rooms' of 'Hegel's Hotel'.
Did you call yourself a 'socialist', Mr. Layton? (Still a partly 'dirty word' in a Capitalist Society...)
Or were you simply a rare 'Capitalist with a Social Conscience'?
When other politicians and corporate capitalists -- those in the elite power positions -- were making laws that benefited themselves and their main lobbyists who kept them in power....
And obviously, you too, Jack, knew how to at least survive playing the 'Lobbyist Game'...Call it 'The System' -- or 'The Combine' -- if you will...You can't be in politics as long as you were without at least knowing how to play the game...
The most undemocratic part of Canadian and American democracy is that politicians need the heavy financial contributions of their lobbyists to both get into power -- and then to stay in power...with 'conditions attached'...
Still, Jack Layton, you believed -- as I do too -- that Capitalism cannot only benefit the rich, the elite, and those in power if we are to have a decently, harmonious and stable society. The people at the bottom and in the middle of the Capitalist quagmire need to be able to make a decent living too.
I would carry this diatribe much deeper into the ramifications of 'free trade' and 'global capitalism' on North American Society over the last 20 years.
But I would immediately become sarcastic and cynical -- which you, Your Honoourable Jack Layton would find some way to step around and still smile and endear yourself to people -- even your political competitors -- while still, very much, getting your point across.
What was the quote I read in all the papers today? 'Love is better than anger...optimism is better than something...let's just say 'cynicism' for now...and hope is better than despair...
Well, at this moment, Jack, I am feeling very angry, cynical, and leaning towards signifcant despair...
Maybe partly because you just left us before your mission could take us to the next level...
Anyways, I will keep your wonderful quote close to me for the next considerable while....while I look for a way to climb back out of Nietzsche's Abyss...by myself...
Right now, there is a chasm in Canadian -- indeed, North American -- Society that is as big as St. Andereas Fault. It separates the upper middle class from the lower middle, and the lower, class. It separates the workers's incomes whose are still going up, or at least are entrenched around the $60,000 and up mark from those whose have been steadily going down for the last five or ten years...the direct and/or indirect consequence of 'free trade', 'global capitalism', collapsing unions, high unemploment...and unscrupulous business owners finding ways to get around the 'minimum wage barrier' and treating their workers like they were underground, illegal Mexican workers...They don't speak up because they want to keep their jobs...and they have no unions to protect them...
Usually 'the corporate employee abuses' are done through 'part-time jobs' and 'contract work'...
I boil and I seethe...and I want to destroy everything around me...from top to bottom...and then jump into my van...and head to Alberta where they have no HST...(A a supposed 'contractor', making about minimum wage, HST comes off my paycheque twice a month...)
But this is Jack Layton's column...
And I will bow to a much more socially sophisticated and polished man who could advance his 'Capitalism With A Conscience' Agenda in a way that I still am trying to learn from him how...
A day later than most,
I weep over your death, Mr. Layton...
I am very, very sad to see you gone...
You remain my main mentor in Canadian politics,
A man who stayed true to his political ideals,
His vision...
As far as I could see...
And didn't get derailed in all the ways...
That young, idealist politicians...
Become derailed by money and power...
And turn into older, more 'seasoned', jaded, narcissistic politicians...
Losing their integrity and character along the way...
'Their Central, Idealistic Core'...
That made them want to be...
Politicians in the first place...
Money changes everything...
But from this distance...
You stayed pretty true...
To you...Jack Layton...
And for that I thank you...
For being...
My Beacon In The Political Night...
-- dgb, August 23rd, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
That I could find half the passionate social energy and drive that you had -- even when you were very sick.
I wish I was 20 years younger and could run longer and harder with your democratic ideals -- and build on them, until I could finally help you get your 'Canadian Majority'.
And it will probably have to be on my own writing platform here in the confines and 'lecture rooms' of 'Hegel's Hotel'.
Did you call yourself a 'socialist', Mr. Layton? (Still a partly 'dirty word' in a Capitalist Society...)
Or were you simply a rare 'Capitalist with a Social Conscience'?
When other politicians and corporate capitalists -- those in the elite power positions -- were making laws that benefited themselves and their main lobbyists who kept them in power....
And obviously, you too, Jack, knew how to at least survive playing the 'Lobbyist Game'...Call it 'The System' -- or 'The Combine' -- if you will...You can't be in politics as long as you were without at least knowing how to play the game...
The most undemocratic part of Canadian and American democracy is that politicians need the heavy financial contributions of their lobbyists to both get into power -- and then to stay in power...with 'conditions attached'...
Still, Jack Layton, you believed -- as I do too -- that Capitalism cannot only benefit the rich, the elite, and those in power if we are to have a decently, harmonious and stable society. The people at the bottom and in the middle of the Capitalist quagmire need to be able to make a decent living too.
I would carry this diatribe much deeper into the ramifications of 'free trade' and 'global capitalism' on North American Society over the last 20 years.
But I would immediately become sarcastic and cynical -- which you, Your Honoourable Jack Layton would find some way to step around and still smile and endear yourself to people -- even your political competitors -- while still, very much, getting your point across.
What was the quote I read in all the papers today? 'Love is better than anger...optimism is better than something...let's just say 'cynicism' for now...and hope is better than despair...
Well, at this moment, Jack, I am feeling very angry, cynical, and leaning towards signifcant despair...
Maybe partly because you just left us before your mission could take us to the next level...
Anyways, I will keep your wonderful quote close to me for the next considerable while....while I look for a way to climb back out of Nietzsche's Abyss...by myself...
Right now, there is a chasm in Canadian -- indeed, North American -- Society that is as big as St. Andereas Fault. It separates the upper middle class from the lower middle, and the lower, class. It separates the workers's incomes whose are still going up, or at least are entrenched around the $60,000 and up mark from those whose have been steadily going down for the last five or ten years...the direct and/or indirect consequence of 'free trade', 'global capitalism', collapsing unions, high unemploment...and unscrupulous business owners finding ways to get around the 'minimum wage barrier' and treating their workers like they were underground, illegal Mexican workers...They don't speak up because they want to keep their jobs...and they have no unions to protect them...
Usually 'the corporate employee abuses' are done through 'part-time jobs' and 'contract work'...
I boil and I seethe...and I want to destroy everything around me...from top to bottom...and then jump into my van...and head to Alberta where they have no HST...(A a supposed 'contractor', making about minimum wage, HST comes off my paycheque twice a month...)
But this is Jack Layton's column...
And I will bow to a much more socially sophisticated and polished man who could advance his 'Capitalism With A Conscience' Agenda in a way that I still am trying to learn from him how...
A day later than most,
I weep over your death, Mr. Layton...
I am very, very sad to see you gone...
You remain my main mentor in Canadian politics,
A man who stayed true to his political ideals,
His vision...
As far as I could see...
And didn't get derailed in all the ways...
That young, idealist politicians...
Become derailed by money and power...
And turn into older, more 'seasoned', jaded, narcissistic politicians...
Losing their integrity and character along the way...
'Their Central, Idealistic Core'...
That made them want to be...
Politicians in the first place...
Money changes everything...
But from this distance...
You stayed pretty true...
To you...Jack Layton...
And for that I thank you...
For being...
My Beacon In The Political Night...
-- dgb, August 23rd, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
Monday, April 25, 2011
If There is One Thing Good To Be Said About Global Capitalism...And Towards A North American Workers/Corporation Protectionist Act (NAWCPA)
If there is one thing good to say about Global Capitalism...it is perhaps this:
I am suffering such that millions of people in some of the poorest countries in the world --- who are much more impovertized and desparate than me -- can work -- and at least take something home to feed their families...
Having said this, China seems to be doing very well lately, much better than us, in fact, they probably 'own' us...
So with or without 'ruffling any international feathers', it might be time -- indeed, it is way past time -- to think of a new 're-balancing' act....something in the order of a new 'North American Workers/Corporation Protectionist Act' (NAWCPA as opposed to NAFTA)...
Basic Principles For a North American Workers/Corporation Protectionist Act (NAWCPA)...
Aimed at:
1. Creating a political-economic-business environment encouraging internationally based North American industries to come back to North America;
2. Thus, creating thousands and thousands of 'new-old' jobs and careers in North America;
3. Creating a rate of pay that is neither dominated by one-sided Big Union and/or Big Corporation power but rather by a 'resurrected and resurging' North American economy;
4. Creating a rate of pay that is partly protected by international tariffs on goods coming in from countries with much, much lower wages than in North America;
5. Re-creating a standard of living and rate of pay in North America that does not necessitate North American consumers -- because of their unemployment status and/or drop in corporate wages -- searching for the lowest priced internationally imported goods possible to find;
6. Encouraging and supporting healthy, stabilizing profits for North American companies that allow them to survive and flourish without gouging the public and/or exploiting workers -- creating what I call a 'Hegelian(Humanistic)-Existential-Ethical-Dialectic'(HEED) style and culture of 'capitalism' rather than a 'Narcissistic-Manipulative-My Way Or The Highway' style and culture of capitalism that essentially breeds pervasive civil distrust, disrespect, skepticism, pessimism, cynicism -- and paranoia against most corporations and governments -- regardless of what 'party name and/or ideology' they call themselves by;
A 'Protectionist Act' for North American Workers with some or all of the main principles outlined above...
Might do much to...
Get North American Goods and Services Industries...
'Rockin' and a rollin'...again...
Sitting around thinking about it...
Is going to keep our jobs overseas...
And let foreign economies rise...
While ours continues to fall...
-- dgb, April 25th, 2011
-- David Gordon Bain
I am suffering such that millions of people in some of the poorest countries in the world --- who are much more impovertized and desparate than me -- can work -- and at least take something home to feed their families...
Having said this, China seems to be doing very well lately, much better than us, in fact, they probably 'own' us...
So with or without 'ruffling any international feathers', it might be time -- indeed, it is way past time -- to think of a new 're-balancing' act....something in the order of a new 'North American Workers/Corporation Protectionist Act' (NAWCPA as opposed to NAFTA)...
Basic Principles For a North American Workers/Corporation Protectionist Act (NAWCPA)...
Aimed at:
1. Creating a political-economic-business environment encouraging internationally based North American industries to come back to North America;
2. Thus, creating thousands and thousands of 'new-old' jobs and careers in North America;
3. Creating a rate of pay that is neither dominated by one-sided Big Union and/or Big Corporation power but rather by a 'resurrected and resurging' North American economy;
4. Creating a rate of pay that is partly protected by international tariffs on goods coming in from countries with much, much lower wages than in North America;
5. Re-creating a standard of living and rate of pay in North America that does not necessitate North American consumers -- because of their unemployment status and/or drop in corporate wages -- searching for the lowest priced internationally imported goods possible to find;
6. Encouraging and supporting healthy, stabilizing profits for North American companies that allow them to survive and flourish without gouging the public and/or exploiting workers -- creating what I call a 'Hegelian(Humanistic)-Existential-Ethical-Dialectic'(HEED) style and culture of 'capitalism' rather than a 'Narcissistic-Manipulative-My Way Or The Highway' style and culture of capitalism that essentially breeds pervasive civil distrust, disrespect, skepticism, pessimism, cynicism -- and paranoia against most corporations and governments -- regardless of what 'party name and/or ideology' they call themselves by;
A 'Protectionist Act' for North American Workers with some or all of the main principles outlined above...
Might do much to...
Get North American Goods and Services Industries...
'Rockin' and a rollin'...again...
Sitting around thinking about it...
Is going to keep our jobs overseas...
And let foreign economies rise...
While ours continues to fall...
-- dgb, April 25th, 2011
-- David Gordon Bain
If There is One Thing Good To Be Said About Global Capitalism...
If there is one thing good to say about Global Capitalism...it is perhaps this:
I am suffering such that millions of people in some of the poorest countries in the world --- who are much more impovertized and desparate than me -- can work -- and at least take something home to feed their families...
-- dgb, April 25th, 2011
-- David Gordon Bain
I am suffering such that millions of people in some of the poorest countries in the world --- who are much more impovertized and desparate than me -- can work -- and at least take something home to feed their families...
-- dgb, April 25th, 2011
-- David Gordon Bain
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The Greatest Cure in The World for Capitalism...
Dialectic-(Democratic)-Homeostatic Balance (DHB) will always be disturbed, disrupted, bent out of shape and balance, by individual and group narcissistic bias, manipulation, money and power.
Restoring the DHB group (i.e., self, relationship, family, community, corporate, government, institutional) balance will always demand that 'fair-minded, ethical, DHB thinking and feeling' people will in the end defeat 'narcissistically blinded and/or bent out of shape' people in a rhetorical war of words -- or something unfortunately worse -- a political, economic and/or physical war of 'will to power'. Obviously, sometimes the 'good guys' don't always win -- or win in the first attempt. Some narcissistic dictators and/or manipulators may take years to finally 'defeat'. But in the end, generally, 'what goes around comes around'... The second oldest known philosopher in Greek history -- Anaximander gave us that last 'priceless and timeless gem' of ancient wisdom.
In this regard, we can all choose to be a part of the 'narcissistic individual and/or group problem' or we can step above this -- see other people beyond what we see in the closest mirror -- and be a part of an 'ethical, humanistic-existential conflict-negotiating and resolving team'.
Where do you draw the line between being an ethical, humanistic-existential negotiator vs. being a 'one-sided, narcissitic negotiator' who doesn't care a flying flip about the person you are negotiating with?
Ideally, you are supposed to be able to stand up for your own self, your own rights and wishes, while the other person looks after his or her own self, rights and wishes...And the 'finalized deal' is where each person in the deal meets somewhere in the 'middle' and agrees on this 'middle'.
But what do you do about fraudulent sellers and negotiators, people on the other side of the bargaining negotiation table who have told you something that isn't true, or know something about what he or she is selling that you don't -- and ethically should. Perhaps the salesman/woman knows that the car he/she is about to sell you has an engine that is about to blow up, and by rights, this is where you need to due your 'due dilligence' and have your own mechanic check the car, and/or get a warrenty, take it out for a good test drive, and/or work with a sales person who you feel comfortable that you can trust that he or she actually cares about you as well as, or on top of, or instead of, how much he or she wants to get rid of a 'bad car for the maximum possible price'.
The difference between 'narcissistic capitalism' and 'ethical-dialectic-democratic-humanistic-existential capitalism' basically comes down to the following two questions:
1, Should I, or should I not be -- ethical?
2. How can I make this deal a 'win-win' deal where both of us walk out of the deal happier than when we walked into it, and, thus, both of us wanting to do business with each other again?
Ethics and integrity are never perfect, and narcissistic impulses are often strong -- indeed, a legitimate part of our everyday self-wants, self-needs, and self-expression as long as they don't cross social-ethical boundaries...into the realm of the unethical, the corrupt, the greedy, and/or the criminal...
Greed is almost an inherent vice -- or at least a potential inherent vice -- in human nature. Certainly, it has been around since as far back as recorded human history goes -- back to 'pillaging-plundering' tribes..
The simplest definition of both 'narcissitic capitalism' and 'pathological narcissism' is not caring a 'rat's ....' about the person and/or people around you who you are affecting...
Unfortunately, narcissistic capitalism breeds more and more narcissitic capitalists...in government, on Wall Street and Bay Street, in private corporations, in sellers and buyers, in lawyers who encourage their clients to be fraudulent in order to get a bigger insurance claim of which they get a percentage of, in family lawyers who are paid to get as much as they possibly can for their clients, at the expense of lives that are destroyed on the opposite side of the bargaining table...'Sorry, I had the better lawyer...you should have spent more on a better lawyer...I get the four bedroom house with the children, and you, if you are lucky, can maybe afford to rent a room in a house...and hopefully still have enough money left for at least food'...Or in other case scenarios, both sides are destroyed in a fight where only the lawyers go home with the 'spoils'...
Who doesn't want to be rich? Not too many of us...Being with money is, all else being equal, a much better life than being without money...I've experienced life on 'both sides of the track' -- or at least what I call 'middle class poverty' where you may live in a nice or at least decent place...but you can't afford to do anything else, and even keeping up with your bills becomes a struggle that sometimes -- or every day -- you fear losing... The war of diminishing 'take home income'...and increasing expenses...a combination of inflation and a floundering economy where the people at the top still manage to find a way to pull strings and get a bigger and bigger piece of the pie...Call it a mixture of global capitalism and corporate collusion, even government-corporate collusion...
Beware the biggest political party donators...and lobbyists...they are not 'donating out of the goodness of their hearts'...they are thinking about colluding and cashing in on another deal...
Narcissistic capitalists and narcissistic people in general worship the same Greek God -- 'Narcissus'... even if they don't know it...because the signature characteristic of the narcissistic personality is not to be able to see beyond the closest mirror....and we are all narcissistic to some extent...
I'm sure even Mother Teresa looked in the mirror...but that brings us back to The Spirit of Jesus Christ...and in this case, the woman who so completely lived in the Spirit of Jesus Christ -- Mother Teresa...
We idealize -- and idolize -- Gods, either because we are like them...or we want to be more like them...Often, they respresent our 'missing half'...We live too much of a 'narcissistic life'...and then we go to Church to 'learn' how to be more 'all loving' like Jesus Christ...or Mother Teresa...
I am going to write an essay one day on Mother Teresa... I read some of her quotes a few minutes ago that started to make me cry... Being Easter, I think it is entirely fitting that I share these with you...
.............................................
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Mother Teresa
Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa
Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.
Mother Teresa
Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.
Mother Teresa
I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.
Mother Teresa
I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor? Mother Teresa
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Mother Teresa
If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. Mother Teresa
If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it. Mother Teresa
Intense love does not measure, it just gives. Mother Teresa
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa
Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. Mother Teresa
Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given. Mother Teresa
Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go. Mother Teresa
Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work. Mother Teresa
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. Mother Teresa
Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action. Mother Teresa
Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home. Mother Teresa
Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. Mother Teresa
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa.html
........................................................
The next time you go into a business deal -- or any other encounter and/or relationship at all, for that matter...
Imagine that you have Narcissus looking over your one shoulder...
And both Jesus Christ and Mother Teresa looking over your other shoulder...
Then go ahead and make your 'deal'...
I fathom a guess...
That that would be the greatest cure in the world...
For 'Capitalism'...
Or for any other ideology in the world...
For that matter...
In Hegel's Hotel...
'God' symbolizes 'self-strength' and 'self-assertion'...
Whereas 'Jesus Christ' more fully symbolizes 'empathy, social sensitivity, and loving/caring about others...'
In Hegel's Hotel, both God and Jesus Christ -- like Narcissus (The Greeek God of Self-Interest) and 'Altruissus' (The DGB God of Social Interest)-- flow together and dialectically unite into a 'Holy Trinity' -- 'The Holy Spirit' being the 'creative, dialectic union between self-and-social interest and love' in a way that helps to build a better world for both ourselves and the people we share this world with...because we all need each other in good times -- and especially in bad times...
Idealistic? Of course...
Realistic?
As Mother Teresa would say,
........................................
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Mother Teresa
Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa
Each one of them/us is Jesus in disguise.
Mother Teresa
.............................
-- dgb, April 23rd-24th, 2011.
-- Where Dialectic-Gap-Briding Negotiations...
-- And Amazing, Creative Integrations...
-- Can ...and do...happen...
Restoring the DHB group (i.e., self, relationship, family, community, corporate, government, institutional) balance will always demand that 'fair-minded, ethical, DHB thinking and feeling' people will in the end defeat 'narcissistically blinded and/or bent out of shape' people in a rhetorical war of words -- or something unfortunately worse -- a political, economic and/or physical war of 'will to power'. Obviously, sometimes the 'good guys' don't always win -- or win in the first attempt. Some narcissistic dictators and/or manipulators may take years to finally 'defeat'. But in the end, generally, 'what goes around comes around'... The second oldest known philosopher in Greek history -- Anaximander gave us that last 'priceless and timeless gem' of ancient wisdom.
In this regard, we can all choose to be a part of the 'narcissistic individual and/or group problem' or we can step above this -- see other people beyond what we see in the closest mirror -- and be a part of an 'ethical, humanistic-existential conflict-negotiating and resolving team'.
Where do you draw the line between being an ethical, humanistic-existential negotiator vs. being a 'one-sided, narcissitic negotiator' who doesn't care a flying flip about the person you are negotiating with?
Ideally, you are supposed to be able to stand up for your own self, your own rights and wishes, while the other person looks after his or her own self, rights and wishes...And the 'finalized deal' is where each person in the deal meets somewhere in the 'middle' and agrees on this 'middle'.
But what do you do about fraudulent sellers and negotiators, people on the other side of the bargaining negotiation table who have told you something that isn't true, or know something about what he or she is selling that you don't -- and ethically should. Perhaps the salesman/woman knows that the car he/she is about to sell you has an engine that is about to blow up, and by rights, this is where you need to due your 'due dilligence' and have your own mechanic check the car, and/or get a warrenty, take it out for a good test drive, and/or work with a sales person who you feel comfortable that you can trust that he or she actually cares about you as well as, or on top of, or instead of, how much he or she wants to get rid of a 'bad car for the maximum possible price'.
The difference between 'narcissistic capitalism' and 'ethical-dialectic-democratic-humanistic-existential capitalism' basically comes down to the following two questions:
1, Should I, or should I not be -- ethical?
2. How can I make this deal a 'win-win' deal where both of us walk out of the deal happier than when we walked into it, and, thus, both of us wanting to do business with each other again?
Ethics and integrity are never perfect, and narcissistic impulses are often strong -- indeed, a legitimate part of our everyday self-wants, self-needs, and self-expression as long as they don't cross social-ethical boundaries...into the realm of the unethical, the corrupt, the greedy, and/or the criminal...
Greed is almost an inherent vice -- or at least a potential inherent vice -- in human nature. Certainly, it has been around since as far back as recorded human history goes -- back to 'pillaging-plundering' tribes..
The simplest definition of both 'narcissitic capitalism' and 'pathological narcissism' is not caring a 'rat's ....' about the person and/or people around you who you are affecting...
Unfortunately, narcissistic capitalism breeds more and more narcissitic capitalists...in government, on Wall Street and Bay Street, in private corporations, in sellers and buyers, in lawyers who encourage their clients to be fraudulent in order to get a bigger insurance claim of which they get a percentage of, in family lawyers who are paid to get as much as they possibly can for their clients, at the expense of lives that are destroyed on the opposite side of the bargaining table...'Sorry, I had the better lawyer...you should have spent more on a better lawyer...I get the four bedroom house with the children, and you, if you are lucky, can maybe afford to rent a room in a house...and hopefully still have enough money left for at least food'...Or in other case scenarios, both sides are destroyed in a fight where only the lawyers go home with the 'spoils'...
Who doesn't want to be rich? Not too many of us...Being with money is, all else being equal, a much better life than being without money...I've experienced life on 'both sides of the track' -- or at least what I call 'middle class poverty' where you may live in a nice or at least decent place...but you can't afford to do anything else, and even keeping up with your bills becomes a struggle that sometimes -- or every day -- you fear losing... The war of diminishing 'take home income'...and increasing expenses...a combination of inflation and a floundering economy where the people at the top still manage to find a way to pull strings and get a bigger and bigger piece of the pie...Call it a mixture of global capitalism and corporate collusion, even government-corporate collusion...
Beware the biggest political party donators...and lobbyists...they are not 'donating out of the goodness of their hearts'...they are thinking about colluding and cashing in on another deal...
Narcissistic capitalists and narcissistic people in general worship the same Greek God -- 'Narcissus'... even if they don't know it...because the signature characteristic of the narcissistic personality is not to be able to see beyond the closest mirror....and we are all narcissistic to some extent...
I'm sure even Mother Teresa looked in the mirror...but that brings us back to The Spirit of Jesus Christ...and in this case, the woman who so completely lived in the Spirit of Jesus Christ -- Mother Teresa...
We idealize -- and idolize -- Gods, either because we are like them...or we want to be more like them...Often, they respresent our 'missing half'...We live too much of a 'narcissistic life'...and then we go to Church to 'learn' how to be more 'all loving' like Jesus Christ...or Mother Teresa...
I am going to write an essay one day on Mother Teresa... I read some of her quotes a few minutes ago that started to make me cry... Being Easter, I think it is entirely fitting that I share these with you...
.............................................
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Mother Teresa
Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa
Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.
Mother Teresa
Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.
Mother Teresa
I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.
Mother Teresa
I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor? Mother Teresa
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Mother Teresa
If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. Mother Teresa
If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it. Mother Teresa
Intense love does not measure, it just gives. Mother Teresa
Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa
Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. Mother Teresa
Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given. Mother Teresa
Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go. Mother Teresa
Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work. Mother Teresa
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. Mother Teresa
Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action. Mother Teresa
Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home. Mother Teresa
Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. Mother Teresa
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mother_teresa.html
........................................................
The next time you go into a business deal -- or any other encounter and/or relationship at all, for that matter...
Imagine that you have Narcissus looking over your one shoulder...
And both Jesus Christ and Mother Teresa looking over your other shoulder...
Then go ahead and make your 'deal'...
I fathom a guess...
That that would be the greatest cure in the world...
For 'Capitalism'...
Or for any other ideology in the world...
For that matter...
In Hegel's Hotel...
'God' symbolizes 'self-strength' and 'self-assertion'...
Whereas 'Jesus Christ' more fully symbolizes 'empathy, social sensitivity, and loving/caring about others...'
In Hegel's Hotel, both God and Jesus Christ -- like Narcissus (The Greeek God of Self-Interest) and 'Altruissus' (The DGB God of Social Interest)-- flow together and dialectically unite into a 'Holy Trinity' -- 'The Holy Spirit' being the 'creative, dialectic union between self-and-social interest and love' in a way that helps to build a better world for both ourselves and the people we share this world with...because we all need each other in good times -- and especially in bad times...
Idealistic? Of course...
Realistic?
As Mother Teresa would say,
........................................
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Mother Teresa
Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa
Each one of them/us is Jesus in disguise.
Mother Teresa
.............................
-- dgb, April 23rd-24th, 2011.
-- Where Dialectic-Gap-Briding Negotiations...
-- And Amazing, Creative Integrations...
-- Can ...and do...happen...
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Deal That Got Away....
Don't assume a deal is done until the deal is finalized both verbally and on paper; otherwise, there are a myriad of reasons why one side or the other can back out at the last minute -- most notably perhaps, someone says the wrong thing at the wrong or the last moment, and capufff...the deal is gone...
Don't be presumptive and don't say something stupid in the heat of the negotiation, especially when it's coming down to the final lap. Otherwise, you'll be swinging at air, and going home with no signed cheque, nothing to celebrate, and the deal that got away...
-- dgb, April 19th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
Don't be presumptive and don't say something stupid in the heat of the negotiation, especially when it's coming down to the final lap. Otherwise, you'll be swinging at air, and going home with no signed cheque, nothing to celebrate, and the deal that got away...
-- dgb, April 19th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
On 'Sound Bites', 'Writing Bites', and 'Action Bites'...
The things that we say, and the things that we do, are 'sound bites', 'writing bites', and 'action bites' of who we are... I think that we should all, in our own unique way, strive to be assertive but sensitive, and sensitive but assertive, liberally conservative, and conservatively liberal, open-minded and flexible but strong on our most important self-boundaries, not too impulsive, not too restrained, capable of evolving in new directions, but strong in our central 'essence' of who we are...
Nobody is ever going to do any or all of this perfectly...nor will we all even try....I can berate -- and have berated -- myself furiously and often lately when I think that I've been either 'too weak' or 'too strong'...
When you are not happy with the way that you have come across -- either with your words and/or with your actions -- shake your head a few times, shake it off, and move on...
-- dgb, April 19th, 2011,
-- David Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations,
-- Are Still In Process...
Nobody is ever going to do any or all of this perfectly...nor will we all even try....I can berate -- and have berated -- myself furiously and often lately when I think that I've been either 'too weak' or 'too strong'...
When you are not happy with the way that you have come across -- either with your words and/or with your actions -- shake your head a few times, shake it off, and move on...
-- dgb, April 19th, 2011,
-- David Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations,
-- Are Still In Process...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
