In the United States it has been unpopular to think of American society as divided into economic classes.
It flies in the face of what the United States of America believes it stands for
and what we value: equality and equal opportunity.
The class system is not obvious and gets obscured because the working class and the middle class are pitted against each other via race, religion and sexuality. Continue reading cut away the drama and you get the class fight→
For centuries we have had an onslaught of attacks on our bodies.
Bodies were considered evil because they would succumb to “earthly temptations”. Instincts like the sex drive and actions like masturbation and pre-marital sex were maligned, condemned and connected with much shame and guilt.
When this body manipulation did not work as well anymore because of loosening religious affiliations, other methods of controlling our bodies, which meant primarily controlling women’s bodies, had to be found. Continue reading control of our own bodies is freedom→
I see a very bad situation brewing in San Francisco.
I drive a lot in the city for my profession and I want to share an alarming trend in the City.
Many pedestrians do not look left or right anymore.
They don’t even turn their heads or look up from their phones
when they are crossing in a crosswalk or a traffic light.
A sense of entitlement has crept onto the day-to-day streets
that I find very scary. Continue reading my San Francisco Traffic rant→
This is what it is all about.
bunches of money-hungry machos fighting over money:
Oil. Raw materials. Land. People.
They make up all kinds of reasons why they are fighting:
causes like religions, democracy, communism and whatever regional slights and whatever other causes they can make up.
But follow the money. Continue reading The essence of war→
We get upset about small or big things all the time, sometimes many times a day and often we stay upset for hours, days, years or even a lifetime. Imagine!
Available daily upsets are a dime a dozen:
Self-driving cars
A disrespectful cashier or no cashier.
A difficult partner or spouse.
A kid who doesn’t want to learn.
Gaining weight. Not gaining weight.
Rain. No rain.
No parking. Too many bicycles. Dirty streets.
Republicans. Democrats.
And that’s just the day-to-day stuff
The list goes on……………………
Upsets can be distilled to 3 major sources. It is not complex.
They are:
Undelivered communication
Unfulfilled expectation
Thwarted intention Continue reading sources of upsets and how to avoid them→
I am from Germany. Germans read the obituaries.
San Francisco Chronicle newspaper has the greatest obituary page.
People who died have their pictures there. Some have recent pictures and some have pictures when they were young. The descriptions of their lives are moving and admirable.
They were great people who had great lives.
I also look at their birth years and I am amazed and heartened by the longevity of so many older people.
There was a time in the not so distant past when 70 was old and people were pretty much done.
Now I see a lot more people in their mid to late 90s. Continue reading Disrupt aging→
In the United States it has been unpopular to think of American society as divided into economic classes.
It flies in the face of what the United States of America believes it stands for and what we value:
equality and equal opportunity.
The class system is not obvious and gets obscured because the working class and the middle class are effectively pitted against each other via race, religion and sexuality. Continue reading Cut away the drama and you get the class struggle→
“When two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway
between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong.”
Richard Dawkins
It is very difficult for a lot of people to say the little words:
“I was wrong” if they are wrong.
A lot of pride, shame and ego is associated with the right/wrong issue. Continue reading Right or Wrong→
The shift from an agrarian culture to an industrial culture was a positive revolution for us human beings.
More food production.
More goods that could be produced and bought.
Automation to make life easier also could be viewed as progress.
Dishwashers. Washer/Dryers.
Machines to do some of the heavy job.
That was the going attitude of economists. They have been embracing efficiency and productivity growth as the panacea for the good life of us. Continue reading technical progress does not lift all boats→
We are raised to be good girls and boys and to follow the rules.
We are told that it will result in a good life living happily ever after.
But in real life it is quite different.
We regular people are the ONLY ones playing by the good-girl/good-boy rules.
Who does not follow the rules are the rulers, the power brokers, the string-pullers behind the scenes and the manipulators of various backgrounds, the ones who got their billions by manipulating the good girls and boys on every level.
Yes, it is most important to follow the rules of fairness, honesty, kindness, compassion and the common good.
But that goes for everybody. Continue reading Good girls and boys don’t get the price→
