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not-terezi-pyrope · 8 months

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Philosophical survey/poll of the day: Disregarding the morality of usage, what is the morality of *buying* black market drugs?

I've been thinking about this again in light of recent consumer boycotts. First let me state upfront that I am not soliciting advice for me personally, this is a hypothetical. Neither am I advocating that people buy or use drugs, nor am I condemning people who do. I am generally very pro-autonomy for questions of drug use, and think that a person using drugs has, in and of itself, no moral weight.

I am interested in what people think about the moral weight of buying drugs off the black market, however. Elaboration below, followed by a poll:

My question is about the morality of accessing the drugs trade as an end consumer, given that, according to popular conception at least, a lot of substances are supplied by "criminal gangs" who might also participate in more violent crime? Like, obviously this isn't so much a deal for weed because that's probably just some dudes growing it in their attic, but consider for example when people buy harder drugs, like cocaine, for example.

You can't trace the supply chain, but even the end point of purchase is some small-time dealer who sells drugs and isn't involved in anything else, at some point it will have been smuggled into your country, which might involve larger gangs, or like, organized crime operations who also are involved with violent crime. You likely don't know that for sure, but the point is you can't know, so my question is, does the spectre of potential violent crime in the process of producing and transporting an illegal drug make the purchase of the drug immoral, in the same way that some people say it is immoral not to boycott legal companies that are complicit in atrocities?

Alternatively, there are also these factors that may or may not excuse this:

One might argue that if you aren't aware of any specific harms in the production of a product, then you as the consumer shouldn't be obligated to suspect them, even if the context is the sale of black market goods.

One might argue that the harms perpetrated by the black market drugs trade, insofar one would contribute to them as an end-buyer, have their moral weight placed upon the legal system for outlawing the drug in question and therefore not allowing a verifiably ethical vendor to exist.

One might argue that the demand for illegal drugs is so ubiquitous and constant that whether you personally "boycott" the industry or not makes no difference, so you shouldn't feel bad for skimming off the top of what's already there, you're only contributing a very small percentage and the core audience for drugs isn't going to go anywhere no matter what you do, as the last centuries of prohibitions has proven

One might argue that the scope of criminal violence involved in drugs supply is overstated/sensationalized, and that any specific source of drugs probably isn't going to involve cartels assassinating people like in breaking bad or whatever, if the drug is produced by countries with low economic development then you might actually be doing good by providing income for people who have no alternatives

One might argue that the harms caused by the production and smuggling of black market goods are in no way worse than the harms perpetrated by the legal economy, which also has its fingers in many violent or exploitative acts and provably so, so it's not meaningfully any different to ordering from McDonald's or whatever.

I had a conversation with friends about this several years ago and I think that most people who were already okay with drug use in a personal capacity thought that the purchase of drugs is probably fine, but I'm interested to see what people think these days, and now tumblr has polls, so share your thoughts:

#not-terezi-speaks #poll #drugs #drug use #drugs cw #substances cw #ethics

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 years

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In every age and every generation men have envisioned some promised land. Plato envisioned it in his republic as a time when justice would reign throughout society and philosophers would become kings and kings philosophers. Karl Marx envisioned it as a classless society in which the proletariat would finally conquer the reign of the bourgeoisie; out of that idea came the slogan, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Bellamy, in Looking Backward, thought of it as a day when the inequalities of monopoly capitalism would pass away. Society would exist onthe basis of evenness of economic output. Christianity envisioned it as the Kingdom of God, a time when the will of God will reign supreme, and brotherhood, love, and right relationships will be the order of society. In every age and every generation men have dreamed of some promised land of fulfillment of freedom. Whether it was the right promised land or not, they dreamed of it. But in moving from some Egypt of slavery, whether in the intellectual, cultural or moral realm, toward some promised land, there is always the same temptation. Individuals will get bogged down in a particular mountain in a particular spot, and thereby become the victims of stagnant complacency. So, this afternoon, I would like to deal with three or four symbolic mountains that we have been in long enough-mountains that we must move out of if we are to go forward in our world and if civilization is to survive.

I think we have been in the mountain of moral and ethical relativism long enough. To dwell in this mountain has become something of a fad these days, so we have come to believe that morality is a matter of group consensus. We attempt to discover what is right by taking a sort of gallup poll of the majority opinion. Everybody is doing it, so it must be all right, and therefore we are caught in the clutches of conformity... In a sense, we are no longer concerned about the ten commandments-they are not too important. Everybody is busy, as I have said so often, trying to obey the eleventh commandment: "Thou shalt not get caught." And so, according to this view, it is all right to lie with a bit of finesse. It's all right to exploit, but be a dignified exploiter. It's all right to even hate, but dress your hate up into garments of love and make it appear that you are loving when you are actually hating. This type of moral and ethical relativism is sapping the very life's blood of the moral and spiritual life of our nation and our world. And I am convinced that if we are to be a great nation, and if we are to solve the problems of the world we must come out of this mountain. We have been in it too long. For if man fails to reorientate his life around moral and ethical values he may well destroy himself by the misuse of his own instrument.

—Martin Luther King Jr, "Keep Moving from this Mountain," Founders Day Address at the Sisters Chapel, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA, Apr 11, 1960

[h/t Scott Horton]

#M.L.King Jr.#Spelman College #quotes #justice #the Kingdom of God #brotherhood #Christianity #activism #theology #Scott Horton

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culttvblog · 2 months

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The Guardians: Part 2 - Pursuit

The cliffhanger at the end of part 1 of the series was that there was an attempted assassination of the Prime Minister. This episode opens with the cabinet secretary telling the PM an outright lie that the assassin has died from a weak heart while at the headquarters of the Guardians (or the 'G's). This, and the PM's succeeding ethical discussions with an old friend in his club, are juxtaposed with footage of the Gs torturing the assassin, who actually dies from a drug overdose administered by the Guardians. One of the Gs later lies to Mrs Weston about what her husband is doing and why he has disappeared.

The theme of telling or withholding the truth, and a rather philosophical discussion on the part of the PM, rather dominates this episode. It is striking that such debate society material would be played on prime time television.

We are also given the nod that there is something going on within the ranks of the Guardians; it is mentioned that the assassin was a Guardian, and the Guardian called Tom Weston, who with his wife provided much of the human interest in part 1, has gone missing. We see him on the phone to a contact trying to get out of the country, and the contact arranges to contact him again in Disraeli Road.

Of course this road was perceptively chosen, because Benjamin Disraeli (Prime Minister February to December 1868 and 1874 to 1880) is a signifcant figure in British political history. I think the association intended in a show depicting secrecy, duplicity and fascism, is that by contrast Disraeli is remembered as the creator of old-style 'One Nation' Conservatism, which was paternalistic but still based on the best interests of everyone in the nation, and the idea that the privileged should pass on their benefits. This is the sort of Conservatism which was replaced by the current sort which emphasises the benefit of the 'elite' and business classes only: in the show this is indicative that government in the interests of the populace has been replaced by government in the interests of the shadowy 'General' and the suggested shadowy forces behind the puppet Prime Minister. You can tell that this is some serious television when I tell you that it is the only thing which has ever made me have any sympathy for One Nation Conservatism.

On a completely personal level this episode reminds me of how my own mother was what is called a 'shy Tory', one of those ones who mess up the opinion polls before every election because they won't admit to it. She was so obsessed with keeping it secret that even as a very small child when I would have had no understanding of what it meant, she would take me to the polling station which was my school and make me wait outside the booth while she marked the paper. I thought of this when I happily put my cross in the Green Party box earlier this month (I've jumped ship), and think that she would be so disappointed and can't help laughing a bit. Incidentally I know she must have voted Conservative because of the opinions she expressed over various things, and she was definitely an old-style one.

I have no way of knowing whether this was the intention but I'm finding one of the effects of this show is to make you take sides: with the right side, of course, and in fact reflection on what would make people side with the General and Guardians is one of the things mentioned in the Prime Minister's discussion. Among these things are personal and economic motivations as well as political ones, naturally. The show gives both sides of the censorship discussion quite evenly, and it may only be my own political orientation which makes me think you could only possibly side with the resistance in this show.

If you want a criticism of the show it is that I think its quite heavy political and ethical references and attempts to give human interests with Mr and Mrs Weston, may mean that it is attempting to please all of the people all of the time. If you approach this as either Yes, Prime Minister, or as an Open University lecture, you will be disappointed.

As a fictional show which still makes people think about politics and ethical issues, I don't think this could be bettered.

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Archives from 2013 to September 2023 may be found at culttvblog.blogspot.com and there is an index to the tags used on the Tumblr version at https://www.tumblr.com/culttvblog/729194158177370112/this-blog

#70s tv #the guardians

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sciencespies · 2 years

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Why Did the Chicken Cross the Barn? To Sign Up for the Scientific Study.

https://sciencespies.com/news/why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-barn-to-sign-up-for-the-scientific-study/

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Barn? To Sign Up for the Scientific Study.

A farm sanctuary in New York is investigating the inner lives of cows, pigs and chickens — but only if they volunteer.

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — It was a crisp October day at Farm Sanctuary, and inside the small, red barn, the chicken people were restless.

A rooster, or maybe two, yodeled somewhere out of sight. A bruiser of a turkey strutted through an open door, tail feathers spread like an ornamental fan. And a penned flock of white-feathered hens emitted tiny, intermittent squeaks, an asynchronous symphony of chicken sneezes.

The hens were experiencing a flare-up of a chronic respiratory condition, said Sasha Prasad-Shreckengast, the sanctuary’s manager of research and animal welfare, who was preparing to enter the chicken pen. She donned gloves and shoe covers, threw on a pair of blue scrubs and then slipped inside, squatting to bring herself face-to-face with the first hen who approached.

“Who are you?” she cooed.

Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast meant the question literally. She was trying to find the birds that were enrolled in her study: an investigation into whether chickens — animals not often heralded for their brainpower — enjoy learning.

But her question was also the big philosophical one driving the new, in-house research team at Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit that has spent more than 35 years trying to end animal agriculture.

They have their work cut out for them: The United States alone keeps more than 90 million cattle and slaughters more than 9 billion chickens (and 200 million turkeys) a year. But there are some signs of a societal shift. In a 2019 Gallup poll, nearly one in four Americans said that they had curbed their consumption of meat. A jury recently acquitted activists who ferried two piglets away from a factory farm. Fast-food giants are adding faux meat to the menu, and just last week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to lab-grown chicken.

And a growing body of research suggests that farmed species are brainy beings: Chickens can anticipate the future, goats appear to solicit help from humans, and pigs may pick up on one another’s emotions.

But scientists still know far less about the minds of chickens or cows than they do about those of apes or dogs, said Christian Nawroth, a scientist studying behavior and cognition at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology in Germany. “I’m still baffled how little we know about farm animals, given the amount or the numbers that we keep,” he said.

Farm Sanctuary, which was founded in 1986, has always held that farm animals are sentient beings, even referring to its feathered and four-legged residents as “people.”

“They have their own desires, and their own wants and preferences and needs, and their own inner lives — the same way that human people do,” said Lauri Torgerson-White, the sanctuary’s director of research.

Now, the sanctuary is trying to collect enough data to convince the general public of the humanity of animals.

“Our hope,” Ms. Torgerson-White said, “is that through utilizing really rigorous methodologies, we are able to uncover pieces of information about the inner lives of farmed animals that can be used to really change hearts and minds about how these animals are used by society.”

The sanctuary is conducting the research in accordance with its own strict ethical standards, which include giving the animals the right to choose whether or not to participate in studies. Consequently, the researchers have sometimes found themselves grappling with the very thing that they are keen to demonstrate: that animals have minds of their own.

And today, the birds in “West Chicken” seemed a bit under the weather. Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast crossed her fingers that a few of them might still be up for a brief demonstration.

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“Hopefully,” she said, “people will be feeling like — chicken people will be feeling like — they’re eager and interested in participating.”

‘Somebody, not something’

Mia, a Farm Sanctuary resident, was rescued from a farm with her five piglets two years ago.

Farm Sanctuary began not as a home for rescued animals but with a group of young activists working to expose animal cruelty at farms, stockyards and slaughterhouses.

“We lived in a school bus on a tofu farm for a couple of years,” said Gene Baur, the president and co-founder of the organization. But in the course of its investigations, the group kept stumbling upon “living animals left for dead,” he recalled. “And so we started rescuing them.”

They ultimately opened sanctuaries in New York and California, establishing educational programs and political advocacy campaigns. (They raised money, in part, by selling veggie hot dogs at Grateful Dead concerts.)

And in 2020, the organization, which now houses about 700 animals, began assembling an internal research team. The goal was to assemble more evidence that, as Mr. Baur put it, “these animals are more than just pieces of meat. There’s emotion there. There is individual personality there. There’s somebody, not something.”

The research team worked with Lori Gruen, an animal ethicist at Wesleyan University, to develop a set of ethics guidelines. The goal, Dr. Gruen explained, was to create a framework for conducting animal research “without dominance, without control, without instrumentalization.”

Among other stipulations, the guidelines prohibit invasive procedures — forbidding even blood draws unless they are medically necessary — and state that the studies must benefit the animals. And participation? It’s voluntary.

“Residents must be recognized as persons,” the guidelines state, “and always be provided with choice and control over their participation in an experimental study.”

A medicine checklist for the animal residents.

The idea is not entirely novel. Zoo animals, for instance, are often trained to cooperate in their own health care, as well as in studies that might stem from it. But such practices remain far from the norm.

For the researchers at Farm Sanctuary, voluntary participation was not only an ethical imperative but also, they thought, a path to better science. Many prior studies have been conducted on farms or in laboratories, settings in which stress or fear might affect animals’ behavior or even impair their cognitive performance, the researchers note.

“Our hope is that they’re able to tell us more about what the upper limits are for their cognition and emotional capacities and social structures because of the environment that they’re in and because of the way we are performing the research,” Ms. Torgerson-White said.

Although the approach is unconventional, outside scientists described the sanctuary’s ethical guidelines as admirable and its research questions as interesting.

“The idea that you could study these species, who are usually only studied in sort of pseudofarm conditions, in more naturalistic environments that actually meet not just their needs but even their most arcane preferences — I think they’re right,” said Georgia Mason, who directs the Campbell Center for the Study of Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph. “I think that really allows you to do something special.”

Putting a wing up

Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast opening a gate for hens to voluntarily enter the experimental area.

The researchers decided to start with a study on the much-maligned chicken and the birds’ emotional response to learning. “We call it ‘The Joys of Learning,’ but we don’t know that for sure, that they’re going to experience joy,” Ms. Torgerson-White said. “That’s our hypothesis.”

To recruit their avian volunteers, Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast and her colleague, Jenna Holakovsky, worked slowly and methodically. They started last fall by spending a few days just sitting in the chicken pen, before opening the door to the hallway where the experiment would eventually take place.

Then, they began adding elements of the experimental infrastructure — a window screen, a piece of plywood — and doling out food pellets to any birds brave enough to approach. After about three weeks, they had the entire experimental arena set up and 13 birds who regularly chose to enter it, becoming their volunteer chicken corps.

The researchers offered some of these chickens an opportunity to learn something new — how to knock a lid off a bowl — and assessed their overall emotional states, using what is known as a judgment bias test. The test, variations of which have been used with a wide variety of species, involved measuring how quickly the chickens approached a mysterious bowl and its unknown contents.

The theory was that a chicken in a generally positive mood would be more likely to assume that the bowl contained something good, like food, and would stride toward it more quickly than a down-in-the-dumps chicken would.

A hen being weighed at Farm Sanctuary.

So far, the researchers have tested eight chickens, half of whom were in the control group, and it is too early to draw firm conclusions about chickenkind. (The original group of recruits dwindled after one bird died, another failed to meet the study criteria, and three others dropped out — in one case, to spend time in the nest box instead. “I think she really just was highly motivated to sit on some eggs,” Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast said.)

But the preliminary data suggest that learning did seem to boost the mood of some of the birds. (Here’s looking at you, Shirley and Murielle.)

Then there was Yoshi, who had attempted to bypass the learning challenge altogether. Instead of completing the task for her reward, she went straight for the food, trying to hop over the intervening window screen. Although Yoshi did eventually deign to complete the task, she did not seem to enjoy the experience. She probably found it frustrating, Ms. Torgerson-White said: “She knows how to jump over screens, so why did she need to perform this task?”

The researchers were initially disappointed by the result, but they were also charmed by Yoshi’s intransigence, viewing it as evidence of her individual personality.

Personality remains a tricky issue. By limiting their study to chickens who, in essence, raised their wings to volunteer, they may have enrolled an unusually bold group of birds, potentially skewing their results. So the researchers are now administering personality assessments and may try to repeat the study with more birds.

“Can they work out protocols to get all the chickens so calm and used to them that all the chickens volunteer?” Dr. Mason wondered. “Then their problem is solved.”

Barnyard blues

Lizzie, a porcine resident who has been generous with saliva samples.

The researchers are also investigating whether farmed animals can develop symptoms akin to post-traumatic stress disorder — and, if so, whether spending time in a sanctuary helps them heal.

“As a part of a normal life of a farmed animal, honestly, almost no matter the species, they are undergoing or experiencing the types of trauma that human psychologists use to diagnose PTSD,” Ms. Torgerson-White said.

Some of the sanctuary’s residents have escaped from slaughterhouses or suffered serious injuries on farms, and scientists have reported PTSD-like symptoms in elephants and chimpanzees exposed to violence or abuse.

“If PTSD exists in humans, then clearly it will exist in other species as well,” said Donald Broom, an emeritus professor of animal welfare at the University of Cambridge. “So to look into that would be an interesting thing to do.”

The study is primarily observational, involving a careful analysis of the behavior of new residents, such as Bella, a Holstein who arrived at the sanctuary this fall after watching her companion, a steer named Buck, be euthanized. But the team is also measuring the animals’ cortisol levels, inviting residents to cough up some saliva samples.

Lizzie and Robbie, a bonded pig pair with bristly coats and a fondness for mouthing visitors’ shoelaces, were absolute champs, happily slobbering all over the big cotton swabs proffered by the scientists. But Hayes, a steer with impossibly fuzzy ears, showed absolutely no interest in mouthing the swabs, not even when the researchers tried to sweeten the deal with molasses.

Hayes, the steer with the impossibly fuzzy ears, nuzzling with Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast.

“He had just gotten access to pasture for the first time in his life, and nothing, not even molasses, was more interesting or exciting than grazing,” said Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast, whom Hayes nuzzled affectionately when she stopped by the pasture.

Some of their studies may not pan out, the researchers acknowledged, and their methods are still evolving. There are some clear areas for improvement: They did not conduct the chicken study “blind,” which means that they knew which chickens were in the control group and which were not. As a result, the researchers could have unconsciously influenced the birds’ behavior, especially if they were hoping for a specific result.

“We did our best to avoid unintentional cuing by remaining still, keeping our heads down and stepping away from the testing arena when possible,” Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast said. But, she acknowledged, “We recognize this is a limitation of our study design and plan to address it in our eventual manuscript.”

The researchers may be unusually upfront about their mission and values, but they are not alone in bringing a point of view to their work, Dr. Gruen, the animal ethicist, noted. After all, many biomedical scientists have made their own calculations that the possibility of alleviating human suffering outweighs the suffering that lab animals experience. “Values enter into scientific practice at every level,” Dr. Gruen said. “I don’t think it’s unusual that the values are there — I think it’s unusual that those values are there.”

The sanctuary said it was committed to publishing its results, no matter what they are. The scientists also run their research proposals through an advisory committee, a group of six outside experts tasked with ensuring that the studies are both ethically and scientifically sound.

“To be ethical,” said Becca Franks, an animal welfare scientist at New York University and a member of the committee, “to spend people’s time and energy and money on this and engage with the animals, the science also has to be good science.”

Small steps

Holly, a sheep, has a prosthetic to help increase mobility.

The researchers are working to expand their PTSD study to animals living on other farm sanctuaries, with financial support from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which also provided funding for the chicken study. Next year, the researchers hope to explore aspects of animal culture, as well as the emotional lives of turkeys. And they are eager to spread the word about their ethics guidelines, which they hope other animal researchers will adopt.

“If they can show this model works, I think that could really motivate more people to try it,” Dr. Mason said.

Although the sanctuary wants to end animal agriculture, other scientists view this kind of research as a path to improving the system. If chickens enjoy learning, for instance, then poultry farmers should give their birds opportunities to do just that, Dr. Broom said.

“I’m not against the use of animals for a variety of purposes,” he said. “But I’m very strongly in favor of providing for needs in such a way that the welfare of each individual animal is good.”

How will the sanctuary’s staff members feel if their work is used to tweak, rather than eliminate, the existing system? “If we can lessen the suffering of animals in the near term, I think that is positive,” Mr. Baur said. “However, we don’t want to further entrench the idea that these animals are here for us to be exploiting.”

Changing public attitudes and societal practices is a long-term project, Ms. Torgerson-White acknowledged. But she and her colleagues are trying to nudge it along from the pastures in Watkins Glen, where the animals are people and the residents are not scientific subjects but research partners.

“We’re not extracting information or knowledge from them,” Ms. Prasad-Shreckengast said. “Together, we’re learning, and they’re teaching us what they want and what they’re capable of.”

#News

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dailynewswebsite · 4 years

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How secular Israeli millennials feel about Palestinians

View of Jaffa from Tel Aviv. Picture by Mor Shani on Unsplash

A socially elite group, younger secular Jewish-Israelis have been as soon as the spine of the peace motion, working towards Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories within the West Financial institution and Gaza.

However rising numbers of millennial secular Jewish-Israelis, referred to as hilonim, have come to see navy exercise by the Israel Defence Forces within the West Financial institution and Gaza as acceptable after 4 Gaza-Israel wars.

My new e book sheds new gentle on why their attitudes in direction of the Palestinian battle have shifted.

The failure of the Oslo peace course of and 4 wars in Gaza between 2006 and 2014 have made them cynical about peace. Separation limitations dividing Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian populations within the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem and Gaza have made them really feel secure. Since 2006, politicians have step by step shifted well-liked consideration from occupation to the financial system.

No progress with out pragmatism

Over the 2 years following the 2014 Gaza-Israel struggle, I carried out 50 in-depth interviews with a various pattern of self-identified hiloni millennials, plus a bigger survey and extra analysis.

Researchers have criticised hiloni millennials for being self-absorbed, not dedicated to Israel’s future. However I discovered they’d an excellent sense of duty. Many felt a heroic concept of themselves as cheap, reasonable and socially accountable. Throughout the political spectrum, they considered themselves as cheap, as what I name “fulcrum residents”, balancing out extremists – together with violent spiritual nationalist Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis. One man in his mid 20s, Tamer* instructed me:

Being reasonable permits you to do extra for individuals. Pragmatism is essential in life. The place there is no such thing as a pragmatism there is no such thing as a progress.

However the political influence of feeling cheap has been double-edged. Even those that described themselves as left-wing and finally towards the occupation, noticed persevering with occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel “for now” as “cheap if regrettable”.

Ruth, additionally in her 20s, the kid of Oslo-era activists, instructed me why fewer of her era have been preventing towards the occupation.

I’m form of hopeless really. I believe we’re caught … We’re actually numb … Our life is simply too good. We have now an excessive amount of to lose. If I need to intern on the UN, you don’t need to get caught at a protest and have a police file. We’re like yeah, (occupation) sucks however (preventing) it’s too dangerous.

This discovering is in line with post-Oslo public opinion polls since 2000. These present that whereas half of Jewish-Israelis are open to peace with Arab states (such because the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan), they don’t prioritise the safety of Palestinian human rights below worldwide regulation.

Neo-Romanticism

Constructing on broader analysis on this group which seemed on the financial, social and political dynamics affecting them, I targeted on what it was like to come back of age as a secular Jew in Israel after the failure of the Oslo peace accords, towards a backdrop of rising ethno-religious nationalism amongst Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians.

I discovered that private life philosophies, shut relationships and experiences had formed the political beliefs of these I interviewed in shocking methods. To know this, we have to consider being a secular Jewish-Israeli in a brand new means.

I noticed what I name a neo-Romantic sensibility amongst these hilonim I interviewed. Nineteenth-century Romantics in Western Europe tried to seek out new methods to stay a honest, genuine life in keeping with their private instinct and emotional expertise. Romantics promoted higher self-expression – but additionally higher attachment to at least one’s nation.

In addition they sought new methods to attain transcendence past, but additionally inside spiritual custom, significantly by way of the humanities. Jewish thinkers influenced by Romanticism have been enthusiastic about how artistic people may interpret Jewish custom and develop new methods of being meaningfully Jewish for themselves, past rabbinical authority.

Whereas there is no such thing as a direct historic connection between hiloni millennials and the 19th-century Romantics, I discovered comparable sensibilities amongst them. Just like the Romantics, my interviewees had a dedication to self-expression and emphasised sincerity and private expertise. They have been concerned about philosophical exploration inside and past Judaism. They felt a robust sense of attachment to different Jewish-Israelis – significantly household and mates, but additionally the Jewish ethno-national collective.

These sensibilities have been a product of the political, financial and social context through which they got here of age in the course of the 2000s and 2010s, which produced an interaction between individualism and ethno-national solidarity.

Turning inwards

Over this era, Jewish-Israeli society has been introduced collectively by a number of elements, together with repeated wars with Hamas, a 2006 struggle with Hezbollah and fears of a nuclear Iran. Because the 1990s, mainstream Israeli politicians have mobilised individuals round ethno-religious symbols, and there’s higher positivity in direction of Jewish custom inside society (ha-datah).

Earlier generations felt extra hooked up to wider society and the federal government. However various elements have bred emotions of individualism and reliance on the self, household and mates. These embrace political corruption, the willingness of successive governments to go away economically susceptible people to the logic of the market and deepening consumerism.

Hiloni tradition has additionally advanced. New Age spirituality and Mizrahi (Center-Japanese Jewish) motifs have turn into mainstream, echoing 19th-century Romantics’ emphasis on emotion. The web has facilitated even higher self-experimentation and expression than in earlier generations.

Because of this, hiloni millennials, just like the Romantics, got here to depend on their very own experiences as a private ethical compass. Private expertise included what occurred to them and the way they felt about it and in addition professional opinions they’d researched.

Hiloni millennials throughout the political spectrum stated they base their politics on a mixture of non-public expertise, rational deliberation and love for others they really feel near.

They got here of age bodily and emotionally separated from Palestinians, with Israeli politicians loudly asserting that there’s “no accomplice for peace” and selling Jewish ethno-religious solidarity and Israel’s id as a Jewish state. They due to this fact really feel extra hooked up to, and personally chargeable for, different Jewish-Israelis than Palestinians, even when they generally really feel indignant at settlers.

I discovered difficult emotions about Palestinians throughout the political spectrum: a mix of understanding, empathy, frustration, despair, friendship, indifference, concern and loathing.

Like 19th-century Romantics, many hiloni millennials have turned inwards – to their very own lives or activism round social and financial justice amongst their very own neighborhood somewhat than working to finish the occupation.

Younger hiloni peace activists within the 1980s and 1990s additionally noticed themselves as cheap – however they noticed working towards occupation as the one cheap choice. Instances have modified.

*Names have been modified to guard the anonymity of interview individuals.

Stacey Gutkowski doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that will profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their tutorial appointment.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/how-secular-israeli-millennials-feel-about-palestinians/ via https://growthnews.in

#Growth News

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mantismatsuri · 5 years

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Quotes from “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari

“Terrorism works by pressing the fear button deep in our minds and hijacking the private imaginations of millions of individuals. Similarly, the crisis of liberal democracy is played out not just in parliaments and polling stations but also in neurons and synapses.”

“Philosophers are very patient people, but engineers are far less so, and investors are the least patient of all.”

“Unable to conduct a reality check, the mind latches onto catastrophic scenarios. Like a person imagining that a bad headache signifies a terminal brain tumor, many liberals fear that Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump portend the end of human civilization.”

“Humans were always far better at inventing tools than using them wisely.”

“Ordinary people may not understand artificial intelligence and biotechnology, but they can sense that the future is passing them by.”

“Donald Trump warned voters that the Mexicans and Chinese would take their jobs, and that they should therefore build a wall on the Mexican border. He never warned voters that algorithms would take their jobs, nor did he suggest building a firewall on the border with California.”

“The liberal story was the story of ordinary people. How can it remain relevant to a world of cyborgs and networked algorithms?”

“The Russian, Chinese, and Cuban revolutions were made by people who were vital to the economy but who lacked political power; in 2016, Trump and Brexit were supported by many people who still enjoyed political power but who feared that they were losing their economic worth.”

“It is much harder to struggle against irrelevance than against exploitation.”

“In the end it was communism that collapsed. The supermarket proved to be far stronger than the gulag.”

“In particular, the liberal story learned from communism to expand the circle of empathy and to value equality alongside liberty.”

“Most people who voted for Trump and Brexit didn’t reject the liberal package in its entirety –they lost faith mainly in its globalizing part. They still believe in democracy, free markets, human rights, and social responsibility, but they think these fine ideas can stop at the border.”

“By manufacturing a never-ending stream of crises, a corrupt oligarchy can prolong its rule indefinitely.”

“…economic growth will not save the global ecosystem; just the opposite, in fact, for economic growth is the cause of the ecological crisis. And economic growth will not solve technological disruption, for it is predicated on the invention of more and more disruptive technologies.”

“Panic is a form of hubris. It comes from the smug feeling that one knows exactly where the world is heading: down.”

“Two particularly important nonhuman abilities that AI possesses are connectivity and updatability.”

“What we are facing is not the replacement of millions of individual human workers by millions of individual robots and computers; rather, individual humans are likely to be replaced by an integrated network.”

“Of all forms of art, music is probably the most susceptible to Big Data analysis, because both inputs and outputs lend themselves to precise mathematical depiction. The inputs are the mathematical patterns of sound waves, and the outputs are the electrochemical patterns of neural storms.”

“Technology is never deterministic, and the fact that something can be done does not mean it must be done.”

“When people design web pages, they often cater to the taste of the Google search algorithm rather than to the taste of any human being.”

“It is debatable whether it is better to provide people with universal basic income (the capitalist paradise) or universal basic services (the communist paradise).”

“If universal basic support is aimed at improving the objective conditions of the average person in 2050, it has a fair chance of succeeding. But if it is aimed at making people subjectively more satisfied with their lot and preventing social discontent, it is likely to fail.”

“In a famous interview in 1987, Thatcher said ‘There is no such thing as society. There is [a] living tapestry of men and women… and the quality of our lives will depend on how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves.’”

“Democracy assumes that human feelings reflect a mysterious and profound “free will,” that this “free will” is the ultimate source of authority, and that while some people are more intelligent than others, all humans are equally free.”

“If the feelings of some ancient ancestor were wrong and as a result that person made a fatal mistake, the genes shaping these feelings did not pass on to the next generation. Feelings are therefore not the opposite of rationality –they embody evolutionary rationality.”

“We usually fail to realize that feelings are in fact calculations, because the rapid process of calculation occurs far below our threshold of awareness.”

“Winston Churchill famously said that democracy is the worst political system in the world, except for all the other. Rightly or wrongly, people might reach the same conclusions about Big Data algorithms: they have lots of glitches, but we have no better alternative.”

“Already today, ‘truth’ is defined by the top results of the Google search.”

“However, in order to take over from human drivers, the algorithms won’t have to be perfect. They will just have to be better than the humans.”

“… robots always reflect and amplify the qualities of their code.”

“Yet autonomous weapon systems are a catastrophe waiting to happen, because too many governments tend to be ethically corrupt, if not downright evil.”

“In the late twentieth century democracies usually outperformed dictatorships because democracies were better at data processing. A democracy diffuses the power to process information and make decisions among many people and institutions, whereas a dictatorship concentrates information and power in one place.”

“AI make centralized systems far more efficient than diffused systems, because machine learning works better the more information it can analyze.”

“Science fiction tends to confuse intelligence with consciousness and assume that in order to match or surpass human intelligence, computers will have to develop consciousness.”

“The danger is that if we invest too much in developing AI and too little in developing human consciousness, the very sophisticated artificial intelligence of computers might only serve to empower the natural stupidity of humans.”

“The economic system pressures me to expand and diversify my investment portfolio, but it gives me zero incentive to expand and diversity my compassion.”

“Property is a prerequisite for long-term inequality.”

“Globalization will unite the world horizontally by erasing national borders, but it will simultaneously divide humanity vertically.”

“Mandating governments to nationalize the data will probably curb the power of big corporations, but it might also result in creepy digital dictatorships.”

“The so-called Facebook and Twitter revolutions in the Arab world started in hopeful online communities, but once they emerged into the messy offline world, they were commandeered by religious fanatics and military juntas.”

“[Facebook] and the other online giants tend to view humans as audiovisual animals –a pair of eyes and a pair of ears connected to ten fingers, a screen, and a credit card.”

“For all its glory and impact, Athenian democracy was a halfhearted experiment that survived for barely two hundred years in a small corner of the Balkans.”

“Human groups are defined more by the changes they undergo than by any community.”

“We insist that our values are a precious legacy from ancient ancestors. Yet the only thing that allows us to say this is that our ancestors are long dead and cannot speak for themselves.”

“The heated argument about the true essence of Islam is simply pointless. Islam has no fixed DNA. Islam is whatever Muslims make of it.”

“The process of human unification has taken two distinct forms: establishing links between distinct groups and homogenizing practices across groups.”

“War spreads ideas, technologies, and people far more quickly than commerce does.”

“The kamikaze […] relied on combining state-of-the-art technology with state-of-the-art religious indoctrination.”

“Human diversity may be great when it comes to cuisine and poetry, but few would see witch-burning, infanticide, or slavery as fascinating human idiosyncrasies that should be protected against the encroachments of global capitalism and Coca-Colonialism.”

“Saying that black people tend to commit crimes because they have substandard genes is out; saying that they tend to commit crimes because they come from dysfunctional subcultures is very much in.”

“In terrorism, fear is the main story, and there is an astounding disproportion between the actual strength of the terrorists and the fear they manage to inspire.”

“Terrorists don’t think like army generals. Instead, they think like theater producers.”

“In 1914 war had great appeal to elites across the world because they had many concrete examples of how successful wars contributed to economic prosperity and political power. In contrast, in 2018 successful wars seem to be an endangered species.”

“Today the main economic assets consist of technical and institutional knowledge rather than wheat fields, gold mines, or even oil fields, and you just cannot conquer knowledge through war.”

“Human stupidity is one of the most important force in history, yet we often tend to discount it.”

“Unlike such universal religions as Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, Judaism has always been a tribal creed.”

“Scientists nowadays point out that morality in fact has deep evolutionary roots predating the appearance of humankind by millions of years. All social mammals, such as wolves, dolphins, and monkeys, have ethical codes, adapted by evolution to promote group cooperation.”

“From an ethical perspective, monotheism was arguably one of the worst ideas in human history.”

“What monotheism undoubtedly did was to make many people far more intolerant than before, thereby contributing to the spread of religious persecutions and holy wars.”

“Does God exist? That depends on which God you have in mind: the cosmic mystery, or the worldly lawgiver?”

“After giving the name of “God” to the unknown secrets of the cosmos, they [the faithful] then use this to somehow condemn bikinis and divorce.”

“The deeper the mysteries of the universe, the less likely it is that whatever is responsible for them gives a damn about female dress codes or human sexual behavior.”

“The missing link between the cosmic mystery and the worldly law giver is usually provided through some holy book.”

“The third of the biblical Ten Commandment instructs humans never to make wrongful use of the name of God. […] Perhaps the deeper meaning of this commandment is that we should never use the name of God to justify our political interests, our economic ambitions, or our personal hatreds.”

“The idea that we need a supernatural being to make us act morally assumes that there is something unnatural about morality.”

“Every violent act in the world begins with a violent desire in somebody’s mind, which disturbs that person’s own peace and happiness before it disturbs the peace and happiness of anyone else.”

“Self-professing secularists view secularism in a very different way. For them, secularism is a very positive and active worldview, defined by a coherent code of values rather than by opposition to this or that religion.”

“The most important secular commitment is to the truth, which is based on observation and evidence rather than on mere faith. Secularists strive not to confuse truth with belief.”

“This is the deep reason secular people cherish scientific truth: not in order to satisfy their curiosity, but in order to know how best to reduce the suffering in the world. Without the guidance of scientific studies, our compassion is often blind.”

“Questions you cannot answers are usually far better than answers you cannot question.”

“Not only rationality, but individuality too is a myth. Humans rarely think for themselves. Rather, we think in groups. Just as it takes a tribe to raise a child, it also takes a tribe to invent a tool, solve a conflict or cure a disease.”

“This is what Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach have termed “the knowledge illusion”. We think we know a lot, even though individually we know very little, because we treat knowledge in the minds of others as if it were our own.”

“It is extremely hard to discover the truth when you are ruling the world. You are just far too busy.”

“Power is all about changing reality rather than seeing it for what it is.”

“Justice demands not just a set of abstract values, but also an understanding of concrete cause-and-effect relations.”

“… in a world in which everything is interconnected, the supreme moral imperative becomes the imperative to know.”

“We have zero evidence that Eve was tempted by the serpent, that the souls of all infidels burn in hell after they die, or that the creator of the universe doesn’t like it when a Brahmin marries a Dalit –yet billions of people have believed these stories for thousands of years. Some fake news lasts forever.”

“When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month, that’s fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years, that’s a religion.”

“If you want to gauge group loyalty, requiring people to believe an absurdity is a far better test than asking them to believe the truth.”

“[…] if you want reliable information, pay good money for it. If you get your news for free, you might well be the product.”

“[…] perhaps the worst sin of present-day science fiction is that it tends to confuse intelligence with consciousness.2

“Whenever you see a movie about an AI in which the AI is female and the scientist is male, it’s probably a movie about feminism rather than cybernetics. For why on earth would an AI have a sexual or gender identity? Sex is a characteristic or organic multicellular beings. What can it possibly mean for a nonorganic cybernetic being?”

“The mind is not the subject that freely shapes historical actions and biological realities; the mind is an object that is being shaped by history and biology.”

“If this generation lacks a comprehensive view of the cosmos, the future of life will be decided at random.”

“So what should we be teaching? Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching ‘the four Cs’ –critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.”

“Already in 1849, the Communist Manifesto declared that ‘all that is solid melts into air.’ Marx and Engels, however, were thinking mainly about social and economic structures. By 2048, physical and cognitive structures will also melt into air, or into a cloud of data bits.”

“To stay relevant –not just economically but above all socially- you will need the ability to constantly learn and to reinvent yourself […]”

“To survive and flourish in such a world [where profound uncertainty is not a bug but a feature], you will need a lot of mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance.”

“The Industrial Revolution has bequeathed us the production-line theory of education.”

“Because of the increasing pace of change, you can never be certain whether what the adults are telling you is timeless wisdom or outdated bias.”

“The voice we hear inside our heads is never trustworthy, because it always reflects state propaganda, ideological brainwashing, and commercial advertisements, not to mention biochemical bugs.”

“Homo sapiens is a story telling animal that thinks in stories rather than in numbers of graphs.”

“To give meaning to my life, a story needs to satisfy just two conditions. First, it must give me some role to play. […] Second, whereas a good story need not extend to infinity, it must extend beyond my horizons.”

“A crucial law of storytelling is that once a story manages to extend beyond the audience’s horizon, its ultimate scope matters little.”

“How do we make the story feel real? Priests and shamans discovered the answer to this question thousands of years ago: rituals.”

“Why does the Indian government invest scarce resources in weaving enormous flags instead of building sewage systems in Delhi’s slums? Because the flag makes India real in a way that sewage systems do not.”

“Of all the rituals, sacrifice is the most potent, because of all the things in the world, suffering is the most real.”

“If by ‘free will’ you mean the freedom to do what you desire, then yes, humans have free will. But if by ‘free will’ you mean the freedom to choose what to desire, then no, humans have no free will.”

“[…] the ‘self’ is a fictional story that the intricate mechanisms of our mind constantly manufacture, update, and rewrite.”

“We humans have conquered the world thanks to our ability to create and believe fictional stories. We are therefore particularly bad at knowing the difference between fiction and reality.”

“When you are confronted by some great story and you wish to know whether it is real or imaginary, one of the key question to ask is whether the central hero of the story can suffer.”

“Whenever politicians start talking in mystical terms, beware.”

#21 Lessons for the 21st Century #yuval noah harari

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witchofleviathan-blog · 5 years

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Religion and Debate Servers Master List Pt.1

Islamic Thought https://discordapp.com/invite/9dtFXY8 HOLY The HOLY server, is an international discord community dedicated to debates on politics, philosophy, religion, current events; and everything in between. We promote a friendly approach to debating and discussion. We accept everyone. You will find lively VC and text debates, as well as a variety of roles and ranks for political, philosophical, ethical, and religious positions. - Good mods that maintain civility and respect of TOS - Debate Nights, AMAs and other such events coming soon PLEASE JOIN US THROUGH THIS LINK: https://discordapp.com/invite/kh2fmtE 24/7 Christian Talk 24/7 Christian Chat! https://discordapp.com/invite/B3PwcR5 Al Nazrani A server for religious discussion, specifically made for Christians or those, who are interested in the faith. Religious discussion is always welcome so no matter what your religion is, you can share your thoughts. https://discordapp.com/invite/AMRdG2M philosophy religion talk Looking for a place and people to talk religion with? Look no further than "philosophy religion talk"! Here you will find a diverse group of people will different beliefs who enjoy discussing such controversial matters! - Roles to describe your religious ideology! - Lots of different people from different cultures to converse with! - Daily debates! - Lots of interesting personalities! o_o If you're looking for a place for dialogue and different opinions, be sure to check us out! Thanks for reading! https://discordapp.com/invite/8DwfXma Religion And Philosophy Religion and Philosophy brings people from all different nationalities and religions together where we can discuss political and religious alongside philosophical differences. These people that may have a hatred towards a specific religion can speak with the specialists and this is all under control with our highly trained staff team. https://discordapp.com/invite/xRhQazn The Politics | The Politics is a server for both intellectual and casual discourse from a range of topics. It's home to the number #1 politics community on Discord and always seeks to improve itself for the users. | Rank systems and ideological roles of all types! | Sound and active community each day! | Events weekly! | Fair moderation and rules to keep a healthy community! | Guest speakers and verified users! ️ | Server communities for specific discourse! Join and apply for membership today! https://discordapp.com/invite/jgdSMFb Debate Central We are a very active, family-friendly community debate server for Discord, unlike any other. We offer: ~Political debate ~Philosophical debate ~General debates (featuring anything and almost everything) ~A family-friendly, clean community ~And much, much more! Freedom of speech is one of our greatest priorities. We highly encourage our members to bring up and partake in discussions meaningful to them. https://discordapp.com/invite/r6dNKK3 Prayer Fort Prayer Fort is a dedicated Christian prayer group with emphasis on deliverance and gifts of the Holy Spirit. We want to see a mighty move of God, we do group fasting and frequent group prayer sometimes set to music, or check out the religious debate channel and get in on the discussion! https://discordapp.com/invite/uFxzQzr I Can't Believe It's Not Politics This is Discord's newest debate server! We feature active chats, fair and unbiased staff, and lots of fun bots. We are here to have fun, but also have a place for you to have mature debate as well. We welcome everyone and we hope you come join us too! (MrBATMAN is in here too) Also our reviews are being trolled by children who raided our server, so please give us a chance before putting it aside because of that.. https://discordapp.com/invite/3PyJPEg

Islamic Discussion Ask questions about Islam, discuss, debate, learn, or have your doubts answered. https://discordapp.com/invite/V2wTMTw The Right Lounge We are a right-wing community dedicated to discussing and debating world issues! We hold daily polls, and have dozens of self-assignable roles to choose from! Currently at 265+ members! https://discordapp.com/invite/PShqXNa The Sacred Grove A chill server dedicated to respectful interfaith discussion! https://discordapp.com/invite/SXDyyBd Gnostcord This brand new server is dedicated to discussing and promoting Gnostic theology in all of its forms. Gnosticism is an ancient religious movement that overlaps with several mainstream religions. There are Christian Gnostics, Manicheans, ancient Jewish Gnostics, even modern Pagans who consider themselves Gnostics. If you're familiar with Dharmic religion you may find many familiar concepts within Gnosticism, and if you're a follower of a religion that emphasizes the Divine Feminine you may also hear things that are familiar to you. Whatever our differences, we come together on the basis that spiritual growth comes from inner contemplation and knowledge of God through direct experience (Gnosis), and that the end goal is Theosis (unity with God, or the realization of our own divine nature). Esotericism is welcome but the theology and texts of Gnosticism are the main focus. We are open to all, even non-Gnostics, as long as your mind is open and you don't troll. https://discordapp.com/invite/s4p3utP Free Christians This is a server for Christians and non-Christians to gather and discuss their faiths in peace. The aim of this server is to provide a safe space for all people, whether you be a Christian, Muslim, Satanist, or atheist, gay, bisexual, or transgender, all are welcome here. https://discordapp.com/invite/gb82TDk Eyxucism This server is religion based, we worship the entity known as Eyxu, along with other Prime Entities. Once you join you will be a part of Eyxucism. We hope you enjoy your time on the server. https://discordapp.com/invite/3t6fz8K Political Discourse Welcome to Political Discourse. We are an extremely open minded political discord community that allows for the discussion of all political, economic, religious, and other idealogical belief structures. https://discordapp.com/invite/CuarNMw Hellenismos A small server for people who worship the Greek Gods! https://discordapp.com/invite/tnMZ5fA Politics, Religion, and History I see I've already got your attention! 3/5 won't join this server-are you just another statistic? Of course, you're not! Come join this engaging community of people from all ideologies, religions, and nationalities. https://discordapp.com/invite/SbxPvFc Res Publica Salvete, amici! We are a brand new political server that aims to be an inclusive, open forum for debate and discussion, but also for casual socialization, with many different channels for different topics. -Discuss matters of politics, philosophy, religion, and science, talk about current events, and listen to other people's perspectives in a civil environment. -Get to know people, geek out, and make some friends; maybe even play a game or two! -Choose from a veritable treasure trove of different roles to outline your personal beliefs, free to be modified as they shift. -Democratic moderation system, where you, the users, get to vote on new staff members and changes to the server! Anyone of any political affiliation and background is welcome! https://discordapp.com/invite/dwQCusA The Civil Scholar Hello! This is a brand new server so there really aren't many members but we are hoping to have growth. We accept all view points and encourage each other to listen with an open mind to each member. There are sensitive and mature topics being discussed so please, ages 16+ only. We are looking for a large range of religious and political views so any and all are welcome! We are friendly to all as long as they respect each other's opinions and try not to push themselves or their beliefs. This server is run by a debate loving Satanist, so there already is some diversity in opinion. Don't be afraid to drop in, say hi, and possibly stay a while. Once there are enough members I will begin to announce debate topics and questions for civil discussion. You, as a member, also have the ability to make topic suggestions and ask any questions you'd like. As well as debate, we also have analysis and discussion of new articles, proposed laws, trends, social media posts, etc. Again, not very many members now but stick around for the growth! Thank you! https://discordapp.com/invite/KvpkhQY Philopolitics New politics and philosophy server! Any ideology with anyone allowed! - All ideologies allowed - Nitro giveaways - Events - Everyone welcome https://discordapp.com/invite/jwgtq75 Hope And Faith Christian Server Friendly Christian Server For people TO Chat Mingle and Get Support (biblical Or Not) https://discordapp.com/invite/bUkYDvJ /ecclesia catholica/ Catholicism oriented server for everyone https://discordapp.com/invite/9rGBHqQ Leitourgia An Orthodox Christian based server that discusses theology and life in general. All are welcomed to join and take part. https://discordapp.com/invite/7AQGwZe International Politics Talk about religion, philosophy or politics and meet people with the same or different point of view as you! https://discordapp.com/invite/2Qr9Uzr Theo Lounge A place for people of all religions to hang out together and have a nice time making friends with each other and talking about anything. (NSFW allowed) https://discordapp.com/invite/VJCCgaE Ahmadiyya True Islam - NOT - OFFICIAL In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful WELCOME TO AHMADIYYAT, THE TRUE ISLAM Love for all, Hatred for None https://discordapp.com/invite/cQPan3G

#religion #debate #christian #islam

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whitelabelseoreseller · 5 years

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Kindness as Currency: How Good Deeds Can Benefit Your Local Business

Posted by MiriamEllis

“To receive everything, one must open one’s hands and give.” - Taisen Deshimaru, Buddhist philosopher

A woman stands in a busy supermarket checkout line. The shopper in front of her realizes that they don’t have enough money with them to cover their purchase, so she steps in and makes up the balance. Then, when she reaches the checkout, her own receipt totals up higher than she was expecting. She doesn’t have enough left in her purse.

“No problem,” says the young clerk and swipes his own debit card to pay for her groceries.

A bystander snaps a photo and posts the story to Facebook. The story ends up on local radio and TV news. Unstructured citations for the grocery store start crackling like popcorn. National news takes notice. A scholarship foundation presents a check to the clerk. When asked how he felt about it, the clerk said:

“Personally, I think it’s undeserved attention. Because she did something so good … I felt like it was my responsibility to return the favor.”

In the process, if only for a moment in time, an everyday supermarket is transformed into a rescue operation for hope in humanity. Through the lens of local SEO, it’s also a lesson in how good deeds can be rewarded by good mentions.

Studying business kindness can be a rewarding task for any motivated digital marketing agency or local brand owner. I hope this post will be both a pick-me-up for the day, and a rallying cry to begin having deeper conversations about the positive culture businesses can create in the communities they serve.

10+ evocative examples of business kindness

“We should love people and use things, but sadly, we love things and use people,” Roger Johnson, Artisan

As a youngster in the American workforce, I ran into some very peculiar styles of leadership.

For instance, one boss gruffly told me not to waste too much time chatting with the elderly customers who especially loved buying from me...as if customer support doesn’t make or break business reputations.

And then there was the cranky school secretary who reprimanded me for giving ice packs to children because she believed they were only “trying to get attention” … as if schools don’t exist to lavish focus on the kids in their care.

In other words, both individuals would have preferred me to be less kind, less human, than more so.

Perhaps it was these experiences of my superiors taking a miserly approach to workplace human kindness that inspired me to keep a little file of outbreaks of goodwill that earned online renown. These examples beg self-reflective questions of any local business owner:

If you launched your brand in the winter, would you have opened your doors while under construction to shelter and feed housing-insecure neighbors?

If a neighboring business was struggling, would you offer them floor space in your shop to help them survive?

Would your brand’s culture inspire an employee to cut up an elder’s ham for him if he needed help? How awesome would it be if a staffer of yours had a day named after her for her kindness? Would your employees comp a meal for a hungry neighbor or pay a customer’s $200 tab because they saw them hold open a door for a differently-abled guest?

What good things might happen in a community you serve if you started mailing out postcards promoting positivity?

What if you gave flowers to strangers, including moms, on Mother’s Day?

How deeply are you delving into the season of giving at the holidays? What if, like one business owner, you opened shop on Thanksgiving just to help a family find a gift for a foster child? You might wake up to international fame on Monday morning.

What if visitors to your community had their bikes stolen on a road trip and your shop gifted them new bikes and ended up on the news?

One business owner was so grateful for his community’s help in overcoming addiction, he’s been washing their signage for free. What has your community done for you and how have you thanked them?

What if all you had to do was something really small, like replacing negative “towed at your own expense” signs by welcoming quick stop parking?

What if you, just for a day, you asked customers to pay for their purchases with kind acts?

I only know about these stories because of the unstructured citations (online references to a local business) they generated. They earned online publicity, radio, and television press. The fame for some was small and local, for others, internationally viral. Some activities were planned, but many others took place on the spur of the moment. Kindness, empathy, and gratitude, flow through them all like a river of hope, inviting every business owner to catch the current in their own way. One easy way for local business owners to keep better track of any positive mentions is by managing and monitoring reviews online with the New Moz Local.

See your online presence

Can kindness be taught in the workplace?

In Demark, schoolchildren learn empathy as a class subject. The country is routinely rated as one of the happiest in the world. At Moz, we have the TAGFEE code, which includes both generosity and empathy, and our company offers internal workshops on things like “How to be TAGFEE when you disagree.” We are noted for the kindness of our customer support, as in the above review.

According to Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki, people “catch” cooperation and generosity from others. In his study, the monetary amount donors gave to charity went up or down based on whether they were told their peers gave much or little. They matched the generosity or stinginess they witnessed. In part two of the study, the groups who had seen others donating generously went on to offer greater empathy in writing letters to penpals suffering hard times. In other words, kindness isn’t just contagious — its impact can spread across multiple activities.

Mercedes-Benz CEO, Stephen Cannon, wanted employees to catch the kindness bug because of its profound impact on sales. He invited his workforce to join a “grassroots movement” that resulted in surprising shoppers with birthday cakes, staff rushing to remote locations with spare tires, and other memorable consumer experiences. Cannon noted:

“There is no scientific process, no algorithm, to inspire a salesperson or a service person to do something extraordinary. The only way you get there is to educate people, excite them, incite them. Give them permission to rise to the occasion when the occasion to do something arises. This is not about following instructions. It’s about taking a leap of faith.”

In a 2018 article, I highlighted the reviews of a pharmacy that made it apparent that staff wasn’t empowered to do the simplest self-determined acts, like providing a chair for a sick man who was about to fall down in a long prescription counter line. By contrast, an Inc. book review of Jill Lublin’s The Profits of Kindness states:

“Organizations that trade in kindness allow their employees to give that currency away. If you're a waitress, can you give someone a free piece of pie because the kid at the next table spilled milk on their foot? If you're a clerk in a hotel, do you have the authority to give someone a discounted rate because you can tell they've had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day?”

There may be no formula for teaching kindness, but if Zaki is right, then leadership can be the starting point of demonstrative empathy that can emanate through the staff and to its customers. How do you build for that?

A cared-for workforce for customer service excellence

You can find examples of individual employees behaving with radical kindness despite working for brands that routinely disregard workers’ basic needs. But, this hardly seems ideal. How much better to build a business on empathy and generosity so that cared-for staff can care for customers.

I ran a very quick Twitter poll to ask employees what their very most basic need is:

Unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents cited a living wage as their top requirement. Owners developing a kind workforce must ensure that staff are housing-and-food-secure, and can afford the basic dignities of life. Any brand that can’t pay its staff a living wage isn’t really operational — it’s exploitation.

Beyond the bare minimums, Mercer’s Global Talent Trends 2019 Survey of 7,300 executives, HR experts, and employees highlighted trending worker emphasis on:

Flexibility in both hours and location to create a healthy work/life balance

Ethics in company technology, practices, and transparency

Equity in pay ratios, regardless of gender

Empathy in the workplace, both internally and in having a positive societal impact with customers

It’s just not very hard to connect the dots between a workforce that has its basic and aspirational needs met, and one possessing the physical, mental and emotional health to extend those values to consumers. As I found in a recent study of my own, 70 percent of negative review resolution was driven by brands having to overcome bad/rude service with subsequent caring service.

Even at the smallest local business level, caring policies and initiatives that generate kindness are within reach, with Gallup reporting that SMBs have America’s happiest and most engaged workers. Check out Forbes list of the best small companies of 2019 and note the repeated emphasis on employee satisfaction.

Kindness as currency, with limitless growth potential

“I wanted a tangible item that could track acts of kindness. From that, the Butterfly Coin emerged.” Bruce Pedersen, Butterfly Coins

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Maybe someday, you’ll be the lucky recipient of a Butterfly Coin, equipped with a unique tracking code, and gifted to you by someone doing a kind act. Then, you’ll do something nice for somebody and pass it on, recording your story amongst thousands of others around the world. People, it seems, are so eager for tokens of kindness that the first mint sold out almost immediately.

The butterfly effect (the inspiration for the name of these coins) in chaos theory holds that a small action can trigger multiple subsequent actions at a remove. In a local business setting, an owner could publicly reward an employee’s contributions, which could cause the employee to spread their extra happiness to twenty customers that day, which could cause those customers to be in a mood to tip waitstaff extra, which could cause the waitstaff to comp meals for hungry neighbors sitting on their doorsteps, and on and on it goes.

There’s an artisan in Gig Harbor, WA who rewards kindnesses via turtle figurines. There are local newspapers that solicit stories of kindness. There are towns that have inaugurated acts-of-kindness weeks. There is even a suburb in Phoenix, AZ that re-dubbed itself Kindness, USA. (I mentioned, I’ve been keeping a file).

The most priceless aspect of kindness is that it’s virtually limitless. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be quantified. The Butterfly Coin idea is attempting to track kindness, and as a local business owner, you have a practical means of parsing it, too. It will turn up in unstructured citations, reviews, and social media, if you originate it at the leadership level, and share it out from employee to customer with an open hand.

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theinjectlikes2 · 5 years