A must read. Someone has FINALLY said it.

http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...orporates-destroy-best-minds?CMP=share_btn_fb

 

Ayn Rand is the queen of neoliberalists. It isn't that her theories are wrong, it is that they are incomplete. The completion of course comes from Nash Equilibrium. The local/global principle runs through all modern theories, from physics to economics.

It is not obvious the connection between what I am saying and what that article says, but if one thinks it through, the train of logic follows almost like a river winding down a mountain.

I myself don't like the term neoliberalism, since I think it makes vague what it is saying. Just like Objectivism hides the true meaning of that philosophy (I am being generous by using that word. You can't put Ayn Rand and Kant in the same sentence and not be an idiot)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

 

Selling your soul to worship at the alter of materialism is nothing new. Our entire world has been built on that concept. It is our greatest achievement, and ultimately the bulldozer that will bury us all.

 

Alan Watts had very interesting thoughts on our supposed materialism. He said a materialist should be one who actually worships the material, but we do not so worship, we are not materialists. Instead we worship the idea of the material, especially the material to come.

For example, we could be on a date, a delicious meal in front of us, a great wine on the side, and a beautiful woman across the table who is clearly interested in us. But we'll be daydreaming about later that night, about what we may (hope to) be doing with the lady. So we gobble the steak mindlessly, slurp the wine, maybe knock the glass over, ignore the conversation, and so miss most of the material pleasure of the moment. When that becomes a habitual state of mind, future moments cannot truly be enjoyed. It is quite possible the night in the sack with the lady, when it becomes a new present moment, will largely be missed too (good thing it's already so intense)--you will be thinking about what happens after.

 

IOW, mindfulness

 

Living in the present is quite the challenge. I've been trying to do it for some 30 odd years now. Lots of distractions to throw you off the course. I fail constantly, but continue the effort.

 

As a Zen Buddhist might say, "careful! Another word, another trap."
: )

 

Indeed, and same here. But who is trying?
; )

 

George is trying. The Captain? Not so much.

 

I did not ask that right, it was not accusatory! (After all, Zen meshed quite nicely with bushido and the Samurai.)
: )

I emphasized 'who', because in Buddhism the self is illusory. So when you're trying, who is the who trying? a collection of thoughts, mostly memories, some imaginings of other times, possible futures? When the mind is silent does the ego, do you, exist?