Culture and fashion call for conformity. You will be told to go with the flow and not to swim upstream. If it doesn't float, let it sink, you will be urged at every step. Read the writing on the wall, you will hear more often than you want. Accept what everybody knows. The trend is your friend. Nobody ever got anywhere by stepping out of line. There is only one truth and it corresponds to the majority view.
Relinquishing individual thinking and embracing a standard lifestyle brings enormous advantages. For instance, it will save you time when making decisions. It will also spare you embarrassment when it comes to hiding the truth. However, irrationality and conformity cannot provide the basis for good relationships.
The opposite side of the psychological spectrum is filled by non-conformity, which often boils down to blind loyalty to some other style. For instance, non-conformists prefer to practise dangerous sports instead of spending their holidays on the beach.
Their hobbies might include playing exotic games instead of watching films. They seldom go for a walk in the park, but they might spend a fortune on a tour in the tropical forest. The clothes of non-conformists, instead of clean and well ironed, tend to be messy and torn.
Whether you choose conformity or non-conformity as basis for your relationships makes little practical difference. In both cases, your years will be filled with more or less colourful souvenirs, not with happiness. Imitating distorted pictures is not the way to create great paintings.
Adopting values that make no sense will not move you towards success and happiness. The exaltation of inconsistencies will not render your feelings more intense. Walking a downtrodden track leads to a dejected spirit. In the field of love and friendship, thoughtlessness is not a path you want to take.
To be continued in Part 2
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
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“In the Dark Ages, ancient statutes were broken and melted by unfeeling avarice,” noted Gibbon. “The soul of geniuses who had shaped them evaporated in smoke. The cost and labour of centuries were consumed in a moment. Of the writings of Antiquity that still existed at that time, many were lost forever.”
After the fall of the Roman Empire, injustice and evil took over the world during hundreds of years. There was little that individuals could undertake against the tidal wave of ignorance and violence that swept entire continents. Those who tried to resist were wiped out. The productive capacities of whole populations were destroyed and life expectancy sharply decreased.
Despite those difficulties, a small minority survived and thrived in the Dark Ages. New agricultural methods were developed and land productivity doubled. The innovation of using cork stoppers in bottles created a mass-market for wine. In the quietness of monasteries, Greek and Latin books were translated into modern languages, preparing the transition from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance.
History never follows a line of steady progress where all things become increasingly better. Each century is shaped by conflicting forces. Trusting that the world always turns better with time is an unrealistic point of view.
The passage of time does not guarantee that knowledge will be preserved. Many skills and techniques have been lost and forgotten through the centuries. Mistakes of the past are likely to be repeated. Expecting the world to change necessarily for the better is a pleasant fantasy which contradicts the facts of History.
Believing in myths never yields good results because it inhibits individuals from taking action to improve their own situation. Check facts, ask questions, and find out what things are really like. If prospects don't look good, that might be a signal for you to change direction.
Look at reality with a fresh view, draw your own conclusions, and discard unfounded hopes. “The false application of the maxims of Antiquity is the source of many disappointments,” concluded Gibbon. “One should never overlook the differences in time and characters.”
Look ahead and decide if you like what you see. If you don't, take measures to protect yourself and improve your prospects. Waiting for the world to change is a waste of time. Make sound choices and play your cards wisely. There are plenty of things that you can do to make your future brighter.
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
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In hindsight, we can tell that the Roman Empire was already doomed at the beginning of the 4th century. The Eastern part of the empire held out for another thousand years and finally fell apart. The efforts of millions of people did not manage to save it, only to prolong its agony.
Discussions about what society will look like in a distant future seldom bring advantages in the present. A wise man should pursue his own success and happiness without waiting for the world to become a perfect place. The fact that we will never get to live in a flawless universe should not constitute a reason for despair.
Move on and do not let the mirage of utopia paralyse your actions. Perfectionism is as lethal as cynicism. Rationality is the only approach that works. Do work at improving society, if that is your desire, but focus on short-term goals, on tangible results that you can enjoy in your lifetime. If you wish to be idealistic, do it in an affordable way.
Nothing is gained by your going bankrupt for a good cause. Keep your actions focused on small gains that will contribute to your happiness. Some people believe that History moves only in one direction, forward, and that tomorrow will be necessarily better than today.
Such conviction is absolutely false. Expecting the world to get always better is unrealistic. Once in a while, events may fall into such positive pattern, but if you look carefully, you will also find many aspects pointing in the opposite direction.
When Edward Gibbon began to write The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the year 1769, his goal was to demonstrate that, in History, civilization often moves backwards as time advances. Reading Gibbon's work is an excellent foundation for understanding current problems and avoiding wishful thinking.
To be continued in Part 3
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
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One day, human beings will inhabit a perfect world. There will be no violence and no poverty. Productivity will be high and consumption will take place without waste. Everybody will be healthy, the environment clean, and Nature, most of the year, green.
The question is how long it is going to take before we get to live in such an ideal planet. Some say a hundred years, others speak about seven times seven generations. Reaching such goal depends on so many factors that no one can give a precise estimation.
Having ambitious plans for the world keeps people debating on talk radio and television, campaigning and making speeches. The problem with those activities is that they tend to have little or no positive effect on your own life. The more passionate you are about improving the universe, the harder it will be for you to accept its fundamental inertia.
Even if you devote all your resources to trying to change the world, you are unlikely to achieve your objective. Even if you give up sleep and work incessantly for your cause, chances are that your achievements will remain modest. There are powerful reasons for this phenomenon:
1. Fundamental changes take place, on most occasions, very slowly.
2. From the perspective of an individual, world improvements often remain imperceptible.
3. Technical innovation does not necessarily affect beliefs. New technologies frequently reinforce traditional views.
4. Most attempts at improving things only aim at increasing their speed. Making the same old mistakes faster seldom brings substantial benefits.
Waiting for the world to change is a waste of time. You will find proof of this by opening any History book and reading a few paragraphs. Things change slowly and trends are rarely reversed.
To be continued in Part 2
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
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Preparedness also allows individuals to overcome shyness. In addition, learning how to perform tasks develops mental resilience. A man who acquires specific abilities is, at the same time, training his mind to deal with any sort of obstacle. Rationality enhances our general capacity to solve problems and face all of life's perils.
Developing an active mind enables man to overcome adversity and avert danger. Self-reliance allows us to identify risks and discard fears that lack basis in reality. Preparedness and education, either formal or self-acquired, reinforce creativity. Imagination and innovation are characteristics of rational men. Those faculties are unknown to those who live in fear.
When things go wrong, unreasonable men blame the world. On the other hand, when trouble blocks achievement, self-confident individuals reassess their options, choose the best alternative, and redouble their efforts. Training and education help us accept mistakes as part of the learning process, while ignorance and lack of preparation see adversity as final, obstacles as insurmountable.
Trees planted on fertile ground grow to cover hurts from their past. Learning and education in all forms constitute the fruitful land where self-confidence takes roots. The conviction that knowledge can be acquired and mastered motivates man to further achievement.
Self-reliance renders man willing to try new approaches and this capacity for innovation constitutes an essential element of long-term success. By the time a cautious conservative begins to move, a fearless innovator has already gone through the experience of failure and improvement.
In all fields, learning involves errors, usually lots of them, until you acquire the skills and expertise necessary to achieve your objectives. Self-confidence prevents individuals from paying too much attention to initial failures. Resilience precludes doubts from turning into paralysis.
Beginner's mistakes are part of the natural learning curve in any endeavour, private or professional. Detailed, valuable knowledge is acquired by playing on the field. The experience of trial and error builds self-confidence. Start your preparation for life's challenges as soon as you can and the clock will tick in your favour.
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
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If you are well prepared, good things will happen to you. Closed doors will open, opportunities will materialize, and jobs will become available. Preparedness brings not only material benefits, but also psychological, such as self-reliance, which is a highly desirable trait in all walks of life.
Through education, apprehensive kids can become stars. Through training, people who are fearful of every shadow can thrive in new challenges. Through preparation, men who are suspicious of every innovation can turn themselves into self-confident individuals.
We should all welcome any means and ideas that help us face life courageously. Dejection and despair lead people to retreat into disaffected railway tunnels. Self-reliance motivates men to seek out the shortest way to attain their objectives.
Training and education, reading and learning, enable man to see farther down the road. Preparedness builds the conviction that achievement is possible and within reach. Looking ahead with confidence raises individuals above the average. Those without goals are so afraid to slip and fall that they tend to keep their eyes focused on the ground. Those with a vision use preparedness to reinforce their self-confidence.
How long does it take for a person to develop the ability to turn defeat into victory? In the eyes of worrisome men, achievement is a receding point in the horizon. In the mind of rational individuals, objectives are to be pursued relentlessly. They know that attaining ambitious goals requires overcoming difficult obstacles.
In our age, if you talk to men in their eighties, you will frequently hear the story of how they returned from the Second World War without savings nor prospects and had to rebuild their lives from scratch. Their trust in the opportunities provided by their environment motivated them to achieve goals, start families, build houses, accumulate wealth, and lead a happy existence.
The only way they knew was forward. Every step prepared them for the next. What they learned one day was put in practice on the next. Training was done on the job. Evening education provided, on many occasions, whatever knowledge was missing to move ahead. Self-confidence was the result of their readiness and willingness to absorb information.
To be continued in Part 2
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
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“If you want to change, listen to my refrain. If you want to improve, let go of your past and move.” Hans-Christian Andersen read the poem that he had just composed and bit his lip. As an apprentice to tailor Abramovich, his present days were bleak. His future as a poet was a dream about which he dared not speak.
“I am much better at writing stories,” he concluded with a smile, remembering the tale he had written the day before about a swan's egg that accidentally rolled into a duck's nest. When the baby-bird breaks out of the shell, it looks so different from the ducks, that it is mistreated and ostracised until it eventually grows up to become a beautiful swan and flies away to its true home. As a title for his story, Hans-Christian had chosen “The Ugly Duckling.”
Suddenly, the front door opened and Abramovich himself entered the tailor's shop. Hans-Christian pushed his poem under the cloth lying on the counter, picked up the scissors, and pretended to be cutting material for making a pair of trousers for a customer.
“What on earth is this?” shouted Abramovich, standing still in front of the counter and waving in his hand a sheet of paper. Hans-Christian looked at the paper, recognized his own hand-writing, and turned pale. It was his story about the ugly duckling!
“I am not paying you a salary to waste the day writing fairy tales!” accused Abramovich, scrutinizing the face of his apprentice. Hans-Christian felt invaded by panic, realizing that he must have forgotten the sheet of paper on the stone bench outside the tailor's shop. If he lost his job, chances were that he would starve. In the year 1822, thousands of unemployed walked hungry the streets of Copenhagen.
“Fairy tales?” retorted Hans-Christian. “The author cannot be me! Do you think that I possess enough imagination to write fairy tales?” The question made Abramovich reflect briefly before replying. “No, of course no, Hans-Christian. Never in a thousand years! How foolish of me to suspect you, since I know that you have no talent.”
Soon after, Hans-Christian moved to another job, began to publish his fairy tales, and eventually became the most famous Scandinavian author. Twenty years later, when Hans-Christian was walking past the tailor's shop, the door opened, and Abramovich came outside, now an old man. The tailor recognized his former apprentice and pointed a finger at him.
“So it was you!” accused Abramovich. “It was you who wrote the fairy tale about the ugly duckling!” Hans-Christian turned his head towards the tailor's shop and his mind recalled every dark hour of his youth. It took him almost a minute to gather sufficient strength to look at the tailor straight in the eye and shake his head decisively. “That was not me,” he said. “That must have been the man I was before.”
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
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