Qualities Worth Remembering

We'll die whether we live a life of virtue or not. Some people have lived in such a way that they've been remembered long after they've passed simply because they had qualities worth remembering.

To understand those qualities, we need to reflect on the historical figures we remember:

• When we think of Socrates, we think of a man who could of escaped his death sentence but chose instead to honor it. 
• When we think of Leo Major, we think of a man who single-handedly liberated an entire German occupied city during World War 2. 
• When we think of Benkei no Tachi Ōjō, we think of a man who killed 300 men while defending his lord, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, from attackers.

Honor, courage, duty...those are the qualities that they've been remembered for. We may never be faced with the extreme situations that they've gone through but we can still let their experience inspire us to move forward in life.

"If you want to enjoy real freedom, you must become a servant of Philosophy."

-Epicurus

Merry Christmas - 2023

 

(Image created by A.I. DALL-E/Bing)

For some, Christmas is a period of time with lots of family gatherings and maybe you wished those would stop. To you, I say be careful what you wish for as one day that wish will come true and you will regret ever wishing it. Sure, attending 15 different suppers may be exhausting but those are blessing in disguised. When those supper stops, it's either going to be because someone died or they've lost interest in doing them. 

Have those suppers and enjoy them while they last.

This year, I realized that not everyone has been as blessed as I have with life up to this point. Many will be alone for Christmas and this post, my friends, is for you. May you have a wonderful Christmas and may next year bring you the joys of close relationships.

Merry Christmas 2023!

Nobody Will Remember You (And That's Okay)

I once said that life was about choosing how to be remembered yet there will come a time when nobody will remember us. Slowly but surely time will forget that we ever existed whether it be shortly after our death or a thousand years in the future.

Out of the billions of people that ever existed only a handful of them are still remembered today. If we think of Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Albert Einstein ... all of those individuals left a mark that will likely be remembered for thousands of more years but there might come a point when history will forget about them too as in order to remember anything we need the ability to carry forward the knowledge from one generation to the next. In the event of a global catastrophe, that would prevent a generation to share its knowledge to the next, this chain would be broken only for history to start anew.

This is "okay" because it simply can't be helped. There's nothing, anyone, can do that will leave a permanent trace into this vanishing thing that we call time. A million years from now, humans may not even be around anymore. 

Sometimes one has to wonder what's the point of all of this? A religious person might say that our existence is some sort of test that will determine where we'll be in our next, eternal, life. I always found it a bit strange that what ever behavior we have in our brief existence on this planet is, somehow, playing such a major role in another, more permanent, state of existence. 

If we, somehow, lost all of our history and started anew it would be interesting to see what kind of religion humans would create for itself. My guess is that the Sun would, once again, reach deity status in much similar ways as our ancestors have... up until a prophet comes along to shake things up.

When Bad Things Inspire Change

The Magna Carta (Great Charter) is the most important document ever created by man and it came to life due to the tyrannical reign of a king. This King did such a bad job that a civil war ensued, which he eventually lost, and was forced to sign this document that would ultimately take some of his powers away and give it to the general population.

This document, for those of you who doesn't know, is largely responsible for the freedoms we get to enjoy today.

If this King would of done an okay job, instead of a bad one, then maybe we would never of gotten this document. The inspiration came because this King rub off too many people the wrong way for too long proving that, perhaps, the greatest of inventions comes when people are at their most uncomfortable.

In a way, we have to thank this King for being one of the worse in history as without his contribution we wouldn't be enjoying the freedoms that we do today.

Wikipedia is a great place to go if you want to learn more about Magna Carta or who this King was.

Are The Canadian Liberals Going to Loose Due to The Pandemic?

Canada is going through an election initiated by the Liberals who are attempting to gain more power/seats but it doesn't look like this is going to happen for them. If history taught us anything is that every 8-10 years there's a major political shift happening in Canada and it looks like it's about to happen again only this time it seems to be driven by misinformation caused by the Pandemic.

After talking to a few of my peers, I found that some of them were going to vote against the Liberals and the most common reason given was because of how they handled the Pandemic. They didn't want to have a Government force mask, vaccine or a passport unto them as they saw this as an attack on their "Freedom".

Obviously, the discussion I had with my friends is by no means a reflection of the opinion of the entire Canadian population but it did make me want to discuss about it some more here.

It's my hope that any other political party in power would of made similar decisions as the Liberals did, in regards to the Pandemic, because it's a good idea to be listening to the subject matter experts in a time of crisis. To not vote for Liberals, because they did what subject matter experts have suggested, is a bit silly to me and makes me wonder what kind of political party are they looking for? Do they want the kind that doesn't listen to the experts, in a time of crisis, and end up making a bigger mess of things? (see Donald Trump handling of the Pandemic...)

The Liberals made mistakes, as everyone makes from time to time, but not to vote for them because of how things turned out with the Pandemic is a bit silly. You actually want a Government party that isn't afraid to listen and apply the suggestions of experts during time of crisis because this is what good leadership is about. Maybe what we could say of them is that they didn't listen to the expert enough?

Clever Marketing

Clever marketing is the type of marketing that stick with us long after the campaign as ended. I'm referring here of the marketing campaign of the pasts that were so good that it effectively changed the direction of society in terms of thinking related to the product. The following are examples:

• Kellogg's breakfast cereal - The cleverness of the marketing campaign of Kellogg's breakfast cereal cannot be overlooked. Not only are they the ones behind putting emphasis on breakfast "being the most important meal of the day" but they also managed to place their product, namely breakfast cereal, at the center of it.
• Santa Clause - Coca Cola is largely responsible for the image of Santa Clause that we know of today. They did such a good job with it that it often overshadows Jesus Christ on Christmas. 
• Women Shaving - The perceived "cleanliness" of a woman shaving her legs comes from a marketing campaign of a razor company looking to make more money. 
• Bacon - Bacon didn't used to be the part of the pig that people wanted to eat but it was made popular in the 90s and is now a highly sought for part of the pig.

The above are but a few products that, through marketing campaigns, effectively change the course of society. Kids are born, never saw the original marketing campaigns, and still learn about these products when speaking to older generations.

The question isn't on whether or not those marketing campaigns are good or bad but to understand them for what they are - a way for companies to make money sometime doing so by changing the current belief system. It is our responsibility to not buy into everything that is sold to us because companies don't always have our best internets in mind.

"Ant Farm" theories and Creationism

Man has wondered about his origin for has long as he was able to think for himself. The theories we're going to discuss today were created in ancient Greece at a time when Philosophy and Science was one of the same. In fact, the term "Scientists" was only coined in 1833. In ancient Greece, when a Philosopher thought of a theory he wouldn't necessarily need to prove, via the scientific method, that it made sense before sharing it with the world. A lot of those theories didn't stick but some have and are still with us today even though, from a scientific perspective, they make no sense.

The following are a group of theories that fits well, at least to me, together and have all been created at roughly the same time by Greek Philosophers. In Chronological orders, those are:

1. The Earth Is Flat - According to Wikipedia, the idea of a flat Earth first originated in the 6th century B.C. by a Philosopher named Pythagoras.
2. Creationism - According to Wikipedia, the creationist theory originated in the 5th century B.C.
3. The Earth is at the Center of the Universe - According to Wikipedia this theory is, again, attributed to a Greek Philosopher in the 4th century B.C.

These 3 theories seems to have been created to complement each other and I like to call the combination the "Ant Farm" mindset. An Ant Farm is finite (Earth Is Flat), everything in it has been placed there by someone (Creationism) and it's location is at the center of a kid's room (The Earth is at the Center of the Universe). It make sense for a theory, such as Creationism, to exist in a world where "The Earth is Flat" and "We're at the Center of the Universe" exists but since both those theories have been nullified - why, then, is Creationism still around?

Religion is why Creationism is still around, and thriving, today. There's no doubt in my mind that the book of Genesis is an extension of the Creationism theory as it was widely accepted at the time of Jesus.

A religion is a work of Philosophy and every religion has a story on how everything began. The answer to the questions related to our origins is too important and should be answered with science - not faith. There's no value in keeping debunked theories around. Let's keep what make sense and move away from the things that don't.

Creationism originated from the mind of a Philosopher in Ancient Greece. Why are we still debating whether or not the theory is true considering it didn't even come from "divine origins" or observable evidence? We have to remember that Creationism was created at a time when people would sacrifice animals to Gods, for protection, and act on dreams because they believed it had divine significance. 

These things might of made sense then but it doesn't anymore.

Where's the Valor?

Valor is an incentive most often attributed to military focused societies as it is a quality one gets from exhibiting great courage in battle. 

With the rise of technology one has to wonder where is the Valor today? Our wars haven't stopped but the way we fight has changed. Some people don't even need to be physically present on the battlefield anymore. How can a soldier, who is taught that great deeds on the field of battle brings valor, earn valor when he's placed in a situation where he can't exhibit great courage as he's fighting in-front of a monitor rather than the trenches?

Valor has inspired soldiers for thousands of years but technology seems to have taken it away from them. If valor is no longer attainable for a soldier then what other moral incentive is used to inspire? 

After reading a few books on Alexander The Great, there are plenty of times where valor, or battle recognition, was the sole motivator of the soldiers. After all, the Greeks were military focused. If this is what inspired the soldiers then... what inspires them now?  Is the career soldier more of a job nowadays than anything else? There's definitively still recognition to be found as a soldier but, like most everything else, it changed.

Alexander's Veteran Soldiers

Last week I talked about Alexander the Great's army containing career/veteran soldiers. What I didn't mention is that some of those soldiers were in their late 60s.

If you were a young 20 some year old fighting a 60 year old I'm pretty sure you would be thinking that this was going to be an easy win. After all, your opponent is old, frail and slow but that's not how I see it. 

Being a soldier is one of the most dangerous career path one can take. Many soldiers, of that time, didn't live to see their 30s and it's, therefore, pretty rare to see someone reach old age.
Sure, an older man may be slower than a young 20 year old but we have to remember that those 60 year old soldiers were not like most 60 year old we see today. Since they spent most of their time on their feet they were in great shape for their age and, perhaps most importantly, their advance age as a soldier meant that they hadn't yet met their match in battle.

If I was a young soldier, at the time of Alexander, I would be scared when faced against a 60 year old veteran soldier. Wouldn't you?

If I Could Go Back In Time...

If I had a time machine I would go back to the time of Alexander the Great. More specifically, when Alexander's army faced off Darius' massive army which some historians say was 1 million men strong and contained war animals, such as elephants, among it's ranks.

"An army of sheep, led by a LION is better than an army of LIONS, led by a SHEEP" 

- Alexander The Great

What I find fascinating about this particular battle is we see first hand what a strong leader, with a small army, can do against a weak leader with a large army. Alexander was a young commander that was taught the art of war by his father, King Philip, at a very young age. His army consisted primarily of veteran, career, soldiers.
Darius, on the other hand, was a King that grew up in luxury not knowing much about war. His army consisted of career soldiers as well as blacksmith, shopkeepers, potters ... or any other man that could hold a sword and a shield. His primary strategy was to intimidate the Macedonians by the sheer number of men. This proved futile, however, as the Macedonians knew too well that most men in-front of them were not as battle tested as they were.

What Darius failed to understand is that you're only as strong as your weakest link and the weakest link, in his case, was the men that had no battle experience. Once the battle started, these inexperienced soldiers started to flee which created hysteria among the masses. Many of Darius' men died on the battlefield and many more fled the scene including Darius' himself. The Persian casualties is said to have been in the few hundred of thousands while the Macedonians had only lost a few hundred men. An impressive feat considering the size differences of each armies.

It was a well known fact that Alexander would spare cities that surrendered to him. Needless to say that Alexander's conquest became much easier once the word got out that he had brought down one of the vastest army of the time. After all, if Alexander could defeat an army said to be 1 million men strong how could a city state of a few thousand people expect to stop his advances?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the rise and fall of Alexander's in the book "Alexander the Great" by author Jacob Abbott. The book is considered public domain and is therefor free - you should pick it up!

When/Where would you go if you could go back in time?

Religion and Tyranny

A Tyranny is a nation under a cruel or oppressive form of government. Leaders of such parties often shows a religious side for no other purpose than to better control the populace. Hitler was a tyrant that used religion to convince a nation that the Jews were bad people for their involvement in Jesus' death. If Hitler was, truly, the religious man he professed to be to his people he wouldn't of committed such atrocities.

Religion can be a wonderful thing when it is used for its intended purpose but a really ugly one when used as a mean of control or as a way to meet some selfish, tyrannical, end.

Tyrants using religion as a mean to control the populace isn't a new, nor original, idea. Aristotle said, almost 2500 years ago in his "Politics" book: "...Also he should appear to be particularly earnest in the service of the Gods; for if men think that a ruler is religious and has a reverence for the Gods, they are less afraid of suffering injustice at his hands, and they are less disposed to conspire against him, because they believe him to have the very Gods fighting on his side..."

This was as much of a problem then as it is today.

According to the "planetrulers.com" there are currently 50 dictatorship in the world. Tyranny and dictatorship are interchangeable terms. I don't have data on how many of those dictatorships uses religion as a mean to control but I find it frustrating that there are still so many of these oppressive forms of governments around in this day and age. Don't you find this frustrating?

Police Brutality Ends Now!

"The greatness of a man is measured by the way he treats the little man. Compassion for the weak is a sign of greatness."

-Myles Munroe

When a person of color, or anyone, is arrested for a pity crime my expectation is that the person will be treated fairly. If you are enforcing the law then your moral compass should be above, not below, average. I understand that you see the worse of our human nature, on a daily basis, and that you are stressed out as a result but you can't turn that into hate for an individual or ethnic group.

This man had committed a crime but he shouldn't of paid for it with his life. He is but one of many that fell from excessive police brutality and this has to stop. The cop responsible for his death is not the problem as much as the result of a much bigger problem that plagues modern society today. 

"Many keen observers and writers have been calling attention to the loss of sense of values that has accompanied the growth of modern technology. They tell us that we have been living under the illusion that more automobiles, labor-saving devices and the like will bring happiness and usher in a better life. Without a strong sense of values and direction, however, the human spirit tends to weaken or deteriorate. Technical devices can liberate man from drudgery and open up new possibilities for cultural development; they can also have a dehumanizing effect and be potentially dangerous if there is no self-discipline and dedication to enduring values."

 -Page 107 of "Living Issues in Philosophy Sixth Edition" book by Harold H. Titus and Marilyn S. Smith

Is technology responsible for all the hate we see in the world today? No, but it does feel like people know more about how to use a computer than how to be nice to one another.

Was the person responsible for George Floyd's death a racist? Would the person doing the crime have died if he was white? I don't know but nobody should be above the law - not even those that enforces it.

 

Are We Tough Enough?

*French troops storming Redoubt 9 during the Siege of Yorktown

It's not too long ago that warfare required men to stand in line waiting to get shot at while listening to your orders via flutes and drums or looking out for flag signals. Unsurprisingly, some men would flee the battle and were considered lesser men for doing so. (Although we could argue that they were the smartest people of the bunch... why in the world would you stay in line waiting to get shot?)

Those that didn't flee are among the toughest, most courageous, men in history. They believed so strongly in their cause that they were willing to take a bullet for it.

Where are those courageous men today? We grew to be selfish individuals - we don't stand up for things that doesn't affect us even though it would be the right thing to do.
We are quick to push the responsibility to someone else. You'll hear things like "The Government should do something about this."

Well... why don't you?

The Truth and Nothing But

I’m all for someone telling things for how it is as long as it is the truth and nothing but. There are “journalists” out there that created a reputation of “telling it as it is” but the message they share are filled with lies and misinterpretations for the purpose of shocking the consumer rather than informing.
Some will go as far as showing pictures, or a video, as proof of what they are saying. While it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words, we still have to remember that we can make a picture say anything we want.

What is the reason behind the person sharing the news? Does that person want to make the world a better place by exposing something that isn't right or does that person only want to create more chaos?
“Fake news” isn’t a recent problem (anyone up for a witch hunt?) and it’s not likely to go away anytime soon. Our only line of defense against it is to be informed - to take any news with a grain of salt. To not spread it as it may be all a lie.

Great Minds Shaped Us

Society has progressed considerably ever since mankind's ability to save their thoughts on paper but there are people from history that stands out for pushing the boundaries unexpectedly further than it logically perhaps should.

Where would we be without the philosophical foundation left by Socrates, or Newton's formula for the rotation of planets around our sun, or the theory of relativity left behind by Einstein?

Isaac Newton's equations, for example, helped put man on the moon in 1969 - almost 250 years after he passed away. Without him, maybe man would still be looking at the moon without knowing that it is possible to go there.
Looking back, we can easily see that Newton's equation was found before its time. That his influence pushed humanity forward significantly and that it took 250 years, of accumulated knowledge, to use his equations to the fullest of its potential.

One has to wonder how can we produce more of those great minds. I think we can all agree that the education available today, while not perfect, is better than at the time of Isaac Newton. Therefor, education alone isn't solely responsible for the creation of great minds. What is? Is it possible to create a systematic way of harvesting great minds: With each generation significantly pushing our understandings vs only challenging what's already in place?

Today's Tax

"Surrender of Lord Cornwallis", by John Trumbull (1920)

The American Revolutionary War was fought following the implementation of a 5% tax, without representation, from the British. The Americans saw this as a form of slavery and decided to put an end to it.

Today, we're taxed almost 50% (when we consider inflation of Fiat Money, income tax, tax on individual items etc...) Why are people okay with this?

Romans emperors figured out that when you "Entertain and feed the people you can take their freedoms away"... - isn't that what's going on with the world today?

Our focus on entertainment is allowing our government to take away our freedoms without creating an uproar. People don't understand the issue simply because they're not focused on it.

So what can I do?
Master your finances instead of having it master you. Get a better understanding of Fiat Money, inflation, the economy, Gold Standard, the various taxes of your country and get out of debt!

The more you understand it, the more you'll be interested in it. The more money in the bank you have, the more you'll want to protect it.

Can One Person Make a Difference?

Where would we be today if Martin Luther King Jr. never gave his "I have a dream" speech? Where would we be today if nobody had stood up against Hitler? If King Leonidas wouldn't of taken a stand against Persia's invading army, would we still have our form of government?
History is full of great men and women who initiated change.

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room." -Christine Todd Whitman

So, can one person make a difference? Yes, absolutely - one person CAN make a difference! It takes that one person to first take a stand; to then inspire the mass to move towards something greater than themselves.

The person who thinks one person can't make a different hasn't spent enough time studying history.

*This post can also be found on Men 2.0

Socrates and The Oracle

"The Death of Socrates", by Jacques-Louis David (1787)

Socrates' friend, Chaerephon, asked the oracle, in Delphi, if there was someone wiser than Socrates to which the Oracle replied “no one”. Socrates, who had heard of the tale thought it was ridiculous since he felt like he wasn't the wisest man. This began his journey to find a wiser man than he was.

He found a politician on his journey who was known to be wise. Socrates spoke to the man and pointed out what the man didn't know which angered the man. He then famously said:

“I am wiser than this man: neither of us knows anything that is really worth knowing, but he thinks that he has knowledge when he has not, while I, having no knowledge, do not think that I have. I seem, at any rate, to be a littler wiser than he is on this point: I do not think that I know what I do not know.”

He had a similar experience with every wise person he met. This quest eventually brought his death after he angered too many wise people in power; who then gave him the death penalty. Socrates died in 348 B.C. by willingly drinking poison following is death penalty.

There are no known written document, by Socrates, that survived. Everything we know about this Philosopher was brought down to us by his students, mainly Plato, who followed him and documented his journey.

What we can learn from this story is that when we think we “know”, we sometime become arrogant and take offence when exposed to new ideas. It is important that we remain humble and curious so we can be opened to those new ideas and grow as human beings.

The Christmas Truce

The Christmas truce was a series of widespread, unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas 1914, during World War I. The soldiers exchanged handshakes, played games and gave each other gifts.

The below video is a heartwarming commercial about this event.

Pablo Picasso Wasn't That Long Ago!

I learned a few days ago that Pablo Picasso died in 1973 at the age of 91 which took me by surprise. I used to think that he was a genius from the Renaissance but some of us have known, or have been alive, when he was alive.

Just a little fun fact to learn on Halloween!