Lights of the world: Do you have one?

[Clarakore]

Lights of the world: Do you see one?

Lights of the world are what we see as hope for humanity. What good things do you see today, however large or small, personal or impersonal, seen or unseen by others, that bring you hope that the future will be brighter in one year or a thousand years.

[Ealdwita]

"For economic reasons, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off."

[lightly]

stubbornness ? we won't give up .. no matter what. Although it's not always immediately obvious, the vast majority of people have a love of life ? .. best i got offhand .

[Jeremiah65]

Curiosity.

We are an extremely curious bunch of critters. It often leads us to solutions to problems and awesome discovery. As long as we stay curious, we might find a road out of this mess.

[Professor T]

More people are questioning authority in the world. More people seem to be more aware that the morons in power do not have everyones best interests at heart. like the 99% movement, or the banking crisis, or the Wars that are wages for the sake of oil, or the battle against internet piracy and copyright laws which people are realising have nothing to do with protecting artists and everything to do with protecting corporate interests.. There's a rising in the tempo of this beat, and although this frustration and anger still seems to have no direction I believe it won't be long before this energy is directed at those responsible for the ill-doings in the world.

[lone wolf2]

Your right about that professor t and they don't have a clue how to fix the economy. Everything goes up in price but the paychecks. There going to raise minimum wage next. All that's going to do is raise prices to compensate but the people that are making more than minimum wage won't get a pay increase.

Light at the end of the tunnel? Voteing isn't working simply because we don't vote for the best person. For the job. We vote for the lesser of the 2 evils

[Clarakore]

This thread was not designed to host complaints or the old "us vs them" narratives.

Let us find true hope in each other and ourselves then describe it.

Of course this is just a suggestion.

[sutemi]

There are many good things happening in the world but they are not televised but never the less good people are trying to change the world for the better I wish them all well. They need our help all of us. Here’s some of them I support - Save the children fund – Oxfam – TPRF - there are many more, they all need our help, as a child dies every 5 seconds 24/7 of preventable problems and best wishes to all the teachers of meditation power to you all. Here are some more I like -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBGyRhIyfE international day of peace

one day after peace

‘If the climate was a bank we would have already fixed it’ Hugo Chavez

[Clarakore]

Thanks for sharing sutemi.

The way Jeremy Gilley laughed in the first video at the 1:08 mark pretty much explains it all. We all need that, sometimes at least, but to never have it at all is no way to live.

As a species we definitely can do more than stop war for 24 hours.

Take, for example, the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” It’s not hard to imagine that witnesses to tit—for—tat cycles of revenge killings concluded that “not killing” was the way to avoid deadly multi—generational feuds, and that someone—tradition credits Moses—packaged this discovery (along with other similar moral precepts) for his contemporaries and, unwittingly, for posterity.

From a modeling perspective, it’s plausible that all ten commandments were assembled from the combined wisdom of people who, drawing on the oral and written history of past and current generations, and bearing close witness to their own psychological and emotional dynamics, realized that certain individual behaviors ran counter to personal stability and undermined group solidarity, thereby making the community vulnerable to exploitation and domination by more cohesive groups. They labeled these practices “immoral,” anticipating that over time economic, psychological, social, and political forces would bring about either the elimination or relative decline of groups that countenanced them.

The Ten Commandments and other moral precepts are recorded in the world’s holy books. Distilled and refined through the ages, they constitute the moral foundation of human societies. If somehow they were to disappear from consciousness and we had to start over (think of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies), we would, by trial and error and with much bloodshed, gradually rediscover some of them from scratch and discard those that, in the meantime, circumstances had rendered obsolete.

Although some attribute moral principles to divine revelation, that’s just one explanation and it’s unverifiable. We may instead think of them as having been discovered in the same way that we discover everything else—through careful observation and verification. Having demonstrated their value in reducing suffering and/or in maintaining social stability, they were then elevated to special status, not unlike the process that results in the formulation and promulgation of successful science models, theories, rules, and laws.

A given rule of thumb can stand as shorthand for the whole body of observations and reasoning that undergirds it, in the same way that Newton’s laws encapsulate classical dynamics. The moral principles of religion represent an accumulation of proverbial injunctions that function as reminders and ethical guides.

As with all models, so with models of morality: close follow—up scrutiny may bring exceptions to light. Exceptions have long been sanctioned to the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”—to wit, capital punishment and warfare. But Moses may yet have the last word. As we move into the twenty—first century, the global trend to abolish capital punishment is unmistakable.

Likewise, the inefficacy of war as an instrument of foreign policy is becoming clearer, and, as it does, the frequency of wars is diminishing (as documented by Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined).

In the next post, I’ll explain why I think ending the stand—off between science and religion is worthwhile, and suggest some of the elements of a deal that would enable them to co—operate going forward.

The Evolution of Moral Models

The second video seemed to me to be all about the powerful act of forgiveness which does more for the forgiver than the forgiven, especially health wise. I knew it was about South Africa but was surprised when I realized the same will one day be applied in Palestine.

‘If the climate was a bank we would have already fixed it’ Hugo Chavez

In fact, I have a feeling that if Lehman Brothers was Lehman Brothers and Sisters, they might still be around.

—Arianna Huffington

I have never really admired any popes, I suppose my love of history is lacking for surely we have shining examples in the past if one were to look, but in my lifetime there never seemed a reason to.

Now, the more I hear, the more I admire.

If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy and people say 'what are we going to do?' but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that's nothing.

—Pope Francis

[Clarakore]

My example is our ex-mayor. Back in the 1990s as a councilman he had a dream. As a mayor he brought it closer to reality. Only after all these years has it come true.

We have many creeks and alongside some of them he envisioned hike and bike trails that connect many of our city parks.

They have done so much to change the parks, some were once truly dens of vice, but today are areas people go to, for healthy reasons.

Going outside in the middle of the city and enjoying nature and yourself is something the world needs.

That is on a small scale, for my city alone, and a very hopeful sign to me that our world is changing for the better.

On a large scale we have Agenda 21. Thanks to the UN.

[sutemi]

Glad you liked it LBA, as you posted many good things are going on even though many are small scale. I got involved a bit in last years International Day of Peace and found there are many people who want to change things. All we can do is try to support where ever possible as much as possible. Check it out on the web, there were some good free concerts last year. All the best

Here’s a vid [free download]offered last year on the web for the great day

‘The Luminaries’

[orion43]

I saw the light at Motel 6, they will leave the light on for you.

[Erdling]

Lights of the world: Do you see one?

Lights of the world are what we see as hope for humanity. What good things do you see today, however large or small, personal or impersonal, seen or unseen by others, that bring you hope that the future will be brighter in one year or a thousand years.

My main hope is Science and that it will triumph over ignorance in all its forms.

[Yamato]

Except it isn't just ignorance that causes problems, it's knowledge too and how knowledge is applied. So long as there is selfishness and greed, knowledge is going to be used to benefit one to the exclusion of the other. It's nice to think about collective benefits that benefit everyone but the more humankind is benefited collectively the more nature must pay the price and it comes back around later to bite humanity in the behind anyway. I think science needs more than just to overcome ignorance, it needs to have a moral backbone as well. Curiosity usually has self-interests driving it which is fine, but scarce resources will be required to realize those interests and suddenly it's an economics problem. Science has no intrinsic moral component to it and the result is that we build a better kind of gun to kill the other guy with before he does.

Kudos for people working for world peace. That was a fantastic video, sutemi.

[libstaK]

I am going to agree with The World Needs You about the new Pope, he fills me with hope and it is amazing how it shines through in his persona so clearly.

Many have come before him in my lifetime that have inspired me too. Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Bob Geldoff, the Dalai Llama, Princess Diana, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung - yes they have/had flaws too, we all do, but they got out and did something to try and help others too, they changed alot of lives with their work, there are many many inspirational spirits in the world and if we can do one thing well for others than that is one thing attended to by someone in the world. It doesn't have to be the biggest thing, just being the person whose glass is half full rather than the cynic who sees only vice, corruption and suffering that can make a difference too.

Also it is all the medical and scientific breakthroughs, the work to renew and rejuvinate the environment, those who work to save endangered species, millions of people every day get out and have a go - we need to choose our mentors wisely and there are a great many wonderful mentors to choose from.

Edited May 31, 2013 by libstaK

[libstaK]

Yup! 99% of artists make a good 90% of their buck from touring/appearances/sponsorship, many get very little out record deals. If they did, they wouldn't bother doing all the work they do

Those who have "hope" for the world and a large following who just might be influenced, only end up dead...

Oh look it's the "what's the point in trying when you're only gonna fail" guy I'm sure we can expect great things from him .

Seriously though, don't you have anything you feel hope for in life? Just one thing?

[libstaK]

Oh I have hope just better not get famous and show it...I'll suffer the same fate as Diana, MJ, John Lennon...the list goes on

Nothing wrong with being a quiet achiever - it's the unsung heros that always make us tear up the most when we finally get to hear about them 50 years after the fact.

[Clarakore]

The opposite of the greatest evil in the world are simple acts of kindness to those you know.

[Professor T]

Yup! 99% of artists make a good 90% of their buck from touring/appearances/sponsorship, many get very little out record deals. If they did, they wouldn't bother doing all the work they do

Those who have "hope" for the world and a large following who just might be influenced, only end up dead...

Yep!

& that is a good example of the hope I see if the world, that fact that you see that and understand it is the hope I see.

The more people who realise this = the less power they have over us..

The more people who see the Illusion for what it is = exposing the puppet masters.

& once the puppet masters are exposed, their game is over.

It's that growing understanding of so called authorities that I see as hopeful.

People give them their power, and when people refuse to give it to them, they'll loose their authority.

[Big Bad Voodoo]

"For economic reasons, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off."

Because of neoliberalism. So light of the world is completly new socio economical system or welfare state, because it works better then neoliberalism.

Edited June 1, 2013 by the L

[Big Bad Voodoo]

I vote for renewable resources.

[Clarakore]

TED Radio Hour on NPR had a wonderful piece by Steve Pinker entitled, "Is the World a Less Violent Place?" (the 11:36 minute segment can be found on this page)

He pointed out that yes, we are less violent, less tribalistic, with societies that have the mechanisms to resolve issues without violence.

The fact that our own authorities and governments are better able to resolve differences without violence is a light of the world.

One interesting statistic presented was that in the last century war produced 100 million deaths but that could have had 2 billion if we had the same tribal mindset of those in the past.

Violence is decreasing in our world.

[Jello]

There are good things happening out there in the world. Funny how the masses aren't drawn to hearing good news in the papers. I'm sure eventually the world will become a better place for all soon enough. As human beings if we keep pushing ourselves toward disaster we're in for no hope.