Resistance to Change

There are only two type of people: privileged, and unprivileged. The privileged are the powerful one, controlling resource, and monopolizing the truth. The unprivileged are powerless, have no resource and the truth is forced upon them.

The history of humankind is a tug-of-war between the twos. Most of the time, the privileged win. But sometimes, at a very rare occasion, the unprivileged won. That time was recorded in many occasion in history, and usually it is a turning point that change the fate of many people. Such events were Magna Carta, American Revolution, French Revolution, Bolshevik Revolution, Iran Revolution, etc. The table was turned, and the constellation of power changed.

There are no right or wrong in the time of revolution, it is just power struggle. The new force, when the time is ripe will take over the old force, and when the time has come, will be replaced again by another one. It is the law of nature, that things must change.

Changes took place at a slower pace than expected. The one in power will try as hard as possible to keep the power intact. It has a momentum that may not be easily deflected. Even the rotten Roman Empire took several centuries to finally perish.

That's why, according to my opinion, revolution's worst enemy is time. Only when the time is ripe, changes happen...

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The Sins of The Commons

The title-I admit-sounds tendentious. I regret that I cannot find a better word to express my points. The title has relation at all with the religious meaning, such as doing unlawful acts against God. What I meant by the "sins of the commons" are the sins that we commit even without doing anything, the sins that all of us commit and share. Most of them are done because of ignorance or negligence. Some because the facts is totally hidden from us, some because of our lack of attention.

By just being a member of a social group or a citizen of a nation makes us a contributor of an evil act. By being a good citizen and a tax payer, while your money is used by your goverment to buy weapons to invade other country or to suppress certain group in your own country, have made you an evil accomplish. Moreover if you vote to support the current goverment for that term.

By buying a product that is produce by a company that use child labor, destroying environment or even killing certain group of people for economic resource have made you an evil accomplish.

And the worst thing is, by using money-which is cannot be helped-have made you a contributor of the current world monetary system that is unjust and unfair (I will explained it in other writing).

How can we manage to escape from these sins?

Educate your self to know which one is right or wrong, build a self-sufficient community, and organize a non violence civil disobedience movement, such as the one by Gandhi, when necessary!

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Power Play (continued from the Law of Retribution)

In my previous writing, it looks like that we need something more to create a better society. It's just that the reward and punishment paradigm is rooted too deep within our society. Almost all relationship is determined by reward and punishment. The management "bestow" the worker adequate-another word for money only enough to buy meager daily meal-pay, only when they have done their work well, your parents give you allowance when you behave, and of course Santa will bring you gifts in red sock if you behave. Our government also wants us to behave, and then they provide us. Childish, childish, childish...

This kind of relationship is a relation between a master and a servant, the one that has power and the one that is powerless, the oppressor and the oppressed, the tyrant and the slave. The masters will always try to keep the subordinates at bay, by making they believe that they must be grateful that the masters have done a noble job by governing them, and providing them. But the reality is, they want to keep their power.

The whole incidence in the world now can be explained using power play. There are no such thing as good and evil, the only thing that is real is power play (borrowing from Nietzche). The ones those have power can monopolize on what is-they think-is good, and the others as evil.

It impossible to build a fair and just world if all the components in the society do not possess the same bargaining position. The stronger will force the weaker one to follow their term. It is our obligation and destiny to make this world an even playing ground for all of the people, if we dream a better world.

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Law of Retribution

It has become a common mores that in order to achieve something, you have to do certain things in advance. But let me change the story a little bit. In order to be succeed, you have to work hard. At the first glance, nothing is wrong. But when you think that working hard is equal to suffering, then we have an issue. Do we need to suffer in order to achieve something good? What is wrong with that?

This way of thinking has colored almost all part of our lives, primarily in fraternity or sorority club. The same analogy works in the money world, in order to get something, you have to invest. In education world, you work hard in school, then you graduate and get a decent job. In love, you do anything that is possible to win the heart of your beloved one, then in the end happines is in your hand. Suffering, suffering, suffering... No wonder there is no joy in this world.

Is that true that you must suffer to achieve something? This way of thinking is affected much by the christian teology, mostly by the doctrine of hope. The doctrine of hope make people hang on, despite of the cruelty they suffer. In the early years of christianity, in the era of martyrdom, this was generally true. This doctrine made them fearless to any kind of tortures, because they believe that they would receive their retribution in heaven.

This is a good way to motivate people, but-borrowing from Freudian analysis-it is a childish way. A child does good things when you offer them candy. If you are a grown up and you still do good only when someone offer you candy, you are childish. Don't we do that? Yes, that someone is GOD, and the candy is retribution in heaven. A paradigm like this will only create a childish civilization. Waiting for rewards, or afraid of punishment. Not much good can be spring from this kind of civilization, OUR civilization.

to be continued...

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