Welcome to the Round World View

Welcome to the Round World: We are all "Joe"...Who, What, Where, When and Why?

Hello world...seems polite to start my first blog post off that way.  And welcome.  In this space going forward I hope to offer thoughts about life and our world that are a little different.  How "cliche" I know.  How many times have you heard that?  Too many.  Me too.  But I'm going to try, and I hope that I can actually deliver by just being myself. I also hope to engage with others here, critique the "popular narratives" we all hear, and offer a glimpse in to my day's "thought trail"...allowing myself a much needed cathartic release along the way. :-)  We all need one of those.  I don't want to pigeonhole this blog so I'm going to keep it at that.  I'm going to write about what I feel like writing about.  And hopefully someone else likes reading it.  

So why the name "Round World View"?  First of all...it was available (and only my third choice, jajjajajja ;-).  But I like it.  In a nutshell it describes my approach to life and my approach to thinking about my experiences and life's challenges.   And also it speaks to the broader fact that we live in a rapidly "shrinking" world.   The world is changing fast, and every day we are changing rapidly along with it.  Or we better be.  We have the largest library in human history at our fingertips, RIGHT NOW!  You're connected to the Internet via some sort of device...and in the time you read this sentence that "largest library" just got bigger.  And now bigger again.  It's a situation that is hard to wrap our minds around, and it's transformational.  Enlightenment kind of transformational. It's changing how we see ourselves on every level as it changes the dynamics of all our world systems symbiotically. 

For instance (and this is just one), being "American" in the U.S. sense of the word isn't what it used to be.  It's not even what we want it to be, and if you're like me, now you're not sure it ever was.  We're just beginning to realize it and this "library" at our fingertips is causing this identity crisis to grow, much like the printing press did to "Christians" centuries ago when the Church split forever.  Being "American" was always imagined...romantically, and to serve a variety of interests...mostly our self-interest, and that's not a bad thing.  We've been taught to think that being self-interested is a bad thing.  I'm here to tell you it's not!  And the reason you've been encouraged to think self-interest is bad, is because believing it's bad serves the interests of others who don't usually have your "interests" at heart.  All of us are starting to sense this...beginning to know this...I think.  And I would argue that recognizing that is somewhat liberating.  At least it is for me.  Challenging this manipulated identity that isn't serving your interests...and designed by advertisers on Madison Avenue and the DC Beltway to manipulate you...is necessary for survival now.

The people around you, especially "authority figures", who claim to have only your best interests at heart are lying to you...and to me of course.  I don't think this is a big revelation.  Others have said it before, and said it better.  Because even if these wannabe saints get satisfaction out of really helping others, that satisfaction serves their own self interests.  That's just simple logic.  And when they get on their soapbox self-righteously demanding you act out of your own self interest and go along with whatever "plan" they have "to just help others" (that they would run of course)...know that you are being patronized.  Know that they take you for a fool and a chump.  Guard your freedoms and pocketbook with all your might.  It is in our interest to have our neighbors be free and self sufficient...to have our communities work.  We don't need a bunch of self-proclaimed "do-gooders" managing that for us.  They aren't even good at it.  All the corruption, all the incompetence, creating all the crisis around us, prove that.  We are all adults living in an imperfect world having to make choices between imperfect options every day.  There is no magic bullet.  There is no "leader" coming to save us all.  And when you're asked, and often times being told, to give up your freedom and your earnings for some pie in the sky promise, remember that the freedom and earned wealth in question extends to all those around you and to all our future kin.  You are being coerced...conned...into taking their money and freedom away too.  Again, anyone claiming that your own interests aren't "good for you"...is lying to you, and to me. And when they claim you're too dumb to take care of yourself and your family ask yourself what they've accomplished...really?  Not what some newspaper or TV news anchor claims they've accomplished.  What they've really accomplished.  Nothing worth anything.  Just look at their resumes of failure.  I get offended...no, I get pissed when I'm being lied to and patronized.  Why others aren't, baffles me. 


And if we're starting to question what being "American" today is, then what about what we've been told about those people who aren't US...who aren't "Americans"...the "others"?  You know, those people in every other corner of the planet.  They don't all seem to be who we were told they were either.  Each of us who are the least bit inquisitive are starting to notice we have a lot in common with the "average Joe...or Jose...or Josef...or Yusop...or Yosef, or whatever word is used for 'Joseph' wherever", than we do with the "experts" and "leaders" claiming to share our interests...our "nationality"...and claiming to be in charge of our lives because they know better than we do how to live them.  This is a situation that will drive this blog.  Its scope is limitless.  We might think ignoring it makes us feel better, but it doesn't.  If you do, you're just "kicking the can down the road" clinging to a past that doesn't exist and working against your own self interest.  It's the reality of these "interesting times"...and it's a good thing, providing some peace of mind if you recognize it.   As Darwin noted so long ago...it's not the strongest or the smartest that will "survive".  It's the one that adapts the quickest and most efficiently.  Most people everywhere want the same things.  They want a little peace.  They want a little comfort. They want to find love and they want the most basic security of knowing they can put bread on the table for their families if they put a little work in to it.  We all want dignity.  Having to rely on someone else for our basic needs steals our dignity...while serving the self interest of someone else who wants to control you while claiming to be your savior.   

All of us feel the pressures of our day to day responsibilities.  That's nothing new.  This isn't a particularly unique time in that regard.  And it's not unique to the "average Joe" in the U.S either.  But more and more, if you're like me, we feel less and less in control of our lives. The systems that surround us want more and more of our time and money, while offering us less and less in return.  On any given day we try to balance the increasing pressures from our governments that "govern (I mean serve) us", our workplaces that "demand from us", our schools that claim to want to "educate" us, and our families who truly need us (and usually getting the short end of the stick).  The world is changing fast, and every day we are changing rapidly along with it.  Or we better be. 

It all seems random and chaotic.  I know.  But it's not really.  There are patterns happening, plans unfolding, and interests being served.  Shouldn't some of those interests be yours?  I'd be thrilled if it is...and I'll know the world will be a better place if we can make that happen.  In my job I talk to people every day who are confounded by the challenge of making sense out of their place in this time in which we live.  Sometimes I can help bring context.  And sometimes I can't.  But I do think I help just by listening and talking to them.  I had a friend, just today, do me wonders by just doing the same for me.  I like to talk and listen...and more and more I've had to accept that when they tell me they feel better because I've offered them some different way of considering their situation, the political system they feel cheated by or the economic system that seems designed to crush them...or even just life in general, they mean it.  People are good...well most people, the "average Joes" in this world.  As much as we're encouraged by the "smart people" running things to believe the opposite, they're wrong again...but convincing you that neighbors in your town and around the world are bad is doing what again?  Serving their interests.  There's a surprise, huh?  And we all know it when we pay attention to all the things that go right every day instead of the few things that went wrong.  We know who is helping us.  And we know who is causing usso much stress and pain.  

I appreciate you looking at my blog and hope you found something here in your self interest.  It won't always be heavy...but it's not going to just be fluff either.  And I'll probably annoy some people sometimes too.  I won't promise any kind of timeline of publishing either.  But it will be consistent.  It's what I want...it's in my interest to do so after all. ;-)

Leave a comment if you want.  I get ideas from you.