Oct 05 2011
 Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| TYou’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.
–John Lennon |
 Waves 2 |
Oct 04 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
–Friedrich Nietzsche |
 Waves |
Oct 03 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come. –Dalai Lama |
 Shades 2 |
Sep 30 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. –Benjamin Franklin |
 Symbol 3 |
Sep 29 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
–Mohandas Gandhi |
 Symbol 2 |
Sep 28 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. –Buddha
|
 Symbol |
Sep 27 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell. –Buddha |
 Red and Gray |
Sep 26 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.
–Buddha |
 Blue and Gray |
Sep 22 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
–Abraham Lincoln |
 Hasty 4 |
Sep 22 2011
“Nothing differentiates people as much as their respective attitudes to the circumstances in which they live. Those who opt to make history and change the course of events themselves have an advantage over those who decide to wait passively for the results of the change.”
Over and over, I see commentary asserting we are stuck with our current cultural norms. The “rational” people of the world patiently explain to me how I am too idealistic. I am naïve and believe too deeply in the good nature of most people. Yet, the rational people only have their assertions to stand on. History is fraught with examples of people who fought for and won real change. People like the Basques in Mondragon. They created lasting change under deplorable conditions. Even a cursory review of history shows change occurs when and where people decide to change. You don’t live in a feudal monarchy rife with slaves and infanticide-all well ingrained institutions the Ancient Greeks considered necessary evils of civilization-because people decided to change.
In the first part of this series, I described how a Jesuit priest named Don Jose created a Basque cooperative–Mondragon. He could hardly have started from a more impossible position. Basque was severely oppressed, poor and under a harsh dictatorship. His Church considered him a pariah, and he was a poor speaker and sermon writer. Yet, he refused to dwell on his disadvantages, concentrating on finding Basque strengths, instead.
In part two, we examined Don Jose’s unique genius in organizing his local society. He felt it was never necessary for someone to win while someone else lost. That scenario showed a lack of ingenuity. He examined problems until he saw a solution allowing the common good for everyone.
Some argue Mondragon arose from Basque because a specific set of non-reproducible circumstances existed. To me, that sounds like rationalization to let ourselves off the hook for not seeking to better our world. While I agree Mondragon originated in Basque due to a specific set of circumstances, clearly those factors are not needed to reproduce cooperative society.
What may be necessary is a certain environment in order to affect positive change. This post will look at some of the factors influencing people’s willingness to change during the creation of Mondragon and how to use those factors to enable change in our own culture.
Sep 21 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
–Kurt Vonnegut |
 Hasty 3 |
Sep 20 2011
| Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| There is in a man an upwelling spring of life, energy, love, whatever you like to call it. If a course is not cut for it, it turns the ground round it into a swamp.
–Mark Rutherford (William Hale White) |
 Hasty 2 |