Ben Franklin on Persistency and Personal Goals
cn | 28 February, 2006 22:26
the Lifehacker.com blog had a very cool post the other day about Ben Franklin. Early in his life he developled a plan for himself for healthy and productive living. As Flamebright.com says:
...did you know that in 1726, at the age of 20, while on an 80-day ocean voyage from London back to Philadelphia, he developed a "Plan" for regulating his future conduct? He was partially motivated by Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." He followed the plan he created "pretty faithfully" even to the age of 79 (when he wrote about it), and he was even more determined to stick with it for his remaining days because of the happiness he had enjoyed so far by following it.
The 13-point plan:
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.
11. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
12. Tranquilit
y:
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
What's even more interesting (to me) is the method he used to achieve his goals (again, from Flamebright.com:
He committed to giving strict attention to one virtue each week so after 13 weeks he moved through all 13. After 13 weeks he would start the process over again so in one year he would complete the course a total of 4 times.
He tracked his progress by using a little book of 13 charts. At the top of each chart was one of the virtues. The charts had a column for each day of the week and thirteen rows marked with the first letter of each of the 13 virtues. Every evening he would review the day and put a mark (dot) next to each virtue for each fault committed with respect to that virtue for that day.
Naturally, his goal was to live his days and weeks without having to put any marks on his chart. Initially he found himself putting more marks on these pages than he ever imagined, but in time he enjoyed seeing them diminish. After awhile he went through the series only once per year and then only once in several years until finally omitting them entirely. But he always carried the little book with him as a reminder.
The Flamebright.com post is here.
Original Lifehacker.com post is here.
Posted in Education, Philosophy . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink
Khrushchev, Bush, and a Day in 1956
cn | 24 February, 2006 14:40
Fifty years ago this week (February 24th or 25th, depending on who you ask) Nikita Khrushchev, then the First Secretary of the Communist Party, delivered a speech to a closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress. It was quickly leaked to the public.
The significance? In that speech Khrushchev railed against the crimes of Stalin and the practices of the Soviet regime under Stalin, in which Khrushchev was a high-ranking participant.
The relevance? I wonder if and when such a speech will take place in the current era as, perhaps, a starting point in reconciling the get transgressions of the current American government.
Though I don't wish to suggest that the current regime is comparable to Stalin's, but they share many subtleties as highlighted in Khrushchev's speech. Here are some excerpts (boldface added by CN):
We have to consider seriously and analyze correctly [the crimes of the Stalin era] in order that we may preclude any possibility of a repetition in any form whatever of what took place during the life of Stalin, who absolutely did not tolerate collegiality in leadership and in work, and who practiced brutal violence, not only toward everything which opposed him, but also toward that which seemed to his capricious and despotic character, contrary to his concepts.
...
We must assert that, in regard to those persons who in their time had opposed the party line, there were often no sufficiently serious reasons for their physical annihilation. The formula “enemy of the people” was specifically introduced for the purpose of physically annihilating such individuals.
...
As facts prove, Stalin, using his unlimited power, allowed himself many abuses, acting in the name of the Central Committee, not asking for the opinion of the Committee members nor even the members of the Politburo, or even inform them ... Using Stalin’s formulation, namely, that the closer we are to Socialism the more enemies we will have
...
...the number of arrests based on charges of counter-revolutionary crimes grew 10 times between 1936 and 1937. ... Confessions of guilt were gained with the help of cruel and inhuman tortures ... when they retracted their confessions before the military tribunal [no one was told] ...
The speech became a seminal moment in the history of the USSR. It speaks not only of the repression machine of Stalin, but also of the submissive nature of the rest the political establishment.
With the quiet movement toward repression the the U.S., a public discussion of Khrushchev's speech on its 50th birthday has never been more relevant.
Excerpts taken from this site and this site.
Another interesting article by Nina Khrushchev - Nikita's great-granddaughter - can be found here at courant.com
Posted in Ethics, Politics, World Culture/Travel . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink
Freedom of Expression May be a Freedom, But Big Brother Wants You to Shut the Hell Up
cn | 23 February, 2006 10:34
A couple of days ago, BBC ran a story about a number of actors who starred in an award-winning film about Guantanamo Bay who were stopped at an airport in the UK as they were returning from the Berlin Film Festival. From the article:
The actors who star in movie The Road to Guantanamo were questioned by police at Luton airport under anti-terrorism legislation, it has emerged.
The men, who play British inmates at the detention camp, were returning from the Berlin Film Festival where the movie won a Silver Bear award.
One of the actors, Rizwan Ahmed, said a police officer asked him if he intended to make any more "political" films.
The issue is that there is absolutely no recourse for a British (in this case) or American citizen if an authoritiy figure, whether it be a federal agent, a local law enforcement officer, or even a privately employed sercuity staffer at an airport or other such place decides to detain you. The article reports that one of the actors was told he can be held for upto 48 hours without a lawyer...all this because he participated in making a movie that someone deems to be in opposition to the current policies of the government.
The BBC article is here.
boingboing post here.
IMDb of movie here.
Craig Murry blog posting on incident (with follow-up) here.
Posted in Legal, Movies, Politics . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink
Free Entrepreneurship eBook
ben | 23 February, 2006 00:11
At lifehacker.com today they had a post about Bruce Judson's book "Go It Alone", which is all about starting your own business...
...an important message of this book is that over the past few years, changes in the way businesses work and in supporting technology mean that there has never been a better time to start your own business. This book details how to conceptualize your business and how to focus your energy and efforts so that you can successfully go it alone.
I scanned some of it and though some of it I think is a bit rigid and formulaic, it does include some very good info.
You can download it here.
Posted in Business/Finance . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink
Whatever Happens, Don't Call the Police!
cn | 20 February, 2006 21:56
This is from Slashdot. I feel the need to include the entire post:
An anonymous reader writes "In one of the most blatant and frightening statements made on privacy, the Associated Press reports that Houston's police chief wants surveillance cameras in apartment buildings and even private homes. Chief Harold Hurtt wants building permits to require cameras in shopping malls and large apartment complexes. He also wants them in private homes if the homeowner has called the police repeatedly. So, if you're in Houston, don't call the cops too much, or they might install a camera the next time they show up. And what does Hurtt have to say about privacy concerns? 'I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?'"
Slashdot post here.
Posted in Ethics, Legal, Politics . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink
Government Recruits Kids, Kind Of...
cn | 18 February, 2006 19:59
Wanna help your kids learn how to spy - and desensitize them to big brother government and the reduction of individual rights and liberties - send them over to the kids section of the NSA's website. As AlterNet.org puts it:
Using cartoons, games and kid-friendly websites, the federal intelligence community is seeking to win the hearts and minds of America's children.
...
...at CryptoKids virtual HQ, with a toothy, sugar-cube smile and a nineteenth-century electro-transmitter, an eagle named CSS Sam presides over Operation: Dit-Dah, one of the NSA's games for aspiring young snoops and narcs. Sam teaches Morse code and challenges players to decrypt various words and phrases. For those skeptical about the applicability of 160-year-old Morse code in the Internet age, Sam reminds them in a "fun fact" that "in the movie Independence Day, when all other ways of communicating had been destroyed, the survivors of the alien attack used Morse code to collaborate a counter-attack plan."
It's not just government snoop organizations that blur fiction and fact, imagination and reality on their child-friendly sites. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms website, for example, features the essay "I'm a Bomb Dog Now!"--a first-canine account by Truman, an explosives-sniffing Labrador retriever who works with ATF Special Agent Joe Harrington in New England. Truman's job is essential to national security, he says, because "sometimes people do bad things to try to hurt others. I can help stop that from happening, or, if it has already happened, I can find evidence to help law enforcement officers find out who did it so that the person can never do it again."
With cartoons, games and anthropomorphic animals, America's intelligence community is ensuring security for the next generation. How safe do you feel?
Check out the excellent Rights and Liberties section of AlterNet.org here, and the NSA article is here.
Posted in Ethics, Politics . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink
MPAA - We Can Break the Rules We Demand
cn | 18 February, 2006 17:05
A brief clip from Metroland a couple of weeks ago about certain practices of the MPAA, who has been lobbying congress hard for numerous restrictions on the private use of purchased movies, to such a great extent that they hope to outlaw forward-moving technologies that might enable users to copy movies illegally even if the intended use of the technology is perfectly legal:
The Motion Picture Association of America says movie piracy is “a serious federal offense-carry[ing] serious legal consequences.” But when This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which is highly critical of the MPAA’s rating system, was submitted to the association for rating with the express request that no copies be made of it, Kori Bernards, MPAA’s vice president for corporate communications, made copies and distributed them to staff because “it had implications for our employees.” Remember that language, kids, next time you’re threatened with a downloading suit.
From Metroland.
Posted in Computers/Technology, Movies, Politics . Comment: (0). Trackbacks:(0). Permalink