Now days promoted crazes hit the big cities of the world and it is categorized under the name of the popular culture. Actually these trends are the business strategies of multi national companies that can be categorized under the pseudo culture but not as a culture. Culture is the values that a society or a nation develops. Values have a higher rank than laws as law are minimum requirements of a society while values are the degrees of the excellence in the society.
Multinational companies can build and promote a peculiar trend through advertisements but can’t create cultures, as the sets of the values that develop under a culture do not support the business strategies. The world of business is very unpredictable and the world of the values is very clear and visionary that the two worlds are most of the time in conflicts with each others.
Yes it is right that the life of the people is more influenced through extensive advertisements rather than cultures but again the choices that people make are based on cultural values and boundaries. Values evolve and remain there intact but business strategies will change and the popular cultures raised by them give way to new trends. Values are organic, means they grow as they are enriched by knowledge and human experiences, hence they have very strong influence in the positive learning, while popular culture have negative learning effects.
The most drastic difference in every aspects of the human life is the difference of purpose. The popular culture has no purpose except of the promotion of particular or a set of products or services but values are always purposed for the human excellence. Popular culture is comparable to post modernism. As post modernism is the meaning of meaninglessness so is the popular culture.
I think post modern is designed and propagated to control the powers that modern men have got from creativity, knowledge and connectivity through different medium. Surely, organized, creative, aware and able modern men would change the world by leaving little space for exploitations and injustices. But alas! Post modernism and popular culture divided men by the name of individuality and personal choices and personal identities. This division led modern men to unorganized and confused creative individuals who could be easily influenced by the small personal interests and whose potentials could easily exploited.
Surely, the human societies are organic and they can’t be in same situation for long. As the mass media that once was totally owned and regulated by multinational companies and states are leaving their way to small personal media. The World Wide Web and the social networks are playing important role in this context. These personal web sites and social networks will make people more logical as the people become more accustomed and familiar with them. This is a source of hope for next generation of modern men. Surely, the values will make their way through logical people and multinational companies, businesses and states will not resist for long to desires and wishes of people. These changes in medias and hence in behavior of people will force the businesses to change their strategies to make more room for values also.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Non violence movements in Hazara Society
Non violence movements in India, South Africa and United States is not a strange phenomenon as both governments and people in these areas have long roots in ancient civilization and modern civilization where the people are settled in pluralistic and democratic cultures. But in Afghanistan in a country where for more than one and half century the Hazaras are massacred, enslaved, forcefully displaced, heavily taxed, forcefully converted, kept in siege, looted, burned and have banned from participation in governance and have kept in cave age with no modern civic developments, again the Hazaras takes the most democratic means of non violence movements for their rights is really strange. IT IS REALLY STRANGE BECAUSE THE US and the EU is well aware of the history and present conditions of Hazaras and Hazarajat and their cooperation with US and EU but they have left Hazaras to mercy of those forces that have been involved in massacres and exploitation of Hazaras.
The Non violence in Hazara Society is really strange as Hazaras had a parallel revolution against feudalism when the world involved in war against the invasion of USSR into Afghanistan. Hazaras also involved in armed struggle during the communist era and post communist era of Mujahiddin periods. A nation who is involved in thirty years of arms struggle, how could
switched into non violence movements?
The answer is simple. It is the trust of Hazara nation in the freedom, liberty, democracy, human rights and all civic principles based on which the modern globalized societies have laid their foundations. It is also the trust of Hazaras on the international forces that are shedding their blood and investing their resources to curb extremism and terrorism that Hazaras have fought against for more than one and a half century.
If the international community really wants to have great achievements in Afghanistan and to see the results of the blood they have shed and the resources that have invested in the Afghanistan they have to help the Hazara community and making Hazarajat able to home the modern civilized nation of Hazaras. Hazarajat can become symbol of achievements and a hub to change Central Asia, South Asia and Middle East.
Non Violence movement in Afghanistan:
One of the tactics that the Afghan Kings and establishments used for ethnic cleansing of Hazaras and confiscating their lands were Kuchis. For thirty of parallel revolution in Hazarajat, the Kuchis didn’t come to Hazarajat because they knew their historical records and the anger of Hazaras against them. But as soon as the Transitional governments established due to the Bonn agreements and there were no space for ethnic cleansing and confiscating of Hazara land, once again the Kuchis were used with support of racist supremacist and religious extremists. The armed nomads (Kuchis) start killing and kidnapping people, burning fields and homes and looting homes, cattle and grain reserves of people.
These invasions of Kuchis could be stopped by arms and could start a civil war. A nation which has fought thirty years of wars could manage and build a capacity for more wars but still Hazaras chose peaceful means.
1- Hazaras have completely disarmed under Diag project and changed their armed faction into political movements.
2- The political leadership of Hazaras several times met with president Karzai and requested him to stop and ban on invasions of Kuchis and also raise their voices in national Parliament.
3- As the government as well as international community is ignored they threatened for separation of Diag project and national government.
4- When again there were again the continuity of policy of ignoring and inactivity so the Hazara leader, Ustad Mohammad Muhaqiq went on hunger strike in protest to ignoring the bloodshed and occupation of Hazara lands.
5- The large demonstrations in Kabul, Heart, Mazar and Bamiyan in favor of protests of Ustad Muhaqiq. It forced the government to withdraw the Kuchis from Hazarajat.
http://www.topnews.in/thousands-hazaras-protest-kabul-over-land-dispute-nomads-253925
Non Violence movements in Hazaras of Pakistan:
From March 2004 till April 2008, more than 250 Hazaras are killed by suicide bombings and serial target killings in which their political leaderships, professionals, government officials, traders and common men are all equally targeted. The purpose was to slow down Hazaras economic and administrative successes they have achieved as well as to indulge them in sectarian and ethnic conflicts to change the change progressive democratic of Hazaras to an extremist societies. Hazara society in Quetta has a well developed and civilized community so they chose non violence movements.
1- Hazaras with cooperation of Union of Traders of Baluchistan held a week of protest in which peaceful demonstrations in different areas of city and press conferences.
2- Several seminars were held within Hazara community.
3- After a week of demonstrations the grand inter tribal, inter political parties jirga (meeting) was held in the General Mohammad Musa Khan College, where several proposals were recommended.
4- The proposals of grand jirga were presented to Baluchistan Assembly which were passed unanimously and asked the provincial governments to act on resolution.
The newspaper, THE NEWS, reported this way,
BA slams target killings of Hazaras,demands arrest of terrorists
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=168947
“Wednesday,March,25,2009
QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly (BA) on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution, condemning the target killings of Hazara tribesmen and settlers and demanding of the government to arrest the terrorists and perpetrators involved in the target killings in Quetta.
Speaker Muhammad Aslam Bhotani presided over the session. The resolution was tabled by PPP lawmaker Jan Ali Changezi. The mover, expressing concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan, including the provincial capital, demanded of the government to implement the recommendations of the “Grand Jirga” held on March 18, 2009 in the city.”
It is really strange to me that Hazaras even under intense pressures and losses maintained their peaceful means of struggle while terrorism and violence is part of very small and negligible tribes and communities all over Pakistan. Hazaras living in heart of capital city of Baluchistan with half a million population and strong educational and economic achievements has the capacity to cease the city’s activities and they have proved that they have the capacity to do so by resisting the Marshal Law of Zia Ul Haq who hanged the most popular leader of Pakistan Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto without resistance. The resistance of Hazaras against Zia Ul Haq’s dictatorship and Army operation on Hazara community in July of 1985 proved that Hazaras can’t accept illegitimate and undemocratic decisions in which their rights are challenged. And when a democratic government adopt a policy of ignoring and pressing people who have elected them then non violence movements along with building trust in fellow tribes and nations they can achieve their rights as well as prove their basic identity.
First Published in April 6th, 2009
The Non violence in Hazara Society is really strange as Hazaras had a parallel revolution against feudalism when the world involved in war against the invasion of USSR into Afghanistan. Hazaras also involved in armed struggle during the communist era and post communist era of Mujahiddin periods. A nation who is involved in thirty years of arms struggle, how could
switched into non violence movements?
The answer is simple. It is the trust of Hazara nation in the freedom, liberty, democracy, human rights and all civic principles based on which the modern globalized societies have laid their foundations. It is also the trust of Hazaras on the international forces that are shedding their blood and investing their resources to curb extremism and terrorism that Hazaras have fought against for more than one and a half century.
If the international community really wants to have great achievements in Afghanistan and to see the results of the blood they have shed and the resources that have invested in the Afghanistan they have to help the Hazara community and making Hazarajat able to home the modern civilized nation of Hazaras. Hazarajat can become symbol of achievements and a hub to change Central Asia, South Asia and Middle East.
Non Violence movement in Afghanistan:
One of the tactics that the Afghan Kings and establishments used for ethnic cleansing of Hazaras and confiscating their lands were Kuchis. For thirty of parallel revolution in Hazarajat, the Kuchis didn’t come to Hazarajat because they knew their historical records and the anger of Hazaras against them. But as soon as the Transitional governments established due to the Bonn agreements and there were no space for ethnic cleansing and confiscating of Hazara land, once again the Kuchis were used with support of racist supremacist and religious extremists. The armed nomads (Kuchis) start killing and kidnapping people, burning fields and homes and looting homes, cattle and grain reserves of people.
These invasions of Kuchis could be stopped by arms and could start a civil war. A nation which has fought thirty years of wars could manage and build a capacity for more wars but still Hazaras chose peaceful means.
1- Hazaras have completely disarmed under Diag project and changed their armed faction into political movements.
2- The political leadership of Hazaras several times met with president Karzai and requested him to stop and ban on invasions of Kuchis and also raise their voices in national Parliament.
3- As the government as well as international community is ignored they threatened for separation of Diag project and national government.
4- When again there were again the continuity of policy of ignoring and inactivity so the Hazara leader, Ustad Mohammad Muhaqiq went on hunger strike in protest to ignoring the bloodshed and occupation of Hazara lands.
5- The large demonstrations in Kabul, Heart, Mazar and Bamiyan in favor of protests of Ustad Muhaqiq. It forced the government to withdraw the Kuchis from Hazarajat.
http://www.topnews.in/thousands-hazaras-protest-kabul-over-land-dispute-nomads-253925
Non Violence movements in Hazaras of Pakistan:
From March 2004 till April 2008, more than 250 Hazaras are killed by suicide bombings and serial target killings in which their political leaderships, professionals, government officials, traders and common men are all equally targeted. The purpose was to slow down Hazaras economic and administrative successes they have achieved as well as to indulge them in sectarian and ethnic conflicts to change the change progressive democratic of Hazaras to an extremist societies. Hazara society in Quetta has a well developed and civilized community so they chose non violence movements.
1- Hazaras with cooperation of Union of Traders of Baluchistan held a week of protest in which peaceful demonstrations in different areas of city and press conferences.
2- Several seminars were held within Hazara community.
3- After a week of demonstrations the grand inter tribal, inter political parties jirga (meeting) was held in the General Mohammad Musa Khan College, where several proposals were recommended.
4- The proposals of grand jirga were presented to Baluchistan Assembly which were passed unanimously and asked the provincial governments to act on resolution.
The newspaper, THE NEWS, reported this way,
BA slams target killings of Hazaras,demands arrest of terrorists
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=168947
“Wednesday,March,25,2009
QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly (BA) on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution, condemning the target killings of Hazara tribesmen and settlers and demanding of the government to arrest the terrorists and perpetrators involved in the target killings in Quetta.
Speaker Muhammad Aslam Bhotani presided over the session. The resolution was tabled by PPP lawmaker Jan Ali Changezi. The mover, expressing concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan, including the provincial capital, demanded of the government to implement the recommendations of the “Grand Jirga” held on March 18, 2009 in the city.”
It is really strange to me that Hazaras even under intense pressures and losses maintained their peaceful means of struggle while terrorism and violence is part of very small and negligible tribes and communities all over Pakistan. Hazaras living in heart of capital city of Baluchistan with half a million population and strong educational and economic achievements has the capacity to cease the city’s activities and they have proved that they have the capacity to do so by resisting the Marshal Law of Zia Ul Haq who hanged the most popular leader of Pakistan Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto without resistance. The resistance of Hazaras against Zia Ul Haq’s dictatorship and Army operation on Hazara community in July of 1985 proved that Hazaras can’t accept illegitimate and undemocratic decisions in which their rights are challenged. And when a democratic government adopt a policy of ignoring and pressing people who have elected them then non violence movements along with building trust in fellow tribes and nations they can achieve their rights as well as prove their basic identity.
First Published in April 6th, 2009
Speciation (Under-construction)
Currently two concepts of species are generally accepted and are used. The first and primitive one is typological approach and the second is population approach (Biological Speciation Concept). When put in practice to study the mechanisms of variations these two concepts contradict with each other. In fact the BSC favores more an escape from competition and survival of fittest concept of Darwinian concept of evolution.
1. Allopatric Speciation
Speciation starts when a population is isolated from main population. There are two ways in which a population is isolated. They are isolated either by geographical barriers (Oceans, Mountain ranges, Deserts) or by living of organisms on the fringes of main population. Even adjacent population diverge into new species due to limited gene flow. This is called parapatric speciation. Both these processes of speciation is an escape speciation contrary to competitive speciation of Darwinian concept of evolution.
There are other ways of speciation which are not much evident as are allopatric and parapatric speciation, like sympatric speciation and ring speciation. These speciations are also an escape from competition. In sympatric speciation where two populaitons are overlapping and there is plenty of gene flow among them but they diverge because their hybrids are not fit enough.
Similarly, ring species interact with each other and there is gene flow but the end product is totally different from each others. All these speciations illustrate that organisms try to avoid competitions so they don't waste their energy.
1. Allopatric Speciation
Speciation starts when a population is isolated from main population. There are two ways in which a population is isolated. They are isolated either by geographical barriers (Oceans, Mountain ranges, Deserts) or by living of organisms on the fringes of main population. Even adjacent population diverge into new species due to limited gene flow. This is called parapatric speciation. Both these processes of speciation is an escape speciation contrary to competitive speciation of Darwinian concept of evolution.
There are other ways of speciation which are not much evident as are allopatric and parapatric speciation, like sympatric speciation and ring speciation. These speciations are also an escape from competition. In sympatric speciation where two populaitons are overlapping and there is plenty of gene flow among them but they diverge because their hybrids are not fit enough.
Similarly, ring species interact with each other and there is gene flow but the end product is totally different from each others. All these speciations illustrate that organisms try to avoid competitions so they don't waste their energy.
Academic Buddha’s??? Searching for Happiness?
A common world view:
Science and religion are two largest sources of authorities in making world views of people. Science’s main focus is on origins and religion’s main focus is on purpose so it is why we can find people are following both. Majority of educated people following both in a coexisting frame of looking to origins from perspective of science and to the purpose of their life from perspective of religion.
Science has well recorded efforts of explaining the origins and we can track the developments of major theories that are commonly known. Science is a perpetual struggle to dig deeper in origins. Few examples are as follows,
Big bang is an explanation of science to origin of universe.
Plate tectonics is an explanation of origin of changes in earth’s crust.
Evolution is an explanation of origin of living being.
Quantum mechanics is an explanation of origin of matter, energy and time.
On other hand, religion’s main focus is on the purpose of life. (Though every religion has their own views about origins but they don’t stress much as science do) Morality is the core of every religion where everything is defined in terms of good or bad. If we want to simplify a religious stress on purpose, based on morality, we can do it as follows,
If you healthy so the purpose of your health is help those who are not healthy (ill)
If you have wealth so the purpose of your wealth is help those who don’t have wealth (poor)
If you are educated so the purpose of your education is to help those who didn’t get education (illiterate or less educated people).
If you are law abiding individual so you have to convince those who break the laws (criminals) and so on.
The actions based on these good and bad are judged in the next world where unlike this world where good and bad coexist, good have a separate world, “Paradise” and bad have its own separate world, “Hell”. The main purpose of every religion is having a moral life.
We can easily conclude that both Science and religion has their definitions of what they are looking into. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT IS MOST PEOPLE FOLLOW BOTH ON THEIR EASE.
A common philosophy of Happiness:
Though the philosophy of Epicurus and Gotham Buddha is famous in how to pursue a happy life but when it is constituted in the US constitution people are let free to define their happiness. There is diversity in perspectives of happiness but the common concept of happiness just like any other concept takes its views from both religion and science (We have already mentioned that most modern men look to science and religion as a coexisting world views).
People’s perspectives of religious happiness:
People try at their best to have a moral life and live according to will of God they worship. From relationships, to dietary and to earnings they feel good when they act morally.
People’s perspectives of scientific happiness:
People rely on the science and products of science as a source of well being. People try to adopt new products to make their lives happier, from computers, to cars to electric appliances and synthetic products in their homes and offices.
Here both Scientific and religious products coexists. It is a common approach of people to happiness. What Gotham Buddha and Epicurus are saying comes next. When traders and authorities come in between to manipulate scientific products and religious products for their benefits makes peoples common judgments shaky. Advertisements make people spend and consume more than they need in search for more luxury and to be better by struggling against others moralities.
When people are lost from their track they look for happiness’s definitions, perspectives and techniques. They search in hope of finding a definition or a way to make them happier or at least back on track. Here we find a lot of GURUS teaching people, how to be happier. Certainly! Everyone search happiness according to their own methodologies. Religious authorities search them in verses to locate what happiness means. Monks search in the teachings and practices of the Buddha to find meaning of happiness. Also there is scientists who design experiments to observe responses of brains to stimulus to find what brain areas is responsible and how they can manipulate their studies result to make devices, drugs or techniques to use in curing. Also there are behavioral scientists that keep people under observations to collect data and statistically find behavioral adaptations of people to happiness. These all approaches we mentioned are a way to crack happiness but still we don’t find happiness vague and without a proper definition. Why, because all try to make happiness fitting into their own methods. They are not searching what happiness is in its raw and real nature as it is.
Happiness?
It is a custom that when one search for something, he must know what he is searching for? If someone generalizes, it could be misleading. Even if you want to shop for clothing, you do not generalize that I am going to shop for clothing. You specify what you want. It is really strange that we generalize states of mind under happiness. It is a misleading and one by a small pondering can get the key mistakes.
Both Gotham Buddha and Epicurus are based their works to how avoid the miseries. Gotham’s stress was on limiting expectations and Epicurus stressed on becoming self sufficient by avoiding synthesized needs by markets or society. Both these approaches are looking to happiness as cessation of miseries and sadness. Both of them were looking to sadness as caused by external stimulus so they were advocating of limiting external sources of sadness (For example expectations in case of Buddha and advertisements in case of Epicurus).
But does really happiness means cessation of pains, miseries and sadness? Or it is something else? People may not wonder much about happiness and sadness as they are temporary states and they come and go. Most have convinced themselves to just live with them as they think life is a mixture of happiness and sad.
But does happiness is a momentarily states that alternate with sadness? Until we do not define happiness we can’t judge well because there are other states of mind that comes and goes and we confuse them with happiness. Pleasure, pain, sadness, fatigue, sleeplessness, hunger, anger, joys, good mood, boredom and so on to name.
What happiness is?
Once we define happiness, we can measure our feelings against happiness. Happiness is a self convinced state of mind. Anything and act that is convincing mind adds to our happiness and anything that turns our minds against us decrease our happiness.
Happiness is specific to mind. Dreams, imaginations, knowledge, skills, world views and opinions, achievements, learning, positions and possessions, relationships are these things that are what occupies the largest portion and time of mind and all these are not temporary states of mind. They are always there in mind. Minds are always engaged with professional matters, family affairs, learning, world views, people’s opinions about you, and your financial status and so on. We can’t escape out these by adopting any technique because they are what makes our mind or at least we recognize ourselves with.
As comes to food, vacations, clothing, colors, music, theatre, you can make your mind and change it frequently without much to think or care about them. Why? Because they are momentarily, they come and go.
Hence, your mind categorizes things according to their importance. If dreams, imaginations, knowledge, skills, world views, achievements, learning, creative works, positions and possessions and relationships are the sources of happiness and soothing of mind so they are always there in your mind. Happiness is there but its levels are lowered and raised by adding something new or losing something out of it.
It is different from pleasure/enjoyments and sadness/grieves. Pleasure, enjoyments, sadness and pain are excited states of mind. They may cause happiness but are not happiness. When they convince the mind, they become part of happiness. Someone may suppose that sadness is an opposite of happiness. If we are not sad so we are happy. It is not the case. Let’s examine it with an example. If you are in love with someone his or her memories may cause you sad but you like this sadness because your mind is convinced of having his or her love (A satisfaction of attachment). We can take this example to some more depth. The religious men that get pain or feeling sad in their practices or on way of religions, they feel happy to these pains and sadness because their minds are convinced of being on right path or by feeling of achievements or goodness.
We can elaborate this by looking at development of pleasures and enjoyments and also sadness. A child may get pleased by candies, a bicycle, a game or a fairy tale. When you get older then you may lose interests in these sources of pleasures and may need something new to become pleased. By passing time one’s sources of pleasures also matures. More serious or valued things make him please. Why the sources of pleasures change while our senses are the same. Our minds grow to become more mature so our personalities.
Until now we have,
1- Defined happiness as a self convinced state of mind.
2- Happiness is not a temporary state of mind. It is always there but its levels may rise or decline by achieving or losing something of prior importance in convincing our mind.
3- Happiness is different from temporarily states of mind, like pleasure, pain and likes and dislikes like color, food, wearing, vacations, partying, music, etc.
Levels of happiness:
Now that we have defined happiness as a self convinced state of mind and we have concluded that happiness is always there and it has a level that rise or fall so there must be a measurable level of happiness also. Unfortunately, happiness does not have symptoms like pleasure and fun to make you laugh or blush that one could judge how much you have enjoyed your happiness. Yes! Sudden changes in levels of happiness can cause blushing, cry, laughing or running. But it is rare. People enjoy their happiness just by thinking or imagining about them.
Though happiness is difficult to measure but it is the most basic ingredient in constructing a personality.
How happiness construct your personality?
By our definition, "happiness is what makes your mind to be convinced". There is practical applications of this definition in real life. You may set few hours for your studies but you will study seriously when your mind is convinced to study. Traditionally it is known as "concentration" but I call it, "convinced time". By convinced time I mean the time that you really wanted to study and have studies. You may spend several hours one time with your book by name of reading and read only few pages. Another time you may read a chapter or two in the same amount of time. You can have another example related reading which is endorsing this idea. A subject that attracts you, "means have convinced your mind" you may spend more hours to read it and also by more concentrations and so become more productive in less amount of time. A subject that is of not interest to you, you may fight with yourself for a quiet amount of time to convince yourself in reading it. A lots of time and less production. Still you may not love a subject but because of its importance (either because of exam or because of some other rewards) your mind easily become convinced to concentrate on it. OK! whatever the source or method is, it is now settled that convincing of mind is necessary. After learning you will get a sense of acheivement that adds in your happiness or your mind become convinced of what it has gotten. It is a mechanism of personality building by happiness.
Let’s make of an analogy of our personality to a basin that has a mid oceanic ridge system (Bring geological time scale to one’s life time). As time pass this ocean become larger and deeper. When it was small and shallow, small winds and inflow of solutions could cause waves and turnovers. But as oceans get deeper and larger, it requires higher changes in weather, wind velocities and more density flows to cause waves or turnovers. Personality has the same patterns. The larger the personality becomes the smaller becomes the effects of pleasures on it but despite it become more calm (satisfied by its existence and achievements). Happiness is the growth of personality not pleasures, enjoyments and sadness. They are only excited states of minds and their effects depend on the levels of personalities.
Academic mistakes in studying happiness:
Happiness is still an individualistic endeavor. Mistakes are made when one confuses it with pleasures and enjoyments and try to make index of happiness by studying a few thousands of people in their excited states (enjoyments). Statistical studies of happiness has two serious drawback,
1- Measuring a mass of people with same measuring stick.
2- Measuring responses of people to their excited state (joys and pleasures) as measure of happiness.
These two drawbacks are enough to reject these statistical approach and their results. Conclusions that we get happiness from our social networks are correct to a level where social networks are able to convince the minds. If a mind is not convinced by his/her social network then this rule does not apply on him and it won’t help him. We can see the difference of levels of happiness from social networks in East and West. Weak social networks in West decline their levels of happiness despite economic well being. On other hand strong social networks in East compensate for weaker economic status.
You can find an example (by clicking on following link) of how academicians manipulate the data for defining and guiding people on happiness. Certainly, academicians think of themselves as modern Buddha. But are they on the right path??????????????
http://people.virginia.edu/~tdw/wilson.meyers.gilbert.social.cog.03.pdf
Science and religion are two largest sources of authorities in making world views of people. Science’s main focus is on origins and religion’s main focus is on purpose so it is why we can find people are following both. Majority of educated people following both in a coexisting frame of looking to origins from perspective of science and to the purpose of their life from perspective of religion.
Science has well recorded efforts of explaining the origins and we can track the developments of major theories that are commonly known. Science is a perpetual struggle to dig deeper in origins. Few examples are as follows,
Big bang is an explanation of science to origin of universe.
Plate tectonics is an explanation of origin of changes in earth’s crust.
Evolution is an explanation of origin of living being.
Quantum mechanics is an explanation of origin of matter, energy and time.
On other hand, religion’s main focus is on the purpose of life. (Though every religion has their own views about origins but they don’t stress much as science do) Morality is the core of every religion where everything is defined in terms of good or bad. If we want to simplify a religious stress on purpose, based on morality, we can do it as follows,
If you healthy so the purpose of your health is help those who are not healthy (ill)
If you have wealth so the purpose of your wealth is help those who don’t have wealth (poor)
If you are educated so the purpose of your education is to help those who didn’t get education (illiterate or less educated people).
If you are law abiding individual so you have to convince those who break the laws (criminals) and so on.
The actions based on these good and bad are judged in the next world where unlike this world where good and bad coexist, good have a separate world, “Paradise” and bad have its own separate world, “Hell”. The main purpose of every religion is having a moral life.
We can easily conclude that both Science and religion has their definitions of what they are looking into. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT IS MOST PEOPLE FOLLOW BOTH ON THEIR EASE.
A common philosophy of Happiness:
Though the philosophy of Epicurus and Gotham Buddha is famous in how to pursue a happy life but when it is constituted in the US constitution people are let free to define their happiness. There is diversity in perspectives of happiness but the common concept of happiness just like any other concept takes its views from both religion and science (We have already mentioned that most modern men look to science and religion as a coexisting world views).
People’s perspectives of religious happiness:
People try at their best to have a moral life and live according to will of God they worship. From relationships, to dietary and to earnings they feel good when they act morally.
People’s perspectives of scientific happiness:
People rely on the science and products of science as a source of well being. People try to adopt new products to make their lives happier, from computers, to cars to electric appliances and synthetic products in their homes and offices.
Here both Scientific and religious products coexists. It is a common approach of people to happiness. What Gotham Buddha and Epicurus are saying comes next. When traders and authorities come in between to manipulate scientific products and religious products for their benefits makes peoples common judgments shaky. Advertisements make people spend and consume more than they need in search for more luxury and to be better by struggling against others moralities.
When people are lost from their track they look for happiness’s definitions, perspectives and techniques. They search in hope of finding a definition or a way to make them happier or at least back on track. Here we find a lot of GURUS teaching people, how to be happier. Certainly! Everyone search happiness according to their own methodologies. Religious authorities search them in verses to locate what happiness means. Monks search in the teachings and practices of the Buddha to find meaning of happiness. Also there is scientists who design experiments to observe responses of brains to stimulus to find what brain areas is responsible and how they can manipulate their studies result to make devices, drugs or techniques to use in curing. Also there are behavioral scientists that keep people under observations to collect data and statistically find behavioral adaptations of people to happiness. These all approaches we mentioned are a way to crack happiness but still we don’t find happiness vague and without a proper definition. Why, because all try to make happiness fitting into their own methods. They are not searching what happiness is in its raw and real nature as it is.
Happiness?
It is a custom that when one search for something, he must know what he is searching for? If someone generalizes, it could be misleading. Even if you want to shop for clothing, you do not generalize that I am going to shop for clothing. You specify what you want. It is really strange that we generalize states of mind under happiness. It is a misleading and one by a small pondering can get the key mistakes.
Both Gotham Buddha and Epicurus are based their works to how avoid the miseries. Gotham’s stress was on limiting expectations and Epicurus stressed on becoming self sufficient by avoiding synthesized needs by markets or society. Both these approaches are looking to happiness as cessation of miseries and sadness. Both of them were looking to sadness as caused by external stimulus so they were advocating of limiting external sources of sadness (For example expectations in case of Buddha and advertisements in case of Epicurus).
But does really happiness means cessation of pains, miseries and sadness? Or it is something else? People may not wonder much about happiness and sadness as they are temporary states and they come and go. Most have convinced themselves to just live with them as they think life is a mixture of happiness and sad.
But does happiness is a momentarily states that alternate with sadness? Until we do not define happiness we can’t judge well because there are other states of mind that comes and goes and we confuse them with happiness. Pleasure, pain, sadness, fatigue, sleeplessness, hunger, anger, joys, good mood, boredom and so on to name.
What happiness is?
Once we define happiness, we can measure our feelings against happiness. Happiness is a self convinced state of mind. Anything and act that is convincing mind adds to our happiness and anything that turns our minds against us decrease our happiness.
Happiness is specific to mind. Dreams, imaginations, knowledge, skills, world views and opinions, achievements, learning, positions and possessions, relationships are these things that are what occupies the largest portion and time of mind and all these are not temporary states of mind. They are always there in mind. Minds are always engaged with professional matters, family affairs, learning, world views, people’s opinions about you, and your financial status and so on. We can’t escape out these by adopting any technique because they are what makes our mind or at least we recognize ourselves with.
As comes to food, vacations, clothing, colors, music, theatre, you can make your mind and change it frequently without much to think or care about them. Why? Because they are momentarily, they come and go.
Hence, your mind categorizes things according to their importance. If dreams, imaginations, knowledge, skills, world views, achievements, learning, creative works, positions and possessions and relationships are the sources of happiness and soothing of mind so they are always there in your mind. Happiness is there but its levels are lowered and raised by adding something new or losing something out of it.
It is different from pleasure/enjoyments and sadness/grieves. Pleasure, enjoyments, sadness and pain are excited states of mind. They may cause happiness but are not happiness. When they convince the mind, they become part of happiness. Someone may suppose that sadness is an opposite of happiness. If we are not sad so we are happy. It is not the case. Let’s examine it with an example. If you are in love with someone his or her memories may cause you sad but you like this sadness because your mind is convinced of having his or her love (A satisfaction of attachment). We can take this example to some more depth. The religious men that get pain or feeling sad in their practices or on way of religions, they feel happy to these pains and sadness because their minds are convinced of being on right path or by feeling of achievements or goodness.
We can elaborate this by looking at development of pleasures and enjoyments and also sadness. A child may get pleased by candies, a bicycle, a game or a fairy tale. When you get older then you may lose interests in these sources of pleasures and may need something new to become pleased. By passing time one’s sources of pleasures also matures. More serious or valued things make him please. Why the sources of pleasures change while our senses are the same. Our minds grow to become more mature so our personalities.
Until now we have,
1- Defined happiness as a self convinced state of mind.
2- Happiness is not a temporary state of mind. It is always there but its levels may rise or decline by achieving or losing something of prior importance in convincing our mind.
3- Happiness is different from temporarily states of mind, like pleasure, pain and likes and dislikes like color, food, wearing, vacations, partying, music, etc.
Levels of happiness:
Now that we have defined happiness as a self convinced state of mind and we have concluded that happiness is always there and it has a level that rise or fall so there must be a measurable level of happiness also. Unfortunately, happiness does not have symptoms like pleasure and fun to make you laugh or blush that one could judge how much you have enjoyed your happiness. Yes! Sudden changes in levels of happiness can cause blushing, cry, laughing or running. But it is rare. People enjoy their happiness just by thinking or imagining about them.
Though happiness is difficult to measure but it is the most basic ingredient in constructing a personality.
How happiness construct your personality?
By our definition, "happiness is what makes your mind to be convinced". There is practical applications of this definition in real life. You may set few hours for your studies but you will study seriously when your mind is convinced to study. Traditionally it is known as "concentration" but I call it, "convinced time". By convinced time I mean the time that you really wanted to study and have studies. You may spend several hours one time with your book by name of reading and read only few pages. Another time you may read a chapter or two in the same amount of time. You can have another example related reading which is endorsing this idea. A subject that attracts you, "means have convinced your mind" you may spend more hours to read it and also by more concentrations and so become more productive in less amount of time. A subject that is of not interest to you, you may fight with yourself for a quiet amount of time to convince yourself in reading it. A lots of time and less production. Still you may not love a subject but because of its importance (either because of exam or because of some other rewards) your mind easily become convinced to concentrate on it. OK! whatever the source or method is, it is now settled that convincing of mind is necessary. After learning you will get a sense of acheivement that adds in your happiness or your mind become convinced of what it has gotten. It is a mechanism of personality building by happiness.
Let’s make of an analogy of our personality to a basin that has a mid oceanic ridge system (Bring geological time scale to one’s life time). As time pass this ocean become larger and deeper. When it was small and shallow, small winds and inflow of solutions could cause waves and turnovers. But as oceans get deeper and larger, it requires higher changes in weather, wind velocities and more density flows to cause waves or turnovers. Personality has the same patterns. The larger the personality becomes the smaller becomes the effects of pleasures on it but despite it become more calm (satisfied by its existence and achievements). Happiness is the growth of personality not pleasures, enjoyments and sadness. They are only excited states of minds and their effects depend on the levels of personalities.
Academic mistakes in studying happiness:
Happiness is still an individualistic endeavor. Mistakes are made when one confuses it with pleasures and enjoyments and try to make index of happiness by studying a few thousands of people in their excited states (enjoyments). Statistical studies of happiness has two serious drawback,
1- Measuring a mass of people with same measuring stick.
2- Measuring responses of people to their excited state (joys and pleasures) as measure of happiness.
These two drawbacks are enough to reject these statistical approach and their results. Conclusions that we get happiness from our social networks are correct to a level where social networks are able to convince the minds. If a mind is not convinced by his/her social network then this rule does not apply on him and it won’t help him. We can see the difference of levels of happiness from social networks in East and West. Weak social networks in West decline their levels of happiness despite economic well being. On other hand strong social networks in East compensate for weaker economic status.
You can find an example (by clicking on following link) of how academicians manipulate the data for defining and guiding people on happiness. Certainly, academicians think of themselves as modern Buddha. But are they on the right path??????????????
http://people.virginia.edu/~tdw/wilson.meyers.gilbert.social.cog.03.pdf
New trends in getting freedom
History has never stopped making new nations but its processes like any other natural process has its developmental stages. In other words we can say the process of making nations are evolving. We can divide the process of nations broadly into three eras:
1- The era of large empire nations
2- The era of nation states
3- The era of state’s nation
1- The era of large empires:
In history of early known history we read about a few nations like Persians, Greeks, Babylon’s, Assyrians, Romans, Egyptians, Mongols, etc. Actually these were the name of large empires. The presence of these large empires doesn’t mean that there weren’t other nations. There were other nations but they were divided into tribal systems that were unable to express themselves as a nation. Hence we can say that in this era of empires there were two basic characteristics, 1- A large empire and 2- Different tribes loyal to empires. These two faces of this era were exchangeable. Whenever a visionary and determined head of a tribe had succeeded in uniting fellow tribes to construct an empire they became an empire nation. The most prominent example of this phenomenon occurred in 12th century when Genghis Khan united Mongol tribes and they construct large empires mostly in Asia. The opposite of this process was also true. Whenever an empire had broken down they had scattered in small tribes. Again Mongols present the best example for this phenomenon. When the Mongol empires had broken down to Turks and Chinese they were again dissolved out into small tribes especially out of Mongolia. Today we can find Small number of Mongols in India and Pakistan in form of Hazaras, Hazaravis, etc. Outside of Mongolia the only place where large number of Mongols still exists in form of Hazaras are Hazarajat in current Afghanistan. Still these Mongols have mixed with Chinese, Turks and Aryan to develop a new nation by name of Hazaras (azara).
In this era the process of making a nation were battles. It was wars and battle which decided which tribes grow to an empire nation or which empire nation broken down into tribes. Sure! The empires made laws, institutions for governance which develop languages, knowledge, arts and skills and more profoundly values which distinguished the empires from each others. These official languages, knowledge, skills and values develop common cultures in people living in large cities under empires and in areas under influence of these laws and values. At the same time, tribes had their own tribal laws and values. The rise and fall of empires created many well developed cultures. These cultures were also influenced by geographical, religious and ethnic factors. The empire developed cultures which made way to develop nations.
2- The era nation states:
As the Science made its ground firm and the resulting technologies changed life styles and mindsets of people, the result were introduction of a large number of middle classes into every area of earth. Middle classes were conscious of their identities based on their values. The development and expansion of knowledge were keys in creating awareness among masses of people to search and organize for their identity. The crisis of identity even took help from theories in Science in order to make their identities unshakable for flaws of history. The most exploited theory in this regard is theory of evolution. The most conspicuous use of this theory was made during reign of Hitler for German nationalism. 20TH Century was the climax of this era. The First World War and Second World War in real sense were wars of identities. Both in Europe and Asia large empires like British Empire and Ottoman Empire broken down to give way to new nation state. Most of these nations fought for their freedom. Most of the freedom was achieved by armed and mass resistance against these empires. It is strange that the two large nations of world, Russia and china expressed their nationalism through communist revolutions. Now it was ideologies that were the source of recognition and identity of state nations. It became necessary because a state had to define their economic and political systems. Russian and Chinese though had nearly the same ideologies but their national identities were more important than ideologies so they never united but used the ideologies to serve their national identities. The same were true for non-communist state nations. In Europe though the Christianity were a common religion between state nations but national identity were more important than religion, so every nation states preserved their identities. Here in Asia and Africa, the Muslim national states were also gave more importance to their state nationality than to their religion or their races. Neither pan Arabism nor Islamism could unite people of Middle East but state nationality was more important than religion or race or language.
3- The era of states nations
As we have discussed earlier the state nationalities went beyond the ideological, religious and race barriers. Now it was the laws of stated which defined the nationalities. The developed countries were in constant need of workers especially skilled workers in order to sustain their rapidly growing economy, so they opened their doors to people of other areas to become part of their nations. This move changed the concept and definitions of nationality. Today we find the developed countries as nations of skilled and developed people who have gathered from around the world to have a better life. Better life and rapid growth are making people migrate and change the old concepts of nationalities. The emergence of United Nations after World War II and the urge for human rights as consequences of human right abuses during Second World War II led to a new behavior and attitude of people in different areas of world. Human rights become an essential part of state nations.
On the other hand where state nations comprised of different ethnic groups and their government failed to provide social justice or equal opportunities for growth, the disrespect and prejudice dominant, the people of particular identities are searching for way to become new nations of world.
New trends to get freedom
The emergence of United Nations and becoming of Human rights as essential part of the nation states changed the general attitudes of people and nations around the world. If we look to the purpose of United Nation, which is described in charter of UN, (The charter of UN drafted by representatives of 50 Nations in San Francisco, California in 1945) we find that 1- the principles of equal rights and rights of self determination of people, 2- promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion, are included in it. Following is the reference to purpose of UN,
CHAPTER I
PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
3. To achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
The United Nations are also were responsible in resolving the crisis and conflicts between member states. Though strong nations continued to violate the basic rules of the United Nations but again the countries are more careful while violating the UN’s charter. This behavior led to new method for freedom of the new nations. The freedom of East Timor and Albania is the examples of these new trends.
In both East Timor and Albania the opinion of people was known under the protection of armed forces of strong nations. In East Timor, it was Australian Army which protected the people of East Timor from Indonesian Army and under Australian Army the East Timor voted for their independence and hence got independence. The same happened in Albania, where the international peace keeping forces protected Albanian from Serbian armed forces and under the supervision and protection of international peace keeping forces the Albanian declared their independence.
The above mentioned trends opened the door for Russia and Russia adopted the same strategy for independence of Ossetia and Abkhazia. By attack of Georgia against the self declared independence of Ossetia, as Georgian army attached this area, the Russian Army intervened and protected the people of the area. Under supervision and protection of Russian Army the Ossetia declared its independence which is recognized by Russia.
Conclusions:
Based on above mentioned facts and new trends I have concluded that the best way that people of an area that wish to get the right of self determination and independence should be as follows:
1- The representatives of the people call for an international conference on their rights of self determinations.
2- They should persuade the international community to deploy the peace keeping forces in their area to protect them against invasion or massacre or abuses of human rights.
3- Under the supervision and protection of the peace keeping forces they make a referendum for their independence and rights of self determinations. The referendum for independence will make the struggles and movements for freedom a lawful movement and the resulting state as a lawful state.
4- The peacekeeping force is helpful in keeping law and order restored and the administrations to become capable of providing and maintaining the social justice and services.
1- The era of large empire nations
2- The era of nation states
3- The era of state’s nation
1- The era of large empires:
In history of early known history we read about a few nations like Persians, Greeks, Babylon’s, Assyrians, Romans, Egyptians, Mongols, etc. Actually these were the name of large empires. The presence of these large empires doesn’t mean that there weren’t other nations. There were other nations but they were divided into tribal systems that were unable to express themselves as a nation. Hence we can say that in this era of empires there were two basic characteristics, 1- A large empire and 2- Different tribes loyal to empires. These two faces of this era were exchangeable. Whenever a visionary and determined head of a tribe had succeeded in uniting fellow tribes to construct an empire they became an empire nation. The most prominent example of this phenomenon occurred in 12th century when Genghis Khan united Mongol tribes and they construct large empires mostly in Asia. The opposite of this process was also true. Whenever an empire had broken down they had scattered in small tribes. Again Mongols present the best example for this phenomenon. When the Mongol empires had broken down to Turks and Chinese they were again dissolved out into small tribes especially out of Mongolia. Today we can find Small number of Mongols in India and Pakistan in form of Hazaras, Hazaravis, etc. Outside of Mongolia the only place where large number of Mongols still exists in form of Hazaras are Hazarajat in current Afghanistan. Still these Mongols have mixed with Chinese, Turks and Aryan to develop a new nation by name of Hazaras (azara).
In this era the process of making a nation were battles. It was wars and battle which decided which tribes grow to an empire nation or which empire nation broken down into tribes. Sure! The empires made laws, institutions for governance which develop languages, knowledge, arts and skills and more profoundly values which distinguished the empires from each others. These official languages, knowledge, skills and values develop common cultures in people living in large cities under empires and in areas under influence of these laws and values. At the same time, tribes had their own tribal laws and values. The rise and fall of empires created many well developed cultures. These cultures were also influenced by geographical, religious and ethnic factors. The empire developed cultures which made way to develop nations.
2- The era nation states:
As the Science made its ground firm and the resulting technologies changed life styles and mindsets of people, the result were introduction of a large number of middle classes into every area of earth. Middle classes were conscious of their identities based on their values. The development and expansion of knowledge were keys in creating awareness among masses of people to search and organize for their identity. The crisis of identity even took help from theories in Science in order to make their identities unshakable for flaws of history. The most exploited theory in this regard is theory of evolution. The most conspicuous use of this theory was made during reign of Hitler for German nationalism. 20TH Century was the climax of this era. The First World War and Second World War in real sense were wars of identities. Both in Europe and Asia large empires like British Empire and Ottoman Empire broken down to give way to new nation state. Most of these nations fought for their freedom. Most of the freedom was achieved by armed and mass resistance against these empires. It is strange that the two large nations of world, Russia and china expressed their nationalism through communist revolutions. Now it was ideologies that were the source of recognition and identity of state nations. It became necessary because a state had to define their economic and political systems. Russian and Chinese though had nearly the same ideologies but their national identities were more important than ideologies so they never united but used the ideologies to serve their national identities. The same were true for non-communist state nations. In Europe though the Christianity were a common religion between state nations but national identity were more important than religion, so every nation states preserved their identities. Here in Asia and Africa, the Muslim national states were also gave more importance to their state nationality than to their religion or their races. Neither pan Arabism nor Islamism could unite people of Middle East but state nationality was more important than religion or race or language.
3- The era of states nations
As we have discussed earlier the state nationalities went beyond the ideological, religious and race barriers. Now it was the laws of stated which defined the nationalities. The developed countries were in constant need of workers especially skilled workers in order to sustain their rapidly growing economy, so they opened their doors to people of other areas to become part of their nations. This move changed the concept and definitions of nationality. Today we find the developed countries as nations of skilled and developed people who have gathered from around the world to have a better life. Better life and rapid growth are making people migrate and change the old concepts of nationalities. The emergence of United Nations after World War II and the urge for human rights as consequences of human right abuses during Second World War II led to a new behavior and attitude of people in different areas of world. Human rights become an essential part of state nations.
On the other hand where state nations comprised of different ethnic groups and their government failed to provide social justice or equal opportunities for growth, the disrespect and prejudice dominant, the people of particular identities are searching for way to become new nations of world.
New trends to get freedom
The emergence of United Nations and becoming of Human rights as essential part of the nation states changed the general attitudes of people and nations around the world. If we look to the purpose of United Nation, which is described in charter of UN, (The charter of UN drafted by representatives of 50 Nations in San Francisco, California in 1945) we find that 1- the principles of equal rights and rights of self determination of people, 2- promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion, are included in it. Following is the reference to purpose of UN,
CHAPTER I
PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
3. To achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
The United Nations are also were responsible in resolving the crisis and conflicts between member states. Though strong nations continued to violate the basic rules of the United Nations but again the countries are more careful while violating the UN’s charter. This behavior led to new method for freedom of the new nations. The freedom of East Timor and Albania is the examples of these new trends.
In both East Timor and Albania the opinion of people was known under the protection of armed forces of strong nations. In East Timor, it was Australian Army which protected the people of East Timor from Indonesian Army and under Australian Army the East Timor voted for their independence and hence got independence. The same happened in Albania, where the international peace keeping forces protected Albanian from Serbian armed forces and under the supervision and protection of international peace keeping forces the Albanian declared their independence.
The above mentioned trends opened the door for Russia and Russia adopted the same strategy for independence of Ossetia and Abkhazia. By attack of Georgia against the self declared independence of Ossetia, as Georgian army attached this area, the Russian Army intervened and protected the people of the area. Under supervision and protection of Russian Army the Ossetia declared its independence which is recognized by Russia.
Conclusions:
Based on above mentioned facts and new trends I have concluded that the best way that people of an area that wish to get the right of self determination and independence should be as follows:
1- The representatives of the people call for an international conference on their rights of self determinations.
2- They should persuade the international community to deploy the peace keeping forces in their area to protect them against invasion or massacre or abuses of human rights.
3- Under the supervision and protection of the peace keeping forces they make a referendum for their independence and rights of self determinations. The referendum for independence will make the struggles and movements for freedom a lawful movement and the resulting state as a lawful state.
4- The peacekeeping force is helpful in keeping law and order restored and the administrations to become capable of providing and maintaining the social justice and services.
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