Politics and us

"The worst illiterate is the political illiterate." Bertold Bretch's words echoes today. Now, have we become more conscious people on these last years? How is this knowledge generation, the communication society dealing with these issues? For me, it feels that young people have become more and more skeptical about the trustability of our politicians and most of the time they totally "despise" it. However, being a political literate is much more about taking part into the decisions that affect our own lives than simply voting or discussing over parties. In this sense, I guess there is a trend on people getting more active but, most of us are still held in shallow ground and simply following the crowd.

On these last months, many people of my social network, people who access internet, who usually don't care at all about what's going on in the congress, who avoid conversations about the politics and so on, have become quite more engaged on the voting process. But the truth is, they don't really believe that any of the options is a good one. It is just a matter of the least of evils. It's not me saying that, just ask anyone in the streets.

After all, why is that? Simply put, people don't really see the effect of all that into their real lives and, when it's not the case, they do not see any power in themselves to change the situation. Then, when arguing why they are voting for someone, or why they have put this link on their facebook profile against such a candidate, they can't say much. It's always the same weak arguments, lacking real knowledge of the context and situation.

Reasons for discredit of politicians:

1. Superficial Debates.

2.Inability of them to put the promises into effect.

3. Lack of trustworthiness. (low loyalty levels and corruption)

4. Lack of Ideologies (or clear policies)

Which bring us:

5. A feeling that we don't have any real power to influence.

It won't be of any use if I just point the reasons for the problem. What can be done to overcome this situation, are there any suggestions? I would summarize it on bringing more power for the people so they can actually change things. How can we do that? Firstly, we can use media and communications technology to promote interactions and discussions (In fact, it is already happening, although very confusing, based most on mocking the opponents and lacking solid arguments). Of course, the goal of this is to cause influence on whom the crowd votes.

Another thing is to stimulate an education, both in school and on mass media, that highlights the impact of political decisions upon our lives, both in the short and long terms. At last, I would emphasize that those directly involved in certain positions should stop looking for power and looking for action. Then, instead of focusing on lateral issues that may take votes from the other, try to bring into the discussion important matters.

Suggestions:

1.Use of media and communication technology.

2.Stimuli to political and economic education.

3.Stimuli to deeper debates.

4.Mechanisms of internet connection to Legislative.

Summarizing:

5.Bring more power for people to change things.

What can I myself do right now? I can write on this blog, direct discussions with friends into what is the realm of government, start discussions on social networks, study, start a company, be honest...countless things.

I have a dream...that one day...jk. But we should really work to be at a point where everyone has space to raise his voice, where people will criticize and let himself be criticized, where the strength of our voice will be based on wisdom and intelligence, not simply on power structures or social influence. I am sure that this way, we will live in a much better society, for everyone will be responsible for laying the bricks that form it.

Meine Schule

Meine Schule! Was ist Schule? Das ist eine gute Frage. Viele Leute denken an eine Gebaude mit Kindern, mit Unterricht, mit einen Lehrer. Ich glaube, das ist nicht die beste idee. Mein idee über Schule ist: das Leben ist die Schule.

Als ich Kind war, habe ich viele Bücher gelesen, viel Spiele gespielt, mit vielen Leuten geredet, ich bin in viele Orte gereist und habe andere Sachen gemacht. Diese Erfahrungen haben mein Selbst entwickelt.

Aber das ist nicht alles. Heute bin ich eine andere Person als gestern. Daher denke ich, dass wir immer in der schule des Lebens sind.

Flav is back!

Long time..uh? I just decided I`ll increase the frequency of writing here, even if it means posting something not so well refined. Anyways, I have been wondering all this time about the meaning of life. Yes, I'm that crazy! But perhaps it would be better to call it the reason for living or the aim that pushes us through life. Whatever... I won't discuss it today, but soon there will be an essay about this topic here. Therefore: Keep on checking the blog!

Next week I'll write about politics, why is it that many young people just don't care about it, or why is it that even those who do care, they feel so frustrated and disappointed with it. Yet, (since I'm one of these) we are quite positive about the future of our lives. Alright, the text will take the standpoint of a brazilian, and focused in its own context. Hopefully it can be somehow applied to most other realities. Hope you enjoy it!

Is there a limit?

Do you believe there is an absolute truth, some idea or concept that will always stand? I believe there is such thing, an immutable and everlasting truth on which all the momentaneous things subsist. I think, however, that we can never know it.* We must, though, keep on searching for it and, in fact, I even made a motto for myself that anything meaningful and worthy fighting for should be related to it. Recently an episode has made me reconsider how much I actually value the quest for true answers.

Most of us have passed through moments where people begin arguing about what we believe is true. Many of us, however, few uneasy, and are always trying to avoid it, certainly because we are not well grounded and fear the arguments may destroy our comfort and peace. Different from most people, I could not accept to be grounded on thin air, so I have myself doubted everything I've been taught, so no one would be able to say I was eluded.

This week, a friend of mine, who has been building his beliefs on very strong ground, with much study and reasoning, began arguing me about some ideas. I have to confess I felt uneasy, I began thinking of all the moments I had passed in the past considering such things and how I reached a point where I honestly just wanted to take it for granted and go onto other issues. Unfortunately, if this is the recipe for alienation, on the other hand we will never stop facing new arguments and, therefore, we will eternally be fools. Is it different if you are a fool level 9 or 10 in a scale going up to a billion? Certainly it is essential to have people around pushing you higher by such questioning, but is there a limit, is it worth the try?

This process of search for truth means you will continually criticize every idea you build, much like the dialectic method of Socrates, where you can never accept you know something, but enter this cycle of destruction-construction that leads you to a higher level of understanding. In fact, it is interesting how this evolution pattern repeats itself in reality.

In swimming and weight lifting (about which I can speak) we pass through long hours of workout, 'destroying' fibers of our muscles, then we get a good rest and nutrition in order to make it grow in quality and size. The sleeping and eating without exercises won't bring good results, nor the opposite. It is by intensifying this cycle, doing all of it more and better, that you will get where you want. The same is in economy, where by raising the flow of selling and buying products you produce greater wealth. This concept show us the government shouldn't be worried about decreasing imports, but focusing more on stimulating exports, that is, balancing the opposite forces in a higher level. (I don't ignore the other more complex factors, but this is certainly an underlying principle)

Alright, so, when will we stop this process? Some have argued that the Allegory of the Cave would be more complete if there were various caves, in an eternal loop, and just as we leave one and start enjoying the sun, we find that the figures we see still are a mere shadow of an even greater reality outside. But the question remains, if there will always be a better light outside, when will we stop and start enjoying the shadows playing on the wall?

*I personally believe that absolute truth can only be known if it decides to reveal itself to us, and it has amazingly done it by its personification in Jesus Christ, who leads us to a deeper and unexplainable experience with truth.

Is there a limit?

Reading and learning

I have been for long wondering about the effectiveness of my reading. Why am I reading so much just to a little later find out that most of that has not really entered my mind? Well, if books, articles, newspapers, and so on are more than mere entertainment and a moment of pleasure, I would expect for them to form a sort of knowledge storage that would help me on every area of my life. But how to make that effective and efficient?

Something recently brought this up again and I believe I may be getting close to a final opinion.

I had a presentation to make on my New Product Development class about a scientific paper on Platform management and I decided to make a fine one. I had about two weeks, so I began to read all I could about the issue. I read two other articles, an entire book by the paper's author and made a scheme on power point to make sure all the idea was connected. At the day of my class, I got a bit nervous, but there was enough baggage on my mind to go around and do a good job. So it was, the teacher liked it and I (hopefully) will get a good grade.

What I didn't say is that actually there was a team presenting. I did all this job but the material used to present was built by parts. I used my scheme to build the part assigned to me and, when I saw my colleague's part, I was thrilled by how he had interpreted so well the principles guiding the platform idea. I was sure he had not read the book, nor the other articles, and I don't believe he's so much smarter than me. What allowed him to get to the same results by reading only about 20 pages when I had read more than two hundred?

To improve the effectiveness of my readings I had been making schemes, diagrams, and summaries (which drove me to join Henne on his blog http://leiturasinteligentes.blogspot.com/). However, this last experience made me add another powerful tool. After the presentation I went back to the paper and began to reread it to see if I could find where my colleague saw all the things I had taken so much to realize. I saw then that everything I needed was in that article, either scattered or superficially explained. Only one thing could explain it: reflecting time.

It may sound logical, but many people think that a person is more cult if he simply reads more. I have come to disagree with this idea a time ago (and I have even reached the point of reading two books a day for a whole year), and this last experience just proved it. I'll lay some points: the information era brought us access to thousands of books, but we simply can't read all of them. It is amazing how information is repeated in all conversations and writings. In fact, a teacher of mine used to say only God has actually created anything, we all imitate. And, after all, people today are not as wise as the people of the enlightenment age or even the Greek philosophers.

For this, I have decided that more than reading, I must let information be transformed into knowledge and I'll accomplish this through reflecting, discussing, and even sleeping. This all means simply one thing: time.