Have we become commodities in an undemocratic world?

In a society with an economic environment that accepts “head hunters” (somewhat unpleasant connotations attach to this term), that accepts “down-sizing” or restructuring as normal in the pursuit of the all important monetary “bottom-line”; a society where government’s, of all persuasions, are dictated to by big business; a society which encourages its citizens to sell themselves to the highest bidder in the job market in pursuit of ever more desirable material possessions, diminishes its citizens to the point where many are left confused with no real notion of their self worth. In short they have become commodities. This has its ramifications in emotional and psychological outcomes.

The result is that many people today live and think only in terms of limited self-interest. They believe that they are acting on behalf of their best interests when actually their main efforts are directed to money and what is termed “success” (however this is defined). In the process of seeking what they are told is best for them, they deceive themselves about the fact that their fundamental human potentialities remain unfulfilled and by accepting such a deception they lose sight of their core values, which remain unchangeable. This, in many instances, leads to lack of life harmony, to stress and anxiety – conditions very prevalent in today’s work place.  

Now and here is the rub, under the influence of the market, the concept of who “I think I am”, has shifted to meaning “I am as you desire me” – in other words a commodity. So divorced are many people from their core values as human beings, that as sellers of a commodity (what they believe the job market wants) they feel separated from what they want to sell. To be sure, they are interested in what they believe themselves to be; immensely interested in their success in the “market”, but they are the managers, the employers, the sellers – and the commodity. Such people are now divorced from themselves and their value as human beings.

Nowadays it is difficult for many people to draw a line between what they call “me” and what is called “mine”. People feel and act about certain things that they consider to be theirs (or what they believe makes them who they are) very much as they feel and act about themselves. Their fame, their children, the work they do, may be as dear to them as are their bodies, and arouse the same emotions and feelings and the same defences if attacked. In its widest possible sense, however, a person’s real identity or core values (what makes them a human being), is more than the sum total of all they may call “theirs”, more than their body, and their skills and abilities, their clothes and their house, their partner or spouse and children, their ancestors and friends, their reputation and accomplishments, their land and motor cars and yacht, their investment portfolio and bank account. These things give them the same emotions of pride and success. If these grow and prosper, people feel “successful”, if they dwindle or are lost, people feel unhappy and diminished – not necessarily to the same degree for each thing, but in much the same way for all.

The increasing worship of “success” (again, however this is defined) has generally failed to satisfy the primal urge for individuals to be who they really are. There are an increasing number of people to whom everything they are doing seems to lack fulfilment. They are still under the spell of the slogans which preach faith in the secular paradise of success and glamour. But doubt, that necessary condition for all progress, has begun to work on them and has made them ready to ask what their real self-interest as human beings really is. They have become dissatisfied with being a commodity.

This is now considered “normal” – which is the real tragedy.

Anyone in this situation needs to come to terms with who they really are. There is a difference between a person’s REAL interests and those imposed on them by any given society. Some people may find it difficult to experience life in terms of their own emotions, thoughts and sense of proportion, rather than in terms of the experiences that they are supposed to have, as dictated by the expectations of the “market” and society. In other words they are required to fit in with what the market wants or what the “competition” is providing. They are squeezed into a “shape” that would not be of their own choosing, just to comply with market expectations.

Anything which directs a person into a channel not of their natural inclination; any constriction to personal growth and the development of their full potential as human beings will give rise to stress and anxiety – unfortunately very common in the world today. 

Supposed season of good cheer!

Australia – as with many developed countries is a wealthy nation; high standard of living; high standard of education and the under-privileged are (relatively) well cared for. But we have a blot on our Nation’s Escutcheon – that of our treatment of those “illegals” – “queue jumpers” – “boat people” or whatever other derogatory name they are given by politicians. They are still people in need.

This time of year – Christmas time – is a time to reconsider our commitments and the one time of year, if at none other, when we should help those less fortunate. Sometimes it is good to remind ourselves of what others have said about this.

The following quote is from Charles Dickens timeless “A Christmas Carol” (written December 1843):

“But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come around – apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that – as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”

We need to closely attend these wise words. We need, also, to recall that these  people, politically diminished voyagers from another country, are fleeing persecution or abuse; they are human beings; they are not aliens. They have hopes and aspirations just like you and I. And just like you and I they bleed when hurt. And just like you and I they can be emotionally scarred by the actions and behaviour of others.

What are we doing to ourselves by our nation’s politically motivated mis-treatment of these unfortunate people?

We are diminished as a people and as a nation.

Chinese ethics and plagiarism

It is interesting – I have just finished a month of intense studying and writing to lodge two psychology assignments within the due time. This is why I did not “blog” for the whole month of September. Actually I missed the opportunity of writing my thoughts that some, maybe a few, possibly only one may actually read!! I find writing a good outlet for my frustrations and any tensions.

What is really interesting and what I want to write about is ethics and the pernicious and apparently increasing academic crime of plagiarism. One of my recently completed assignments had to be submitted to the ‘anti-plagiarism’ process using the very useful web site called “Turnitin”. This checks the submitted work against a massive data base of previously published journals and books and tells you how much of the work submitted is original or plagiarised. Anything over 10% plagiarism is not acceptable and must be reworked and resubmitted. Mine rated at 5% without reworking, which I was quite pleased with.

This reworking is actually not that difficult it means that the original work that you have referred to must be reworded, in your own words (with appropriate citation or reference). This is as it should be and shows that you understand the topic sufficiently well to be able to write about it without using the original author’s actual words. Again, this is as it should be. Imagine if you were the original author and you read about your ideas and original work, in your words, but claimed as original by someone else? How would you feel? Very annoyed I suggest. Again, imagine, if you will, the consequences of plagiarism and academic cheating if you were treated by an alleged medical doctor who had fake qualifications? How would you feel? Apart from showing a lack of respect, it is cheating and considered to be intellectual theft and is rightly condemned by all.

What brought about this train of thought was an article on the very subject, in the Friday 8th October edition of the Australian Financial Review (AFR), entitled “China fails to rein in fakes”. This is an interesting article because it highlights what seems to be a growing trend in China, something being encouraged by the government there, the feeling, “I must get ahead at any cost.” This attitude applies to individuals, businesses and the government as well. There is a tragic incident, quoted in the AFR, about Chinese airline pilots who faked their flying hours and experience which resulted in an accident in which 26 people lost their lives. I can understand that the Chinese Government wants to trumpet the greatness of China and believe me somewhere in the vast throng of 1.2 billion people there will be some really great and noble individuals. But they will not become great by cheating.

Then there is the statement made by a masters student from Tsinghua University, Lu Xiaoda, that plagiarism is ok and that it is not that students are incapable of the work – copying someone else’s work saves time!! How does he know they can do the work unless they actually do it? Take also the reported case of Xiao Chuanguo a well known Chinese urologist. He was so incensed that two investigative journalists found out that he had been cheating about his skills that he arranged for them to be savagely attacked and beaten up. When confronted by the police he confessed. His reason for this attack was vengeance for the revelations which blocked his appointment to the prestigious Chinese Academy of Social Science! (What a nice man he must be). Yet his university employer, Huazhong University, has not removed him from his position. This case I find quite astonishing. To me both the man himself and his university are worthless.

With greatness comes power and with power comes responsibility – this is something the Chinese have to learn and learn quickly. Responsibility means owning up to ones obligations, accepting ones faults (no one is without faults!) and dealing fairly with all. This is where ethics comes in. A country, a business or an individual must treat others as they would like to be treated. To do otherwise is to attract consequences that may not be pleasant. It is the same as making a cane for others to use to beat you with. And given the opportunity they will, Oh, they will.

The article in the AFR states quite correctly that unless this practice of plagiarism in China is stamped out, Chinese academics will be marginalised by the rest of the world, and their work considered as worthless because no one will be sure of its accuracy or its true worth. So who suffers? China! Its reputation will be in tatters and its people diminished. That is no way to greatness!!

Israel's staggering presumption

So now Israel has agreed to a cease fire, of sorts and we are told that it has ‘exceeded its objectives’ in Gaza. Big deal. Over 1200 dead and many thousands injured. What for? If the Israelis think that bombs, rockets and assassinations will destroy a dream, will destroy the emotional fervour of the Palestinians (however disunited their various factions are) then they have learned nothing from their own history. Have the many and various anti-Jewish activities that have happened over the centuries ever sapped the Jewish dreams; ever broken their morale? Of course not! So what makes them think that doing what they have done, during the last 22 days of their offensive will bring ‘peace’ any closer.

The Israeli have destroyed the infrastructure of Gaza (for sure they will not pay for the repairs!); they killed, injured and maimed thousands of people after 22 days of brutal activity to arrive back at the point they started from! As I say what was all the death and destruction for?

They may kill thousands and destroy houses and buildings but they will never kill the Human Spirit. They should know that. So what makes them think that they are so special that what never had any affect on them will affect Palestinians any differently? We are all human beings on this world together. For whatever reason we are all here, now, with our differences in skin colour, beliefs and creeds, daily practises of living, our loves, our dreams, our hopes and aspirations – we are all in this together. So for one group of people (the Israelis) to try to subjugate another group (the Palestinians); to attempt to control how they should think and act towards the first (dominant? group) shows breathtaking arrogance, unbelievable hubris and staggering presumption.

The presumption is that Israel knows best. Do they? Have they addressed the root of the problem – a landless, disenfranchised population? That they are an occupying nation that was ‘given’ Palestine in 1946 because the world wanted to give the traumatised survivors of the Nazi death camps some place for them to recover and call home? What about the Palestinians? Without so much as a by your leave they were made landless and moved.

As the English poet and sermonist John Dunne wrote in the 1600s, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

The Israelis have been diminished by their actions – therefore they have lost. They may have ‘exceeded their objectives’ in Gaza but as I said, in the long run they have lost.

This is a defining moment in Israel’s short history. As a people the Jews in Israel are morally bankrupt. Their only recourse is to arms, to fight. That is not the way civilised people act. Whatever the shortcomings of Hamas and other hard line Palestinians, and there are many, by lowering themselves to ‘Hamas levels’ of activity the Israeli have diminished themselves – and they know it.

Why can’t the Israelis show moral leadership and lift the whole region to a new level of consciousness? Isn’t this what Jewishness; the Kabbalah and their spiritual practices are supposed to bring about? They should not just talk about it. They should walk the walk, not just talk the talk!!