Journals of Doc Surge

Jun 30

Curing the Diseases of Optimism and Pessimism

June 30, 2010 by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 3 comments

In relation to my previous post talking about understanding Human Nature as the centre of all general and political philosophy, I thought I would touch on two mindsets that plague us as much as ideology. The twin-opposites of Optimism and Pessimism. Optimism is about emotional states of being including hope, wishful thinking, and at its worse fairy-tale views of the world that its always getting better. Pessimism is its opposite, which includes hopelessness, despondency, and at its worse fatalism that the world is going to get worse. Both lead to paralysis since at their most extreme, the world is just fine as it if you are optimist so why worry about it, or its going to hell if you are pessimist and there is nothing that can be done about it. As soon as one accepts optimism or pessimism as their worldview, they shut themselves off from asking questions. I used to consider myself pessimistic and a cynic but after finally reading those definitions, I realized that this was not me. My blog is about asking questions, hopefully relevant and rational questions. My goal is to find solutions, not preach optimism or pessimism. I realized that I am a skeptic. […]

Jun 26

Its Our Human Nature, Stupid

June 26, 2010 by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments

If you have read my blog for a while, you will know that I am a thinker. I like to mull ideas around, post about them, and the re-post again when a new insight arrives. Today’s blog post appears to be a cumulative of many years of thinking. I think that I have solved an inner puzzle that has tricked me for as long as I can remember. The irony is that the answer is not really that profound, yet the implications are. Based on my experience with Socialism, Green Politics, and Anti-ideology thinking, I have arrived at a conclusion that the problem with politics, political philosophy, and philosophy in general is that humans fail to understand human nature. Absurd isn’t it? To be human and yet not understand what human nature is… Yet, that is exactly what I think is the problem. Let me illustrate: I have argued for quite some time that ideology is a human disease that creates wars and immense human suffering. Yet, ideology is just the dogma of political philosophy, which in turn is just a world view that claims to understand what human nature and life is. All political and general philosophies are about […]

Jun 13

Lesson Five in Using iTunes: Polishing The Tags

June 13, 2010 by Chris Billows in Hobby Heedings 0 comments

One of the things I appreciate about iTunes is the fields you can use to add extra tags to your songs. As we discussed earlier most people use Genre as their default sorting system, but that is just tapping the surface of what you could get out of your music collection. If you have an extensive library, it would be worth your while to ‘polish’ these song tags so that you can create some great play-lists. Here are some essential tags you might want to consider using: Date – Should be the date of the song’s release, not the date of the album release. This is especially important when it comes to greatest hit compilations. Having the correct date allows you to listen to an artist’s evolution as a musician. Location – I put this in the Grouping header. I put the city, state/province, and country that the artists/band was born/formed in. Having a location can allow me to listen to bands from California or from Scotland. Other Info such as Member of XXX Band – I put this in the Comments header. When I do a search for the Police, I will also see my albums by Sting, Andy […]

May 03

Are Most People Good?

May 03, 2010 by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments

I attended an ethical workshop recently and the presenter stated she thought that most people are good. This worldview allowed her to approach people she met in a warm and open fashion which made for a rewarding and pleasant work experience. Benefits aside of such a worldview, is she right? Are most people good? I never asked her, but I am sure the presenter thought that all of the evil acts of the world are committed by a small number of bad or misunderstood people. She saw people themselves being valued as good or bad. For her, the world is made up mostly of good people whose lives get ruined by a small number of bad people. The value is placed on the person, not on the behavior. My experience tells me otherwise. Instead of seeing human nature being inherently good or bad, I would instead that it being imbued with potential for both. Across time and place people have struggled to avoid suffering and find happiness in life. It is the limitless ways of finding happiness that makes human nature appear so complex. Yet this complexity does not mean that we have to leave our ability to judge at […]

Apr 21

The Forgotten Question

April 21, 2010 by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments

Most journalists talk about the five W’s as a method to get a story. These are: WHO? Every topic needs a subject. WHAT? Every subject needs an event. WHEN? Every event needs a time. WHERE? Every event needs a place. WHY? The existentialist question. There is a reason behind the subject experiencing the event, at the time and place it happened. That’s five W’s… but there is actually a sixth, forgotten one. I will argue that the sixth W is found at the end of the question and word: “HOW?”. HOW is the most forgotten and subtle question. It is the only future-looking or solution-focused question. After we have answers to the first five questions, we need to ask HOW so we can re-frame the entire situation to consider change and solutions. HOW do we create peace? HOW do we reduce suffering? HOW do we find happiness? Perhaps problems remain unsolved because we stop short of asking the forgotten ‘W’ question of HOW.

Apr 16

Book Review: The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge

April 16, 2010 by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments

The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea is an apt title for this book. It is a short history, but a very interesting one. And its interesting because the subject matter is treated with enthusiasm which becomes a source of entertainment. This is a book written for the non-academic, acting almost like a Reader’s Digest version of a business history course. The book enthuses how the revolutionary idea known as the Company is one of the single greatest contributions to civilization’s development. This enthusiasm does not mean that they ignore the negative aspects of the Company, namely the grotesque pursuit of profit and company goals over human needs such as in the Belgian Congo, but the tone of the book is fan-boyish. Tone aside, the authors do accomplish what they set out to do. They illustrate how the idea of the Company is pretty revolutionary. Basically a government body grants a charter for a collective of disperse individuals to work together by pooling their capital and resources for the purpose of wealth accumulation. The book talks how the different national governments dealt with the rise of the Company (limited-liability joint-share corporations), and how in places like Britain they […]

Home

Curing the Diseases of Optimism and Pessimism

Its Our Human Nature, Stupid

Lesson Five in Using iTunes: Polishing The Tags

Are Most People Good?

The Forgotten Question

Book Review: The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge

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