Halloween war zone

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It was Halloween last night and we were once again having to endure the sounds of a war zone late into the night. It is hard to believe that people have so much money to spend on such a vast display of celebrating evil. These are no small puffs of firecrackers such as I had when I was a kid, but bursting bombs that shake the ground and then light up the sky like stars just above the rooftops. I can’t imagine the cost of that momentary delight. Like so much in our society and world, nothing has meaning or substance to last longer than a shooting star. What is the worth of the short-lived disposable creations of humans, of thoughts and words that evaporate into the mist of noise on a brightly lit screen?

So I went to bed last night thinking about how the neighbourhood fireworks remind me of The Star Spangled Banner:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

(Note: This is only the first verse. There are several more.)

I could remember most of it from when I was living in the States as a kid. The parts that really stuck-out in my mind where the ‘rockets,’ ‘bombs bursting,’ ‘Gave proof… flag was still there’ and ‘…land of the free… home of the brave.’ It is a song of great strength. This is why Americans have fireworks on the Fourth of July. I suppose what fireworks could mean on Halloween is freedom from the evils celebrated on that particular night and throughout the year, along with bravery to endure and stand up against all evil.

We are in a war zone where evil seeks to encompass our lives and to eventually destroy us. We can turn the tables on evil by altering the meanings of that which seeks to creep into every aspect of our lives, spreading and celebrating evil. A good example is to consider the fireworks as a celebration of freedom and bravery over evil, just as the Americans do on the Fourth of July.

Leaving Las Vegas

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1920s, 20s, 30s, 40s, absent, accomplishment, addiction, alcohol, alcoholism, amazingly, angel, arrangement, artful, awoke, band, bartender, bathtub, battle, beaten, beautiful, befriend, beiderbecke, believe, ben, betrayed, bix, bombed, bought, brash, bright, cage, century, challenge, cheated, child, choir, choral, chord, church, collector, college, compelling, content, contrast, cornet, crawl, creeped-out, darkness, death wish, dentures, depicting, destruction, destructive, died, disturbing, downward, drink, drinking, driven, drugs, drunk, dvd, elizabeth, energy, exhausting, existence, experience, explicit, family, film, filth, flugelhorn, friend, gambling, gaunt, gin, hair, happy, heart, himself, hinting, history, hollywood, hotel, house, human, human-made, humanity, identify, inspired, jazz, job, key signature, kicked, kid, killing, las vegas, leaving las vegas, library, life, lights, listening, littered, lost, love, lyrics, manufactuer, material, men, mentally, merry-go-round, message, middle-aged, mind, morning, movie, music, musically, musician, my one and only love, nicholas, non-sexual, numb, obnoxious, obsessed, opportunity, pain, painfulness, performance, person, physically, pit, pits, player, portrayed, present, prodigy, professional, prostitution, raped, reading, realism, realistic, realizing, record, relationship, remark, reminder, review, road, scene, seedy, self-confessing, sera, seventeenth, sex, sheet, shocking, shue, sitting-in, slavery, smile, society, song, soundtrack, spiral, spiralling, splendour, stark, sting, stop the world i want to get off, stories, striking, struggle, stupor, subject matter, succumb, swing, tasteful, thankfully, theater, theatre, there but for the grace of god go i, thinning, thirty, thrill, traction, trapped, trashy, trumpet, TV, twin, understand, us, vegas, venture, version, vintage, wife, wiry, world, writing, years

Leaving Las Vegas is a powerful, yet tasteful portrayal of alcoholism and love. Nicholas Cage plays a businessman who, through the overuse of alcohol, loses his family and his job. As a self-confessing drunk, he becomes brash and obnoxious. With no friends he heads off to hurl himself into the grandest human-made pit in the world—Las Vegas.

Amide the splendour of bright lights and a soundtrack of music including Sting and including My One and Only Love, we travel with Ben as he discovers a world where he can let go and fall into the pit of gambling, prostitution, drugs and, of course, alcohol. He takes a room in a seedy hotel and wanders his way into a stupor.

Elizabeth Shue plays a prostitute who befriends Ben and she eventually takes him in. Sera and Ben have an unexplainable bond and an unlikely non-sexual relationship. She is beautiful, yet showing wear from her life in prostitution; he is middle-aged with thinning wiry hair and gaining a growing gaunt look from not caring for himself and too much alcohol. Drawn closer by love, Sera spends her nights working the streets while Ben travels down his road of destruction. During the day they enjoy short bursts of being together.

While Ben is entirely out of control throughout the movie, Sera is also trapped by her life of prostitution. They accept each other, yet seem to long for each to find their own way out. Ben had instructed Sera, “You can never, ever, ask me to stop drinking.” She replies in agreement “I know.” Yet later she says, “I want you to see a doctor.” “No, no doctor,” replies Ben.

It is difficult to identify what takes a person down particular destructive roads. Ben can’t understand why Sera can care for him and calls her his angel. Someone tells him that drinking is a way of killing himself, to which he with a smile replies to the man, “Killing myself is a way of drinking.”

I found the movie to be tasteful in showing the deep extensive darkness of a world where most of our society thankfully never venture. In a scene, where Sera is tragically beaten and raped by some young college men out for a thrill in Vegas, we see only enough to understand the painfulness of such an experience. Yet it is not enough pain for Sera to get away from her slavery to that world.

In depicting alcoholism, there are no stops. Cage plays the battle with stark and shocking realism. I awoke in the morning realizing that, as we came to believe and understand, ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’

We all live trapped lives to some extent and the deeper pits are always waiting just around the corner for us to fall into. It happens to so many in our society and world. On the merry-go-round and downward spiral, it is difficult to get off. We may reach the point where we think, ‘Stop the world, I want to get off.’

Speaking of pits, my favourite jazz musician is cornet player Bix Beiderbecke who lived in the 1920s amide the early days of jazz and bathtub gin. His life was one of spiralling into the pit of alcoholism from which he never returned. His music is always clear, inspired, full of energy and life. It stands in striking contrast to his life, never hinting to the true pain he lived with.

Yesterday, I played my cornet in church with the choir. I had never done this before and never played that type of music. It was a challenge and exhausting both physically, mentally and musically. It was exhausting musically because of the key signatures and the variety of sheet music, or lack of for some songs, ranging from choral arrangements to lyrics and chords, from the seventeenth century to the present.

I think it was physically and mentally challenging because I have not really played much since I was young as a kid. I was a record collector of vintage jazz and swing from the 20s, 30s and 40s. I spent a lot of my time buying records and hanging around jazz.

While living in the US going to college, I met many musicians; some in the pits of human existence. I once took in a fellow who I found in a jazz joint; he had been kicked out of his house and with no place to go. As a child prodigy trumpet player, he had ended up playing in Las Vegas. Because of dentures, he had switched to flugelhorn. As a regular sitting-in with the band he then became a bartender there. When I would walk in, a drink would immediately land in my hand. Sadly he died before his time.

I bought my cornet from a fellow whom I was listening to regularly. He was leaving town for a new opportunity and sold it to me for $100, including a new hard case. It was the top professional cornet from the manufacturer. Thankfully he is still alive and playing today. He informed me that the other owners I also knew well. Two of them have passed before their time.

The history of human existence is littered with the stories of those who fell into a pit and were unable to crawl out. They struggle, become numb, lose traction in life and succumb. They become lost; there is only one way out for them. I fell into that pit. Over thirty years ago, I was lifted out. I know with all surety that the pit is just one step away. The movie Leaving Las Vegas is a realistic and shocking reminder.

 

Special Note:

After writing this, I did some reading about the movie. Some remarks from reviewers indicated the movie had far more explicit content than what I had seen on TV. Perhaps I was so taken by Cage’s incredible performance that I simply missed it. However, my wife would have insisted it be turned off. One remark stated that the DVD version had scenes not in the theatre cut of the film. Someone confirmed this by obtaining a copy from the library.

The movie was very compelling to me and when I discovered that there is some very explicit content absent from the version I saw, I was somewhat creeped-out and felt cheated and betrayed. I had said here that the movie was tasteful, yet it seems to have an explicit twin that is so much more like the trashy sex obsessed material that Hollywood puts out minus the happy ending. I had thought that Hollywood had finally been able to deal with some very disturbing subject matter, take it to the edge and yet not cross the line into having to show the filth.

The movie was disturbing enough in the way it portrayed alcoholism and the death wish driven addiction that goes to the heart of humanity. I want to point out and state to Hollywood that a movie can be amazingly compelling without going over the edge. I feel it is a far greater accomplishment to get the message across, be entirely artful, without crossing the line. Please Hollywood, think about this. The human mind is powerful and can get the message without being bombed.

 

See Leaving Las Vegas (too)

An $11,000.00 Compromise

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accounting, addiction, affidavit, breach, chip card, compromise, credit card, credit rating, cyber crime, digital footprint, doggie, equifax, fraud, hacker, human, identity, information, multinational corporation, privacy, rfid, rogers, safeway, security, social media, society, technojungle, technology, theft, toronto dominion, transunion, visa

From May 2013:

Last week I found out I was attacked by identity theft.

I was doggie sitting for the weekend and was in Safeway to get some milk when I received an automated, not human, call from TD (Toronto Dominion) VISA informing me that they had flagged some unusual transactions on my account and asked if I had made a certain large purchase. When I said, ‘no,’ I was asked to stay on the line, presumably for a real person, or I could call back. A grocery store was not the place to deal with this. When I called back, I discovered that someone had racked up around $11,000.00 in Toronto during three days. I was told that I was not responsible for these charges and that my card had been cancelled. I just got it not long ago, so I was not reliant on it. The charges will remain while they launch an investigation. The girl was very nice and made me feel comfortable that this would not be a huge inconvenience to me. I suppose, in the back of my mind, I knew this was just the start of trouble.

One other time, I had another card just canceled out of the blue. Their explanation was that the number of my card fell within a range of numbers that they suspected might have been compromised. Just to be safe, my card was cancelled and I had to wait for a couple of weeks for a new one. This is a good reason to have more than one card, otherwise one would have to resort to cash or some other form of transaction.

Just exactly what compromise really means is a bit unclear to me. Do these thieves get just my card number, or can they get other information? These days, there is so much information out in the abyss of the technojungle. One piece of information can easily be linked to other information. Just with a name and city, one can get addresses and phone numbers. That represents your physical footprint. You also have a digital footprint that can start with your E-mail or your social media links. We should have great concern for privacy and security.

The attack on my identity was not isolated to my VISA card. They tried to open an account with Rogers. Since I already have an account with Rogers they decided to not issue another account and promptly sent out a letter to me. When I called them, I was told to call their fraud department. That department was closed for the day, so I called the next day. I was advised to check with Equifax and TransUnion.

My first call was to Equinox, since I had heard the name before and understood that they had something to do with credit ratings. I entered an endless phone tree. It was completely automated. I could order a copy of my credit rating, get various reports and access a variety of other services. I got frustrated and hung up.

My next call was to TransUnion. I began the same endless journey through the phone tree. At one point, the voice stated, “If this is about fraud, say fraud.” The words had hardly left my lips when a real human voice came on. The heavy accent and poor pronunciation alerted me to the possibility that this person was not in Canada and probably did not have much authority, and that this might actually turn out to be more frustrating than the call I had made to Equifax.

He looked into my account/profile and said that Rogers had made some sort of request and then he asked if I wanted to report the Rogers request as fraud. I said no. Why would I do that? They told me to call TransUnion because of a fraudulent request made to them. We entered a conversation circle during which he must have asked me at least three times if I wanted to report the Rogers request as fraud.

Not far into our conversation and after mis-pronouncing my last name as Grawhome, he decided that he needed to verify some information. “Do you live at XXXX Rygeawood?” I told him that we have moved. He repeated and I insisted that we no longer live at that address and had moved some years ago. He told me I had to have the information updated. OK, I agreed, let’s do it. Not so fast. He informed me that I would need to send a registered letter and $5 to have the information changed.

Wait a minute. I explained that I never engaged them in any service agreement, that the company was keeping information about me without my permission and selling it to corporations and back to the individuals they track and now they want to charge me to have them correct information that they have wrong. I’m sorry, I don’t think that is right. If I had engaged their services and neglected to send in an address change when I moved, as I did with all the other services I was using, I could understand charging me to make a change. I was frustrated and hung up.

It seems like every couple of days we are hearing of breaches in security due to cyber crimes and yet, we are encouraged to do more online and adopt more technology. Wouldn’t this normally fall under the definition of insanity?

If we look carefully at our society, we find that our behaviour might well be explained by an addiction fed by large-scale multinational corporations that literally have no regard for us as humans, but only to forwarding their own agenda that has ‘make money’ at the top of the list. It would also follow that ensuring most of the ‘problems’ associated with a technology should not be publicized so users’ confidence would not be diminished. In other words, don’t tell people what goes wrong, just recoup the costs through higher fees and make sure more people use more credit cards more often so that we (the corporation that is) can make more money and the corporation will grow. Never mind that a large number of customers are never able to pay their balance off and feed the corporation even more through paying interest.

A credit card is a perfect example of technology that has inherent problems that, not only inconvenience people, but end up creating greater costs. To think that I am not responsible for the transaction is somewhat false. If the costs are not recouped from the perpetrator(s) of the crime, then someone has to pay. VISA is not going to cover the costs. They are out to make money. Do they have some sort of insurance? No matter how you look at it, the costs of fraudulent transactions most likely get passed on.

If you pay a fee for your card, then that fee probably goes toward covering losses. The same could probably be said for merchant transactions. Every time you use your credit card, the store pays a fee. Oh, and let’s not forget interest on unpaid balances. If the losses to the credit card company increase due to fraudulent charges, they will most certainly pass the cost on to us. If transaction fees to merchants need to increase, that increase will be reflected in higher prices to consumers.

VISA is not telling me that I don’t have to cover the fraudulent charges directly, I have to cover a portion of all the fraudulent charges on all the credit cards issued by VISA.

Think about it. The fraudulent charges on my VISA card amounted to more than I spend on the card all year. Now how does that work out? This may be the reason cash could be with us for a long time.

We all need to look at protecting ourselves. I don’t know how my credit card was compromised. Nobody has been able to tell me, so I don’t know how to plug the hole. Did somebody hack into a database somewhere? Was there a card reader device of some sort used to read my card when I used it somewhere? What happened?

The card did not have an RFID chip. I keep my chip cards in a protective wallet. Chip cards can be scanned without having to insert them into a machine or tap them on a reader. They can be scanned right from your pocket.

The truth is that this type of crime is becoming so common place that many people in our society just take it for granted. As I talk to people, they all have some sort of story about what happened to them or someone they know. Should we just let this become part of everyday life in the technojungle?

While personal identity theft is a big problem, corporate cyber attacks are a huge problem. If we only knew what really happens out there, we might lose confidence in more that just the banking and financial systems.

Update:

It took many weeks for the charges to be removed from my account. In the meantime, I was charged interest. Finally, I was sent an affidavit to sign stating that the charges had been removed. The problem, they missed six of them. I even noticed that charges were made even after the card had been cancelled.

As the weeks passed, I discovered I did not have enough accounting skills to figure out what they had done and where my account stood. I was on the phone many times. I had been told to list the missed fraudulent charges on the back of the affidavit and sign anyway. I was very reluctant to do that and protested, however, they convinced me to sign anyway.

In the end, I called again and complained that I was not an accountant and had no idea of what they had done, but I would accept the $183 positive balance on my account anyway.

I think I could be quite comfortable going back to using only cash and making transactions in person with, what, a real human being. Nowadays, that would be quite a novel thing.

What is culture?

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adapt, adopt, beliefs, belonging, cd, change, citizens, climate, culture, digital, environment, evolution, globalization, groups, identity, internet, language, lp, mp3, music, nickname, north american, online, people, record, religious, society, spam, spiritual, technology, values, virtual

Culture seems to be what a group of people do, along with other notable characteristics, that distinguishes them from another group of people. This might include language, art, various other activities that are not necessarily unique to them only. Culture is part of what they do as a collective group of activities, expressing what is unique about them.

Culture is constantly changing and evolving. Here the word evolution can be applied appropriately. Technology is one of the greatest causes of cultural change. Technology has a way of helping to define aspects of our culture.

What is acceptable in one culture may not be acceptable in another. However, as the world shrinks due to globalization, more cultures are becoming westernized. So, eating a particular way in one culture may no longer be unacceptable in another culture. I’m not sure if it is still true, but burping at a meal in some cultures was considered acceptable.

Culture is more than what people say or do. The roots of a particular culture are probably in beliefs and values. Spiritual and religious beliefs and values can drive a society to develop a culture that may be quite different from even a close neighboring society.

Individuals and entire groups of people may belong to more that one culture, or sub-culture. Take a group who like classical music and another group who like soccer. Within each group could be found some who may also like both classical music and soccer. These groups each will have some cultural aspects and those people who belong to both groups will have a shared culture. A large portion of these groups, world-wide, may also belong to a much larger group belonging to North Americans and share in the North American culture.

Culture can define who we are as a human being and what make us unique and individual, but also part of a group. It is the shared activities, beliefs and values, and faith. While we do attempt to think individually, we are actually thinking more commonly within our group and culture. In other words, the culture of our society, group or tribe tends to influence how we think; to think outside of that becomes very difficult.

As our culture changes, we change. We try to adapt. We take on different approaches to life. We try to organize how we want to live within the constructs and structure of our society and our culture.

If you are a traveler, perhaps you understand what it is like to go to a culture where everything is different. Language, beliefs and values, art, music, clothing may be different. And yet the people in these other societies and cultures are human beings. You may look to find that which you may share in common that you can identify with. There can be many drastically different societies and cultures in the world that we can visit. The people may even look different.

There are many facets to what culture is and what contributes to or influences the creation of culture. Location and climate can influence how people dress and how they make a living, for example. Environment, such as city or country, can influence culture. Power in forms such as education, politics and economics can create a sub-society of upper class citizens with their own culture.

Does technology create culture, or does culture create technology? Probably both, with each influencing the other. Perhaps technology may have the greater influence. Once we had the beginning of technology like MP3 music stored in digital format (a digital file format for storing audio), players became popular; they began to change culture and to drive the development of more advanced technology for delivering and managing music. I remember advertising that was depicting, through music, dance and imagery, this technology fitting into North American culture. As the technology became integrated into the culture, with more people buying products, more technology could be developed.

 

 

 

Let’s take a closer look and just one aspect of how changing music into a various formats changed culture. Originally, recorded music was a single performance on a disk with grooves that could reproduce the sound. Soon, a record could have a recording on both sides allowing for complimentary music to be coupled together. Early records were recorded and played back without the use of any electrical process.

Fast forward to the age of the LP (long playing) record. With the ability to couple multiple songs together in an album, a record could take on a theme, such as all romantic music. The next step was to produce a digital version of the album called a CD (compact disc). The organization of the music, and therefore the theme, remained the same. When music began to be distributed in MP3 format, the file could be sold individually or rearranged. This caused the disruption of the album theme.

Culture can tend to create a separation of those who are in control of money and power from those who do not have much money and therefore power.

In the end, when it comes to culture and being human, we have the desire to belong. We have the need to have a sense of belonging to groups and to the culture they share. We will seek to find the groups that suit us and their accompanying culture.

I should be using the term sub-culture more because we are born into a culture; that culture may be difficult to shed to become something totally new. Some aspect of our identity are not possible to change, such as skin colour; that establishes a certain sub-culture that is difficult to change.

There are certain cultural aspects of us that we have been born with. There are others that we adapt or adopt into to help define who we are as individuals—our identity. Human beings seem to have a great need for this individuality and personal identity.

What about culture online in the virtual world of the Internet? Is there an Internet culture? Do the characteristics of culture apply in the online world as they do in the physical world? Users join groups; some of the groups seem to have a group culture that is shared. People want to fit in. There are certainly cultural norms, that is, behaviour that is considered normal. For example, some groups want users to use their real name. In other groups, nicknames can be used. Throughout the online world, typing with the Caps Lock key on, creating text in all upper case, is considered shouting. Sending messages that are not wanted by the recipient is considered spamming. These are all examples of cultural normative behaviours.

We are building an online world that imitates and is culturally reflective, in many ways, to the real world and in other ways is different, perhaps even less human. The online world does have its own culture; in fact, there are many cultures and some are shared, just as in the physical world.

Some people are said to be cultured if they have been well educated and well brought up. They are seen as having a good, perhaps even distinguished and better, culture.

You’re a machine—Striving for optimal performance

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benjamin franklin, cell phone, curling, cyborg, e-mail, education, eye glasses, facebook, hacker, humans, implant, internet, linkedin, machine, metropolis, olympic, performance, plan b, smartphone, social media, society, software, spiritual, technology, twitter, workforce

Last week when I was curling (the game) with the men, I was making a unusual number of good shots. Finally, a fellow on the other team, turned to me and said “You’re a machine tonight.” Later, sitting around in the lounge, another fellow said the same thing.

I have been curling for only a few years now, yet, I have noticed something that can occur at times. The skip, that is, the person who is in charge of the team and calls the shots, may call one shot, only to have the person throwing the rock (actually sliding the rock on the ice) miss. The result can sometimes be an unintentional good shot producing a different, but positive result. It is a bit of a joke, but does happen quite often. We call it Plan B.

The Plan B concept might be worth a little closer look and consideration. It seems to me that humans are striving for optimal performance with such vigour as to want our society to be full of human machines. It’s not the only way we are becoming more like machines, but it seems to be the most intentional.

We are born into the routines of society. Almost immediately, we enter into a repetition of activities that allow us to fit into society. Later, we enter a journey through school systems that seem mechanized like a machines. We are trained throughout our lives to do particular activities and to do them well. We even reward the best. When we enter the workforce, it becomes a race to be successful and that means being the best. Doing things right.

But, what about plan B? Let’s forget, for a moment about the fact that humans are fallible anyway, and consider that, as in curling, sometimes things work out in other ways. Is our striving for perfection causing us to lose some of the plan B affects in our lives?

Back to curling. I am amazed at some curlers who do it all wrong and still make quite a few good shots and enjoy the game. In fact, they have been doing it wrong for so long that they are actually good.

Our society and culture seems obsessed with doing things the right way and the best way, and to becoming the best. Are we actually having a better, more human life? Are we happier performing at machine precision?

Next time you are watching professional sports on TV, notice whether the participants are happy. Hey guys, it’s only a game, have some fun!

Now, another question. Is our obsession with machines causing us to become machines? Let me re-phrase to a question that is one I ask regularly. Is our technology making us more human or, in making and using the technology, are we becoming more like machines?

Does anyone remember the German film from the 1020s called Metropolis? I remember the workers struggling to work the machines. It is an iconic image, but may well be playing out in our lives. Yes, many humans work on assembly lines with machines, even making more machines, doing work that would seem to be better suited to a machine. Wait, did I just describe machines making more machines?

Take a look at your online life. Chances are you have a computer and that you carry a cell phone and it is likely a smartphone that can connect to the Internet. I suspect that you check your E-mail at least once a day, probably more. You may also check Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media. They all organize information in various ways and you work within the structure of each.

Just before I began to write this I posted a reply to a discussion in a group on LinkedIn. They mentioned cyborgs. Here is an excerpt from my reply:

Cyborgs were always the stuff of science fiction, yet, in reality, it is true, many of us have been becoming partially cyborg for years now. And questions do arise. Think of the Olympic runner or the person with an implant that is controlled by software. What is it, for every 100 lines of code, there may be a bug, or something like that. What about hackers? I have heard of implants that communicate with a monitor station and that, in turn, is connected to the Internet and is monitored by doctors. I like to think that there are aspects of us, including spiritual, that may never be replaced by a machine. 

It had been mentioned that Benjamin Franklin started the cyborging of humans with eye glasses. We have been slowly adding more technology to our bodies.

Whatever technology we look at, we can see how it adds benefit to our lives. It will also add negative aspects to our lives. Facebook allows you to make, what they call, friends, but do you really know them? As we fill our lives with machines, we actually become more machine like to use them and we strive to perform like a machine.

Things don’t always work out the way we plan. Perhaps, we could loosen up and expect the unexpected and remember Plan B.

What about wisdom

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There seems to have been a massive shift in an aspect of humans that provides the ability to steer and navigate through life. Throughout human history, we lived together and one would interact and learn from previous generations, through life experiences, the wisdom of life. This was not merely information, but a depth of knowledge and understanding that would produce a solid foundation on which younger generations could construct their living. Have we replaced wisdom with information?

Wisdom provides the ultimate guidance for living and, since it is not just information, we might consider it a much deeper aspect of human experience. Perhaps, even spiritual. Humans learn knowledge and skills through stages. First, is to learn about the subject by learning terminology or observing the performance of a skill. Next, one may use the basic knowledge or skill in simple forms. As they learn more about the subject, they begin to use the knowledge or skill in more complex ways. Eventually, they learn to apply the knowledge or skill on their own, adapting as required. At an even higher level of learning is mastery. Here one is able to somewhat bend or break the rules in ways that may be deemed artistic. They flow and are free from thinking and focusing on the techniques to being able to create and to make judgements. The knowledge and skills become who they are at a very deep level.

That would not seem to be the end of it. On the path to understanding, we employ various forms of what we sometimes call common sense. We seem to sort of pick up common sense as we travel through life. It stands on top of our inherent knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, what is good for us and what is bad.

As I look around at the world and society today, I see what I have just discussed has become so tattered and torn that I can scarcely find a thread of common sense, let alone any wisdom. What went wrong?

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet known so little about who we are. Look closely at this statement and you will see how it applies to what I have written above. Our society operates only at the basic levels of understanding. Today, information is used interchangeably with knowledge and seems to be considered to be synonymous with understanding. People still get educated, however, they may not end up making the field they are educated in, their life’s work. They may not be able to find a job or they may change jobs several times throughout their life.

For most of human history, who one was could often be established by one’s name. A name might even be changed to suite who a person became in life. One might be known as John the shoe maker. Names often had very deep meanings.

Without a flood of information at one’s fingertips, a person would have to learn from an elder, or wiser person—someone with more experience to pass along, often in the form of stories that would not only pass along wisdom, but would entertain. We sometimes call this mentoring or apprenticing. As books became available, valuable and important information could be published as a permanent record.

Enter mass communications. Suddenly, information is everywhere. More than we can absorb. There is no time to soak in the information to begin the journey to making it knowledge. The message travels through only a glimpse and the mind has no time to determine what it is being fed. The path to wisdom is broken. In addition, since it is so simple to publish or transmit information, anyone can do it and that information may not be accurate.

The question is, can a plethora of surface information at massive levels lead to the outcome of knowledge and even understanding? Can one, bombarded by daily doses of thousands of messages of information become wise with wisdom? Remember, wisdom allows one to make sound judgements. Look around and see if you can observe people making sound judgements.

It seems to me that the lack of wisdom is also tied into education and the need to systematize and mechanize human existence. The education system is designed to indoctrinate people into the current world view and to prepare them for a particular job or field of work. It is less about making human beings that can reason and more about maintaining the status quo. I ask, is it wise to maintain a path of growing consumption? Can we keep producing more and more? Does it make sense to judge the health of our society by the growth of its economy? This is a whole area of discussion that I have written about for years. Hopefully, you can get an idea of the sorts of questions one could be asking.

Our use of technology and its limiting of what full communications consists of, is stripping humankind of wisdom. When we communicate using any other means than face to face, we are missing about eighty percent of the message. I suspect that wisdom is best exchanged through face-to-face communications. As our machines become smarter and more like humans, humans become dumber and more like machines. We don’t seem to understand what is happening.

What exactly is wisdom? I’ll provide a little research. I did the following research after I had written the above.

Google, the reputed source of all knowledge today, yielded a definition of, ‘the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; the quality of being wise.’

From Merrium-Webster:

: knowledge that is gained by having many experiences in life
: the natural ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand
: knowledge of what is proper or reasonable : good sense or judgment

Full Definition of WISDOM
1
a :  accumulated philosophic or scientific learning :  knowledge

b :  ability to discern inner qualities and relationships :  insight

c :  good sense :  judgment

d :  generally accepted belief <challenges what has become accepted wisdom among many historians — Robert Darnton>
2
:  a wise attitude, belief, or course of action
3
:  the teachings of the ancient wise men

From Wikipedia:

Wisdom has, in the Western tradition, been listed as one of four cardinal virtues. As a virtue it is a habit or disposition to perform the action with the highest degree of adequacy under any given circumstance. This implies a possession or seeking of knowledge of the given circumstances. This involves an understanding of people, things, events and situations, and the willingness and the ability to apply perceptions, judgments and actions in keeping with an understanding of what is the right course of actions. It often requires control of one’s emotional reactions (the “passions“) so that universal principles, values, reason and knowledge prevail to determine one’s actions. In short, wisdom is a disposition to find the truth coupled with an optimum judgement as to right actions. Synonyms include: prudence, sagacity, discernment, or insight.

Google lists The Free Dictionary as the second hit after Wikipedia. So…

From The Free Dictionary:

1. The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.
2. Common sense; good judgment: “It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things” (Henry David Thoreau).
3.
a. The sum of learning through the ages; knowledge: “In those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations” (Maya Angelou).
b. Wise teachings of the ancient sages.
4. A wise outlook, plan, or course of action.
5. Wisdom Bible Wisdom of Solomon.

Ah, the Bible. Finally, a source we can take a deeper look at. Notice the above notes Solomon as having wisdom. Solomon was the son of King David and wrote most of the book or Proverbs, the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. In 1 Kings 3, Solomon asks for wisdom:

5 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.
6 And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
7 And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.
8 And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
11 And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;
12 Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
Exodus 31:3
And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
Psalm 37:30
The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.
Psalm 49:3
My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
Psalm 136:5
To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 2:9-11
King James Version (KJV)
9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
Proverbs 3:19
The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
Proverbs 17:24
Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
Proverbs 23:4
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
Proverbs 24:3
Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:
Ecclesiastes 2:13
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
Ecclesiastes 2:26
For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Jeremiah 10:12, Jeremiah 51:15
He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31
The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
Romans 11:33
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
1 Corinthians 1:20
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1 Corinthians 1:24
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:30
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
1 Corinthians 3:19
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
Ephesians 1:17
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Colossians 1:9
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
Colossians 2:2-4
King James Version (KJV)
2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
Colossians 3:15-17
King James Version (KJV)
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
James 1:5
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
James 3:14-16
King James Version (KJV)
14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
James 3:17
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Revelation 13:17-18
King James Version (KJV)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Through the above select passages, the Bible seems to add to what I have already written by stating wisdom comes from the spirit of God, that the righteous speak wisdom. Wisdom made the heavens and the Earth. Only a fool despises wisdom from which deep understanding and judgement comes. Man seems to have his own wisdom, the wisdom of this world, that seeks riches and other earthly things. This is called folly and is vanity and vexation of spirit. This earthly wisdom is sensual and devilish. We are told that, if we lack the wisdom of God, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy without partiality or hypocrisy, we should ask for it. With the wisdom of God we have the understanding of the beast of Revelations.

If Solomon was considered the wisest man to live, Jesus claimed to be greater. He is even called the wisdom of God.

Round peg, square hole

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Have you heard the phrase ‘He’s a square peg in a round hole?’ I don’t like it! To me it doesn’t quite make sense and I think it is time to set the expression straight.

The ‘peg’ phrase is generally used to describe a person who does not fit into a job or position. Hold on, my contentions is that it is backwards. To me, society is made up of all sorts of boxes, not circles. The boxes are getting squarer and tighter and more defined. Look at a list of job postings on one of the many job related websites and you will find most postings are for a sharply defined position. The don’t seem very round.

I propose that the expression be reversed. After all, people seem more rounded to me. Let’s have it make sense. Now, i’ll bet you are thinking that the round peg can actually fit into the square hole. Sure, that could work, however, the corners would be empty and that wouldn’t work. I like to think that the round peg exceeds the size of the hole, so in essence, the round peg has attributes and characteristics that don’t fit the mould.

In a group of people, if you can talk hockey or golf, you will easily find someone to talk to. If your interests are in something less popular, like archery, your chances are less. You might well have many interests, more than most people and, yet, if you don’t speak the popular ones, you can be left out.

Now, apply the same idea to the workplace and jobs and you will get what I mean. I feel I am a round peg, many possibilities and, well, you get the idea, I’m sure.

How is it that we can’t have a world that is fluid and adaptable, one that can allow the abilities and inabilities to be used to the fullest? Is it just a natural result of humans organizing their society that everything becomes more rigid and compartmentalized? Is it necessary for all aspects of society to be so organized in order to function? How about the stock exchange? I’m not sure what it is like now, but I know at one time, it looked about as disorganized and chaotic as one might imagine. And yet, it functioned.

For a few decades now, the business world has been working toward more efficiency, to be leaner and more profitable. Education has become more about training and preparing workers for specific work and jobs, rather than creating citizens to contribute to society in a variety of settings. In doing so, they seem to carve the curves of their humanness into sharp edges—into a shape that I would call square. Shaping people into a squarish shape means trimming unique aspects of each person, uniquenesses that are valuable and useful. Somehow, they must fit in and the place they must fit is square.

Here is another view of this notion. Perhaps the round peg is a bit soft. In that case forcing the peg into the hard, square hole might cause it to squish, thus becoming uncomfortable. Now that rings true.

I would consider myself a roundish person. Perhaps not a circle, or even an oval, or oblong shape—certainly not square. I feel I have uniqueness that I have never been able to bring to any job I have had. Usually, I have to confine myself to the specific needs of the job.

My experiences in education have shown me that the same thing applies to learning. As I have said, this is what education is about. Trim learners into square pegs that can easily fit into society. Those who are not easily trimmed will have difficulties and even be deemed a problem. Why are graduates of universities going back to colleges? Because a general degree does not guarantee a job in today’s society. To get a job, one must be trained for a specific job. To get a job one must meet all the criteria in the job description and have experience that matches. New grads can have a huge problem here in some situations. These days, human resource departments may scan job applications for specific keywords. How square can this get?

Our society seems to have little use for uniqueness. I’m not talking necessarily about unusual people. I think everybody has roundness and uniqueness that usually gets ignored in order to fit in. Thus, square pegs in square holes. Well, I’m still a round peg trying to fit into a square hole.

Why do we watch war pictures?

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Last week, I found myself wondering if there might be a war picture on TV that night. Almost immediately, I began to wonder why and what kind of war movie. I also realized that this was most certainly a guy thing. Taking a short inventory of some of the war pictures I had seen in the past, I realized that, not all are violent. Some only imply the violence, others are quite graphic.

Why do we watch war pictures? One reason might be the great theme music. At the moment I am listening to the music from A Bridge Too Far. One of the best themes is from The Great Escape. How about Colonel Bogy from Bridge On the River Kwai or the Longest Day. These are just a few that come to mind without looking. There must be more to why we watch war pictures and why they are made.

We might consider the historical reasons. Certainly, it is important to make an historical record of events so people will know what happened. Then there are the entertainment reasons. These movies are gripping in drama and excitement. There are usually heroes and a win or lose situation.

Wars have been devastating societies for as long as societies have existed. War is about disagreements that lead to life and death struggles, severe pain and suffering all inflicted by humans on other humans. Of any of mankind’s endeavours, war arguably impacts people and societies stronger than any other. Mass killing of man by man. Perhaps nothing can compare. Thus, war becomes a powerful subject for the movies.

As I mentioned above, I do particularly like the music, often in the form of a march. From a historical perspective, I find it important to remind ourselves how horrible war is; let us not forget those who served and those who died and may it never happen again. I may watch to see triumph and victory, although that is sometimes not the point or even depicted.

A Bridge Too Far follows the failed attempt by the allies to take bridges leading to Berlin by making the largest drop of paratroopers ever attempted. The Great Escape ultimately failed. Yes, war is about winning and losing and the movies depict both, however, we must remember that everyone loses in war because all participants suffer consequences.

Is it important to make and watch war pictures? Do you ever get an urge to watch one? Why?

Education or learning

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I’ll let you in on a bit of my past. School for me was, well not for me, right from the start. School and I simply did not get along. It is not that I didn’t have interests that were covered in school curriculum. Something about the classroom experience and the delivery of information really didn’t suit me. I guess I had some difficulties settling in to the routine and understanding what was happening and what was being taught.

This is the story of how I came to learn about education and became educated about learning. Most important, it is about how I came to learn how to learn. If that sounds strange to you. Keep reading. You might be interested in why learning is more important to me than education.

As I scraped through the grades, made to repeat a grade when we moved from the U.S. to Canada, I began to live for the weekends. In later grades, I needed to forget the week and find some way to enjoy the weekend. I hated Sunday night and Monday mornings. Parties and drinking became weekend norms. By grade twelve, with just passing grades, I vowed to never set foot in an academic environment again.

Today, I still struggle with plenty of life, yet, I have managed to avoid alcohol for over 30 years and have earned an M.Ed. among other certificates and diplomas. How did this happen? What do I know now that has made the difference?

Let’s pick up the trail after grade twelve and race through a few years. After working in a dairy, I decided to go to college to learn about printing. I didn’t consider this academic and thus not breaking my vow, even when I studied some journalism. The number of educators who have strongly influenced me during my life have been few. One was an associate music teacher in high school. Yes, there were a few positive experiences. This teacher asked me if I would like to do an entertainment review for the local newspaper. My response, ‘But I’m barely squeaking through in English.” His, “You know what you like and don’t like, so just write what you think.” So began a small career as a part-time entertainment reviewer that lead me to take some journalism so I could get more free press passes to shows.

After working in the printing industry for a few years, I managed to get my hands on a Mac Plus computer to teach myself the new prepress method then known as desktop publishing. Soon, I found myself doing some training. One other piece of the puzzle developed when I was contracted by an educational institution to help develop a new distance education project using an online groupware product I was a representative for. I ended up writing the first course and delivering it to the group of instructors who developed the courses and programs at the institution. I had little understanding of what I was doing. I remember the project manager saying “To ensure your long-term participation in this project, you might what to get some training in developing training courses.” We traded some work for the Instructional Skills workshop, part of the Provincial Instructor Diploma.

During that workshop, the reality of the world of education and learning began to be revealed to me. Wait, was this academic, could I actually learn something and enjoy it? Even more surprising, this shy guy actually ended up standing in front of people to teach a short lesson. I enrolled in another course and got to really grapple with my own learning. It was a tough slog. I had to find my learning legs. I had to apply the little I had already learned about learning to my own learning. Finally, I learned a few things about how to learn, how I learn.

In the following years, I completed the Provincial Instructor Diploma, the Advanced Diploma in Adult Education, a Leadership Coaching Certificate and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction. Perhaps one day I’ll continue my story about learning. For now, let me talk a bit about education and learning.

What comes to the forefront of your mind when you think of school, education, or learning? What is the difference? What do they look like to you?

Would it surprise you if I stated that education, to me is a production machine? It is an attempt to bring about the result of learning to the masses of society and to indoctrinate them into the norms of society; to make citizens who can function within the framework of society, meet the employment needs of corporations and to behave in an acceptable manner. That may sound like a strong accusation of a major societal institution, yet, this is what school is about.

The institution of education is so massive that it actually has a number of difficulties. When you think of school you probably think of a classroom of tables and chairs and the teacher at the front of the room teaching. The sage on the stage as we came to call it. Educators now know so much more about how people learn than when I went to school. With this research, one might think that the school experience would be quite different. Perhaps it is, slightly, but in truth the machine keeps churning as usual. Even with the ability to deal with the students who struggle or have other differences or challenges, the system can’t help in ways that could make a huge difference.

In the past, less was known about what the problems really were, or how to provide assistance. Those who did not fit in, might be labelled as troublesome or lazy. Today, research has revealed much about how people learn, yet, notions such as mainstreaming all students or financial cutbacks have limited improvements to education. In addition, the educational machine is very slow to change and seems to be entrapped by the expectations of what school and education should look like—people expect it should look the way it looked when they went to school. Teachers teach the way they were taught.

Here’s the point. So much more is known about how we learn. From varying the delivery of instruction and teaching to meet learning styles to brain research, the educational experience should be so different from what it is. In addition, we now know that creative, innovative thinking needs to be developed in learners to meet the complex needs of society today. Employers are constantly changing what they are looking for in potential employees.

Since education seems inadequate, at least to me, I tend to focus on learning. Now, you should understand why education to me is a formal ridged, inflexible processing machine. What I seek are creative learning solutions. I’ll probably write more about creative learning solutions. Perhaps a series. Watch for it.

War and Remembrance

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The other day was Remembrance Day, a day originally set to commemorate and honor those who served in the ‘war to end all wars,’ The Great War and later called World War I. This was the first war of the century, a century that saw a huge evolution in the way war was fought. I suggest also, that it must continue to ask us to re-question war and killing.

A bit of history

The first world war seems to me to be aptly named due to the number of nations involved and the massive numbers of casualties. A war that, for the first time, involved all of the worlds great powers. War is an atrocious business in any case. Traditionally, it was fought by men who engaged in attacks out in the countryside using, what now are considered, rudimentary weapons. The twentieth century saw greater technological innovation than any other century in history. War certainly benefitted from these advances. From airplanes with bombs to tanks, the ability to kill more people than any hand to hand combat boosted the casualty rates and the destruction. The fighting also moved into cities as well as the countryside.

Today, it seems unimaginable that another world war could erupt in less than two decades. A war even more devastating than the first, particularly in the numbers of civilian casualties, including the holocaust, where millions of a single race of humans were systematically murdered. One can hardly imagine the death and devastation caused by the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

May we never have another world war.

The twentieth century continued to see an evolution of war, however, certainly in North America, people really began to question the nation’s involvement in the conflict. Here, I believe, it has been communications technology that has informed the people of what war is really like. I can remember watching the Vietnam War on TV every night at dinner.

During the first half of the twentieth century, media consisting of mostly newspapers, radio and newsreel movies showed society what the government wanted them to see. It was controlled and often full of propaganda. Television and satellites began a nearly instant and uncontrolled look at war. While this technology was eventually used to control the message society received, it also began the mass protest of war. Bringing war into the living rooms of the people changed them forever. Even newer technologies in the twenty-first century, spawned through the Internet, are breeding uprisings in many parts of the world simultaneously, in traditionally hot beds of war, such as the Middle East. Modern wars are often fought against terrorist organizations or they see rebellions against dictators.

Modern technological warfare can deliver a massive lethal blow with, so called, surgical precision. Today, we see technology being used to even replace humans with the use of drone aircraft. The range of weapon types is ever increasing, yet, much of the fighting must still be done on the ground, on foot with guns, land mines and other dirty weapons. No matter how much technology might clean up warfare, it still involves the pain of injury and death, even to civilians.

The bottom line is that war remains a dirty, messy activity of death and destruction.

Now some points of focus

Some of you might remember the Star Trek episode where war was fought entirely by computer. The computers would locate a person, register a kill and inform the enemy computer. The targeted person would then report to a disintegration chamber to be eliminated. Even in such a painless approach to war, it still involved death.

I want to focus in here on two aspects of war. First, any person behind a weapon must be able to kill another human being, a human being who they might, in another setting, actually be friends with, able to share common interests. In hand to hand combat, it might mean staring the other person in the eye before causing serious injury or ending their life. I know I could ever do that. Yet, if it came to kill or get killed, I wonder what I might end up doing. The two enemies usually have no quarrel between them, but have been ordered by others to kill. Here, the fault of another person means others must kill and die. This is killing of probably innocent people for reasons that originate from a higher purpose. Usually, over land, religion or for political reasons.

How do you kill another person who is not guilty of any crime and who has done nothing to you? This sounds exactly like insanity.

My second point of focus is to ponder how those who are in charge of ordering others into battle, or are in charge of initiating a weapon that can kill many people at one time. I can hardly imagine killing one person. What must it take to cause the injury or death of many people? Perhaps, since they are usually removed from the actual point impact, it might be easier. How can one become a commander that orders troops into battle know the calculated risks. I guess it once again comes down to the kill some or have many more killed, perhaps even the innocent.

We should also always keep in mind that the impacts of war extend far beyond those involved and long past the time of actual war. Lives are changed forever.

Conclusion

I suppose that, as long as there are those who have quarrel and aggression against another human being, there will be those who are sent to kill or die. We must regularly be reminded of this and to remember those who have suffered or died.