Thursday, July 28, 2005

A few thoughts about government

Introduction
Humanity isn't perfect but we could do a better job of protecting ourselves from ourselves. Government is where we traditionally look for this protection but it is also subject to the same failings of man. Over a significant period of time, government accumulates these failings and begins to fail it's primary goal.

Hyperactive Legislation
The shortcomings of men collect in the various niches of government. One such niche is the cycle of legislation creation. At some point, a government should be allowed to be complete, if only for a period of time, in the sense of making new laws. Without the concept and possibility of "being complete", a government will continually need to recreate it's self by unnecessarily passing some new laws, altering laws and replacing laws continually in an effort to protect it's need to exist. In the current world of man, this creates a unnecessary cycle which allows for corruption of leadership and abuse of power. This overactive cycle of government self-protection and self-importances often spills over into other important, non-legislative decisions such as economic and international policies where individuals begin to work only for their place in recorded history.

Process of The Review of Law
Without a constant need to prove the necessity of it's existence, government becomes much less hyperactive and reduce the tendencies for radical behaviors in other areas. Replacing part of hyperactive legislation, new task for government could be created. Government could elect a concept of "Review of Laws". This would involve associating a time period with some laws, fifty years for example. At the end of the time period, the need and value for that law would be re-evaluated and renewed if it is decided the law remains necessary in the society and culture present during the review of that law. If law can't be justified in that current society, the law is receded. Perhaps not all laws would be available to be reviewed in this fashion, specifically those in which life or property has been forcefully altered without adequate permission, but certainly there are many laws would be very likely candidates.

Human Rights for All
For a government to be in service of it's citizenry, it often rightly affords guarantees of basic human rights to it's citizens to assist in the balance of power and prevention of abuses. However, if these rights are only afforded to a government's citizens alone, these basic human rights become only privileges of citizenry (and thus revocable.) Any true human rights afforded to a citizen of one country or government is worthy of extending to all of humanity, regardless of citizenship status. An an example, if you can not be detained and questioned without official charges brought to bare as a citizen, then we should at not be an except non-citizens from this same basic human right. The same is true of protection from torture, respect of life and property and basic liberties.

Checks and Balances for Seats of Power
All governments created to service it's citizenry should include a mechanism to easily recall individuals serving in a government office by the regional electorate. Without this additional accountability to the electorate, government tends to proceeded with the needs of the individuals in office rather of the needs of the regional electorate, society and culture for which they were to serve.

Government Devoid of Religion
Despite the assertions to the contrary from many religions and spiritual paths, the afterlife is not known by the living and thus making decisions for the living, based on the unknowns of an afterlife, is irresponsible, harmful and reckless. Governments which shown very public favoritism to a specific religious affiliation have historically serviced only that faction and have tendencies to persecute groups not part of the same religious affiliation in subtle or extreme actions. At no time should religion or spiritual beliefs be allowed as only mechanism for creating policy for any government leadership or congregation of leadership in government where there is more than one religious or spiritual belief amongst the electorate.

Replacing Representative Democracy with Pure Democracy
I project that, in the formation of historically democratic governments, it wasn't physically possibility of all eligible electorate to participate directly with the decisions of their government. Thus, delegates for government were created to serve as a voice for many. As they are positions of prestige and power, these delegates required approval by the electorate to speak for regions of an electorate body. Thus localized voting for elected official speakers for a regional electorate came into existence. In our modern age and in modern societies, this form of representative democracy is no longer needed. It is very technically possible to solve the issues of communication of the electorate to a governing body. Implementing this shift away from representatives, it is also possible that the electorate body and the majority governing body to be come the same entity. While a pure implement of this concept would require heavily amended or completely rewritten democratic constitutions, it would seem to be a better mechanism for collecting, evaluating and committing to large scale decisions about a given democratic society's laws and acceptable cultural expression.

True Leadership, Devoid of Lust of Power
Currently and very cynically speaking, "Men who seek power do not deserve nor should be trusted with it." People with true leadership abilities do not need the constructs and trappings of power to create positive change in their societies and culture. A government formed to be truly in the service of it's citizenry would not have any lifetime office appointments or long terms of office to accomplish it's mission. These long terms create a static nature in government and a platform for the trappings of power. Government is a service to the citizenry and should be treated as a necessary task of a society and culture and not a station of power and reward. Limited office terms in government may also level the class divisions while empowering and elevating the less fortunate classes to a higher status of involvement, responsibility and prosperity. We have seen the effects of government policy and change, both positive and negative, take hold well within eight year term. It seems reasonable for individuals, serving in any government office, to have term limits to between eight and twelves years consecutively, a reasonable limit on total government service in a given government office and a reasonable limit on total government service in any governement office. Serving in government should be a privilege and never an occupation.

Conclusion
The Founding Fathers of America did a fine job creating a new implementation of government, tackling as many issues as possible, the most notable exceptions being slavery and respect to indigenous peoples, and holding it all together until the government begin working on it's own. They created a structure for the citizenry to provide guidance to that newly formed government in raw, primative and wide lands of the early America. But our society has radically changed in the last 218 years since the American constitution was created. American Representative Democracy is due for an major update and I hope these next update(s) to American Democracy protect all of humanity from further greed, lust for power and corruption and let societies and humanity progress into the future with peace and true freedom.


All dressed up...

It happened again.
This evening, I got dressed up in my "going out" clothes
and then ... I stayed home.
Again.
I think my vacation from my social group is coming to a close soon.

Keeping my tongue

I've kept my tongue silent for a long time,
Not feeling wise enough or smart enough to speak my thoughts and ideas.
I've waited for wiser men and women to speak for me.
Those people that speak loudest these days say they speak for me,
And they speak misleading things, prejudiced things and commit to terrible actions.

So I will speak.
I'll do my best to apply wisdom and Truth
But I am not willing to swallow the words of others any more.

"The Notion of Freedom and Security"

"The notions of freedom and security seem to oppose each other. Security originates from the small, particular and definite. Freedom, on the other hand, is generated by the large, general and unlimited.

Any demarcation, real or imagined, which limits someone or something becomes a boundary, and this is the determining factor in both freedom and security. Boundaries may be fences, laws or beliefs. They may be nation bounders, brick walls, or approved behaviors. Mental constraints, the strongest of all, separate the acceptable from the unacceptable. The limited nature of a boundary creates security by diminishing access so when a home is inviolate it becomes a castle.

An ability to cut across boundaries results in freedom, while the ability to keep one's boundaries strong results in security. The turtle carries its bony protection while the wings of a wild goose create the independence it seeks.

Boundaries are meant to include as well as exclude, and with each larger boundary drawn, differences vanish and the need for law shrivels. Including strengthens, as there are fewer boundaries to patrol. The size of one's personal periphery depends on the strength of its center, so this center must be firm before the mind can begin to expand. If expansion is too rapid the center begins to wobble and the entire structure is threatened. To expand is to risk and to shrink is to guarantee.

Living without any boundaries at all is to align one's fate with that of the cosmos. Security is created by marking and maintaining boundaries and freedom by expanding and erasing them. A boundary pencil has two ends and they both need to be sharp." - Nelson Zink, The Structure of Delight

Positive Feedback (at last)

After one of the phone screenings I had this week, I ask "how did I do" on the part of the screening I thought I knew. Seems that I do, in fact, "know my [Java] stuff."

Today I went to my free "career transition" service. I showed the resume I've been farming around as well as my "looking for work" log. "Very good!" I was told.

So, despite not having a job or job offers, I seem to be doing fairly well. I guess that's progress.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Tired of searching for a job and running down job leads

I lost four jobs today. Okay, technically, I loss the opportunity at four jobs with the same company. That was kind of a draining phone call to take.

It hasn't been quite two weeks since I lost my job. I've been keeping a log for my unemployment claim. To date, I have 59 entries of what I've been doing to get a job. Some are those are umbrella entries like "updated 15 job sites with my resume" or "email 20 people with my resume." 59 entries and those are just the ones I remembered for log. I can't tell if I'm doing enough to get a job.

Been on line for literally days on end looking for a job (dial up is very, very very slow. I've considered upgrading but I'm not sure I should spend the money right now.) I've been on IM allot the last two weeks. I went tubing at a local river last Friday, has numerous lunches, dinners and drinks with former-fellow coworkers in the last two weeks but cabin fever is starting. Anger and frustration have started to linger in the background.

I don't interview well. I have an annoying habit of telling the truth while down playing my abilities. My resume is still missing the necessary T.L.A.'s that'd get me employed. My last job offered a limited amount of exposure to allot of things and, thus far, no company has been interested in getting a "jack of all trades, master of few" employee. I need to remember to say "I can learn anything I don't already know." When I do remember to say that, it usually comes out as "If you have a collaborative team that know it and/or an Internet connection, I can learn it." I guess that's not a good enough selling point. Everyone seems to want the "know-i- all that can jump in day one and make them money."

This Wednesday is marks the end of Plan A - find a job in north Austin. Plan A-1 is get any job that will help the unemployment claim pay my mortgage and buy me food when my cash runs out. Plan B includes looking for jobs in other cities including outside of Texas. That'll only be a two week plan too. After that, Plan C - Europe.

I'm tired of looking for a job.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Mortgage

I just mailed my first mortgage payment while being unemployed.
That was very unnerving.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Poem: Awareness

I am not nearly as smart as I think I am
And I know more than I think I do.
It is not that I'm unaware
But that I am not aware enough.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Laid off - Time for more changes

Okay, so I got laid off this week.

I worked Monday until late. I worked Tuesday even later. Wednesday "they" laid me (and a few others) off. That's gratitude. Looking the people they laid off, I've got to wonder "What were they thinking?!"

Wednesday evening I choose not to go out drinking (in celebration of my forced freedom from my previous employer) and instead went to a sneak preview movie with friends ("The Island" - I enjoyed both the movie and spending time with my friends). On my way there, a recruiter called (twice) and set up a phone screening for Thursday. The phone screening went okay but did remind me of how my skill set has been centered around a nitch technology (and by nitch, I mean other nitch market players like Microsoft, IBM, Informatica. You get the point.)

I found out that often people don't actually READ resumes. In our brave new world of Googlers and Yahoo-ers, people have become more about checking for keywords than reading. No big deal - I'll just find the key words that describe what I know and dust off the other skills and demonstrate my ownership and ability to learn new things.

Anyway, I've update my resume, sent it to 50 people which in turn have forwarded on to several more people, etc. "Networking." I've filled up my white board at home, erased it, and filled it up again.

While waiting to get employed, I'm working on a plan to get employed.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Distinctions


dis·tinc·tion
(d-stngkshn) n.
1. The act of distinguishing; differentiation.
2. The condition or fact of being dissimilar or distinct; difference: the crucial distinction between education and indoctrination (A. Bartlett Giamatti). See Synonyms at difference.
3. A distinguishing factor, attribute, or characteristic.
4.
a. Excellence or eminence, as of performance, character, or reputation: a diplomat of distinction.
b. A special feature or quality conferring superiority.
5. Recognition of achievement or superiority; honor: graduated with distinction.


democracy (d-mkr-s) n.
1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
2. A political or social unit that has such a government.
3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
4. Majority rule.
5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.


theocracy (th-kr-s) n.
1: a political unit governed by a deity (or by officials thought to be divinely guided)
2: the belief in government by divine guidance


hierocracy (h-rkr-s, h-rk-) n.
Government by the clergy; ecclesiastical rule


Note: all definitions taken from http://dictionary.reference.com/

Friday, July 08, 2005

Sometimes to go forward you have to first backup

I wrote some apologies today. For one of them I didn't particular want to since I wrote them from the "willing to be responsible for everything" point of view. This point of view often lack of the distinctions necessary to completely describe the problems, issues or situations. But an apology isn't about describing, it's about letting go problems, issues and situations that don't work and asking someone else to let go too. I feel uneasy about apologies without distinctions because it's too easy to have to "take the blame" rather than "taking the responsibility". These days not many people make any distinctions.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

A weekend to remember

I've had friends in town for most of this long weekend...

Over the past few months, I've pulled back from my regular social activities and been keeping more to myself. I just wanted to get "grounded" in what it means to be me as well as get something things done. Somewhere along the way, I forgot something.

I've had friends in town for most of this long weekend. We've been out running around, tubing a nearby river, had wonderful Dim Sum breakfast, going to movies, the "occasional drink or two", watched the fireworks displays from a rooftop bar, rediscovering other, long lost friends, and "pasta-and-a-DVD" late nights and shots in the kitchen.

I have remembered what I had forgotten: the joy of great friends.