on that bit about policy costs being definite, I have a simple objection.
hmm. policy costs are usually estimates and thus are are usually colored by ideology.
imo
Keep Your Identity Small
241–250 of 267 posts
Re: Keep Your Identity Small
#242Actually, a mention of a programming language on an Internet forum also degenerates into a religious argument. And, sadly, too many people feel they don't need any particular expertise to argue Javascript, either.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small
#243Paul, as usual,you make some excellent points here. Keep up the excellent work!
Here's my two cents. Identity plays a pivotal role in humanity. How much is too little? How much is too much? It's hard to pin-point. I think it has changed throughout history, and, like a lot of things, its usefulness is evolving more rapidly as time progresses. So, it's a balancing act, and it constantly needs attention to do it right.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small
#244I totally agree with the essence of the argument but I don't think "identity" is the right word here. I think tribalism is what the author was getting at. Tribalism separates people into "us vs. them" kind of groupings and the more tribal minded someone is, the dumber he/she gets, as the author suggested. Religion and politics are only 2 forms of tribalism but there are others like sports, or nationality. Someone's identity definitely contains all these but as someone else pointed, there are non-tribal aspects of identity as well.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small
#245To assume an identity is a natural trait of every human. It has harmed us the most by far. I feel glad such an abstract topic is put in words by Paul. Thanks Paul.
I agree with Paul when he says we need to keep our identity small. Assuming an identity weather it be religious, national or any other, blocks our rational side from seeing things clearly. An identity levies upon the carries a sense of entitlement; it clots our mind with prejudice.
It is high time we stop doing this. And by keeping our identity small we lift the entitlement burden from our head. We no longer need to belong to a particular group, justify certain legacy thoughts that were forced upon us.
Many of the problems we face today are because of carrying identities which we assume by chance! The country where I belong, the language which I speak, the religion which I follow - every thing was enforced upon me by chance. Why should there be a resentment when one tries to shrug an identity.
It will only make our minds clear and we will be left with less burden to carry,
Re: Keep Your Identity Small
#2461.Identity is the boundary that separates 'I' from 'non-I'.
2.In order for us to become universal, this boundary must vanish.
3.It is the 'I' that is the doer of anything we do,so this 'I' needs to be expanded rather than contracted.
4.When the the 'I' expands, ultimately it can include everything within it's fold and the boundary can be pushed off to infinity, for all practical purposes making it vanish
5.The way to do it is by experiencing our essential 'self' or consciousness, the sub -stratum of all our thoughts through a natural meditation technique like TM.
6.With practice, we can learn to live the boundless even while acting within the boundaries.
7.This will allow any amount of differentiation at the level of thought and action while keeping all differences integrated and mutually supportive.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small
#247I cannot agree more, actually I wrote a similar post weeks ago
Edward
Frontier Blog - No one ahead, no one behind http://www.hwswworld.com/wp
Re: Keep Your Identity Small
#248Well, if identity is just a shortcut to forming exclusionary, co-operative groups in the competition for scarce resources, then keeping one's identity small (i.e. not identifying with many groups) is not necessarily good advice. There's a lot of interesting literature on this spawned from studies of supposedly ethnic conflict in areas such as Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Re: Keep Your Identity Small
#249I just found out that the founding father's intention of political system was modeled after the science movement in the 18th Century. This article and the video link below is enlightening. Thank you.
http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/2009/01/a-video-introduct...
Re: Keep Your Identity Small
#250I only skimmed the article (sorry), but I'm not so sure about Paul's thesis that a barrier to entry is the problem.
As I see it, the problem starts with things that are unprovable and therefore hard to debate--and unwillingness to accept that you might be wrong, since these unprovables are often at the core of the person's belief in the world.