The Return to Sanity

[Lynx]

This post shows that you’re a conservative and that you can’t discuss things beyond your ideology.
It’s a bit about self awareness actually.
Because you start with a game of words like “nothing is free” which of course is something that I am well aware of. We, the taxpayer pays for everything.
The problem here is that you neglect to address why the army pays 10 times higher the prices that we pay on our daily lives but again that’s something that you’re not able to talk about because of your conservative ideals. Because again, we the taxpayer pay for a lot of government dysfunctions.

The tax rates in any state are in relation to wages.
In 30 years I have seen nothing but an increased cost of living.
Again, something you can’t come to terms with because of your ideology.
Socializing medicine never ever limits care because other people from other states come here because it’s free and the state pays for their costs or we the taxpayers pay for their costs and guess what? No decrease on my standard of living either despite of this.

So I guess the point here is , why are you even trying to have a discussion about this topic if you’re unable to reach the middle ground?

I have to disagree with every bit of this post. Socialized healthcare definitely results in a triage environment at the hospital. A lot of people get fobbed off with jury-rigged health solutions.

It's either that or insane taxes, kind of like Germany. They have great health care, but incredibly steep taxes.

 

[Eli1]

I have to disagree with every bit of this post. Socialized healthcare definitely results in a triage environment at the hospital. A lot of people get fobbed off with jury-rigged health solutions.

It's either that or insane taxes, kind of like Germany. They have great health care, but incredibly steep taxes.

I think that you're confusing modern triaging in medicine with socialized healthcare.
The point of the modern triaging is that they don't want to insert any type of faith-based care in there. They have no room for it.
For insurance reasons and probably lawsuit reasons because people being people will complain "why did this guy get a buddha statue and i can't get the koran"?

Insane taxes is a political catch phrase to divide people into republicans or democrats.
Taxes are insane in most of the modern world. The tradeoff is what do you get back.
In Germany they get free education, healthcare and 9 months off in vacation when a mother has a child.

In US the illusion is that you don't get taxed 50% but 30% on your check but then you'd have to pay more than the total sum of 50% to keep your other necessities going like healthcare, education and paid vacation days.

This is why i'm saying that this is a political argument not a logical argument.
People do politics differently in different regions.

To circle back to the OP, who very wisely mentioned that a healthy society who might be based on free healthcare produces a better society, the question of training of the whole medical industry came up on how to address the mental challenges of a population who is lost between triaging, finding alternatives cures on their own, and finding proper spiritual advice on their own.

 

[Billyd]

Less than 10% of the US population have no access to healthcare. The money spent on frivolous foreign aid would more than pay for their healthcare.

 

[Lynx]

For some reason I feel like I'm at the local diner, in the morning, listening to the old men sit around the biggest table in the place, solving all the world's problems over cups of coffee.

Of course when you're sitting at the old men's table at the local diner, all the solutions are so easy and simple...

 

[Mem]

For some reason I feel like I'm at the local diner, in the morning, listening to the old men sit around the biggest table in the place, solving all the world's problems over cups of coffee.

Of course when you're sitting at the old men's table at the local diner, all the solutions are so easy and simple...

Nice! I'll make the donuts. I think that the feeling of old men sitting around a fishing hole would be only better. I'm just relieved it doesn't give you the feeling that you're sitting at a bar...

I know by experience, though, that good ideas can come out of such a vehicle as online chat. For example, way back in the time of my debut on the www, and having listened to a sermon by Charles Stanley about God's love, I was inspired to throw out a few lines about the depth, length, breadth, and width of it on a chat (whether it was comic chat, msn, or yahoo chat I no longer recall but) and it inspired someone else to put it to music and I suppose inspired another to produce it because not long after I was listening to my words with only a few slight changes put to music. So, although it isn't so easy and simple, we are never without the possibility of God orchestration within our musings.

And even if nothing else comes of it, I've enjoyed reading every exchange in this series of thoughts. And I don't believe it is of any coincidence that it has somewhat helped to take an edge of my discontent with the state of the world to know you've all cared as much to take a minute of your most valuable, earthly, commodity, that is, your time to share an even more precious one, your mind.

 

[Mem]

A lot of these Revivals in history are a bit outside of our hands but more in God's hands.
The Bible has a lot to say about unbelief, the no excuses of God's evidence in nature and pride but we can only do what we can to show the people around us about what it means to have Peace in Christ, because we can't reach everyone.
This is where on some cases, for a lot of tragedies there is a silver lining. In the of Covid i was hopping that there would be a change of hearts in people in the world, and in some there is a change of hearts. Many re-evaluated their goals and purpose in life while they were isolated for a year at home. Maybe turned to faith in God.
The planet looked a lot clearer too when no one was polluting the skies with smoke.
But since many are slaves to sin, they got back into the habits quickly.
I think that God sends us these trials to wake us up but not everyone keeps their ears open.

I suppose that most of us are overwhelmed with all the distractions dispersing our focus so thinly that makes it too easy to forget to listen for all the "hey! look!"ing, but I did have every intention of getting on the subject of self-awareness (but I'd been 'hey, look!'ing from where I'd left off and waiting for the first opportunity to present itself).

I believe that self-awareness is key in achieving a healthy wholeness, agreeing with the logic presented of yet another 'coincidental' acquaintance of a rabbinic philosopher who posits that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs should be turned on its head to be more accurate in mapping out an optimal *self-realization. And so, I would like to at least sift the subject for any flakes to collect into my pouch.

Hopefully we can, and will, circle back to the other tangents of the topic that have also been presented but, for starters...In the Forbes article that I shared in the other thread, Only 15% Of People Are Self-Aware (and I do wonder if that implies that 85% of people are off their rocker?), you noted that the idea of adaptability was mistaken for actual self-awareness. What did you mean? Do you think that 85% of people are maladjusted? or do you think the number of self-aware people is exaggerated?

*I realize that, in Maslow's model, it is called self-actualization but I think that self-realization would be more helpful to our well-being. Hopefully, I'll be able to express more on that opinion later.

 

[Mem]

I didn't realize the purpose of discussion was to change one's views, but to consider other arguments yet undiscovered. I sincerely appreciate your view even though I disagree with you, and thank you for sharing it.
You seemed to have become annoyed over the way I presented my view, so perhaps closing the discussion is best. And my apologies. This wasn't my aim.

Perhaps repackaging the views that you hold as valuable is in order to gain more interest (not that you haven't peaked mine). That is, what is your vision statement for free-market healthcare? I think an increase in competition would be inherent in that, but how does the 'novel' obtain a license to practice? I mean, there was a time when lobotomies where licensed as a legitimate treatment so, we really can't rule out any possibilities of an achievement.

 

[Mem]

Less than 10% of the US population have no access to healthcare. The money spent on frivolous foreign aid would more than pay for their healthcare.

It does seem that a reassessment of priority would be warranted. That we are commanded that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, to me, implies a healthy love of ourselves is foundational to successfully venturing to love our neighbor.

 

[Lynx]

Nice! I'll make the donuts. I think that the feeling of old men sitting around a fishing hole would be only better. I'm just relieved it doesn't give you the feeling that you're sitting at a bar...

I know by experience, though, that good ideas can come out of such a vehicle as online chat. For example, way back in the time of my debut on the www, and having listened to a sermon by Charles Stanley about God's love, I was inspired to throw out a few lines about the depth, length, breadth, and width of it on a chat (whether it was comic chat, msn, or yahoo chat I no longer recall but) and it inspired someone else to put it to music and I suppose inspired another to produce it because not long after I was listening to my words with only a few slight changes put to music. So, although it isn't so easy and simple, we are never without the possibility of God orchestration within our musings.

And even if nothing else comes of it, I've enjoyed reading every exchange in this series of thoughts. And I don't believe it is of any coincidence that it has somewhat helped to take an edge of my discontent with the state of the world to know you've all cared as much to take a minute of your most valuable, earthly, commodity, that is, your time to share an even more precious one, your mind.

I don't mean ALL of the internet or all of this forum, or even all of this thread.

But some threads, and some participants, make it seem like problems are just so simple and easy to solve... When you don't have to deal with pesky details. Just like those old guys at the diner, solving all the world's problems over coffee cups.

If only it wasn't for those pesky details...

 

[Eli1]

I don't mean ALL of the internet or all of this forum, or even all of this thread.

But some threads, and some participants, make it seem like problems are just so simple and easy to solve... When you don't have to deal with pesky details. Just like those old guys at the diner, solving all the world's problems over coffee cups.

If only it wasn't for those pesky details...

Lynx come join us brother, you do it too on other threads so in honor of self-awareness come join us with coffee, tea, beer or whatever you like and add your input which I do enjoy and understand because it’s simple and to-the-point.
I told you that you’re a cool cat and I like your ideas about marriage already. So, come join us.
The only “flaw” that I noticed about you, is that you get annoyed when BDF people come into YOUR territorial areas of Singles Section or Miscellaneous section but i know that’s normal for felines so it’s not even a flaw.
Come on down for a drink.

 

[Eli1]

I suppose that most of us are overwhelmed with all the distractions dispersing our focus so thinly that makes it too easy to forget to listen for all the "hey! look!"ing, but I did have every intention of getting on the subject of self-awareness (but I'd been 'hey, look!'ing from where I'd left off and waiting for the first opportunity to present itself).

I believe that self-awareness is key in achieving a healthy wholeness, agreeing with the logic presented of yet another 'coincidental' acquaintance of a rabbinic philosopher who posits that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs should be turned on its head to be more accurate in mapping out an optimal *self-realization. And so, I would like to at least sift the subject for any flakes to collect into my pouch.

Hopefully we can, and will, circle back to the other tangents of the topic that have also been presented but, for starters...In the Forbes article that I shared in the other thread, Only 15% Of People Are Self-Aware (and I do wonder if that implies that 85% of people are off their rocker?), you noted that the idea of adaptability was mistaken for actual self-awareness. What did you mean? Do you think that 85% of people are maladjusted? or do you think the number of self-aware people is exaggerated?

*I realize that, in Maslow's model, it is called self-actualization but I think that self-realization would be more helpful to our well-being. Hopefully, I'll be able to express more on that opinion later.

I will get back to you later with a response. Thank you again for opening this topic.

 

[Lynx]

Lynx come join us brother, you do it too on other threads so in honor of self-awareness come join us with coffee, tea, beer or whatever you like and add your input which I do enjoy and understand because it’s simple and to-the-point.
I told you that you’re a cool cat and I like your ideas about marriage already. So, come join us.
The only “flaw” that I noticed about you, is that you get annoyed when BDF people come into YOUR territorial areas of Singles Section or Miscellaneous section but i know that’s normal for felines so it’s not even a flaw.
Come on down for a drink.

*Lynx peers over the edge of his perch, bares his fangs and hisses.

Annoyed, yes, sometimes. Territorial, no. You won't find a single urine stain of mine on any object or wall in either singles or miscellaneous.

Although... If you happen to have a can of whipped cream handy...

 

[Cameron143]

Perhaps repackaging the views that you hold as valuable is in order to gain more interest (not that you haven't peaked mine). That is, what is your vision statement for free-market healthcare? I think an increase in competition would be inherent in that, but how does the 'novel' obtain a license to practice? I mean, there was a time when lobotomies where licensed as a legitimate treatment so, we really can't rule out any possibilities of an achievement.

Competition does 2 things well:
1. Lowers costs over time
2. Creates incentives to improve
In America, healthcare is generally tied to employment. It is used as an incentive to attract workers, as part of an overall package of benefits. There is some benefit in this, as large companies create economies of scale and can bargain for better prices. And individual workers generally get better benefits. The drawback is that it is lost when losing or changing jobs. So in theory, being able to create an economy of scale for all people regardless of employment I see as beneficial. The problem with government control of that is obvious to me. Government lacks the requisite incentive to run efficiently. So unless government officials are both genuinely honest and proficient, any government program will soon become a drag on tax resources and provide substandard performance compared to profit based enterprises. As healthcare is about 1/6 of the American economy, I personally do not trust this to be under government control.

 

[Mem]

Competition does 2 things well:
1. Lowers costs over time
2. Creates incentives to improve
In America, healthcare is generally tied to employment. It is used as an incentive to attract workers, as part of an overall package of benefits. There is some benefit in this, as large companies create economies of scale and can bargain for better prices. And individual workers generally get better benefits. The drawback is that it is lost when losing or changing jobs. So in theory, being able to create an economy of scale for all people regardless of employment I see as beneficial. The problem with government control of that is obvious to me. Government lacks the requisite incentive to run efficiently. So unless government officials are both genuinely honest and proficient, any government program will soon become a drag on tax resources and provide substandard performance compared to profit based enterprises. As healthcare is about 1/6 of the American economy, I personally do not trust this to be under government control.

I lean toward agreement there. Government would work better as a watchdog at the most, as long as it's made clear its function in what it should be protecting. Currently, the attitude seems to be the government is supposedly guarding the consumer against himself.

 

[Mem]

I don't mean ALL of the internet or all of this forum, or even all of this thread.

But some threads, and some participants, make it seem like problems are just so simple and easy to solve... When you don't have to deal with pesky details. Just like those old guys at the diner, solving all the world's problems over coffee cups.

If only it wasn't for those pesky details...

I'm all about the details. I think it's the artist in me. The modern abstract stuff which now passes for art... seems to just be laziness.

 

[Eli1]

I suppose that most of us are overwhelmed with all the distractions dispersing our focus so thinly that makes it too easy to forget to listen for all the "hey! look!"ing, but I did have every intention of getting on the subject of self-awareness (but I'd been 'hey, look!'ing from where I'd left off and waiting for the first opportunity to present itself).

I believe that self-awareness is key in achieving a healthy wholeness, agreeing with the logic presented of yet another 'coincidental' acquaintance of a rabbinic philosopher who posits that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs should be turned on its head to be more accurate in mapping out an optimal *self-realization. And so, I would like to at least sift the subject for any flakes to collect into my pouch.

Hopefully we can, and will, circle back to the other tangents of the topic that have also been presented but, for starters...In the Forbes article that I shared in the other thread, Only 15% Of People Are Self-Aware (and I do wonder if that implies that 85% of people are off their rocker?), you noted that the idea of adaptability was mistaken for actual self-awareness. What did you mean? Do you think that 85% of people are maladjusted? or do you think the number of self-aware people is exaggerated?

*I realize that, in Maslow's model, it is called self-actualization but I think that self-realization would be more helpful to our well-being. Hopefully, I'll be able to express more on that opinion later.

Okay let’s talk about self-awareness, a favorite topic of mine.

I think that another concept we can use for self-awareness might be empathy.
Meaning, because you are able to put yourself in the shoes of someone else, you understand them and you also express yourself in a way so you don’t hurt them.
In the medical industry this is very obvious. In many layers of the industry starting from phone operators, assistants, nurses, doctors and anybody else in the chain of things we see that some of them are unable to show empathy. At least try to show empathy.
Because you want to be very careful on how to talk to a cancer patient so you don’t depress them even more. They are trained to be professional but not empathic.
In this group of people, you have the ones who are truly and naturally empathetic with more self-awareness, the ones who at least try to be empathetic and a small minority who aren’t and are rude.
This is also expressed in the body language.
Most of these rude folks seem annoyed, moody and generally tired.
The rest at least smile so they seem friendly and the genuine ones are natural in their glowing of goodwill and it’s obvious that they have a gift to be empathetic and are very self-aware.

Empathy can also be gained with knowledge when you don’t have it as a gift you’re born with.
Meaning, you can gain more knowledge on how to talk to a person of each discipline or profession so you can be understood more clearly by them.
This again makes you more self-aware because you might know how to talk to a person who has been through some sort of tragedy or joy. Let’s not forget joy too.

A person who is not self-aware and who does not have ill-will may say a lot of things that can hurt the other person. And this is where things can get interesting. This simple misunderstanding can result in fights or even wars.
But most of the time, the person who is self-aware is going to forgive the other person who he may label as “less intelligent” to use a kind word.

Then comes the question of who’s more happy? The person who is more self aware or the one who is less?
This is also very complicated but from a Christian POV, we have God who gives us rest while we lay all our problems and anxieties that come from self-awareness and the knowledge we have accumulated to Him. Becoming very self aware or empathetic may not be good for your health so for us who believers, we have God who we lay all our problems to and we gain more wisdom from our experience without affecting our mental health.
The person who is less self aware, could be argued that it’s more happy than the one with more knowledge and this is assuming they have no ill-will.

Regarding Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.


I don’t have a lot to say here because I agree completely with that. In fact, there’s an ancient Greek saying which says that “Democracy begins with a full stomach”

About that Forbes article.

The article begins by saying that self-awareness is critical for career success. This is true and it aligns to the knowledge gained I mentioned above but what it doesn’t say is the adaptation part. Where, most of people at work, will go along with the politics so they can stay employed. This is an adaptation mechanism so you can survive.

She also says that out of 95% of the people who are self-aware, only 15% of them actually are.
She cites three reasons for this disconnect. First, we naturally have blind spots. We’re wired to operate on autopilot, unaware of how we’re behaving, and why. There’s also the feel-good effect: we’re happier when we see ourselves in a more positive light. She calls the last factor the “cult of self,” the idea that we’ve become more self-absorbed as social media has exploded in popularity.
The auto-pilot part is the part which I also call adaptation. The majority of people in office settings, follow trends not logic anymore, which is why the rest of the herd follows without questioning because they are afraid to lose their jobs. Adaptation. Survival mechanism to go along on auto-pilot.

To gain more self awareness she says you need two things. Internal and external. For us as Christian, we should get our internal from God hopefully and that’s where I’ve been getting mine.
But for external she says that you need a “mentor” who can help you.
This again, from a Christian perspective is someone who can help you grow In Christ but adding to what I mentioned on an earlier post about experience, you can get more self-awareness by falling and getting up again.
I mean i was blessed to have a monk in my youth to help me grow in this aspect but i realize that everyone has a different journey and one factor that applies to us all is that when we fall, we learn how to get up, get more wisdom and in turn self-awareness.

She says that some people fear that becoming more self-aware means seeing the ugly truth about yourself.

Well, from a Christian POV this also means on how you see sin. If you think of yourself as sinless then you’re blue-pilled (no self-awareness) but if you think of yourself as the Chief among sinners, like Paul did, then you are more red-pilled (more self-awareness).

That's all i can say for now and thanks for opening this topic.

 

[Mem]

Okay let’s talk about self-awareness, a favorite topic of mine.

I think that another concept we can use for self-awareness might be empathy.
Meaning, because you are able to put yourself in the shoes of someone else, you understand them and you also express yourself in a way so you don’t hurt them.
In the medical industry this is very obvious. In many layers of the industry starting from phone operators, assistants, nurses, doctors and anybody else in the chain of things we see that some of them are unable to show empathy. At least try to show empathy.
Because you want to be very careful on how to talk to a cancer patient so you don’t depress them even more. They are trained to be professional but not empathic.
In this group of people, you have the ones who are truly and naturally empathetic with more self-awareness, the ones who at least try to be empathetic and a small minority who aren’t and are rude.
This is also expressed in the body language.
Most of these rude folks seem annoyed, moody and generally tired.
The rest at least smile so they seem friendly and the genuine ones are natural in their glowing of goodwill and it’s obvious that they have a gift to be empathetic and are very self-aware.

Empathy can also be gained with knowledge when you don’t have it as a gift you’re born with.
Meaning, you can gain more knowledge on how to talk to a person of each discipline or profession so you can be understood more clearly by them.
This again makes you more self-aware because you might know how to talk to a person who has been through some sort of tragedy or joy. Let’s not forget joy too.

A person who is not self-aware and who does not have ill-will may say a lot of things that can hurt the other person. And this is where things can get interesting. This simple misunderstanding can result in fights or even wars.
But most of the time, the person who is self-aware is going to forgive the other person who he may label as “less intelligent” to use a kind word.

Then comes the question of who’s more happy? The person who is more self aware or the one who is less?
This is also very complicated but from a Christian POV, we have God who gives us rest while we lay all our problems and anxieties that come from self-awareness and the knowledge we have accumulated to Him. Becoming very self aware or empathetic may not be good for your health so for us who believers, we have God who we lay all our problems to and we gain more wisdom from our experience without affecting our mental health.
The person who is less self aware, could be argued that it’s more happy than the one with more knowledge and this is assuming they have no ill-will.

Regarding Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
View attachment 269678

I don’t have a lot to say here because I agree completely with that. In fact, there’s an ancient Greek saying which says that “Democracy begins with a full stomach”

About that Forbes article.

The article begins by saying that self-awareness is critical for career success. This is true and it aligns to the knowledge gained I mentioned above but what it doesn’t say is the adaptation part. Where, most of people at work, will go along with the politics so they can stay employed. This is an adaptation mechanism so you can survive.

She also says that out of 95% of the people who are self-aware, only 15% of them actually are.
She cites three reasons for this disconnect. First, we naturally have blind spots. We’re wired to operate on autopilot, unaware of how we’re behaving, and why. There’s also the feel-good effect: we’re happier when we see ourselves in a more positive light. She calls the last factor the “cult of self,” the idea that we’ve become more self-absorbed as social media has exploded in popularity.
The auto-pilot part is the part which I also call adaptation. The majority of people in office settings, follow trends not logic anymore, which is why the rest of the herd follows without questioning because they are afraid to lose their jobs. Adaptation. Survival mechanism to go along on auto-pilot.

To gain more self awareness she says you need two things. Internal and external. For us as Christian, we should get our internal from God hopefully and that’s where I’ve been getting mine.
But for external she says that you need a “mentor” who can help you.
This again, from a Christian perspective is someone who can help you grow In Christ but adding to what I mentioned on an earlier post about experience, you can get more self-awareness by falling and getting up again.
I mean i was blessed to have a monk in my youth to help me grow in this aspect but i realize that everyone has a different journey and one factor that applies to us all is that when we fall, we learn how to get up, get more wisdom and in turn self-awareness.

She says that some people fear that becoming more self-aware means seeing the ugly truth about yourself.

Well, from a Christian POV this also means on how you see sin. If you think of yourself as sinless then you’re blue-pilled (no self-awareness) but if you think of yourself as the Chief among sinners, like Paul did, then you are more red-pilled (more self-awareness).

That's all i can say for now and thanks for opening this topic.

Thank you for the encouragement in opening this thread. Sometime back, @Cameron had given me similarly encouragement about opening a thread (I think of a context that I must've figure I've yet to grow sufficiently into, in this case,) but I've never been able to dismiss the sentiment as merely geniality and so, when you expressed your support of the idea, well, I then was able to assume in summary, "where two or three agree...there I AM."

You brought up office politics and this generated my wondering why the, using the euphemism you coined, "less intelligent" promote one another while passing over those more self-aware, or empathic. I've read of the assertion that psychopaths are those that make it to positions of leadership, and one source lists "executive chef" as one of the top examples and I wonder what correlation that m seeing an unrelated ranking of industries (relating to what aspect of desirability I don't recall exactly now but), hospitality was sitting on the bottom rung. And indeed, an observation was made last night at work in the context of an ambiance of irritability that "it's just the restaurant business" yet I'm reticent to accept that as the root problem.

After work, in an attempt to run into the tower and regain my stillness, I was desperate enough to click on a recurringly suggested video, that I otherwise usually just passed over, inspired from CS Lewis titled '7 Signs Someone is a Demon.' I see now that I usually passed it over because of the wording. I think I'd been more inclined to tune in if it'd made clearer that the idea presented was actually "Someone is Influenced by Demons," even if I haven't completely dismissed the possibility that people may qualify as being demons. ... and now I've lost track of the train of thought that compelled me to bring this up... Maybe just wondering at the possible influences involved in this complex issue, considering the degree of complexity in treating it.

And, Oh! love that you also brought up empathy! Although I realize this is only a pipe dream, it is my opinion that Emotional Intelligence should be a prerequisite skill in entering into any public space. I self-identify as an empath, so that personally spoke to issues that I struggle with.

re: Maslow's Hierarchy, I've adopted the S'wolsam model because I believe realizing our identity as a child of God (but at the least as an image of God) would be foundational in achieving fulfilling in any subsequent needs. This is the summary the fellow presented.

 

[Mem]

re: Maslow's Hierarchy, I've adopted the S'wolsam model because I believe realizing our identity as a child of God (but at the least as an image of God) would be foundational in achieving fulfilling in any subsequent needs. This is the summary the fellow presented.

An interesting thought comes to me whenever I think of Maslow's Hierarchy, likely influence by the fellow that presented the alternative. If his model were juxtaposed upon Maslow's model, we'd have the star of david model, and indeed, as the fellow explained, the star of david is symbolism of two triangles of each as representative to God reaching down to man and man reaching up to God, just to give you a calibration of my bearings. So, if this model is more accurate, and scripture does advise that we shouldn't worry about what to eat, or what to wear... then we should only be worrying, primarily, of our position as a child of God.

 

[Eli1]

Good morning @Mem .
It was good to see that you have empathic qualities and it's a blessing because it makes you a thinker.
I will post something later, hopefully depending how the day goes, about what you have posted.

Thank you and have a wonderful day.

 

[Eli1]

The more you know the more you realize that you know nothing.
It’s a method that God has created for us to humble us, for those who believe of course.

I mentioned ill-will earlier because that’s the difference between someone who’s in a “child-like” state and someone who is very aware of what they’re doing but they’re doing it on purpose.
Then, a small percentage of this mindset can also graduate to a psychopath.

A psychopath has no empathy. This could be a born trait or a learned trait. One example would be in taking a human life, like in war. The first time might be a shock, you might even throw up, get PTSD or many other things. But if you’re wired differently you might even like this to begin with. But if you don’t like it and get passed the shock, you become indifferent and eventually you might even graduate to a Stalin or Hitler who used to send thousands of people to their deaths with a signature like they were statistics, not humans with a soul. Think about the role of an executioner in ancient times and now. In ancient times especially you need to have a certain kind of mindset to deal with gore while you kill people. And they have to do this on a weekly or monthly basis. Modern executions are created in a way to minimize the gore, but the shock is there nonetheless.
Getting back to politicians; the politician as a position remains a ‘snake in a suit’. This is also tied to a big ego and a sense of pride.

First you must seek power. Those who don’t seek power are not chosen because nobody (or the HR dpt) is not going to do their jobs in finding talent. They need self-promoters. So you need a lot of egotistical traits to seek power, because the concept of public service is forgotten and meaningless. Nobody puts people in power because of skills.
Secondly you must obtain power. This requires a set of skills which may not be natural for most. You have to be manipulative, a good liar, a bit ruthless, and of course power-obsessed.
Third, you must maintain power. When you reach this level then you have no problem culling those who cut it or don’t cut it if they don’t obey you.

From a Christian perspective we know that people can get possessed and are not themselves. Modern words like psychopaths, narcissist, egomaniac etc are words to describe what our forefathers called ‘possessed by the devil’ and what the Bible speaks on many occasions.
My favorite one is when Jesus cast the demons away from the possessed man into the pigs who then committed suicide. We have discussed this detail in our weekly Bible studies and we haven’t come up with anything concrete as to why are the ‘rules’ of the game like this. Why didn’t Jesus destroy Legion right there and then? Why did He have to have them cast into pigs who then killed themselves?
We came up with many answers which we can discuss another time if you wish, but the point is that the evil one is going to torment a lot of people for now but his ultimate fate is sealed.

The self-aware is not considered for promotions or raises in a lot of cases in this fallen world because:
* They are self-sufficient and the powers-that-be need them exactly where they are. In a department of 10, only 2 are the heavy lifters and everyone goes to them. So the management wants these people exactly where they are and don’t want them promoted.
*They are too independent. This is tied to the point above. Because they’re very good at what they do in their skill, the management doesn’t want to disrupt the flow but also don’t like them because they are too independent.
*Which leads us to They’re perceived as a threat to the boss who may be clueless about the profession. And because of that, the boss won’t like them for this reason and never promote them.

From the empath’s POV though, this is different. For example when I’ve asked empathic nurses on why don’t they get into higher positions, they say: I’m exactly where I need to be. I want to help people because of a personal reason and they typically mention that the suffering or the death of a family member, has motivated them to help others.
So, they have no ego to go higher. They are in the mindset of helping or serving. This is the public servant mindset we need in politics for example.
A lot of these public servants, as rare as they are, they’re doing God’s work here and I have tremendous respect and appreciation and adminration for them. They are selfless.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
"For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord 's.

These verses apply to anxiety and burdens which could be physical or mental. For us Christians we should leave our worries and anxieties (which come from too much knowledge) with God.
This is easier said than done but it’s a daily struggle which is better than any human-made medication for the mind.

What is S'wolsam model by the way?

re: Maslow's Hierarchy, I've adopted the S'wolsam model because I believe realizing our identity as a child of God (but at the least as an image of God) would be foundational in achieving fulfilling in any subsequent needs. This is the summary the fellow presented.