- The secret of the pyramid builders: We gave the building of the pyramids a page of its own. Click here.
- Global warming: There is too much CO2 in the atmosphere. This is good for the plants and bad for people. There may be a message there. That could be Mother Nature's way of telling us that she would prefer her planet Earth to have more plants and less people. She usually gets her way and there is not much that scientists and politicians can do about it. She could treat humans the way she treats other species. When there are too many predators they run out of prey and the young dies. We already live in a world where 1500 million people are underfed and 50000 children die every day of starvation. It is likely to get worse. What would happen if we reduce the CO2 by 20% and the world population increases also by 20%. We would be back in the same predicament. We would have made the problem even worse because we would have 20% more people. Reducing the CO2 is a good idea but it is only one wheel of the bicycle. How come nobody is talking about the other wheel?
- Corruption and poverty: They are sisters. Make a map of poverty in the world and a map of corruption and you will see that they match pretty well. We could say to the poor countries that we all live under the same laws of nature. We have the same problem as they do. When money influences decisions in Washington, this is a form of corruption. It makes everybody poor. The connection between the two may not be obvious but it is real. We could thank the poor countries for showing us how we can improve.... and return the favor.
- Parking your car: It happened in the US but we may not have the monopoly of masochism. The sign said: "No parking within 30 feet." Why put the sign 30 feet away? They could put the sign right here and say: "No parking behind this point". What is the purpose of letting everybody make his own appraisal of what 30 feet could look like? They must assume that you have a tape in the glove compartment. You park the car, get your tape and measure. If it is less than 30 feet you get back in the car, put the tape back in the glove compartment and go elsewhere. There must be a better way! In the same city some signs said: "No parking north of here". After you have been turning around the bloc looking for a place to park, under the rain, for 15 minutes, you may not be sure where the north is. What can you do? Wait for a sunny day? Why not have a sign that says: "No parking this side". Do we really need the north pole to park a car?
- Human consciousness: Men are not conscious of what it is to give birth. Most of us are not conscious of what it is to spend all your life in a wheelchair. I will never know what it is to sing opera, teach a child how to read, paint something I can be proud of.... We may go through life with a flashlight, conscious only of what is inside the little circle necessary for the human species to survive. Somebody cooking potatoes makes me conscious that a potatoe is something that I can eat after cooking it. All our inventions (I consider cooking potatoes as one invention) could be seen as a desperate need to expand our consciousness. Some people believe that their ancestors can influence their life. They may be conscious of something that I ignore. The Egyptians built their pyramids in alignment with some stars. They may have been conscious of something that humans don't remember. To say that I am conscious of everything in the universe is only demonstrating the narrow limits of my consciousness. How could a better consciousness improve our life? What would happen, for instance, if we could be really conscious of being part of the human species. We can think about it but that's not enough. Could we really feel it and need it? Instead of trying to prove that I am right and someone else is wrong I could say: "The human constitution is too limited to host your ideas and mine in the same brain but together we can make the human species think in many different ways. Is not that marvelous? I need you and you need me. We can do together something that none of us can do alone. This is much more important than our local differences!" An expanded consciousness could avoid many problems between individuals and between nations. Some day the historians may describe our civilization with a few words. "It was a time when human consciousness was still very limited. Consciousness had not yet made them free. We call it the dark ages."
Getting fat: Many people do not want to eat fat because they are afraid that it will add to the fat in their body. If they are right eating meat should give us muscles. I tried it when I was a teenager. I wanted to eat a lot of meat to get big muscles. It did not work for me. I learned later that most of the proteins are destroyed in my stomach with the rest of the food. Chances are that the fat in my body is home-made. Give your body a reason to make fat (such as a need to store vitamins) and your body will find a way to make the fat. Buying low fat food may not be the solution.
Rules for things and laws for people: Until 1930, in the US, the economy was none of the government business . It is only after the Great Depression that We, The People, let Congress run the economy. Was it a mistake? When we buy a house we want to be sure that it was built to code. That requires technicians to make the code and lawyers to make laws that will oblige the contractor to follow the code. If the two are separate in the economy why don't we separate them also in our government? We could have technicians making rules about things and lawyers making laws about people. We, The People, could decide to separate those who create money from those who use it. An assembly of economists could decide how much money the economy needs to operate and give Congress their budget for the year.
That would not be changing the Constitution. It would be applying the Constitution to the economy.
Religions: There are more than 1000 religions around the world. They have something in common called spirituality.
Saving the world: The first step to change the world is to accept it and love it the way it is, like we accept our children and love them the way they are. It is only after you have made this first step that you can try to improve it.
|
Simple ideas |
|