Pavlov's Dogs

Ivan Pavlov became interested in studying reflexes when he saw that his dogs were drooling without the proper stimulus.

The Christian Church's legacy is not generally one of philosophy, inquiry but one of codes and behaviors defined by the hierarchy.  The classification system has generally be reduced to good and evil

It is maybe because of our own inherited moral bifurcation that we seem to be so culturally blind and imperceptive. The conductor has lost the beat and everyone scrambles to find their place in the score. "I believe in freedom," sings the trained but off key chorus. The lead singers rush on, "They want to take your freedom, your guns, your money away!" "We're not going to take it!" Money, guns, oil and freedom!! Yes.

Somewhere lost in the hubris is the realization that one man's slice of pie effects the size of another man's pie. The wealthy seem to think that they have earned it through hard work and effort (and maybe some have worked hard and been clever) but does being the 1st in line give you the right to take more than you need? While American billionaires may have many houses, fly here and there, some people in this world have far too little. Kids in the sandbox at sometime learn to share.

In America, where their are so many personal freedoms and all their weird idiosyncratic manifestations, the main theme--as the boat takes on more and more water--isn't how we can fix things for everyone but it's about my personal liberties. What?!?! Sarah Palin and the leftists are reading from the same page. And it is equally self interested. Blame the government. Me me mine. My guns, my money, my car.

If my night club bothers the next door neighbors with its loud music and has influences they don't appreciate who's "freedom" must take precedent. Janis Jopin sang that, "Freedom was just another word for nothing left to lose," and it has an element of the Buddhist's liberty of giving up need, but the freedom most American's seem to be most concerned with these days isn't their basic human needs but their desires. Freedom = Me and what I want.

Where is the serious talk about making schools educate and protect the young and the future? Is it freedom for the rich to send their kids to private schools while not supporting schools for the less well off. Where is the talk about a transportation system that will work into the future. Can we give up our ego driven machines and ride together?

If my house is large, if I'm using great sums of money, if I have an average American's fuel need,  I am feeding the economy and the dealer but I'm also using limited resources that are constantly harder and more costly environmentally to procure and someone, somewhere, is getting the short end of the stick. Gandhi said that, "There is enough for everyone's need but not everyone's greed." The earth will not be able to sustain a world full of American appetites and habits.

Freedom is not a "good" thing. It is part of the spectrum and like pleasure it should be savored and treated with great respect. Hopefully all people can someday have enough liberty to express themselves and move freely in their lives. American's, hopefully, will come to see the difference between gluttony, selfishness and freedom--to see that freedom must find balance with cooperation and restraint.

 幸運