Maybe not everyone question, but i’m getting there…kinda

The point of this is to talk about how we actually know the answers to many of the questions we ask ourselves, whether we admit it or not. We deny the answers for many reasons. They make us uncomfortable. They require action. They eliminate excuses. They challenge our belief systems and our sense of convenience…blah blah blah…Here are some of those answers..

Most of us know that:

• If you want to get more writing done, you should write more.
• If you want to know anything, question everything.
• If you want to feel better, do the things that will make you feel better.
• If you want to stand out, don’t do what everyone else is doing.
• If you want to be stronger, then do things that will make you strong.
• If you want to be patient, practice patience.
• If you want people to get to know you better, you need to make sure that you’re worth knowing.
• If you want friends, be friendly.
• If you want to watch less TV, turn off the TV.
• If you want to lose weight, stop eating fast food and move around more.
• If you feel like people take advantage of you, make sure you know the difference between being nice and being a doormat.
• If you want to be trusted, don’t lie.
• If you want to be a good listener, be quiet once in a while.
• If you hate the path that has led you to this moment in your life, walk in a different direction.
• If you want to be humble, don’t spend time practicing arrogance.
• If you want to be happy, don’t do things that will make you sad.
• If you want to be smarter, engage your mind and don’t be a  spectator.
• If you want to go somewhere, take the first step.
• If you want to be confident, walk like you’re wearing a cape.
• If you just want to be like most people, stick with wishful thinking.

It’s easy for me to pretend that there are things I can’t figure out.  But when I’m honest with myself, I usually know the answers to any problems I have. I just don’t always want to admit it.

If an Alien anthropologist (maybe from…Pandora??) came to Earth, and studied western civilization, they would see many wonderful things. And if the measure of success was technological achievement, we would come out with flying colors. And they would probably say that we we’re an exceptional society.

But if they looked at the social system, what would they say??

• They say they revere marriage, but over half the marriages end in divorce.
• They say they love their elders, but only 6% of American homes have elders in the same roof as grandchildren.
• They say they love their family, but they work relentlessly within in a society that not only admires that trait, but a business world that demands it. Should it be a surprise that the average American child have consumed over 2 years worth of television programming before they are 18
• They are a society that acts remarkably self important, while putting 400 million tons of toxic waste in its environment.
• They rip down ancient rainforests, tears holes in the heavens, depopulate the oceans, and damage the bio physics of the atmosphere.

It is amazing to me how people miss the great lesson of climate change. It should teach us that we are not the ideal of humanity’s potential.

Climate change is humanity’s problem, that is certain, but it was not all of humanity who created the problem. It is important to remember that it was various small subsets of humanity, who had a particular worldview, and who thinks of that world view as being absolute. As if it as the “real world” and everyone else is failing to keep up with us or something. But other societies are not failed attempts at all, they are simply alternatives.

And you would think that, if anything, the fact that we brought on this climate crisis (and we did!), that it would give us a little bit of humility about the impact we’ve had on the planet.

This attitude can be seen clearly in the way we act. Individuals and corporations are more interested in short term profits than long term social benefits, productive farmland is sold to commercial developers, ancient forests are clear cut and jobs are outsourced overseas. These failures are purely structural; they are the direct result of a system that makes governments accountable only to their own citizens, and of a corporate system that makes executives accountable only to their shareholders. This is the root cause of all of our problems: because no government or corporation is responsible for common resources or collective problems; the air is polluted, water is contaminated, rainforests are destroyed, stocks of wild fish are depleted and millions of refugees are left stateless.

It makes sense that governments have trouble taking action on global warming, global poverty, and world peace because national interests often conflict with global interests. And no one is responsible for the planet. The closest organization we have is the United Nations which has a global responsibility, but no independent authority.

The irony (or maybe its just unfortunate?) is that we live in an increasingly interconnected world. The CO2 emissions of one country affect ever other country. Economic crises in one country immediately affect global stock markets. Wars in one region affect the security of countries on the other side of the globe. However although we have a global system, it is not responsible or accountable for the people of the world. Its worldview, values and social structures are not designed to ensure the welfare of either the environment or the majority of the world’s population [this was the irony I was referring too...I think?]

The Point = The only REAL issues in this world are those that are common to all people.

“This wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?”

- David Sarnoff’s, founder of NBC, in response to a possible investment in Radio in the 1920’s

Problem: Failure of Imagination

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”

- Harry M. Warner, Warner Bros, 1927

Problem: Not Knowing Your Customers

“The ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered a means of communication”

- Western Union Internal Memo, 1876

Problem: Tunnel Vision

“There is no reason for any individuals to have a computer in their home”

- Ken Olsen, President, Chairman and Founder of Digital Equip. Corp., 1977

Problem: Missing Applications

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible”

- Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society 1895

Problem: Understanding of Physics

“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value”

- Marshall Ferdinand Foch, French Military Strategist, 1911

Problem: Tunnel Vision

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

Problem: Underestimating people

$100 million dollars is way too much to pay for Microsoft.”

- IBM, 1982

Problem: Not recognizing value

Paul Hawken: Commencement Address to the Class of 2009
University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there.

Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation… but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food—but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown — Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood — and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity.  Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. And dreams come true. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, which is exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life. This is who you are. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

For years, pro-growth lobby groups have done an exceptional job at downplaying the dangers of climate change and blocking environmental initiatives. The companies and governments that have strongly opposed limiting atmospheric pollution are the ones with the most to lose from programs that encourage  energy conservation and using alternative fuels. Maybe you’ve heard of some of these: Exxon, GM, and Saudi Arabia.

And even with the great power and influence of the fossil fuel industry, the evidence on climate change has been overwhelming, and the majority of the public understands that this is an issue. Unfortunately, most governments and businesses around the world still value political, military, and economic expansion more than environmental conservation. As a result, this is our reality:

Governments spend much more on…

research for increasing industrial output than on reducing global warming.

developing new weapons than on developing new sources of energy.

more subsidizing polluting industries than clean industries.

expanding unsustainable types of agriculture than on developing sustainable alternatives.

treating illnesses than on supporting health.

waging war than on building peace.

MISSING LINK = GUIDED POLITICAL WILL AND ACTION

I’ve been doing a lot of research on comedy lately because I have a strong interest in the subject and have always wanted to learn more. Here are some things I have learned about what it is that makes us laugh. And surprisingly enough, I don’t think this is going to be a very funny post (underpromising to overdeliver?)….

2 primary  reasons we laugh:

Out of surprise.

We laugh most oftern to cover our feelings of embarrassment. This can be a result of either having unintentionally done or said something foolish, or having been tricked. If we have been tricked, we have been surprised. Surprise is one of the  most universally accepted formulas for humor. A joke is  a story, and surprise ending is usually its finale. Appreciation of any piece of humor decreases rapidly through repeated exposure, or when the ending is predictable. A clever use of words will gain appreciation from an audience but surprise wordplay leads to sincere laughter. We smile at wit, but we laugh at jokes.

When we feel superior.

As a modern day society, we seem to have a strong and constant need to feel superior. And in many ways, humor satisfies this most basic of needs.

Humor is a reaction to tragedy. The joke is at someone else’s expense.

Humor often ridicules the intelligence, social standing, and physical and mental infirmities of those we consider inferior to ourselves.

But even those we might consider “superior” to ourselves are not spared. People, especially Americans, love to publicize and mock every shortcoming - perceived or real - of people who are in positions of authority, who are richer, more famous, more intelligent, physically stronger, or more admired. The greater the prestige of the victim, the greater our desire to make fun of them.

Humor is social criticism. Humor reassure the insecure. Even if we believe ourselves to be the “haves” (having power, money, knowledge, or prestige), there is exceptional insecurity about how we got it and how long we’re going to keep it. In my opinion, Americans have a tremendous sense of inferiority, but we mask it with jokes about our superiority.

There are 2 ways to feel superior. The first is to accomplish something great and receive public acclaim for your work. But that might be too hard for most. The second way (and easier one) is to publicly criticize the achievements of others. This not only diminishes their prestige, but it also forces people to pay attention to us. This maybe the more unethical option, but do you know how hard it is to actually do something important in this world!?

So as individuals (regardless of status), our humor is generally directed upwards against more authoritative figures. But as a group, our humor is directed downward toward groups that don’t conform to our social, religious, or national ideals.

6 secondary reasons we laugh:

1. Out of instinct
2. At incongruity
   
3. Out of ambivalence
   
4. For release (ie. to break tension)
   
5. To regress
   
6. When we solve something

I’ll elaborate on these reasons soon…until then, try and figure out why this cat was arrested?

I just read a great post on my buddy Amish’s blog about the emotional benefit that people gain from purchasing a product or service:

Here are 37 Emotional Benefits:

These were derived via extensive quantitative research with thousands of consumers, a panel of psychologists, and marketing consultants who specialized in assessing emotional purchase motivation. Taken together, the list is probably the best representation of the full spectrum of human needs which can be met by purchasing a given product or service.

1. Feeling Loved: Feeling Loved implies that a person has a satisfactory number of significant attachments in his or her life from whom (s)he receives an adequate amount of emotional nourishment on a daily basis

2. Feeling Attractive: Having a strong level of comfort with one’s physical being. Knowing that one is pleasant to look at and able to draw attention by virtue of one’s physical presence. (Note: ‘Feeling Sexy’ … the specific ability to attract a desired sexual partner, is a special kind of attractiveness, which is rated separately)

3. Sense of Adventure: Interested in exciting and remarkable experiences, sometimes involving unknown danger and risk.
Rising to the challenge, exploring new territory, feeling excited about new leanings, new experiences, etc.

4. Feeling Financially Secure: Believing one has adequate money to take care of the majority of their BASIC needs and desires in the present and in the future. Feeling Financially Secure is different than Feeling Affluent or Wealthy – which means one believes they have enough money to buy WHATEVER they desire (more than basic needs and wishes) and has more money than one could reasonably spend.

5. Sense of Accomplishment: Seeing progressive evidence in one’s life that particular worthwhile goals are being sought after and achieved.

6. Feeling Caring or Nurturing: Interested in providing emotional, physical, financial, or spiritual support to others, warmly enjoying the process of doing so.

7. Being Altruistic: Able to sacrifice oneself for the benefit of society. To forgo one’s own gratification in favor of the interest of others whose well-being will not enhance one’s own.

8. Being Assertive: Able to stand up for and strive to obtain one’s own interests, especially given the presence of difficult people who stand in the way.

9. Feeling Brave or Courageous: Being willing to face risk and danger for the purpose of obtaining a positive benefit (when it is judged to be beneficial and wise to take the risk). (Being willing to face risk and danger without judgment is ‘foolhardiness’).

10. Feeling Creative: Interested in and able to UNIQUELY express oneself in words, behavior, or the arts.

11. Excitement or Liveliness: Having a strong sense of being alive, having the energy and interest to partake of all life has to offer.

12. Feeling Fair, Just, or Ethical: Marked by impartiality and honesty. Able to make judgments free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism. Interested in upholding these principles.

13. Feeling Luxurious or Pampered: The belief that one has enough resources at hand to enable splurging on things that are understood to be unnecessary DESIRES as opposed to essential NEEDS.

14. Feeling Healthy: Having confidence in one’s physical well being, strength, and ability to avoid disease and illness.

15. Feeling Athletic: Having confidence in one’s physical strength, stamina, flexibility, and ability to meet various physical challenges. (Especially sports, but also non-competitive physical challenges)

16. Feeling Flexible or Adaptable: Able to change one’s perspective and use one’s strengths according to the demands of a wide variety of situations.

17. Feeling Free: Being able to say what one wants to say, think what one wants to think, go where one wants to go, be with people one wants to be with, and behave how one wants to behave. Generally, being able to do as one pleases!

18. Being a Good Friend: Believing oneself to be attached to and supportive of a cared for other. Providing companionship and enjoying their company.

19. Enjoying Humor: Seeking to laugh regularly. Enjoying the ludicrous or absurd. Liking to make others laugh.

20. Feels like a Good Teacher: Able to successfully impart useful knowledge or abilities to others.

21. Being In Control: Able to influence one’s self and surroundings as desired. Being able to predict, manage, and successfully react to the occurrence of stressful events. Having the ability to decide when, how, and where one will engage in particular verbal or behavioral expressions.

22. Feeling Independent: Able to care for oneself, not requiring others to meet one’s needs.

23. Being Insightful: Able to make useful new connections. Seeing the broader picture, able to understand the way things work in new ways.

24. Having Integrity: Walking the walk, not just talking the talk. Knowing one’s behaviors are consistent with one’s principles. Able to put off or deny one’s own gratification at the moment in favor of a cherished principle. Being willing to hold oneself accountable for one’s actions.

25. Feeling Wise or Intelligent: Being mentally keen or quick. Knowing that one has a high degree of mental capacity which has been used to accumulate the kinds of knowledge and experience which makes one particularly well suited to meet the challenges of life.

26. Taking a Leadership Role: Serving as a leader for others, helping guide others towards worthwhile goals and being directly responsible for their supervision and performance.

27. Peaceful – Relaxed – Calm: Feeling peaceful, relaxed or calm. Having peace of mind, body, and spirit.

28. Having a Sense of Power: Able to wield influence over one’s own life and over others. Occupying a position of importance in life.

29. Being Productive: Believing oneself to be effective in consistently contributing some valuable work product to one’s own life, family, or society.

30. Feeling Respected: Being acknowledged and recognized for one’s value or contributions to one’s loved ones, family or society.

31. Feeling Spiritual: Feeling an established connection with a higher power of one’s own definition (one that transcends the mortal world). Can be, but is not necessarily, the higher power defined in one’s chosen religion.

32. Feeling Sexy: The specific ability to arouse the desire to mate in a potential partner of the desired gender. (Feeling Sexy is a specific type of the more general ‘Feeling Attractive’: which is knowing that one is pleasant to look at and able to draw attention by virtue of one’s physical presence).

33. Feeling Romantic: Enjoying the thoughts, feelings and perceptions associated with the desire to be ONE with another human being.

34. Feeling Safe: Reasonably knowing no harm will come to oneself. Able to rest assured in life or in a relationship.

35. Sense of Belonging: Knowing on a gut level that one is part of a family, group of friends, or society where one ‘fits in’ due to similar values, beliefs, and behavioral tendencies.

36. Feeling Trustworthy: Will not harm others in favor of one’s own gratification if given the opportunity. Reliable, dependable, able to be counted on.

37. Feeling Unique: Feeling unique implies that one is aware of being an individual distinct from all others.

These emotional labels and single paragraph descriptions were derived from an extensive quantitative research with thousands of consumers, a panel of psychologists, and marketing consultants who specialized in assessing emotional purchase motivation. Together, the list is probably the best portrayal of the full spectrum of human needs which can be met by purchasing a given product or service. When you understand the logical connection between one of the above features and the way that the feature exclusively supports the prospect’s self esteem, your attempts to entwine emotion into your marketing ads are much more realistic and effective and do NOT require hype or “emotional attitude.”