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memory is very powerful. the destruction of memory is just as powerful.
memory enables us to learn, and to change.
memory enables the masses to compare their leaders performance against their promises - and against the masses sense of what is right.
memory is crucial to a healthy, functional democracy.
it has been said that the truth shall set us free.
truth requires memory, for anyone to remember it long enough to matter.
fear is an enemy of memory. it can distort, cloud, stretch and twist what we recall.
emotions are lenses through which we see the world transformed. our view is shaped by them, and our reactions also. they can create the situations we later react to, with other emotions.
memory is more than just what we can recall of our own life experiences. memory extends to the stories we tell, the ones we choose to tell, and the way we choose to tell them.
if we do not remember our past clearly, truthfully, we colour our future ... taint it with whatever we have chosen to have in its' place.
lies and half-truths will eventually catch up with us. they always do. a clear conscience is not merely a matter of never having done anything wrong. a clear conscience is having learned from our past, and tried to do better, be better, everyday. to struggle towards ourselves - not at the cost of others, but with them.
the "golden rule" is love. there are few human creeds that do not espouse this as the foundation of harmony in all aspects of life. love is not just a feeling, it is an expression of it, a way of relating to others where you actively want others to find and live out what they truly want from life. love is needing others to be fulfilled because that is a part of your own fulfilment.
it is vary hard to live up to that standard. and the thing is, we are not really expected to live up to it all the time. we are fallible. but we are expected to try. for our own sake, just as much as each other's.
everyday, as much as we can, we are asked to try to love, and to live that love.
it is said that the root of all evil is money. people need to read more. and remember more clearly. memory is very important. the real quote is that the love of money is the root of all evil - meaning that to lose sight of what is truly valuable, truly important - to forget - is the beginning of 'evil'.
to chose to allow, or to cause, another to suffer for your own profit is an expression of 'evil' - that you have forgotten how precious life is - meaning the lived not merely the existed life.
there is no need to seek an external source for 'evil'; though it often becomes manifest there - in the unnecessary suffering of others.
shifting our pain, our responsibility onto others is wrong. it is wrong to avoid responsibility. not just because of the immediate consequences, but because that path does not help us to learn, to remember.
power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
exercising power over another without exercising compassion, without asking the other abrogates or constrains free will and becomes tyranny.
if the other person does not understand why something is happening to them, if they have no way to be involved in decisions affecting them, they are damaged as a human being. they no longer have their own life - it now belongs to the other person. they are enslaved.
a person who cannot freely choose the path of their life is a slave.
even if a slave has a memory, it does them no good. to be unable to express what one has learned diminishes them as a person.
in a democracy, if the people do not, or cannot remember their past as they themselves as individuals choose to remember it, and are unable or unwilling to act accordingly, they loose their inheritance of power over themselves and become enslaved by those to whom they abrogate their responsibility to be human beings.
human rights are not a bunch of rules that tell us what we should be allowed to do; they are the principles that set out what is required for a responsible person to be truly human. so for a person to be complete, they must not only be free to do certain things, they must know them and be responsible for living them in their own lives.
anyone who takes any of that away destroys what it means to be human.
and let us be clear about this: human rights have been fought over, and fought for, over centuries. they are not just some "new idea" or a bunch of impractical wishes dreamed up by wealthy westerners who can afford those luxuries. they are the description of what it means and what it takes to be a fully realised human being that hundreds of cultures have fought about and thought about and considered important enough to fight about down through what we know of our history, our memory, as a species.
the human species is self-aware, and self-critical. we remember.
memory is crucial, because it is what makes us who we are. as individuals, societies/cultures, and as a species.
it is amazing, sad, hurtful, and aggravating to watch how often we repeat ourselves because we forget that by choosing what we remember, and how we remember it, we are shaping not only ourselves, but everyone else we share our lives with. and who follow after us.
memory enables us to learn, and to change.
memory enables the masses to compare their leaders performance against their promises - and against the masses sense of what is right.
memory is crucial to a healthy, functional democracy.
it has been said that the truth shall set us free.
truth requires memory, for anyone to remember it long enough to matter.
fear is an enemy of memory. it can distort, cloud, stretch and twist what we recall.
emotions are lenses through which we see the world transformed. our view is shaped by them, and our reactions also. they can create the situations we later react to, with other emotions.
memory is more than just what we can recall of our own life experiences. memory extends to the stories we tell, the ones we choose to tell, and the way we choose to tell them.
if we do not remember our past clearly, truthfully, we colour our future ... taint it with whatever we have chosen to have in its' place.
lies and half-truths will eventually catch up with us. they always do. a clear conscience is not merely a matter of never having done anything wrong. a clear conscience is having learned from our past, and tried to do better, be better, everyday. to struggle towards ourselves - not at the cost of others, but with them.
the "golden rule" is love. there are few human creeds that do not espouse this as the foundation of harmony in all aspects of life. love is not just a feeling, it is an expression of it, a way of relating to others where you actively want others to find and live out what they truly want from life. love is needing others to be fulfilled because that is a part of your own fulfilment.
it is vary hard to live up to that standard. and the thing is, we are not really expected to live up to it all the time. we are fallible. but we are expected to try. for our own sake, just as much as each other's.
everyday, as much as we can, we are asked to try to love, and to live that love.
it is said that the root of all evil is money. people need to read more. and remember more clearly. memory is very important. the real quote is that the love of money is the root of all evil - meaning that to lose sight of what is truly valuable, truly important - to forget - is the beginning of 'evil'.
to chose to allow, or to cause, another to suffer for your own profit is an expression of 'evil' - that you have forgotten how precious life is - meaning the lived not merely the existed life.
there is no need to seek an external source for 'evil'; though it often becomes manifest there - in the unnecessary suffering of others.
shifting our pain, our responsibility onto others is wrong. it is wrong to avoid responsibility. not just because of the immediate consequences, but because that path does not help us to learn, to remember.
power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
exercising power over another without exercising compassion, without asking the other abrogates or constrains free will and becomes tyranny.
if the other person does not understand why something is happening to them, if they have no way to be involved in decisions affecting them, they are damaged as a human being. they no longer have their own life - it now belongs to the other person. they are enslaved.
a person who cannot freely choose the path of their life is a slave.
even if a slave has a memory, it does them no good. to be unable to express what one has learned diminishes them as a person.
in a democracy, if the people do not, or cannot remember their past as they themselves as individuals choose to remember it, and are unable or unwilling to act accordingly, they loose their inheritance of power over themselves and become enslaved by those to whom they abrogate their responsibility to be human beings.
human rights are not a bunch of rules that tell us what we should be allowed to do; they are the principles that set out what is required for a responsible person to be truly human. so for a person to be complete, they must not only be free to do certain things, they must know them and be responsible for living them in their own lives.
anyone who takes any of that away destroys what it means to be human.
and let us be clear about this: human rights have been fought over, and fought for, over centuries. they are not just some "new idea" or a bunch of impractical wishes dreamed up by wealthy westerners who can afford those luxuries. they are the description of what it means and what it takes to be a fully realised human being that hundreds of cultures have fought about and thought about and considered important enough to fight about down through what we know of our history, our memory, as a species.
the human species is self-aware, and self-critical. we remember.
memory is crucial, because it is what makes us who we are. as individuals, societies/cultures, and as a species.
it is amazing, sad, hurtful, and aggravating to watch how often we repeat ourselves because we forget that by choosing what we remember, and how we remember it, we are shaping not only ourselves, but everyone else we share our lives with. and who follow after us.
indescribable
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