Reducing the level of unhappiness

Assisted suicide will  certainly fit the economic determinism mood of this country .  Lets all end lives of all the unhappy dementia patients who R costing the earth and making us all unhappy. Sure, we will need to ask them three times whether they

1. are in a good mood and
2. not feeling under any pressure and
3. still have their brains .

Not sure whether any set of clear and tight guidelines advocated by Tony Jones ABCTV would ever be guaranteed to really test the authority of a person about the timing of their own death. And , what if they wanted to change their mood or somehow did? . - a visit from family or a child.. Does the very providing of an option of "being kind to everyone else" mean people will choose it? After all most oldies want to pay for their own funeral - why not save even more money !!!!! Think of all the children who could be persuaded as well bout it being an overall good outcome . $12000 for the funeral is only 6 mths in a retirement village.
Nicki on QandA bases her authority on what she thinks her mother needed , I can't see that being reliable. Talking about her mothers pain when palliative care is the norm also makes her not credible.
I would rather accept Margaret who has studied what happens when the legislation has been enacted. Let's not let anyone try to help -- we have enough of that already - esp by polys desperate to prove they have some power over somebody The greatest evil is done in the name of the best intention
Did you notice Tony tried to discriminate against an academic who has religious persuasions . It only works if the only way he/we makes decisions is based on his/our own interpretation of " whats good for him/us " ( a partially religious or world view question ) .Unless u wanna say avoid all sugar-- fact http://

Why is everybody so angry ?

An alien visiting Australia last week would indeed wonder how our democracy can function when so many people from all sides of politics were hanging it on each other big time ( slagging , casting condemnation, put downs ) Condemning the other parties with language and meanings not even in dictionaries.
Our democracy is under great pressure . Provided we don't lose our cool completely and perhaps, either try to prosecute the vilifiers ( Courts would run out of money in a week )(The VCAT solution )or  quieten every one down( the Valium solution ) ,we might see the final solution that has worked for centuries .Somehow we think the act of being angry is wrong - This is new !This is too simplistic !

The old advice preached and practised was this  "Be angry but don't sin . Don't let the sun go down on your wrath ". If you think everything new is better you might miss the important reality that some big challenges to the human condition never change. Sound practising Psychologists have in more recent times recognised that if you don't follow this advice you will bottle things  up and we get to see bigger and more dangerous outbreaks of anger , outrage  and depression from trying to sit on it  - worse we get " more sin " Early action and reaction often helps resolve things in the first place .

The West has adopted a heresy and we are paying for it . Many unwisely think we shouldn't get angry at all . Sure its frightening and risky,  but its also natural ( see other posts/links) . God hates the sin but wants reconciliation and moving on modelling for every sinner( We are all there at some time in the week)  ;
We must avoid condemning the sinner for sinning in the situation . Who then would cast the first stone ?. Hit me with your words,  but don't be silly enough to allow those with money and power to stop someone talking from the heart .
Free speech is not quite dead but it is always at risk of being denied; especially  by those who don't want to hear the truth ( Orwell's theme) or can harvest,  for their own ends,  the careless outrage and fear ( the powerful and especially the fanatical in power )
Our literary giants of the past are with us on the need to err on the side of free speech;  God given free will to both say the wrong thing and admit that you have said the wrong thing.  Righteous anger - anger to try and get things to be set right is OK . Mum's do it all the time . Where are the real men ?   Where is Voltaire when you really need him ?

Towards a more reasonable response to disasters

RE JAPAN. NEW ZEALAND earthquakes and tsunamis this month

Natural disasters certainly make us think. Infact,even though I am a geoscience risk management specialist who has had the satisfaction of reducing people's exposure to risk on many levels, I feel threatened by some disasters too: Plates subducting and killing people challenges my faith because it reminds me of my powerless and makes me wonder about the Creators too. But not to the point of neurosis or betrayal -- I trust.Y ou might be a better judge than I?

However that aside (looking for more objectivity) ; If we take soundly experienced psychologists seriously ( see researchers listed in this link , we can accept that the content of our response is often more deeply emotional than rational.( our sense of powerlessness is something we must face squarely in ourselves and in others as Rollo May does in his book ( Power and Innocence )

Our own Australian Telecom 2000 report (1998?) describes the increasing tendency for millions to expend their emotional energy on people faraway as a ' maladaptive' trend - That report insists that we all need to use the emotional energy more productively(locally) .Natural disasters ( unlike man made) remind us of our powerlessness and, it seems , our phobias about powerlessness.
To respond positively and more objectively ( Think of all the overblown fears often generated ) we need as Rollo May has pointed out, to not feed pseudo innocence but take on Jesus call to walk the Jericho road and " do what you can where you can '.

We have the power but we do need to remind each other to use it. The 'maladaptive" focuses on the few , the Jericho road response is a proven recipe for billions .
Often our leaders project this overereaction to percieved powerlessness by assumming power they do not have.
Our emotional response to others pain often says more about our needs than it does about the needs of people on the ground.
I say therefore: lets keep it largely local , rational , progressive ( Our planning heritage is very positive) and positive .
And resist the "maladaptive" and unproductive which can be very wasteful .
Objective upto date science on nuclear sites
You Have a good day and enjoy the road and how the sun shines on it .

Projection - and how to detect it

Some Journos reporting on the crisis around the Mediteranean at the moment keep forcing the words "democracy" on the ambitions of protesters and "dictator" on the danger . Using those words in shallow and unsubstantial. and we have our own dictators
By encouraging the bland democracy idea over the perceived dictator image ( ruler of every household has to be a kind of dragon ) we may be missing the opportunity for reform.
We celebrated with Russia when the wall came down, but did we encourage the reform of their twisted economic system that might have kept them from "the new tsars" ( and another twisted eco system )The tragedies of Russia are avoidable direct products of too much enthusiasm over capitalism - it has limits mate and we live in a mixed economy )
If you are not convinced that projection is a common disease read on

Floods of emotion over floods

For a change we can't blame the media and polys for drumming up the emotion. Excessive flooding near Brisbane and in our northern Victorain rivers in last few months ( Summer 2011 is nothing unexpected when the sun shines over the Capricornian line.( statistically that is )
Insurance agents and intelligent earth students do not worry , they know .( that why they won't pay - why do intelligent people support careless and unthinking actions? ) See the post at the start of this Blog ,. Clearly there is more energy being consumed by those who worry than those who know. All the money that people give could be given to greater causes?

When people don't talk

You and I know something's wrong ,very wrong . but do the wannabes? . No it seems they blather on all the more solving problems without listening . The city has been doing it badly for decades now about the country and SO
Many farmers just do not talk a ( story here)- They may get angry but they are not sure anyone's listening - especially when the city and all the drip feed quangos like those driven by the latest fad ( river health. they don't even know what it is !) know so much about their backyard Bullsh direct from the careless greens.

Driving people to suicide

Noone does it deliberately, but there are things we do that don't help
We run away because we are afraid their depression will make us depressed.
However mature adults learn that doing what you don't like ( getting closer) is somehow good for us ----eh!
Depressed people are hard company - They drive away the fainthearted .
See below ) But YOU can help - just listen and nod face to face you don't have to solve any dilemmas : Get in the car and go there . Get out the pen and post the letter off . Weep with those who weep and we will stop weeping and being angry all the time .
Things we do that don't help
1 We stay away
2. We think we have to offer solutions- we don't . Honest sharing is needed . Telling them they are OK / everything is OK , when they haven't resolved their own guilt is not right either . Say nothing is fine !What use are mere words
3. Ignoring their real feelings and maybe internal confusion . ( got to know what they are really thinking not just what they say upfront )
4. Being Sentimental when they want you to be serious , straightforward and strong -Ask the hard questions . Offer to let them put the hard questions and doubts they have. Say clearly what's wrong and how to fix it ( restoration can comes with objectivity but never with denial)
5 Avoid ticking good behaviour boxes- people in trouble often know how to behave well . What they don't always know or accept is how and why they should stop doing something they enjoy ( resisting temptation; doing something they need to do, not just what they want to do )
6 Not help the person accept their own failures ( resisting the idea that the problem is someone else's )
7 Talking about their dilemmas without talking to them first is wrong ( 8th commandment forbids you to bear informnation away from , rather than back to, the person of concern. Check everything with the person first )
8 Maladjustments of the telecommunication age : ( Telecom 2000 report) Tv does this by talking about a persons problems when its none of our business - eg Ben Cousins tonight on TV - we should leave the bloke alone !
9 Real understanding of rural dilemmas . Assumming because farming families have high assets that are they are rich . Most farming families sacrifice a lot over many generations to keep the farm with high levels of unpaid labour going back in many cases generations ( wives and children in particular - why do think " the young farmer can't get a wife" ? . Don't patronise them - they will do anything to carry the burden their grandparents bore - its too easy to say " cash it all in" Life on the farm is not summed up in 2 columns of a ledger
10. Real understanding of rural dilemmas Well meaning "green" talk can be blatantly offensive because its partial ( a risk is not a reality ) , ignorant or simplistic .Ask questions BLOG The best conservationists this country will ever have are landholders. They used to be "the salt of the earth" . Now listening to some smartarses from the city, you would think they were the main perpetrators of our environmental problems - "the scum of the earth".
If you want to help --learn to listen and study resilience - the sky will not fall ( the earth, unlike our computers, was made resilient) while people on the earth listen to the earth and love each other enough to tell them in the rare cases ( mainly overseas ) where they are pushing it, and MAYBE their own will, too hard .