I found this "documentary" interesting: Ethos http://www.ethosthemovie.com/
"Hosted by twice Oscar nominated actor and activist Woody Harrelson, Ethos lifts the lid on a Pandora's box of systemic issues that guarantee failure in almost every aspect of our lives; from the environment to democracy and our own personal liberty: From terrifying conflicts of interests in politics to unregulated corporate power, to a media in the hands of massive conglomerates, and a military industrial complex that virtually owns our representatives. With interviews from some of todays leading thinkers and source material from the finest documentary film makers of our times Ethos examines and unravels these complex relationships, and offers a solution, a simple but powerful way for you to change this system!" In the end, they propose the same solution we're talking about, here: know what you're buying when you spend money. Where does the money go after you hand it over to Amazon, Apple, Wal-Mart, or to your county for property taxes? Or, worse yet, how much of it does Visa or Paypal shave off through their privileged positions as the man in the middle? Steve Smith wrote circa 11-01-05 01:58 PM: > I'm with you on the awareness angle... I appreciate your clarification > about reward/punish, it is key, and helps illuminate what I was niggling > at. > > Too often, in our drive to reward/punish, we occlude the rest of our > awareness, we seek someone to "blame" or "credit" to the point of > ignoring the field of play they are in, the other actors right in line > behind/next-to them... rotating through a series of "whipping boys" to > take our wrath rather than seeing the obvious causes and then, often > even when we see through to the first layer of causes, we stop there and > don't recognize how those are often merely symptoms of deeper causes. > > You also make the point that many would consider the choices being made > by the "bad actors" as being "good choices" and therefore identifying > them as "good actors". All this leads to polarization and divisions > that are perhaps unproductive... I am surrounded by judgements by my > friends and colleagues which I must hold in suspension to avoid this > polarization. I happen to like a lot about the implications of the > activities of the WikiLeaks but don't necessarily demonize those who > find themselves unable to support them. -- glen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
