Live today, don't relive yesterday

There is one art, no more, no less: to do all things with artlessness.
- Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996)

"Artlessness" does not mean without skill. Rather it means in an innocent way, as a child would.

When we conduct our lives ever mindful of the emotional and psychological baggage we have collected over the years, we do ourselves a disservice, binding ourselves to past ways of doing things just as surely as if we were bound by chains.

Each act we do should be considered and done for its own merit. Just as today the world has moved on from where it was yesterday, we must move on from the emotional baggage of our past.

Today can only be a new day for us if we let go of what happened yesterday, whether yesterday was a good day or a bad day.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to help each person make today a good day.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

How bad are you?

"I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am."
- Samuel Johnson (English writer and lexicographer, 1709-1784

Johnson may take self-effacement to an extreme, but he does make us aware that we all have our dark sides, our sins, our weaknesses, our failures that we would prefer to not have on our "permanent records."

What is important is that we focus more on our good sides, the positive parts of our personalities.

Johnson's style of self-critique may be good to cleanse the soul, but only working on our positive sides gives us a decent life.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' working to help each person put their life in pespective.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Katrina: Finding the Positive

Much has been made of the tragedy in the southern US over the past week and a half. The media have enjoyed immensely showing us scenes of people who were stranded on housetops and stuck in unhealthy shelters.

Sadly, what most of them missed was the good stuff that was happening to the large majority of one million people who were forced to evacuate their homes and leave their home states to bunk in with others, sometimes total strangers. Some, for example, are staying in Canadian universities.

However, that is not the point of this message. I want to make a point about how Katrina may change the direction that the world will take over the coming years.

September 11, 2001, made many Americans believe that everyone who was not a US citizen was potentially dangerous, a threat to "the American way of life," perhaps to their personal safety.

Since Katrina, over half the nations on Earth have contributed supplies and/or expertise to help the people of the US, generally considered to be the most hated nation on Earth. Put those two concepts together--hated nation and half the planet help its people.

Even Cuba, which has medical expertise far beyond its economic status, offered to send doctors to the US to help out. I have not heard whether or not the US accepted the offer--if it was to decline, I don't think I want to know.

Katrina was the worst natural disaster ever visited on North America, perhaps even on the western hemisphere. When the US showed itself to be its most helpless (and in many cases hopeless), most of the rest of the world--the ones who could afford to do something--pitched in to help.

The media and the politicians are not aware of this now, but the minds of Americans will change toward the rest of the world. After 9/11, "others" equalled "enemies." Since Katrina, "others" equal "strangers that could be friends."

It takes that magnitude of tragedy to change the thinking of a nation. But that tragedy might change the future of our world.

Al Qaida claimed that Allah had wreaked vengeance on the US for its misdeeds. Everyone else was prepared to come to the aid of the US in its hour of need.

Americans don't forget that kind of thing.

Within four years we have experienced two turning points in history. I dare say that no other people since our species began could make that claim.

Now we will watch to see if the neo-conservatives in the US continue to tear down the humanity of their nation, or if their others=enemy concept is buried and them aloing with it, or if there is a movement toward middle ground of socialists and conservatives.

It was the hands of men who brought about the turning point of history on 9/11. Was the natural disaster called Katrina just coincidence? Whether coincidence or not, Katrina arrived at a remarkably convenient time, when the world needed it most.

Feel free to send this message to anyone you like. However, if you send it to anyone else, please include the following attribution:
Bill Allin'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' searching for the common good in everyone.Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Who robbed you?

I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, becausealthough they took my purse they did not take my life; third, becausealthough they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.
- Matthew Henry, minister (1662-1714)

This well-known quote aptly fits the approach to negative situations and events taken by many religions. Note that it focuses on the person who was victimized by robbery.

Turning It Around would propose to give the robber the skills, coping mechanisms and knowledge he needs before he got to the point of having to steal from another because he didn't know what else to do. These skills and this knowledge can be given to children and adolescents before they need them, thus preparing them for the downturns in their future and (in most cases) avoiding the need to resort to anti-social measures.

Have you ever met a child of three or four years of age who wanted to grow up to become a robber, a murderer, a drug addict or even a divorced mother or father? No, they all want to be something positive. Some simply don't have or learn the tools they need to survive. These tools involve teaching, not money.

Teach the children.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to give every child the tools and knowledge he or she needs to stay on the right side.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Freedom to die?

It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defence, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties which make the defence of our nation worthwhile.
- Earl Warren, jurist (1891-1974)

The United States of America has fought for well over two centuries for the causes of liberty and freedom. Most wars over that period have been fought for those causes, no matter where in the world they have been.

It would serve us well to consider carefully what those terms mean, liberty and freedom, to keep their meanings in the forefront of our minds before we send young adults to kill and be killed in their names.

What kind of freedom does a young man have who is sent to his death in a war? Does "freedom" include the freedom to die for a cause which is unjust or in which he does not believe?

It would also pay us to consider that those states that do not build up large militaries and arsenals and search for causes to fight for never seem to get into wars. Switzerland, for example, has not been involve with a war for 500 years. Nor does anyone want to attack Switzerland.

Canada, criticized by many of its own people for its undersized and underarmed military, is known around the world for its peacekeeping efforts today. In the past, when it was more associated with the UK, it was also known for its war successes, with little thought being given to making peace.

We are what we want to be.

We should consider whether what we want to be should be shaped more by our leaders or by ordinary citizens.

Leaders don't necessarily always lead their people in the right direction because they are more interested in their positions as leaders than they are in the direction that they lead their people.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to help people consider what they want themselves and their country to represent.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Honour strengths not weaknesses

Best they honor thee who honor in thee only what is best.
- William Watson, poet (1858-1935)

We all have our weaknesses. It's up to us to know our weaknesses and faults and to do what we can to correct or improve them. It serves no purpose or advantage for others to point out our faults or weaknesses unless we are unaware of them or have chosen to ignore them.

It's easy to find what is a weakness or a fault in someone else. What is much harder is to find strengths and successes, especially if the successes are personal ones that involve overcoming personal weakness or tragedy. Yet, it's by our strengths and our successes that we should be known.

Our heroes are known by their successes and their strengths, while we ignore their weaknesses and failures.

We owe the same consideration to ourselves as we give to our heroes.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to help us give recognition to people for their successes and to help them to strengthen their weaknesses.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Thoughtless, at your own peril

"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you."
- Don Marquis

This is a motto for all groups that attempt to direct the behaviour of others among them.

Al Qaida makes its followers think they are reasoning through the situation such that the only conclusion is to commit suicide and kill as many others as possible at the same time.

Television advertisers make us think that we need their products and we reason that theirs is the solution to our need (which in many cases does not even exist).

Leaders of religious sects have their followers believe that they are making a conscious choice based on the (limited selection of) facts at their disposal.

However, this mind-bending method only works with weak-thinking people up to a certain age. There comes a point where some people don't think at all, at which time they will accept the simple suggestions of anyone who has anything good to offer (no matter how fraudulent the offer may be).

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to make reasoned thinking a life-long activity.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Why our general health is getting worse

"One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine."
- Sir William Osler, Aphorisms from his Bedside Teachings (1961) p.105

Osler, an icon of the medical community, is not clear in this quote what he means by educating the masses "not to take medicine." He didn't mean that ill people should not take prescribed medications.

He meant that people should be educated about what they can do to make their bodies healthy enough that they will be protected from illnesses. We don't do that enough.

Pharmaceutical companies drill their customers and potential customers daily on television about why they need to take prescription and over-the-counter drugs for any problem they have. They do not, ever, teach anyone how to live in a healthy way so that they will not require drugs. Nor, oddly enough, do health insurance companies.

We must take that responsibility ourselves. Governments don't teach it either because they do not directly control curriculum in schools. Schools don't teach it, in general, because they are required to teach too much other curriculum that such "options" as teaching good health methods and techniques are cast aside, if they are ever considered.

We know what people must do to be healthy. We know as a society. What we are not doing is teaching this to those who don't know, the ones who get sick and who develop debilitating illnesses.

Teaching good health methods and habits should be a high priority in a society that is becoming progressively dependent on drugs and medical doctors.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' working to teach people how to look after their health so they have a better chance at finding happiness.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

What are you looking at?

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look atchange.
- Dr. Wayne Dwyer

While at first glance this quote may seem similar to yesterday's quote, it actually takes a different direction. They both have to do with the way we look at life around us.

However, this quote suggests that we look at different things when we change the way we look at things. That is, if we decide to look for the positive in events of our day, in our co-workers, in our family members and friends, we look at different events and behaviours than we would if we were looking for negative things.

When we want to find the positive in our lives, we tend to ignore or overlook those that are negative because they hold little importance to us. Forgiving, for example, is easy if we don't consider the mistakes of others to be important.

This conscious choice to seek positive things around us and in people relieves us of a great deal of stress. When we find ourselves relieved of stress simply by looking at different things, we must conclude that stress is something we heap on ourselves, rather than what others give to us.

We can turn ourselves into slaves to our jobs and our bosses will seldom interfere. We can turn ourselves into golf addicts and the golf pro will never complain. We can turn ourselves into shopaholics and the store owners will never tell us to stay home more.

Each of these behaviours adds to the stress of our lives because they mean we are doing things to excess, which causes us to look at different things than those that are important to us over the long term.

Change the way you look at things. If you are doing a great deal of something, consider what you will think of your participation to that extent on the last day of your life, if you are given the opportunity to look back over your life.

What really matters may not be what you are spending the most time on now. In fact, you might lose what really matters to you if you spend too much time on things that are not really important to your life over the long term.

You can't have everything. Make sure you look after what is important. That means you must look at those important things now, not after they are gone.

Don't assume that what is important to you will look after itself. It never does.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic SocialProblems,' waking us up to what is important in our lives.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Your reality, my reality--not the same

The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.
- James Baldwin

Consider how you know about what is happening in the world outside of what you experience each day.

Do you learn about it from the television or newspapers? These media have a vested interest in making money, which means telling you about tragedies that will get your interest. They focus on tragedy and misfortune because that is what builds their viewership and readership.

This very situation causes you to have a perverted view of the world. You are bound to think that the world is a terrible place because you only learn about what is bad about it.

Do you learn about the world from what you hear from others talking about it? These people tend to take the worst of what they have read or seen on television as subjects for their conversations because they are so extreme. Only listening to these people will give you an even worse impression of what the world is about.

To get a clearer idea, consider the people who live in your neighbourhood. They aren't all bad, even if a few of them are. Apply that to every neighbourhood in the world. The ratio of good to bad people in the world is about the same in every part of the world.

The bad guys are few. We just hear more about them so we get the impression that the world is filled with them. It isn't. The world is filled mostly with good people like you and me.

Not many of us make the news.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' working to put life in perspective for everyone.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

The sound of one hand clapping

As a teenager I remember hearing of a mysterious religion known as Zen Buddhism (sometimes shortened to just Zen). It was mysterious not just because my fellow teenaged ignoramuses and I had never been introduced to something so sinful as a religion without a god, but because it thoughtfully considered questions to which the answers were not simple or obvious.

One of these questions, as I recall, was stated this way: You know the sound of two hands clapping. What is the sound of one hand clapping?

The answers tended in two different directions. One was that there was no sound created without the other hand to clap against. The other noted that one hand could clap against something other than another hand, such as a leg, a face or another person's hand. Very esoteric, I'm sure.

Now know the original question. Japanese Zen master Hakuin (1686-1769), devised it as follows: In clapping both hands, a sound is heard. What is the sound of one hand? (In casual discussion this is usually corrupted to: What is the sound of one hand clapping?)

I now offer you a new interpretation based on years of considering this question.

What is created when two hands clap is sound, which is a kind of energy converted from air waves set in motion by kinetic energy from the two hands, originating from a signal from the brain telling the nerves to have the hand slap together using energy derived from nutrition taken from eaten food. I hope you see the symbolism of circulating energy here, a conservation of energy that is never lost, but simply alters from one state to another.

The air waves that create sound become kinetic energy that may transfer itself to some other form elsewhere. You may have read about the flapping of the wings of a butterfly in China eventually becoming a hurricane in the United States, as an example of how energy moves and transforms itself.

However, back to one hand in the air. One hand alone does not have the ability to make a sound unless it collides with something else. However--here is the new interpretation--one hand has the potential to use its energy to create many other things that require energy.

What is the sound of one hand clapping? It's the sound of potential. If you do not understand what on earth I am talking about, continue your quest for knowledge, my friend. You have much to learn.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' working to help people develop the skills to use their minds creatively.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Stress is wasted life energy

"Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important."
- Natalie Goldberg

Nothing is that important. Nothing.

Stress, we assume, is placed on us by ourselves. Yet in most cases we place it on ourselves because we believe that others expect things of us that may be beyond our ability to produce comfortably within the normal scope of our lives.

Eating and sleeping are critical to our lives. But missing a meal or a day of meals will do us no harm and missing a few hours of sleep or a whole night's sleep to help a friend in need causes us little harm.

Those things that cause us stress tend to be things that will not be of much importance a year from now.

What could you not recover from if you lost it? That is important. Yet that is likely something that is within your control if you take proper and reasoned measures to deal with it.

Stress is wasted life energy. Nothing is that important.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' trying to help people understand what is really important in their lives instead of what others tell them is important.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

What do you want of your life?

"Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning."
- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Many people will not understand this quote. If you don't, perhaps your life has not really begun because you don't yet know what life is about.

You can't conduct yourself through something you don't understand. And you certainly can't reach a desired destination if you don't know where you are going.

What do you really want of your life? You want to conduct yourself in such as way that on your deathbed you can look back and say "I did it!"

What "it" do you want to do?

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' giving people directions for their lives so they don't become slaves to someone else's objectives.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Language and culture tied together

You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.
- Ronald Searle, artist (1920- )

When we speak only one language, we tend to associate that language with ourselves. That is, the language and we are one entity, inseparable. Only when we learn a second language do we begin to understand what language is, its complexity, its history, what it represents.

The history of a language is also the history of those who speak the language. It's part of the culture, so much so that people who live in situations where their ancestral language is disappearing (from lack of speakers) often lose the culture of their ancestors as well.

Learning more than one language, at a minimum a few words of other languages, should be a requirement for all people so that they can understand the foundations on which people of other cultures live.

We use different words, with different sounds and different definitions, but we say the same things no matter where in the world we live.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' helping us see what we have in common with others who seem to be different.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Churchill on fanatics

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject"
- Winston Churchill

The key point here is "can't change his mind." Some one who is persistent about reaching a goal would not be called a fanatic.

"Fanatic" has a negative connotation to it, suggesting that the subject about which a fanatic is so exercised is insubstantial or of little consequence.

Fanatic is the precursor of "fan," as in "sports fan."

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' working to give each person topics of substance to be passionate about.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Advertisers prey on children

"The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague."
- Bill Cosby

Children should be taught that the sole objective of all forms of advertising is to take money from them. They also should be taught that advertisers will attempt to do this by making them believe that they need something that they, in fact, likely do not need.

The purpose for this kind of teaching is not to squelch commerce and destroy the economy, but to make children aware that advertisers are more interested in their own income than in the welfare of their customers. This puts the buyer and the seller on more of an equal footing, as should be the case with a business arrangement.

Ask any child in a predominantly Christian country what he or she wants for Christmas and you will always get a definite answer. No doubt, the child wants a toy (or toys) that has been advertised on televison since early September. The toy may be broken by the end of December or abandoned two weeks later, but the child has wanted it for months before Christmas.

Children deserve to know that their minds are being manipulated. Banning addvertising aimed at children is a backwards and counterproductive way of doing things. Just teach the kids what advertisers are doing and they will be more inclined to want something they can really use rather than what has been imprinted on their brains by advertising.

Items that children can use to build or to create, activities that will help them to develop in a healthy manner, are seldom advertised. Yet these will last longer than conventional toys and will contribute to a child's development in ways that toys never will. They also provide activities that kids can use when they gather together to play, longer after Christmas has passed.

Children have the ability to ignore advertising just as much as adults. We need to give them the knowledge about advertising, rather than assuming that they will not understand what advertising is all about. They understand. They simply do not have any built up defences against it. They are denied this knowledge because of adult ignorance of their capabilities.

Teach the children.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' seeking to protect children from ignorance imposed on them by adults.
Learn more at http://billallin.com.cgi/index.pl

Mental toughness

"Mental toughness is many things. It is humility because it behooves all of us to remember that simplicity is the sign of greatness, and meekness is the sign of true strength. Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love."
- Vince Lombardi

Each person needs some degree of mental toughness in order to withstand the rigors of a tough life and people who derive satisfaction by hurting or taking advantage of others.

Mental toughness is a requirement of nature. We can see it in every form of life. Those without a built-in drive to survive and succeed die.

Mental discipline and toughness must be taught to human children. We are not born with it. We are different from most animals in that we have a childhood training period of about 20 years during which we must learn how to survive in a world that might crush us if we are not prepared.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' preparing to teach children the survival skills they need to hold their own in a tough world.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Gettikng rid of psychological baggage

"In life, satisfaction is experienced when activities are brought to a state of completion. Loss of energy and loss of control are functions of incompletion. The result of completing things releases one's ability to create. Prioritize any items that need to be completed, set a completion date, then do it."
- William Arthur Ward, American scholar

Unfinished business of any kind is excess baggage we carry with us. Even if we believe we have sufficiently supressed it or forgotten it, we carry it with us deep inside.Some excess baggage (psychological weight carried by our brain, though it may show as anxiety on our body) deserves to be cast off and forgotten. The rest, which cannot be forgotten, should be resolved. That which cannot be resolved deserves to be forgotten.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' helping people relieve the burden of excess psychological baggage.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Know who you are

"I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe, and someone said I was a snake, I'd think, no, actually I'm a giraffe."
- Richard Gere, to The Guardian (UK), June 2002

This man knows who he is and will not allow anyone to twist his mind into thinking that he is something he is not. Nor will he stand by while others accuse him of being something he is not.

It is critical that we know who we are, as there are always others who will tell us who they want us to be. Inevitably, they are wrong and what they want of us is a bad fit.

We are who we are. We can become more, but only by our own choosing and our own efforts and will.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' working to help each person understand who they really are.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

What I said, what you heard

I know what I have given you. I do not know what you have received.
- Antonio Porchia, writer (1886-1968)

When we speak or write, we always know what we mean, what we intend to convey in our message. What we don't know is how the receiver of our message interpreted what we said or wrote.

The problem is not just that English words have many different meanings. The problem is that our brains latch onto certain words while virtually ignoring others. From these certain few words in a message, our brains formulate what they believe the speaker or write intended to say.

This problem is so peculiar that I have many times known people to be in heated debate over an apparent issue, when in fact they are both arguing the same side of the issue. In other words, they were arguing, but they agreed on which side of the argument was better. They could not "hear" the message that the other person was saying, they could only pick up and latch onto words that were different from words they would have used. These words gave them a different impression of what their debate "opponent" was saying than what was intended.

I wonder, for example, in the six nation negotiations involving North Korea, how often the negotiators agree but are unable to see that they agree. Thus they conclude that the "others" must be either stupid or perverse.

Whenever there is doubt about how what we have said has been interpreted by another person, we should ask that person what he or she understood from what we said.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' trying to show the world that many of our differences are really similarities that we express differently.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Have we lose our capacity for common sense?

"It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this."
- Bertrand Russell, English philosopher and mathematician (1872-1970)

This discrepancy bothered me for many years as well. How could it be that humanity progressed in a fairly logical form for thousands of years when so many of us in the present act randomly or arbitrarily?

The only conclusion I find acceptable is that logical thinking (a.k.a. common sense) is taught to children, or is not. Children who are taught to consider consequences to their actions before committing to them grow to be adults who have common sense, and who have enough of it to have influence over their respective communities or they become leaders. Children who are not proactively taught to consider consequences of their behaviour before doing something have such random or disorganized lives that they have less influence on their communites.

Russell, it seems, could see stupid or unaccountable behaviour in people around him, but failed to take into account the logical behaviour of others who, to him, did not breach his intellectual radar.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' trying to make sense of the world by teaching people to consider consequences of what they do before doing it.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Extraordinary claims?

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
- Carl Sagan, astronomer and author (1934-1996)

Are the proposals I make in Turning It Around extraordinary? In a way, they are for the 21st century.

In every generation prior to the Industrial Revolution everyone knew the purpose and importance of the family. Since then it has lost its meaning for many people.

Today some people seem to believe that a family is the group of people who give children gifts on their birthdays and at Christmas (or whatever festival they celebrate) and that provide them shelter, food and cash. When the provision of those services ends, they believe they need have no further association with the members of their families.

Does this sound drastic, desperate or cynical? If so, you need to get closer to some families to learn what they are about. "Home" for too many children is a pit stop where they sleep, refuel and get more money.If this sounds wrong to you, then I invite you to join me to make it better.

So long as these conditions exist in your community, there will be troubles of the sort your read about on the front page of the newspaper.
We can change it now that we know how.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' making sense of your world so that together we can put it back together in good order.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

How wisdom becomes lost to younger generations

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.
- Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

Cervantes (Spanish writer best known in the English speaking world for 'Don Quijote') provides an excellent definition for the word proverb. However, a few more words might be helpful.

Parents and older family members tend to pass along proverbs to younger generations as words of wisdom. Younger generations tend to accept them not necessarily as words of wisdom but instead as part of their culture.

We adults should encourage children to question us about these proverbs. We should be able to prove their value to our children, especially so if we can give examples from our own lives.

Proverbs gain status as words of wisdom worth adopting as personal life guidelines only when children hear something meaningful, such as examples from a parent's life, to which to attach the sayings in their minds.

Without the personal attachments, proverbs are just cute sayings that only gain meaning later in life when, as adults long past childhood, we see the truth and importance of them through the mistakes we have made in our own lives.

Wisdom has meaning to younger generations only when they have some way of identifying it as important to them, such as through the experiences of their parents.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' tying real-life experiences to words of wisdom so that children do not need to make the same tragic mistakes as their parents.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Tell the truth in simple language

"Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Works of imagination" does not necessarily means fantasy. It means taking a reader beyond the humdrum thoughts of routine existence.

When writing Turning It Around, I faced two challenges. The first was to tackle a subject that most people consider far too complex to consider, that being solutions to social problems that keep getting worse as our governments add patches to patches with more prisons and psychiatric help for broken people. It had to be written in a form that could be understood by everyone who would read the book, no matter what their reading level.

The second was to express these now-simplified concepts in words that cannot be misunderstood and must not be able to be twisted by opponents to serve their own anti-social goals.

I believe that TIA achieves these objectives. Ironically, the print media treat something written so clearly and plainly, expressing concepts in such simple ways that they seem self-evident to any reader, as if the work does not warrant reporting. They want to take something that is hard to understand and make it easier for their readers. But then, something that is harder to read will not be read by many people.

I am reminded of the wonderful children's writer Dr. Seuss, whose books dealt with meaningful subjects in such "silly" language that they received little recognition at first, until children spoke by buying his books as fast as they could get them.

TIA will only catch the attention of print media when people buy the book from bookstores. I invite you to do your part with that and to tell your friends about the book too.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' bringing solutions to community and personal problems to your doorstep, like the old style milk delivery, only for the mind.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Was the past so different?

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
- L.P. Hartley, writer (1895-1972)

A casual review of any period of history might suggest that life was different in "those days," that in many ways they might have been better. Close study reveals that life was tougher in any previous time in history. We tend to focus on the golden aspects of the past while ignoring the dangerous lead.

Was the past, any period of the past, significantly different from the way our lives are today? Human nature has not changed. People were in the past the way people are today.

Greed, for example, has always been prominent in any society. However, some people learn that greed does not benefit individuals over a long term and is clearly harmful to a culture, a society or a religion, bringing about its eventual disintegration.

If some people can learn, we can teach everyone.

Let us teach every child the same basic values that will help them as adults and will benefit their families and their communities.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' provides the methodology to learn what our common values are and to implement the teaching of them to every child, in schools and in their own homes.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

The dubious power of doctors

My faith in doctors is immense. Just one thing spoils it;their pretence of authorised omniscience.
- Piet Hein, Danish poet, philosopher, designer

This may have been more true of doctors in the past. Now they hesitate to grant themselves such exalted importance for fear of litigation for malpractice.

This stance has now been adopted by business people and politicians.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems', making politicians truly accountable to their electorate for what the voters want represented.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Who is civilized?

A visitor from Mars could easily pick out the civilized nations. They have the best implements of war.
- Herbert V. Prochnow, banker (1897-1998)

As a child I used to wonder what the markers were of a "civilized" country. In those days, school lessons seemed to suggest that those who did not live in tribal societies were civilized. I came to believe that peoples whose cultures stressed peace more than war, who sought to live in harmony with others rather than to subdue them, were the most civilized.

Now, it seems, powerful implements of war, the ability to threaten war and the ability to launch a war in the clear belief of inevitable success are markers of civilization.

To me, as a child, "civilization" was a powerful word. Today, we had best stick with the definition given the word by anthropologists, people living together in urban groups.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems', striving to redefine civilization as the ability to live together in harmony and to seek compromise rather than conflict.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Origins of language and culture

The living language is like a cow-path: it is the creation of the cows themselves, who, having created it, follow it or depart from it according to their whims or their needs. From daily use, the path undergoes change. A cow is under no obligation to stay.
- E.B. White, writer (1899-1985)

Have you ever tried to persuade a cow to go somewhere it doesn't want to go? Yet it will follow other cows, at least in the same general direction, without prompting.

Culture comes into being in a similar fashion. We may identify with our language and our culture as integral parts of who we are. Yet who our ancestors were, where they went, what they did is buried inside of us just as surely as who we are comprises us today.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' shining a light on our past so we can see our way today.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

Bringing truth to light

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
- Arthur Schopenhauer

Truth needs opposition in order to verify itself and gain credibility among a large community.

The worst thing that can happen to truth is to ignore it. When we do, it hangs around and eventually imposes itself on us or our descendants.

Let's not ignore the truth of Turning It Around. Let's not leave the next generation a worse mess than we have created in ours.

We can make marvellous improvements in short order, if we get busy. Tell others about the TIA group and invite them to join at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/turningitaround
Big jobs can only be accomplished if we have others to help us and to lean on when needed.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' bringing truth to the world before it's too late.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more inforamtion.

Does the world owe you a living?

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first."
- Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

It's a symptom of how poorly prepared children and adolescents are to face the world of adult responsibilities that they come to believe that the world "owes them a living." The world does not owe them a living, of course, but it does owe them (we owe them) the facts and skills they need to survive and thrive, as people not just as workers.

A person is not primarily the job (or lack thereof) that he holds. Yet that is what school systems teach to. Schools prepare children for jobs. They should prepare children for life, then jobs would be an integral part of their lives--but not the centre of it.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' wants to prepare children to be full adults, not just employees.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index/pl for more information.

Lions eating lambs

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.
- Giorgos Seferis, writer, diplomat, Nobel laureate (1900-1971)

Though I find the imagery unsettling and unexpected of a diplomat, the thinking remains sound. We are the consequences of our experiences.

How does reading fit into the scheme of things? Reading exercises the brain in ways that nothing else does. Not conversation, not physical involvement and certainly not viewing television or movies. These latter activities do not put into play the same cognitive processes as reading.

Reading forces the brain to plunge deeper into its potential, in the process forming new neural connections that allow us to think beyond the surface appearance of what we experience. Specifically, it allows us to see causes, while others may see only effects.

Only when we understand the causes of conditions do we have any possibility of changing them for the future.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' gives us the causes of the unpleasant conditions in our families and our communities, then offers solutions that may be used by everyone.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

Can you see God?

If you don't find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further.
- Mohandas K. (“The Mahatma”) Gandhi (1869-1948)

Gandhi is not saying that each person you meet should demonstrate signs of the divine to you. He is saying that you find what you look for. If you are unable to find God within yourself, you will be unable to see him in others.

Others are reflections of you, in a sense.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' seeks to unite the divine in all of us.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

Heading for the Orwellian nightmare

"It isn't a very long step from a conformist society to a regimented society. Although it would take longer to create an Orwellian nightmare through voluntary surrender of individuality -- and thus of independence -- than through totalitarian edict, the results would be very much the same."
- J. Paul Getty

Do you see this happening anywhere in the world?
A "regimented society" could be a police state, feudalism or some sort of totalitarian society. The evidence is available to the world.

The "Orwellian nightmare" referred to in the quote is George Orwell's book "1984."

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' directing people away from the orwellian nightmare toward a society of educated people.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

Life's detours might be golden

No one ever ever won a chess game by betting on each move. Sometimes you have to move backward to get a step forward.
- Amar Gopal Bose, electrical engineer, inventor, founder Bose Corp. (1929- )

In other words, no line into the future is straight. A setback or detour might be what you need to put you onto a better course.

For most of us who have a plan for the future, it's a haphazard one because we cannot take unforeseen circumstances into consideration beforehand. Sometimes a step backward allows us to evaluate many factors that affect us and our loved ones from a perspective that would not have been possible if nothing unexpected had happened.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' helps to alleviate the pain of life's detours.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

The nature of greatness

"It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact."
- Edmund Burke

Great people inspire others to work toward common goals. How each reaches their respective objectives along the way might require innovation, individualizations of the plan, which cannot be exercised under rigid rules.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic SocialProblems' is the answer, if you know the question.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

Sanctity of women's rights

When assessing the rights of women, men must play no role in the formulation. There should be no "Women have this right, but..."

The rights of women stand alone, without comparison to or influence by or from the rights of men.

The rights of women should be absolute, without exceptions where the rights of men might supercede. There is no time when the right of a man is more important than the right of a women. This could only exist in a society, effectively, of slavery.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' has the methodology to make women's rights a normalized part of society.
learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Only one path to world peace

Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
- Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)

It's an odd and unfortunate fact of life that we tend to teach values and virtues after these have been violated. This reactionary form of teaching of societal norms has its consequences. Some children do not learn them well enough or in time to save them from adopting features of their lives that remain as permanent violations of societal norms.

For example, murder becomes a norm within some groups in some cities, though it violates an almost universal norm of humanity, which is "Do not kill."

In order for values, beliefs and societal norms of behaviour to become adopted and internalized by every person in a society, every child must be taught these, consistently, frequently and with similar emphasis.

Turning It Around advocates just such teaching. TIA is the only program in the world that proposes this common teaching among all people.

Do you want world peace? Then teach peace to every child. So long as peace is not taught consistently, frequently and with similar emphasis to every child, those who miss the message will not adhere to the wishes of a majority of people for peace.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is the only path to world peace and personal safety.
Learn more at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

An original idea

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats."
- Howard Aiken, computer pioneer (1900-1973)

Apparently we have little to fear about someone stealing our TIA concept. The idea that we could live in a world at peace, that we could live in communities without crime, that we could live our lives without fear and with confidence and happiness is today counterintuitive. What was once accepted and expected in human history is now foreign to us.

Now we will have to ram down the throats of people a concept that is in their best interests, that will make them whole individuals rather than automatons in a rat race.

Let's begin by offering them hope through Turning It Around. Let's begin by telling as many people as we can that there is reason for hope.

Let's tell them that they have to do something in order to earn that hope: they must learn and they must tell others.

It begins with us.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is the book and the way.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

Failure paves the road to success

"Failure is the tuition you pay for success."
- Walter Brunell

Success is earned through experience. Experience is earned through failure.

Failure is not the end. Failure is merely a lesson on the road of life. To stop the progress of our lives after a failure is like quitting school in the middle of a course. The course, and life, go on with you or without you.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' will protect kids from the damage that today's kids suffer because they are not prepared for bad times in their lives.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Born equal? Then what?

"All people are born equal. Each has a right to earn his niche bythe sweat of his brow. But some sweat more and carve larger niches."
- Anonymous

It may not surprise you to learn that this quote was taken from a newsletter that promotes small business, home business and the entrepreneurial spirit. The underlying theme of the message is that business is the most important factor that determines if one carves aniche in life or not.

I submit that business is not the most important thing in life, though that is what is taught, by example, in western countries.

If we do not teach the values of our people to our children, they adopt the values that others teach them. In western countries, that falls to businesses who advertise and promote, with their sole objective of making a profit.

Bill Allin
If you enjoy daily quotes and comments, please tell friends about this blog and join the group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/turningitaround
Find more information at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

The Curses of Schools

"Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice.It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved."
- William Jennings Bryan

One of the worst curses we can place on a child is to tell him that he can be anything he wants to be in life, then not give him the tools to achieve his goals. Schools are not set up to provide those tools, a deficiency that TIA plans to correct.

Another curse, almost as bad, is to tell a child that he won't likely amount to much in life. If the child believes this, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Schools are designed to tell children this very thing. They do it so well.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic SocialProblems' has answers when others have only questions and despair.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

Gladiators or goal-reachers?

'Here lies a can of worms that requires urgent leadership.'
- spoken recently in the Australian House of Commons, quoted in Hansard, without clear attribution

Governments of western countries are so used to rabid opposition from other parties in their legislatures that they seldom think to meet together behind closed doors to work out agreements on controversial issues. Instead, they fight among themselves over the issues, ultimately making them all look bad because it is obvious to onlookers that they have no intention of agreeing on anything.

Think about it. Would you rather have political representatives who will find ways to reach agreement on tough subjects or those who conduct verbal duals to the death?

We citizens need solutions from our legislatures, not gladiatorial spectacles.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available in soft cover, ebook download or ebook on CD.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

What do we deserve in life?

Compare what you want with what you have, and you’ll be unhappy; compare what you have with what you deserve, and you’ll be happy.
- Evan Esar (1899-1995)

How do we measure what we deserve? Do we deserve more when we acquire more for ourselves? Or do we deserve more when we help others to improve their lives and have more hope for the future?

It's a sobering bit of introspection to ponder what we deserve.

Before we do that, we must drop the pretense that the world owes us something from the time we are born. Instead, it is we who owe the world something for the privilege of building lives for ourselves.

If we choose to let circumstances dictate our lives, rather than to build our own lives, then we must accept what we get. When we build our own lives and in the process enhance the lives of others, again we get what we deserve. In the latter case, we would deserve more. We would get more because others would be helping us build our own lives as we are helping them build theirs.

Building a life is not a solitary process. It's a social process requiring other people who act both as supports for us and as people we can support when they need us.

Bill Allin
If you enjoy daily quotations and comments, please join our group. Our home page is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/turningitaround/
Learn more about Turning It Around and the TIA project at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Can we survive without education?

There is no need to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Isn't that an odd thing to say, that we don't need education? Doesn't that go against the findings of studies galore and experience through the centuries? Yes and no.

Krishnamurti means that true education is self education. In school, just as at home before we go to school, we need to learn the things that are critical to our survival and thriving as adults in today's world. These are things that are not necessarily written down as school curriculum, but are collected wisdom that has been passed down through the ages from parents to children, things we consider straightforward, such as the Golden Rule.

The problem is that while people are capable of learning what they need to function in jobs, schools and as keepers of their own homes, vehicles and other property, we are not all receiving the same basic messages about the collected wisdom of the ages. Not every child is taught that murder is wrong, so we have too many murders. Not every child is taught proactively that using non-prescription drugs or using prescription drugs improperly is wrong, so we have people who die or who destroy their minds and the lives of their family members by using drugs improperly.

Every child must receive the same messages, those messages that all of us reading this received from our parents and our teachers. TIA wants to insist on this simple rule for parents and for schools. It's cheap to implement and it will have benefits for the rest of the history of our planet.

Let's tell others about this. The time is now.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available now for order from book stores and online book sellers.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

Your life is in your hands

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

An awesome responsibility, isn't it? Many people suffer the greatest humiliation, punishments, deprivations and restrictions of life because they believe that others are totally responsible for the conditions of their lives.

Not so. Decisions about the directions of our lives are made within our own minds. Many of us are so afraid of change that we can't even contemplate making our lives different.

But it can be done. Others are doing it.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic SocialProblems' is available now for order from book stores and online booksellers.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

Do we teach power and domination?

Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion and hate, wars and class antagonisms.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

I don't believe that "domination and a craving for power are in the heart of almost everyone." This statement overlooks a vast number of people who, at heart, fear those who have a desire for domination and power.
Krishnamurti is correct that people will not work together and live together in harmony while power is taught to children as being desirable. It is equally correct that we will not live together in harmony so long as we fear those who seek power over us.

Power is a kind of greed which we should teach to children is an addictive disability, not significantly different from addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling or work.

A study of various different cultures shows that power and domination are not the same across all peoples. That means that it must be taught differently to children, depending on the culture into which they are born.

We can teach differently if we desire to have this happen.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available for order from book stores and online book sellers now.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for details.

Touch: the ultimate unsatisfied need

A friend wrote:> Each individual has a level of physical contact that satisfies their need for loving contact. Is this a built in trait or a result of environment?

I like your term 'touch quotient.' It's a tad too much toward jargon, but it works for me.

Each human life (each mammal life, for that matter) begins with 100 percent hugging in the womb before birth. The womb is the ultimate security blanket, which may explain why people have such great devotion to their mothers who tend to extend that period of total security for many years by embracing their children frequently.

A hug is a safe place where nothing costs anything, nothing else matters, there are no problems, no pains, no worries. It's like a drug high, only without the withdrawal later, which may explain why people are attracted to the temporary relief of drugs when they can't get socially acceptable forms of touch.

A person who loses the need for touch from a loved one or has that need greatly reduced is damaged somewhere in the brain. The brain controls the nervous system, which is the most important sense involved with hugging (though not the only one, to be sure--smell is very important, for example).

The truth is that we know very little about the brain. Though we are learning fast, it's a tough subject. We can't experiment on human brains, so we must take advantage of opportunities presented by people whose brains have been damaged by disease or misfortune or by studying identical twins.

When something gets turned off or changed in the brain, we may (if we are lucky) know the chemistry of what happened, but we have no idea how to reverse that chemistry. We can't reverse it because we don't know how the chemical reaction happened in the first place.

Returning to the original question, the answer must be that environmental factors must play a vital role as from birth we all want a security blanket wrapped around us constantly as our "built-in trait."

> While physical touch is important, it is also very susceptible to Modification by other factors.

The need does not change. Everyone needs lots of touch. However, it is possible that the satisfaction of that need may require changing by altering how the touch is expressed. For some, the intimacy of sex would be the ultimate expression of that need, whereas for others hand-holding, a head massage or simple touches on the shoulder while passing may be best. It may be that a loving pet (a kind that loves to be touched) could help still others to satisfy that need for touch in a compatible way.

There are no experts on this subject. The best anyone can do is to guess based on anecdotal evidence and personal experience. Allow me an example.

I knew that my first marriage was over a long time before my wife left. One night in bed, while "sleeping" I moved to touch her (back-to-back as I recall), she moved away. Maybe a coincidence? I moved to touch her again and she moved away again. The end had come, though the fat lady had not yet sung (as our saying goes).

My example is not intended to apply to any one situation situation, only to show that loss of touch from a spouse can be a crushing blow to a person.

> When the touch quotient of a couple gets out of whack it is a struggle to find a compromise that comes close to satisfying both parties.

I can only suggest that you keep searching for alternatives that might help both of you. Is a pet that loves to be touched, such as a dog or cat, a possibility?

> To little contact is hard on the more physical partner, while to much touching make the less physical partner feel used.

Where too much touch is a problem, the trouble is in the head, not in the nervous system. It's a problem that we simply do not know how to manage now.

> Factors that can change the touch quotients are religion, financial stress, physical tiredness to name a few. Without a constant and open verbal dialogue any drastic change will put any marriage at risk.

33 words that would require an encyclopedia's worth of words to reply to if the proper studies were done (which they have not been).Touch is, to a social scientist, the final frontier.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available for order from book stores and online book sellers now. See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

The best gift ever

Bob wrote:> The best gift ever? To be held in a loving embrace.

This may be the most important gift that anyone can give to anyone else. However, it lasts for too short a period. It needs to be repeated.

At least one major study has shown that we humans need 12 hugs per day (or some equivalent) to be fully satisfied. We can get by with a minimum of eight hugs.

What happens to those who have fewer, perhaps none at all? You will find them in prisons, in psychiatric hospitals, in divorce courts, in therapists' offices, in video stores picking out their movies for the evening. Of course, lack of human touch is not the only things such people are missing from their lives. But you may be certain that it is a very common element among them.

How desperate would you get if you had not eaten for five days? Or if you had not slept for three days? If you had not had water for two days? If you did not have enough stuff to keep you warm?

Human touch is a need, not a luxury.

Look at the kind of play kids get involved with at school. Most of it involves touching in some way. Kid get into fights--would the fights have not been necessary (might not even have been thought of) if each of the fighters had enough human touch to satisfy their needs?

There is a kind of physical therapy called Healing Touch. The therapist does not technically touch the patient. But the two come close enough to each other that the patient can feel the heat radiating from the skin of the therapist.

The patient feels better. The patient's "touch bank" gets filled. With that need satisfied, the patient's immune and other self-correcting body systems begin to function properly again.

Can we touch ourselves (such as by hugging ourselves) to achieve the same goals? I believe that when we do this, we satisfy maybe one-tenth of our need. What we should be taking from the habit of doing this is that we desperately need the touch of others.

Think of the social animals you know--bees, ants, horses, dogs, etc. Every one, without exception, not only needs the touch of others, but seeks it out. Sometimes, if necessary, they even force themselves on others just to get that touch need satisfied.

Oh, did I just say "force themselves on others?" Isn't that what rapists and those who physically abuse others do? You don't suppose...

Well, if you don't suppose, then you should.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available now for order from book stores and online book sellers. See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for details.

Fear versus peace

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

The fear referred to here is not the natural fear which extends from caution about situations which are dangerous, but ongoing and pathological fear which people become accustomed to living with. This kind of fear is unhealthy as it affects the immune system and hobbles the brain.

Not being afraid of life is a state of mind which has the consequence of bringing peace and tranquility.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available for order from book stores and online book sellers now.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for details and more information.

The profit motive rules

"Sometimes what's right isn't as important as what's profitable."
- South Park, Prehistoric Ice Man

In North American cultures, those who believe in doing what is right face a continual struggle against those who believe that profit should be the guiding principle of everyone.

The profit motive works in the sociopathic atmosphere of large corporations where drones labour endlessly for the continued prosperity of their employers. They believe that their lives and the lives of their employers meld into one. That is, they have no life other than that of work.

Our education systems produced these people. Because they don't know how to make lives for themselves, the attach themselves emotionally and psychologically to their employers.

It's not hard to teach a child how to make a life. But evidence of people around us shows that this is not happening on its own. No one is directing education systems to build people. They are directed to build employees.

And that's what they do.

TIA believes that work is but one component of life. Let's put a TIA program in place.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available now for order from book stores and online book sellers.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for details.

Where do you stand?

You are an infinitesimal part of the universe. Within the known cosmos you are no more significant than a speck of dust.

Unless you combine the life force that is within you with the lifeforces of others like you (and me). That gives you power unlike any known force.

You can't do it alone. Alone you are as worthless as dust, as am I.

We only gain significance when we combine with others to make things happen that would not happen under the forces of nature.

When you assume that you don't have to give much regard to others, that you must look after yourself and your own best interests, you adopt the natural value of dust.

When you combine your energy with that of others to make a positive difference to your world, to my world, to the world of everyone else who inhabits this planet in the same life form as you, you gain a special power and importance that is available only to one known species. Us.

When you put your power with that of others, you have the power of all those that are with you. Alone, you are weak, helpless, hopeless.

There are those who want you to believe that you really are weak, helpless and hopeless. I am not one of those people.

I want you to join with me to become something that neither of us could be alone. I want us to seek the assistance of others who wantto do something that humans have never done before. I want us to show everyone that humans are far more good than bad, far more right than wrong, far more honest than corrupt, far more divine and eternal than base and temporal.

Let's do what we have been given the potential to do, by speaking together for what we believe is right.

This is what TIA is about.

It's not about seizing power, but adopting it collectively with and through others.

Some people want to be weak, helpless and hopeless. I am not one of those.

Come, stand proudly with me. Together we will make the world a better place.

Bill Allin
Learn more about 'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' at http://billallin.com/cgi/indes.pl

We need social justice for everyone now

Maita wrote:> "This is a rare moment . The G-8 has a rare possibility without precedents to fight the problems that affect Africa".
> This sentence I copy and am pasting to express my hope that the world can be better if, people that are fighting for social JUSTICE, would practice what Bill wrote in TIA.

Thank you, Maita. We must remember that:
- the world is not a better place because we turn our backs to eat several meals each day while many starve--30,000 each day;
- the world is not a better place because we protect our agricultural products from cheaper imports from poor countries, imports that might have given the people in those countries a sustainable existence--our farmers can ALWAYS find other products to grow that we need;
- the world is not a better place because we do not help people in poor countries to educate themselves--we find ways to educate people in the most remote parts of Canada, for example, but we can't manage to teach millions of children who want to learn in poor countries;
- the world is not a better place when we allow fear to grow--fear is a product of ignorance, which is a consequence of poor education;
- the world is not a better place because we wish for peace but do nothing to prevent our governments from making war;
- the world is not a better place when we know what is right but leave it to others to see that it happens--it doesn't;
- the world is not a better place when we don't share the basic principles of what we believe with others--in the process we would learn that a large majority of people in every country share the same beliefs as us;
- the world is not a better place when we look at others and see how different they are from us, but do not see how much the same as us they are.Let's make the world a better place.
Let's Turn It Around.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available now for order from book stores (that stock books in English) and online book sellers.

See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for details.

Cause of obesity

Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.
- Charles Dudley Warner, editor and author (1829-1900)

The pace of life in western countries is notoriously fast. Advertisers tell us we must do many things (all of which cost money), so we work more and try to do it all for fear of missing out on something.

In the process, we take shortcuts, such as with preparation and eating of meals. Thus we miss two of the great pleasures of life, both of which are healthy. In so doing, we eat an extraordinary amount of chemicals and preservatives in our non home-prepared food, which results in obesity.

In turn, obseity creates the need for new pharmaceuticals, weight loss programs and exercise facilities.All because we believe advertisers who, it turns out, control the passage of our lives.

Advertisers teach children this way of life. If we do not teach children differently, they will follow the same course we have travelled, never understanding the peace, tranquility or beauty of simplicity. They will sell their souls for thrills.

A TIA program would prevent this mind-bending of our children.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available for order from book stores or online book sellers now.
See http://billallin.com for details and description.

Poisoned lives

"Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of thefact."
- Bertrand Russell

They take pride in their "success" at devoting their lives to their work, in effect at their sacrificing their lives for the monetary benefit of their employers or their business.

These people have learned, as children, that success in life is measured by the amount of wealth you have, the prestige of your occupation and your status in the social sphere of your community.

What they have not learned is the concept of quality of life.

We could teach that to their children or grandchildren, but it's too late for those who long ago adopted business success as a standard measure of life.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' may be ordered now from book stores or online book sellers.
See http://billallin.com for details.

Are you stupid?

"To succeed in the world, it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."
- Voltaire

Whether by Voltaire's definition of "stupid" or one of modern usage, everyone is stupid. We are only capable of being knowledgeable on some subjects and having expertise on very few. Thus we lack knowledge and expertise on most subjects, which leads to the possibility for stupid behaviour.

The difference between someone who may be labelled stupid and one who should not be would be the willingness of the latter to learn what he does not know on subjects he needs to know about.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available for order at book stores and online book sellers now.
See http://billallin.com for details.

Minds on fire

"Man's mind is not a container to be filled but rather a fire to bekindled."
- Charles Kettering, American industrialist

An examination of the curriculum of any education system will confirm that its intention is to fill the minds of its young charges with stuff that may be regurgitated or manipulated in such a way as to pass tests.

"Teach to the test" is a mantra for teachers, indicating that their "success" as teachers will be judged not on how well prepared their children are to face the world and its rigors but how well they can do on tests on which both the children and the teachers are evaluated.

Except at the college and university levels, what children may one day do with the information and skills they learn is of little import in the classroom.

A TIA program will put growing and building well adjusted and well prepared adults in the forefront. These are what education was intended to do, to be.

Children who know what is ahead of them, why they should strive for it and how they can cope with problems they will face will not experience many of the diversions in their teens years that harm or destroy the potential of too many kids today.

No child of four years wants to become a drug addict, a murderer, a home invader, a divorcee, an emotional invalid or an agoraphobic.

These things are learned. We can prevent these things from happening.

Anything that can be fixed after it has broken can be prevented from breaking. That is never more so than with people.

Social problems are individual problems that affect whole communities by their sheer numbers.

If you don't help to change your community, no one else will. Right now, you know about Turning It Around, but others don't. Spread the word. We need your friends, family members and neighbours to help us.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic SocialProblems'
http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl
Join our TIA group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/turningitaround

Written words cut deep

The best writing is rewriting.
- E.B. White, writer (1899-1985)

While this quote was intended as advice for writers, I would like to take it in a different direction.

The written word, especially written words penned for our loved ones or friends, has power far beyond anything spoken. When we write anything that might be taken as criticism by the reader, whether criticism is intended to not, we would do well to review, rethink and maybe rewrite our message before passing it to its intended recipient.

Spoken words may be forgotten and forgiven. Written words cut deeper and take much longer to heal.

Bad news of any kind might be delivered more gently by voice rather than by written word.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's epidemic Social Problems'
http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Building better idiots

"[Computer] programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."
- Rich Cook

This quote is a sociology lesson in itself. It would take two or three chapters of a book to expand on its meanings and implications.

However, let's ask ourselves why people allow themselves to become "idiots." This is an obvious retreat from reality, at least to a social scientist. It doesn't make sense, in the context of a whole lifetime. Reality, to the people who become the "idiots", is something they can neither comprehend nor cope with. So they escape into a virtual world they can deal with.

Let's teach the coping skills people need, at least to today's young children, so that they will not face the same need to evade reality as they get older.

This is not hard, my friends. We are simply not doing it.

As I have said many times before, anything that can be fixed when it is broken can be prevented from breaking in the first place. This is never more true than with people.

TIA does not want people to break. You do not want people to break.

Let's do something about it. Learn how at http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Bill Allin
'Turning it Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems'
http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

A different look at rape

Rape is not about hormones raging out of control. People with hormone surges manage to get through their problem periods without engaging in anti-social behaviour, for the most part. (PMS and menopause wreak far greater havoc with their hormone surges than the hormones that urge people to have sex.)

Rapists are bullies. Bullies have poor self images, low self esteem. Bullies need love, but have no concept of how to get it in an acceptable manner.

Fear on the part of a woman attacked has the same effect on the rapist as fear on the part of a person attacked by a bear has on the bear. It makes the bear and the rapist more determined than ever to complete the task at hand, usually in a more violent fashion.

As counterintuitive as it seems, a rapist wants attention of a gentle and affectionate kind, more so than he wants to rape his victim. But his victim doesn't want to give him anything positive. So he determines to be violent to overcome resistence to what he needs.

A rapist, I believe, needs touching in the same way that everyone needs to be touched. Not just rapists, but most (if not all) people who exhibit anti-social behaviour need more gentle touching than they get.

Some get no touching at all. This makes them feel alienated, socially detached, from those around them. The situation dehumanises them because they have no idea how to achieve what they believe others around them are achieving, loving touch, and they have little understanding of their own need for touch.

Why do they have so little understanding of the basic need for touch? Because we don't teach about that need. We don't have mechanisms by which people can be touched in a socially acceptable manner when they need it, in ways that they need it, because we don't know how much people need to be touched.

Since we don't know about this need, we penalise those who violate the custom about not touching strangers. It's called assault, a crime in most places. Because of this law and the custom against touching others more than absolutely necessary, many communities develop social customs that forbid touching others, except for family members and in certain situations such as when greeting or comforting a friend.

Because of our ignorance about our own basic need for touch, we create circumstances that make anti-social behaviour a last resort for people who have no other way to tell the world that they can't cope with their alienation from it.

Rape, like other crimes of violation of the person, is a consequence of our unintentional alienation of already marginalised people from access to what they need to make their lives more normal.

Crimes of violation of the person will remain with us until we teach about this need that we have, about how to recognise symtoms of an unsatisfied need in others and socially acceptable ways of dealing with this problem (that is, of giving touch).

The problem is not rape so much as it is our ignorance of the basic human need for touch. Ignorance of any kind responds to teaching.

For more about social and community problems and solutions for them, see
http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Bill Allin
'Turning it Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic SocialProblems'
http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Climbing the ladder of life

"The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only hold man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher."
- Thomas Henry Huxley

Life is like climbing a ladder. There are those who want to stay where they are on the ladder--it's safe and comfortable, but they go nowhere, accomplish nothing. There are those who want to go down because they are afraid of what may be at the top--down is backwards, a direction the human brain cannot cope with.

Climbing the ladder of life is difficult. But that is what life is like. You can enjoy the scenery while you are climbing, but don't lose track of the fact that life is a great deal of hard work. Your reward is that you get to continue to climb, instead of stagnating or regressing, or falling off the ladder.

Cheers
Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems'
http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

A few thoughts about rape

My experience with rape consists of what I have learned by watching TV documentaries and movies. I prefer to keep it that way. However, I have studied and considered what I have learned.

One of the questions that is always asked of rape victims is "Did you struggle to get away or to avoid the sexual assault?" If the woman did not struggle (or if there are no signs of injury caused by struggling on a corpse), police assume that the woman must have enjoyed the assault in some way. ("She wanted it or she would have fought the attacker.")

I now have a reply to this extremely stupid and profoundly insulting assumption.

Watch an animal that has been captured by a predator. This could be on a nature program on television or it might involve two insects in your yard. The prey animal seldom struggles, even as the predator begins to eat it alive.

Sometimes the captured animal will give a shake or two, but it seldom puts up a fight for its life. It somehow seems to resign itself to its fate, which is inevitably death. It lies waiting to die, as the carnivore eats it.

Why would a captured animal not fight to save its own life? I don't know. But my guess is that it suffers from some sort of shock. It has not been prepared to be in a death struggle, so it doesn't know what to do.

Sound familiar? It didn't have coping strategies or skills taught to it when it was young, so it became an easy victim when captured. This is exactly the situation I have described in 'Turning It Around' many times, where unprepared children become adult victims.

A woman who is captured by a predator rapist is in a situation similar to that of a captured animal. She is in shock and doesn't know what to do. She is afraid to move for fear that she will suffer physical harm immediately, just as the captured animal might be afraid of being harmed by teeth or claws while it is being held in a death grip.

A woman rape victim should not be assumed to give her consent because she does not struggle. She, like the captured prey, was not prepared to know what to do in the case of a rape attempt.

We can prepare children or young adults for potential rape situations. But we don't, usually, because we prefer to pretend that it will not happen to our children. We want to keep our children "innocent" about such topics. Some become prey.

As for the rapist, why does someone turn bad like that? That is easy to answer. A rapist is in a life situation with which he cannot cope, and has been for some time. He has not been taught what to do in the case of personal troubles. He has not been offered resources to call upon even if he knows what his problems are.

The rapist turns to one form of anti-social behaviour in much the same way as a drug addict, an armed robber, a murderer or a nervous breakdown patient turns to other forms.

The whole purpose of childhood in the rest of nature is for the young to learn about how to survive in the world. For many human parents, the purpose of childhood is for the children to have fun, to learn easy stuff, to enjoy the "best years of their lives."

This is wrong. Keeping children innocent of what life is really like defies all the examples shown to us by nature. Innocent children mean ignorant adults. Ignorant adults suffer and are often thought to be weak because they could not cope with their problems.

We need to teach parents how to teach children. We need to have a Turning It Around program in place in every community.

Tomorrow is too late. We need it today.

The longer you wait to help, the more people will suffer.

You can make a difference, but not if you do nothing.

Bill Allin
Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems
http://billallin.com/cgi/index/pl

Building your tomorrow

When considering how to create the rest of your life, don't act as if today were still yesterday.Yesterday is history and can never be recalled into being.

Today you are living the consequences of what happened yesterday. Tomorrow is the only part of your life over which you have some control.

To create the framework for tomorrow, don't look at what was or what could have been yesterday. Instead look at what could be for tomorrow.

By tomorrow, the joys of today will have passed. But so will today's troubles.

Only when you know what you want for tomorrow will you have the opportunity to make it happen. Work toward what you want, don't wait for luck to visit you.

If you want to make tomorrow better than today, work toward that goal. The Creator has no time to help those who will not help themselves.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems'
www.billallin.com

What if nothing went wrong in your life?

What if nothing went wrong? Maybe everything we think that is anunfortunate twist of fate that negatively impacts our lives issupposed to happen to us. If we refuse to think of these things as bad, that they are really meant to be the way our lives are intendedto unfold, will they still be bad?

What if we didn't worry? If we believe that everything will happenthe way it is supposed to happen, why should we worry? You, me, each of us is too blind, too stupid to know if what we worry about or what we consider bad events are really to benefit us in the long run.

Think about this. The organism that you think of as being you isreally a collection of billions of organisms, all working in an unbelievably complex and sophisticated manner, with your personality added to that, to make a being that is beyond our comprehension to understand. Is it reasonable for you or me to think that whatever created such a compound organism would make it stumble through life, bumbling from one mistake or misfortune to another?

I am not who I am today because everything went right in my life. I am who I am because an incredible number of "misfortunes" befell me, because I have disabilities beyond even my understanding (for most of my life), because I kept wanting to be better.

My wanting to be better was all that was required of me for most of my life. Now more is needed from me. And yet, as I am required to give more, I find that I am learning more and faster than ever.

I didn't allow myself to get bogged down in misfortune and despair for long through my life. I won't allow myself to get despondent because of tragedy any more. There is a plan that I don't understand. Part of that plan made me who I am. Another part is guiding my future.

Worry and despair is within my control. I won't allow them to affect how well the plan for my life unfolds.

I accept each person who wants to be the way they are. I will help every person who wants to be better, to improve, to grow.

I don't control my fate, I just follow my guide. I am in touch with the source of creation. It's a feeling unlike anything I have felt in my life.

I will do my part to further the intention that the creator has for my people.

You may join me if you wish. I ask only that you want to learn and that you will tell others.

Bill Allin
Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems
http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

Should the majority be kept ignorant?

"The majority is by no means omniscient just because it is the majority. In fact, I've found that the line which divides majority opinion from mass hysteria is often so fine as to be virtually invisible."- J. Paul Getty

Majority opinion is relevant only when the subject involves common elements of belief or practice within a society. That is, when you want to know what a group of people believes, accept the statements of the majority.

However, when it comes to matters involving current events or current affairs, majority opinion may well be invalid because it may be based on manipulated data from the media, which might have come from a government or administration with a desire to mislead its public.

Some say that the public should never be consulted about anything because of their ignorance.

The only way around this distortion would be to teach young people how to find the facts about a news story, how to tell fact from propaganda and how to tell when an information source has twisted facts to portray its own desired objectives as the only possible course of action. This is not hard, but we don't routinely do it. It is taught in journalism courses, for example, so it could be taught to all young people in high school.

Who do you suppose would want to keep the public ignorant while they work their own will within government? And who makes the decisions about what is taught in schools?

Bill Allin
Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems
http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl