The main characteristic of religion should not be how 'righteous' you are but rather how much you care about people -- of every colour, nationality, culture, both sexes, and age. In this regard, religion as I have defined it here is completely compatible with 'humanism' regardless of how you choose to believe in 'God' or even whether you choose to believe in 'God'. Personally, I like my own view of 'DGB Democratic-Dialectic, Humanistic-Existential Pantheism' -- the idea that 'God, Creation, and Nature is in everything, and that all living things -- and people should be treated with equality, dignity, integrity, and mutual respect. That does not preclude the fact that we still generally need to 'grow and pick our food' -- and/or 'kill it' in order to eat and continue to survive. For better for worse, life and death, living and dying, will always contain a mixture of 'co-operation and trust' in the one hand vs. 'competition and rivalry' in the other -- thrown into the same 'bag of life'.
This we have to deal with because that is how the world was made and how it continues to evolve, regress, and decay.
However, that does not justify us in terms of living our life like we are in 'Lord of The Flies'. Conquer or be conquered. Kill or be killed. Victimize or be victimized. Only the strong shall survive -- a crass ('neo-Nazi') interpretation of Charles Darwin.
Character matters. Integrity matters. Dignity matters. Equality matters. Helping others matters. Respect matters. Caring matters. Passion matters. Romance matters. Reason matters. Truth matters. Empathy matters. Accountability matters. Responsibility matters. Dialogue -- dialectic exchange between free and equal people -- matters. Freedom of speech matter. Freedom of religion matters. Freedom of the press matters. Family matters. Community matters. Friends matter. Love matters.
And how can I not say that sex matters.
Unfortunately, every day I go to work, I feel like I am walking into a 'Lord of The Flies' existence.
When I go to work, Schopenhauer rules.
And it makes me sick to my stomach.
Two people get fired right beside me.
And I am supposed to carry on like everything is okay.
When computers and corporate profits become more important than people,
More important than people caring about people,
It is time to start looking for a new job.
If I don't get pushed out first.
Obviously, corporations cannot survive without money.
But I find that it is often the corporations who,
Do not treat people with respect,
And caring,
And good dialectic-democratic dialogue,
Who end up crashing and self-destructing,
From the top down,
And the bottom up,
Once people start to lose their caring for their job,
And their caring about other people in their organization,
Who they have to work with,
As a 'team' -- a 'real team'; not a 'fake team',
In order to properly perform all necessary functions,
Of the organization,
It is probably 'lights out' anyway,
The only thing left is the funeral.
Death of the people in the organization,
Death of the organization.
Profits over people.
But without any people,
Motivated people with good skill, good will, and character,
Without any employees, customers, suppliers...
There can be no organization,
No corporation,
No profits,
Death of a corporation,
That doesn't believe in,
People.
-- DGBN, Feb. 3rd, 2009.
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Democracy Goes Beyond Narcissism,
-- People Before Profits,
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...are still in process
