Sajid Khan - Wisdom and Its Attributes - Understand Them - Cultivate Them

"Attributes of wisdom can be described in words. Wisdom can be understood by understanding its attributes.” — Sajid Khan


Since time immemorial our prophets and philosophers have been struggling to understand, define, measure and teach wisdom as they know that the key to Utopia is a wise society.

Attributes of wisdom can be described in words. Wisdom can be understood by understanding its  its attributes. Every attribute can be very clearly understood, defined, measured and taught.

The World Needs What Our Philosophers Have Been Saying Since Time Immemorial — WISDOM.
The world is forced into a tribal society where every little difference of religious beliefs, language, culture, geography, class, and caste is exploited and milked by the criminal elements at every level from individual, group, business and country levels. Right now the war industry is itching for a major war not only to force the diversion of funds into huge profits for themselves, they need to test their latest weapons on the real battlefields. As a result the world is bogged down with the disastrous consequences of bloated defense budgets….

War inflicts death, pain, and destruction at every level. An increase in wisdom in the world averts war.


Wisdom Is A #Statusless Self-Image, Group-Image and Country-Image.

Wisdom can be defined, measured and created by defining, measuring and creating any and all of its attributes.

Here is one of the attributes: #statuslessness


There are roughly four levels of status for the self-image as follows.
1) Premature self-image.  It is self absorbed, self-centered and totally selfish. Considers itself as all important.
2) Immature self-image. It is an opportunist and corrupt. It knows that it is not that important but wants to be by hook or by crook.
3) Mature self-image. Egoist and considers itself to be the best, even though in its view all are equal.
4) Super mature self-image. A selfless self-image where there is no conscious idea of any kind of self-status. A #statusless self-image. ( A #statusless self-image generates wisdom.)

A perfect example is the story of Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve were first created they had no idea of their own value. Not once did they pay any attention to their own self-importance. As soon as Satan introduced their self-importance their world changed from wisdom into ignorance. From being worthy of heaven they became unworthy.

Wisdom's attributes include  humility, selflessness, #othercenteredness and love etc.
Each one of these attributes springs from emotional health.



Adapted from Sajid Khan's post in FaceBook.
https://www.facebook.com/sajid.khan.33046736/posts/10217299586707931

Sajid Khan - FaceBook Page
https://www.facebook.com/sajid.khan.33046736

Becoming Resilient and Overcoming Adversities

Resilience Research - 1998

I came across an article that I took a printout in 2003. The article is " Finding Strength: How to overcome anything" by Deborah Blum published in Psychology Today in May 1998. It is available at:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199805/finding-strength-how-overcome-anything


The article gives an account of research works and researchers in the field of resilience.


Some interesting information from the article


David Miller, assistant professor of social work at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland

A national news magazine (okay, U.S. News and World Report) published a cover story about resilience research titled "Invincible Children."

Washington, D.C., psychologist Sybil Wolin, Ph.D., with husband and clinical psychiatrist, Steve Wolin, M.D., co-authored the popular book, The Resilient Self.
"We're talking about the capacity to rebound from experience, mixed with all the damage and problems that adversity can cause. It's not an either/or thing.

John DeFrain, Ph.D., a professor of family studies at the University of Nebraska.

* Faith -- be it in the future, the world at the end of the power lines, or in a higher power -- is an essential ingredient. Ability to perceive bad times as temporary times gets great emphasis from Seligman as an essential strength.

Most resilient people don't do it alone. They have or get some support. 


* Believing in oneself and recognizing one's strengths is important. University of Alabama psychologist Ernestine Brown, Ph.D., discovered that when children of depressed, barely functioning mothers took pride in helping take care of the family.

* Recognizing one's own strengths is important. Many people don't. Teaching them such self-recognition is a major part of the approach that the Wolins try when helping adults build a newly resilient approach to life. Resilience can be taught, perhaps by training counselors and psychologists to focus on building strengths in their clients.

Edith Grotberg,  Ph.D., from the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Edith Grotberg tries to help people organize their strengths into three simple categories:
*I have (which includes strong relationships, structure and rules at home, role models);
* I am (a person who has hope and faith, cares about others, is proud of oneself); and
*I can (ability to communicate, solve problems, gauge the temperament of others, seek good relationships).

"All people have the capacity for resilience," says Grotberg,

Garmezy and Rutter refocused on the coping skills of people in troubled families. Their work laid the foundation for an entire generation of resilience researchers.

Garmezy gives credit to Emmy Werner for nurturing the field.

Ann S. Masten, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota,

The foremost element in transcending trouble is not having to do it alone.

Peg Heinzer, who holds joint nursing appointments at LaSalle University in Pennsylvania and Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York, studied the ways in which children cope with the death of a parent.

Blog Post to Global Toast

Blog Post to Global Toast is my slogan.

An idea that germinates in your brain, becomes the idea of the world.

I request all bloggers to think and write ideas for improving things around them. Discoveries may come, inventions may come and large scale commercialization may take place. But many of these things start as an idea in one man's brain. Keep thinking.

In the recent days, to promote entrepreneurship, I suggest that business plan competitions are held and all entries are posted on website. That makes your ideas known to large number of people and some of them may use the idea. If you do not want to start a business yourself, at least contribute to that objective by creating business plans which others can use.

Nobel Peace Prize should be renamed as Nobel Prize for Peace and World Social and Political Development

The way Nobel prizes for peace are awarded in various years it makes sense to rename the prize as Nobel Prize for Peace and World Social and Political Development. That way various social workers and politicians can be included for determining the prize. Both achievements of politicians in power and achievement of people leading political struggles and improve the political system can be recognized. Also academincs working in the areas of sociology and social welfare, and also academics in the areas of politics and public administration can also be considered for the award.

What is the Value of Policies and Strategy Advocated by a Loser Candidate or Party in a Democracy?

This question was framed by me in response to an article published in The Economic Times dated 13 November 2012 (Page 24). The article was titled "Listen to Losers...Keep Winning." It was further explained that those who lose do matter even in a winner-takes-all world. Their election  campaigns did influence history and do influence history.

The article was written by Jaithirth Rao, who once headed Citibank India. Jaithirth Rao quoted Amartya Sen to start his thesis. But Lord Keynes is also credited for the statement "Every King is a slave of a dead economist." Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh reiterated the same recently. The idea connected to Amartya Sen is that according to Indian Tradition, the disputant may lose an argument at a particular point in time, but if it held for some time, meaning the argument did extend for some time, the argument remains suspended in mid-air (meaning in the minds of some observers or the audience) and is very often revisited years, decades and centuries later.

Close contests in a democracy may give all the power to the winning candidate or the party. But the  policies and strategy advocated by the losing party also have substantial support. That is what a close contest reveals.  In a democracy, the winning party should not ignore the losing argument. Ignoring it could result in an arrogance that ultimately leads to hubris and failure. Jaithirth made this interesting observation and gave the warning. The winning party has to analyze the policies and strategy advocated by the losing side to find  pieces that have relevance and popular support to incorporate into future policy of the government.

I think the discussion applies to any debate in any system. Many times, meetings are called  for and opinions are solicited but the people in power carry their agenda through. They may call the proceedings the legitimising routine. People who have the understanding and put up a different proposal should not lose heart for resultant failure. Whenever a thought is well expressed, it remains  suspended in mid-air (If somebody gave a counterargument or even brushed it aside, it entered the minds of some people).


Link to Jaithirth Rao's article
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-11-13/news/35086657_1_mitt-romney-losers-barack-obama


Related article on voting for a dissenting candidate
Going green: Third party candidates and the power of dissent
November 6, 2012 by Michael Stafford, Former Republic Party (USA) Officer
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/11/06/3626712.htm

Came across the article today through a Google search - 2 Nov 2013

Generativity - Doing Something for the Next Generation - Human Growth Imperative

Erik Ericson developed 8-stage model of human development or growth. In the seventh stage people strive for generativity. They want to something significant for the next generations. If they succeed they will happy and growth normally. If they fail, there is unhappiness and depression which leads to stagnation phase.

Democracy 2015 - An Interesting Election and Political Initiative in UK

Andreas Whittam Smith, founder of the independent announced a plan for new political movement and party in UK for 2015 elections.


It is an interesting initiative. Read more about it.

5 September 2012 article.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/how-you-can-bring-our-ailing-democracy-back-to-life-8105024.html

A site - but not active now
http://www.democracy2015.co.uk/

Twitter Account - Active 14.11.2012
https://twitter.com/Democracy2015


An official campaign video
____________

____________

Uploaded by Democracy 2015

Participatory Politics and Institutional Politics

MacArthur Research Network came out with a report on Youth & Participatory Politics. It found that a “substantial” number of young people are engaging in online “participatory politics” activities, such as blogging about political interests or circulating videos about political issues and causes.


The study defined “participatory politics” as a number of online activities, including mobilizing networks through social media and circulating information about social or political issues through message board postings or forwarding links to friends via e-mail.

Institutional politics included campaigning for a political candidate or joining a political organization.

According to the report, an estimated 41 percent of young people engage in at least one online form of participatory politics.  An estimated 37 percent of respondents reported engaging in both participatory politics and institutional politics.

The report expresses the hope that the digital channels help to increase the participation of youth in political debates, opinion sharing and voting.

The report found that youth that had engaged in at least one form of participatory politics were found to be almost twice as likely to report voting in 2010 than those that did not report engagement in political behaviors.

http://www.youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=5440

http://www.macfound.org/press/publications/study-finds-young-people-using-new-media-participatory-politics/

http://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/YPP_Press_Release_for_06-26-12_FINAL_1.pdf

Improving the Processes and System of Democracy

Democracy - System Kaizens

Improving democracy - A Phd thesis
http://knol.google.com/k/how-to-improve-democracy?version=9#

Thesis: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/39440/
2010

Independents in Democracy

Wikipedia article



_________________________________________________________________________________

 

Monarchy Out, Democracy In, But Dynasty is  Getting Entrenched

 

 

Democracies have to take steps to prevent emergence of dynasties.

  

1. A close family relative should not be allowed to take up a political executive office immediately after resignation, retirement, or death of an existing person in position. A gap of ten years or two general elections gap should be recommended.

2. Two members of a family cannot be in same legislative body simultaneously.

 

http://kvssnrao-pss.blogspot.com/2009/01/monarchy-out-democray-in-but-dynasty-is.html

Ananya Vajpeyi, Assistant Professor of History, University of Massachusetts wrote an article titled "The Paradox of Dynastic Democracy". The article is written in the context of India, where Nehru family is the ruling the country for many years since independence. The  presence of youngest Gandhis as well as that of sons and daughters of  number of politicians in Indian legislative assemblies and parliament poses a direct challenge to the very principle of democracy, since their presence in politics is primarily a function of their lineage.

Source: The Economic Times, 27.5.2009

 

 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 

Emphasize Representing People

 

Politician at any level in a democracy is a representative of the opinion of people. Both political party members and elected representatives need to have systems in place to accumulate public opinion within their constituency.

 

Unfortunately such systems are not visible.

 

There is more emphasis in media as well as in party and government affairs on the leadership and authority and the role of representing people is almost forgotten.

 

There is a need to emphasize representing people in democratic systems.

 

Views of Professor John A.Quelch

 

Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy (Harvard Business Press, 2008) is a book by Quelch co-authored with Katherine Jocz

 

The present democratic systems are less democratic as they lack  “perpetual referendum”. By treating people as voters who only participate during elections, once every four to five years, politicians may see less need to be as engaging and persistent as marketers who have to make efforts for every sale. Quelch suggests that politicians in a democracy can afford to take a leaf from marketing - to treat citizens as consumers with distinct voices and needs, establish long-term relationships and earn their loyalty. Democracies will be the richer for it.

 

http://knowledge.smu.edu.sg/article.cfm?articleid=1208

 

___________________________________________________________________________

 

A Result from a Survey conducted by CNN-IBN in India

14,786 respondents in 18 states

 

For the question politicians don't care about people like me  58% said yes, and 17% no and rest no answer.

 

Source: Hindustan Times, 25 Jan 2009, page 11

 

__________________________________________________________________________ 

Book Information and Reviews

 

1. Democracy: Crisis and Renewal by Paul Ginsborg, Random House Profile Books, 168 pages

 

Paul Ginborg is a historian and political theorist.

 

According to him, in many modern nation-states, politics and the political class have now become excessively professionalized. Majority of the citizens have retreated into the private sphere, and are often involved in the politics only to the extent of bemoaning its quality. Thus even though governments are representative in theory, in practice there is no participation of people. This conclusion supports my theme that "Representing People" needs to be emphasized in democracy instead of leadership and authority.

 

Ginsborg demands in his book that  inviduals must become agents of democracy instead of being content to be subjects of democracy.

 

2. Unparliamentary Expressions, A Book published by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, India, 2008.

It is 900 page tome. It contains statements disallowed in various Parliaments of Common Wealth and India.

 

____________________________________________________________________________

Material for Parliamentarians

http://www.ipu.org/english/handbks.htm

Combating Trafficking in persons: A Handbook for Parliamentarians published by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2009

http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/UN_Handbook_engl_core_low.pdf

PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: A GUIDE TO GOOD PRACTICE

Download from

http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/democracy_en.pdf

________________________________________________________________________________________

 

http://www.report.knightcomm.org/#

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy is a group of 17 media, policy and community leaders. Its purpose is to assess the information needs of communities, and recommend measures to help Americans better meet those needs.

The Knight Commission sees new thinking about news and information as a necessary step to sustaining democracy in the digital age. It thus follows in the footsteps of the 1940s Hutchins Commission and the Kerner and Carnegie Commissions of the 1960s.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 Related Knols

 

How to Improve Democracy The article is based on research thesis

 

 

 

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

 

Related Web Sites and Pages

 

Open Democracy - Free thinking for the world

http://www.opendemocracy.net/

 

The Dewey-Lippmann Debate Today: Negotiating the Divide Between Participatory and Elitist Models of Democracy

http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/8/7/4/pages108740/p108740-1.php

 

 

 

 

Original knol - Number 742

Thilo Sarrazin - German Central Banker - Book - Germany Abolishes Itself

Thilo Sarrazin, a member of Germany's central bank authored a book, "Germany Abolished Itsef". It became a best seller. But the line he has taken in the book in the case of muslim immigrants in Germany and more generally in Europe created a furore. He is resigning from the central bank in the month of September 2010 due to it.
----------
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/09/thilo-sarrazin-german-cen_n_711358.html
--------

A trending knol is written by Peter Mersch on the opinions of Thilo Sarrazin. The English translation of it can be read by clicking The Case of  Thilo Sarrazin (English)

Another trending knol on Thilo Sarrazin's book in German. It is a review of the book by Volkar Weiss, an active knol author with 29 knols.

Read the English translation of the knol Volkmar Weiss: Review: Thilo Sarrazin: Germany abolishes itself.

Original Knol - http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao/thilo-sarrazin-german-central-banker/ 2utb2lsm2k7a/ 2968

The lies of Thilo Sarrazin - World Socialist Website September 2010