Conversation of Our Generation

With Thanksgiving this week, an episode focusing on gratitude seemed like it would make sense. This has been a focus in my life due to a push in the company I work for to have gratitude built into our culture, and I'll talk about what it's done for me.

This episode will be a little shorter so you, and I, can enjoy our Thanksgiving week with family.

Spiritual: Being grateful is good for you and your soul. It focuses your mind and heart on the good things instead of yearning for what you do not have. It's made me happier when I practice it deliberately because I remember what great things I have, and I notice things to be grateful for that I hadn't thought of in the past.

Professional: It makes work great. When your work is appreciated, you have a sense that what you do matters. It also holds you accountable in a way, since you know you get noticed for a job well done, a job not well done would likely be noted too. But despite that, you know that you're secure in what you have due to the fact you know that you're appreciated.

Family: Family functions better when there are lots of thank you's. It can be easy to expect dad to work all day, mom to cook and clean, and the kids to get good grades and do their chores, but it's important to recognize the roles each person plays in the family. I've noticed this more explicitly as I've been in a relationship and have chores that mom isn't checking for completion.

Society: As we build up from the individual to the family and workplace, most of the people we come in contact with regularly have a shared value of gratitude. This allows for gratitude to be extended to strangers more easily. You're less likely to be short with a cashier or waitress because you know very well what it's like to be recognized in your home and work. These bridges being built will help us to look to our community with appreciation rather than disdain.

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Empathy is an undervalued skill since in a world of victimhood, we focus all too much on sympathy.  No one seems to want others to understand their trials and tribulations because then solutions could be evaluated, thus removing the reason for sympathy. Sympathy is a currency to be traded, instead of a social situation to be avoided. I think this is due to a distance we've created between individuals.

Spirituality: Empathy is good for the soul. It is an understanding of and connecting to other people in a genuine way. Both Hinduism and Christianity teach something close to "in God all is one." It takes different forms in both, but the idea that through God there will be no Gentile or Jew, woman or man, only one body of Christ. Empathy is the first step.

Religion: Through religion, empathy forms a community. Parishes, synagogues, and temples create faith communities that, so long as they aren't hostile to other faiths, create a sense of understanding for one another. If done properly, the religion extends this community to reach out to those outside of it as if they were a part of the community.

Economics: We see the power of empathy in the generosity of those free to give their money to create a better life for others. We also see it in new ways with technology allowing for crowdfunding to start businesses. When a society comes together and has empathy for "the other," it becomes far easier for economic systems to be put in place that play to the greater sense in empathy of the whole group because there is a critical mass of individuals looking for these market solutions.

Politics: Empathy allows us to stop treating people as "the other." Instead of falling into political tribes, we can respectfully disagree, live and let live, and know that other people aren't evil due to their point of view. When I see people telling Gerard Butler that they're happy his house burnt down due to his position on Israel.

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With the election day being today in Indiana, I wanted to discuss my decision. I will weigh the pros and cons of voting and how I would vote if a ballot were in front of me.

The lesser of two evils: I've done this. It doesn't feel good, and I'll never do it again. I won't believe the propaganda of "the most important election of our lives" every 4 years (now 2 thanks to Trump).

To vote is not violence: This is a discussion for the hardcore Libertarians. I don't think that voting is in fact enacting violence on another party. Because it is so engrained in the system, a vote either way doesn't move the needle on this.

To not vote is a vote: This is because it's a statement that says, "I do not approve of the candidates listed, up to the system as a whole. As such, I will vote with my time by putting it toward a more productive end."

Vote with actions: This is how I will vote. I will vote by working with We Do Better to help organizations access the funds they need to continue to do better at helping people. I will vote with my actions in my work to create economic liberty for myself so it doesn't matter who's in office. I will vote with my voice on my blog, podcast, and daily conversations to explain the tenants of liberty.

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With a week filled with obvious signs of escalation from rhetoric to real threats of violence and even ideologically driven violence, it seemed necessary to address this boiling over of the public discourse. This is why I've begun the Conversation of Our Generation.

Politics: The violent rhetoric must stop from the political leaders. While they may not have pure power over our actions, they can influence actions of people around the country- or simply be used as justification, even if no call to violence was made.

Relationships: Let's be kind to one another. Let's not be afraid to respectfully disagree, and possibly look for common ground. Why not try to let each other be and to believe what they want to so long as their will isn't enforced on anyone else?

Philosophy: We must search for truth, and learn to accept it when we find it. In our discourse, we must look to explain our thoughts logically and be able to interrogate others and answer for our principles with vigor, yet understand that violence is not the answer to losing an argument. I hope to see a country that debates above the level of ad hominem, seeking instead to rise to the discussions of one's base assumptions and follow the line of logic from there.

Too many people today have little regard for what the arts are. It seems to me that art is often more about being absurd or outlandish than portraying beauty. Rather than being a vehicle for expressing the truths that cannot be fully described without the arts, it denies reality and truth to serve ideologically driven purposes.

Spirituality: Art touches the human soul when done correctly. It moves us. It makes us understand and empathize with others. We can feel the emotion of the musician, understand why the actor does what he does, and see the vision of the painter. It places us on a different plane of understanding.

Arts: What really are the arts? I believe they are an attempt to grasp at a truth that cannot be expressed without a certain form. It is a fictional story that reveals an essential truth about humanity. It is a song that expresses one's emotions far greater than any words could ever try to do. It is a painting that captures a scene in such a way that it's more real than the sight the artist saw.

Culture: Politics is downstream of culture. But, culture is downstream of arts. The arts are what create the culture. Artists are the people who explore the unknown world and bring back bits of it to share and fit them within the framework we have to understand the world. The artists are often unaware of what they are exploring, rarely understanding it themselves. Regardless, this is what forms the culture.

Philosophy: The arts and culture can move the philosophical discussion drastically. We've seen this in many ways in American culture. The dissolution of Judeo-Christian values arrived the same time as the degradation of the arts. As the arts became unbounded and vulgar in the 60's, the culture followed. Then, the philosophical discussions did as well.

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Today, I will take a look into the way Liberty falls into an ethical landscape. We will discuss why it's important to have Liberty to be an ethical person and why a society founded on the ideals of Liberty require an ethical population.

Spirituality: We must be free to choose or we do not really choose. While people are often fine with being a safe slave than to live in danger with their liberty, it degrades the soul and the mind of the individual to live without liberty. Man was born to be free, but called to use their freedom for good.

Religion: To have any ethical standing requires choices. And, in today's secular society, the code of ethics one chooses is up to them, unlike it had been in the past. Therefore, it is necessary for people to decide which religion they will serve or they will end up serving the one that chooses them.

Economics: Running an economy requires free choice, which is the basis of market economics. But, it is so often that people don't realize how key this is to not only the functioning of the economy, but the health of those dots on the chart in real life. Economic decisions have huge impacts, and it's important to recognize that.

Law: The law must recognize the liberty of the individual. It must protect it from other individuals, but more importantly, from the state. The state is the greatest transgressor against liberty, and it will continue to do so. Therefore the law must enshrine negative rights and stand as a levy against the constant flooding of the tyrannical power of the state.

Learn how failure can be conquered from the micro level to the macro. Understand the process of taking failure as it is and incorporating it into your life.

Economic: These failures are often, if not always, a failure of trust on behalf of people. Instead of allowing the system to progress as it naturally would, people try to put an economy on their timetable- which causes market failure.

Athletics: This teaches us that not every failure is ultimate. A quarterback being sacked doesn't mean the team can't score a touchdown on that drive. A single missed shot in basketball doesn't cost the game. There's always a chance to make up for a mistake or small failure until the clock hits 0.

Personal: These are far harder to cope with because the onus is on one person. You have to take full responsibility- even if it's out of your control on these failure. It may be losing a job, failing in a business, or dropping out of school.

Spiritual: These are personal failings, but on a moral, spiritual, or ethical plane. It isn't like losing a competition, but failing to overcome one's addiction, pride, or other moral failings. These can be the hardest to cope with because they go straight to the moral fabric of our being, our soul.

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Today, I won't be talking about war necessarily, but the idea of battle and how that can manifest within oneself, in politics, in philosophies, and ultimately in war. My hope is to show how the war within oneself can lead to the last.

Spirituality: We all have friction between the person that we are and the one we have the potential to be. Also, there is a battle between our impulses and the desire to strive to something higher. It is in these conflicts that we discover what we can become out of the potential we are presented with.

Politics: Often, people believe the battle of politics follows philosophy. However, I think the philosophy is moulded by the politics. Politicians rarely do what's principled, but what's expedient. They react to the baser instincts and urges of the majority to maintain power.

Philosophy: This comes from one of two places. The good philosophies are the result of an honest search for truth. The bad are an attempt to justify one's own failure to conquer their demons, manipulate others, or a failure to decipher between their prejudices and truth.

War: This can happen in the traditional sense. More importantly, ideas, philosophy, and political factions can draw on for so long that it sucks the ability to function outside the war. It makes the only source of energy the ability to engage in the battle.

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If you would like to join me in the Conversation of Our Generation, follow me on Twitter @ConOfOurGen, Facebook Conversation of Our Generation Facebook Page and SteemIt @jamell

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