That Got Me Thinking

Economist Clair Brown, Ph.D.,  thinks the answer is plenty. In her new book, Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science, Professor Brown discusses her holistic approach to organizing the economy and accurately measuring its success. She embraces and solves for questions of values, sustainability and equity while advocating the replacement of pure materialism with more positive collective aspirations.

The free market system is well established, it’s efficient and it’s simple to learn. But there are terminal problems with it as a system and as an accurate indicator of the health of the nation. Not only are the required elements rarely in play but it ignores global environmental consequences and economic inequalities.

The markets alone can’t regulate the amount of pollution, poor agricultural processes, and water waste and damage. We need governmental regulations. People are interdependent globally and with nature. Yet our current economic system doesn’t take that into account. What we truly care about is how people are doing, not primarily their income, yet that’s not what’s currently measured. We’ve got the wrong measuring stick.

What we choose to assign value to makes a difference as to whether it’s “valuable” to our GDP and how our country is doing. Current GDP has no environmental degradation included and no consideration of the distribution of income – disparities are not illustrated. The current pie only represents what we buy, so more dollars spent equals more value, not happiness, not sustainability and not free time or enjoyment.

We’ve already got the answers. Carbon taxes diminish pollution and progressive taxation has been proven to be effective and not to diminish performance – it only affects the distribution of the pie, not how big it is. Yet we persist in ignoring the facts. In 2014, forty countries paid out a total of 160 billion dollars in fossil fuel subsidies, motivating companies to get as much fossil fuel out of the ground as possible. We are inadvertently our own worst enemy.

Other countries are doing better. It’s possible. With intention, focus and our eyes wide open, we can establish government policies that reflect interdependent values between one another and nature. We can foster a sustainable biosphere and equality. We can support developing countries to leapfrog to clean technology. We can create social norms that get people to live differently by changing what we value and what we measure. Because what we measure is how we determine our focus.

We must choose how much pollution and inequality we are willing to accept. Governments can structure markets to get basics for everyone and take care of the environment. The technology exists, we only need to commit.

buddhisteconomics.net

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Acclaimed author, Candis Terry gives us a glimpse into the world of the Romance Novel. What it’s like to write one and what it means to live in one. Terry is the author of sassy contemporary romances. She is passionate about writing and writing about relationships. She’s most intrigued by the push and pull of the search for love, the impassioned desire for happily ever after and she’s delighted by the security one finds in discovering their own happily ever after.

Born in Southern California, growing up cruising the busy boulevards, Terry now finds herself cruising the fields of her farm, but says the livestock don’t much care. Farm life was an unexpected move she made to give her daughter a broader perspective – an obviously successful move, as her daughter is now a 3 time rodeo queen – So check that off the bucket list.

Terry’s own childhood was challenging; learning to manage a difficult family life wasn’t easy and books became her escape.  In adolescence, writing became her refuge and support. Later, as a new mother facing an endless stream of sleepless nights, on a suggestion from a friend, she dove into a stack of romance novels.  And she was hooked. One fateful night while rocking her sleepless daughter as dawn was quick approaching, she decided to write one of her own.

With unbelievable  determination, Terry persisted for 22 years to reach her goal to become a published author – to get that phone call that said, “I want to buy your book.” On the verge of giving up, she had decided to give it one last try, she’d write one more book, the book she’d always wanted to write, the one for her. She let go and let her characters take over, even sometimes literally surprising her by the turns they took. And lo and behold she wrote and sold the book of her heart…And now her books are in ours.

www.candisterry.com

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Barry Glassner, author of The Culture of Fear, Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things: Crime, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, and So Much More, tells us that three out of four Americans report feeling more afraid than they did two decades ago.

Glassner answers the question: Are we being attacked, and by whom? Fear is useful when it is based on something rational and motivates an appropriate reaction. “Fear is valuable when you are actually in danger and you need to respond quickly.” But how is it that there are so many fears, and that so many of them are unfounded, creating panic and irrational reactions? These false fears put us in a constant state of anxiety and actually more danger.

Where is this fear mongering coming from and who benefits? What power and money is gained from tapping into Americans’ fears? Fear mongering by politicians, news outlets, corporations and advocacy groups for every kind of issue – raising money and selling memberships – benefit the organizations promoting these fears and scares.

Are we being attacked and by whom? Misinformation, intentional and accidental, without corrections of errors of reporting. Casting isolated incidents as trends and manipulating statistics, we lose all sense of proportion. Glassner explores the proliferation of these false fears – Who benefits, Who loses? Who are the villains, the heroes and who are the victims? What are the causes and how can we respond?

Americans are afraid of the wrong things and that has big and far reaching consequences. Glassner explains what they are and why it matters so very much – emotionally, economically and in regard to equality and justice. The consequences to society of these false fears are real. Just ask yourself why so many of today’s schools look and feel like high security prisons. The real issues are complicated, messy and much harder to sell to the public; but to make a difference, that’s just where we need to focus.

http://barryglassner.com/the_culture_of_fear.html

The post “Be Afraid. Be Very, Very, Afraid.” Or Not: The Futility of Unfounded Fears appeared first on That Got Me Thinking.

How do you remember where you parked your car and will your brain shrink if you can’t remember?

Neuroscientist Elizabeth Kirby heads the Kirby Lab at the Ohio State University – Department of Psychology. Drawn by the power of science to discover the truths of the world through experimentation and replication. Kirby has set her sights on the workings of the Hippocampus. Studying its cells, circuitry and relatively new found power of neurogenesis. Research has shown that too much of the wrong kind of stress can cause the branching in the amygdala to grow and the hippocampus to actually shrink.

Researching the power of stress and its affects on the cell and the entire brain, from cell division to neuron development and the life of those neurons, Kirby has demonstrated the effects of stressors – brief or constant – positive or negative – affect cell functioning at every stage. Relative stressors can make functioning a little better or cause the cells to literally die off. Kirby has found that certain types and amounts of stress can be a good thing. However, chronic stress and depression have a detrimental influence, impacting our overall health, emotions and brain in a negative manner.

Memory is also impacted. Memories are dependent on the hippocampus for establishing the workings of place, procedural and autobiographical narratives through relative created circuitry. Retrievable memories ensure our growth and survival.  We need to remember a dangerous intersection we pass each day, but maybe not so much what we had for breakfast yesterday. The cells and neurons in our brain are responsible for how we remember where we parked our car and our personal history and narrative.

With its potential for neuron growth, and responsibility for critically functioning memory (my new favorite part of the brain) the hippocampus is a likely candidate to study to unveil the mysteries of unraveling the potential for healing and regeneration of the brain.

http://faculty.psy.ohio-state.edu/kirby/lab/

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Yale researcher Paul Bloom, author of How Pleasure Works and Just Babies, disagrees with policy makers, activists, scientists and philosophers who think the only problem with empathy is that we need more of it. Bloom convincingly argues that the natural impulse to share the feelings of others can do more harm than good, leading to inequality and immorality. In his most recent book, Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, Bloom exposes and explores the biases of empathy. He questions the assumed positive relationship between empathy and morality, and demonstrates the two often point in different directions.

When deliberating over decisions, it’s actually preferable to examine our gut feelings critically before we act. How we feel about something may lead to a very different conclusion than the intellectual, rational analysis of factual data.

Bloom believes the world is getting better, it just may not be emotional empathy that is getting us there. He says, “We are becoming smarter when it comes to morality.” He thinks, we aren’t angels, we aren’t perfect, but typically we are good at using our minds at decision making, caring about the facts and consequences and the best way to achieve certain goals.

Bloom asks, “What is the best approach to help people and alleviate suffering?” And then with rational thinking as his guide, he goes about finding the answer. It turns out, indulging one’s empathy might give one a great deal of personal satisfaction, but empathy alone often leads us astray. However, a union of a burst of empathetic compassion to motivate us, giving way to the rigor of the rational mind, leads us to the most successful and moral decisions possible.

The post How to Make the World a Better Place appeared first on That Got Me Thinking.

Change Agent, Patti Dobrowolski, teaches us how to create and work the “Snap Shot of the Big Picture” utilizing the brain to get what we want by learning how to draw and visualize our way to our desired future. Figure out what works and what doesn’t and create the life you want to live. Hacking ourselves to clear away the roadblocks, test new paths and steer ourselves to what works, making us be better performers in the world to be able to be our best at all times.

Learn to conquer your fear and the lack of self confidence that stands in your way of getting what you want. Learn to take bold steps, align how you feel with your vision of the future, achieving desired outcomes.

The brain learns from reflecting on experience. Consciousness is the expansion of self. Success depends on our ability to frame history and head towards the future. Wake up and pay attention to your life, reflect. Become self aware of what you are experiencing and the impact it has. Utilize your imagination, your intuition and train your brain to create the success you desire. And most of all, have some fun!

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Growing up in the orphaned space of the Philadelphia Projects, author and Philosophy Professor, George Yancy, embarked on an unlikely trajectory. From an early age, he had begun asking some very big questions: questioning the cosmic unfairness of death, the meaning of life and the possibility of being damned for eternity. While reading the “P” section of the encyclopedia, he serendipitously stumbled upon the term philosopher, and a career in philosophy was born.

Courageously, Yancy ventured to publicly address racism in America with his open letter in the New York Times, “Dear White America.”  The response was overwhelming. He says, “The alarming reality is that the response to “Dear White America” revealed just how much racism continues to exist in our so-called post-racial America.”

In a society that hides beneath the seductions of normalization, critique is undesirable and deemed dangerous.

Here, Professor Yancy discusses his quest to discover the meaning of life and death, proof of God’s existence, the truths of religion and removing the masks of prejudice. He dives deep into the darkness of the soul and invites the rest of us to aspire to be better human beings. He looks piercingly into the abyss of human suffering with stamina and vulnerability to create a more beloved community, free of racism.

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Scientist, Philip Taylor believes the Black Soldier Fly may be the answer to the missing link in the food chain that is currently destroying the world’s oceans. Taylor tells us, “Every pound of farmed fish we eat requires five to 10 pounds on average of small, wild fish—such as herring, anchovies, and sardines—to raise it” It’s natural for animal feed to include insects, but as a result of an old canning law, it’s been disallowed.

With inventor, environmentalist and part crusader, Philip Taylor, a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University, and a research associate in rainforest ecology at the University of Colorado Boulder, we discuss sustainability, ethics, boundaries, and the potential, unintended consequences of scientific advances. We explore the dangers of doing something primarily because science can, rather than responsibly researching whether it’s truly a good idea.

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Larry Brilliant, M.D., M.P.H., a pioneering physician, hippie, tech innovator, philanthropist and key player in the eradication of one of the worst pandemics in human history, talks about “Bending the arc of history toward justice.” He believes there is a chance for all of us to get involved, a place for everyone and something each of us can do to make the world a better place. He is convinced the world isn’t a terrible place. Not only is there the potential for it to be a utopia, there is a possible role for each and every one of us to play in making it so.

If you have ever pondered life’s biggest questions: What is the greatest good you can do with your life? Why are we here? What is our life for? How can we do any good? Dr. Larry Brilliant has some optimistic answers. He has seen first hand what people can accomplish when they come together (even in the midst of a cold war.) By finding the people who inspire us, gathering around them, building communities, we can feel part of something bigger than ourselves and build a stronger union of liberty and justice for all.

Website: www.sometimesbrilliant

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Award winning health and science journalist Claudia Kalb has inventively and successfully refocused our attention on 12 famous lives, and 12 turbulent minds. Was Andy Warhol a hoarder? Did Einstein have autism? Was Frank Lloyd Wright a narcissist?.

In her recent book, “Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities.”Claudia provides a glimpse into the lives of these celebrated historic icons through the lens of modern psychology.

With a light hearted tone, she tackles the big questions around our perception of those we think we know – distinguishing between the private self and the public image. Her in depth research highlights the power of diagnosis and the desire for normalcy, acceptance and accomplishment.

Website: claudiakalb.com

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