I'm Enough: How to Live Life Like a Popstar and Find Your True Self in the Process: Comprehending Judgment

I'm Enough: How to Live Life Like a Popstar and Find Your True Self in the Process: Comprehending Judgment: I thought I would take a moment to address the subject of appearance.  Most of us know the way we look is based on subjective interpretation... This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Criticism and Democracy

Here are some brief thoughts on why criticism is creative and integral to a Democracy.  Briefly stated, with the right (Categorically Imperative) intentions, constructive criticism IS just that -- constructive!  It's also creative, as I explain here.  I'm a novice in political and legal theory, but I've been struck by the muse, and so I offer my version on the matter, not to state anything definitive, but to create a starting point, a "Toward a Model," one that has been and will be strongly influenced by other thinkers and events.

This started out of a simple conversation which has been a version of many I've heard before. Here's the offending flavor of some people's argument: Simple fact, if you don't like something on TV, you wouldn't write to a TV channel and go~ "I don't like this" would you? So as you would do in real life,~ if you don't like it, change the channel~ go watch/do something else~  
OR:           "If you have a problem with America, then leave it!"

First, The Tea Party has exposed the self-ignorant statements of "love it or leave it," because now they have the experience of living in a country led by a two-term president they don't like, and sad to say, they haven't all left the country.  The least anti-government/anti-diversity folks could do is secede.  They can have South Carolina to themselves, or even Wyoming or South Dakota.  They can erect a giant fence around it, complete with guard towers and border patrols, then lets see whether most people will try to sneak in or out.  I love the idea of a Libertarian/Objectivist Utopia Dystopia.  Fountainead indeed!  I believe that would look more like :

It doesn't take much life experience to know this is ignorant of many events as well as obvious "fan campaigns." Such campaigns brought back cancelled shows such as the original Star Trek, Cagney and Lacey, Quantum Leap, and many more. I should even mention fans boycotting shows for various reasons such as unethical ads, even demonstrations outside the NBC Burbank studios for the killing of character Dr. Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives! And I still remember the campaign to bring back the "Father Dowling Mysteries" promoted at my home parish.  I believe I urged my mom to write a letter, which I signed.

If done with good intention, Constructive criticism doesn't just tear down, it can lift up, and EDUCATE. It's only when the EGO gets in the way that EITHER people's criticism gets hateful or personal or people take WELL-MEANING CRITICISM PERSONALLY or OUT OF CONTEXT. By the way, it's when people take the time to criticize and protest that DEMOCRACY happens. If we just changed the channel when we didn't like what we saw, we'd all have to start living in our own little bubbles of what we like. Consensus and democracy do cause friction, but that's how the world improves: through a conversation. If the conversation were smooth all the time with no dissent, our world would most likely be artless dictatorships... or worse - boring!

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Undiscovered?

One of my greatest concerns is that I might end up like a great rare tree that falls in a forest, unobserved and unrecorded.   During my life I will greatly delight most in my environment while the insecure and unexamined will be riled by my presence.  But when that day comes will my fall create a great clearing to inspire a rush of growth, or will I rot in place as food for woodpeckers, dying with my potential intact?

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Self Awareness, Emotional Development, and The Ignorance of Shame

::Talk Back :: Back Talk::

I am looking for evidence of people whose moral maturity is delayed or stuck in the teenage years, and yet they aren't defensive or ignorant about the fact.  Is it possible for someone to be stuck, and yet still be working or open toward development?  For instance, I often find that regardless of how caring I may be toward someone who is stuck and may need counseling or some sort of development in a specific area of life, they are usually willfully ignorant, stuck in denial, or just extremely defensive about the issue.  I don't consider myself someone who is making these judgment calls in the spirit of self-aggrandizement, or ego protection.  In reality, nine times out of ten, the individual contacts me months or years later and apologizes for their behavior and agrees with my assessment.
Additionally, I posit that cultures with substantial components of machismo tend to have more people (yes, including women, like Snookie) unwilling to acknowledge their developmental state, most likely as a function of what Brené Brown discusses in her work on vulnerability and courage.  The macho tends to view emotional vulnerability as a weakness, rather than employing such openness as a perceptive and creative advantage.

While on the topic of machismo and Dr. Brown's research:
I  wonder why so many transformational methods such as The Secret or Landmark seem to pole vault over the issue of shame.  It seems to be a case of the proverbial icing over the cow pie.  It is so difficult to positively alter your life's trajectory when the deep feeling of shame is not handled, and so many people are stopped by it -- and I believe most aren't even aware that they have shame.  I wasn't until I had a set of epiphanies.  I have come to read and observe, as does Brené Brown, that many cultures pervasively ingrain shame as a part of child rearing.  As a result, many adults are stuck at the often unconscious level of self distrust or disgust that they learned as children.  This perpetuates the cycle of shaming and hiding shame in adult relationships -- in the form of codependency or emotionally manipulative or degrading parenting.

I'd love to hear your observations!




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I Pique You! Neat Stuff from the Last 4 Months.

AND NOW IN REVERSE!  2012 :

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"Házunk előtt kedves édesanyám"

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More Hungarian Fun

How my great grandparents got down when they were back in the homeland.   Magyar Állami Népi Együttes, néptánc páros
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