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The Right to Vote

// June 9th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Philosophy

One of the biggest problems with democracy the way its run today is who gets to vote?

I think that having a say on any matter should be something to earn. How can anybody vote without first understanding what is it that is debated. Shouldn’t at least the voter prove that he has at least a level of understanding that would allow him to?

I am not saying only doctors should vote on health care for example, i am saying that whoever wishes to have a say in the matter should prove that he knows enough of the current policies, the options around, the different opinions with their reasoning and then be allowed to vote.

Can you imagine a courthouse where each jury member is allowed to come as it may, ask for brief summaries about the court case at random from somebody in the courtroom and then give his vote based on that? How is this different from the way politics are run today?

Sadly well informed citizens have equal influence to the clueless and politicians ride on that.

Plato said:

Philosophers [must] become kings…or those now called kings [must]…genuinely and adequately philosophize

But it takes a philosopher to vote for a philosopher king so this is my quote:

philosophers [must] become VOTERS…or those now called VOTERS [must]…genuinely and adequately philosophize

Sadok Kohen
In truth, without deceit, certain and most veritable

Was Copernicus wrong?

// June 4th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Philosophy

Accordingly, since nothing prevents the earth from moving, I suggest that we should now consider also whether several motions suit it, so that it can be regarded as one of the planets. For, it is not the center of all the revolutions.

Copernicus words staggered the world, which was skeptical and even angry to the possibility that the God made Earth and His beloved creatures  were not at the center of the Universe.

It is a crucial point in human history and a chain of events that lead to Galileo’s “Scientific Method”. From that point onward people had to choose between faith and science as there wasn’t really middle grounds, either you were a man of science at heart or a man of faith.

Fortunately enough humankind intrinsically cannot be controlled for too long. This comes from the First Apple, the gift of Choice which is always and will be always there.

Copernicus was proclaimed genius and the Earth was removed from the center of the Universe.

Sadly enough humankind is also intrinsically stupid by having taken that bite in the first place… Very few understood what could be middle grounds:

Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind. – Einstein

Unconsciously people were relieved of a great burden, they were not at the center of the universe anymore, and what an unconscious responsibility that was…

But what did this imply ?

In our daily lives we tend to “decenter” ourselves, in other words we put our centers onto other things. The center of our love life might be our spouses or our children, the center of our financial expectations could become our job or a business deal, the center of our happiness may lay in abstract expectations as money or a future success…

So what happens if our centers get away from us, or they disappear. What happens if we continue to live our lives chasing, expecting, waiting or longing for our centers to come close?…

What we need to understand is that WE INFACT ARE THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE! Each one of us IS the center of their own universe. The Universe is our own personal Truman Show, everything in our universe is there for us and us only. What we fail to understand is that the moment we bring our center back to where it belongs, the awareness of being at the center of everything else that is happening around us will give you all the certainty, the love, the happiness and the focus that you never experienced before.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. – Lao Tzu

Everything that happens in YOUR life happens for YOU to experience something. Acknowledge this fact, cherish it, own it…

But not only: Don’t let yourself be the center of somebody else’s universe! Those chains are as harmful to you as they are to whoever is decentered. Help them bring their center back and enjoy the radiating energy that you will be able to experience.

Try to visualize it, walk around and open up to the fact that everything around you, everything that is happening to your life exists because of you. All your feelings, all your emotions, all your worries, all your friends, all the books, the movies the people that you don’t yet know. They are all there for you to experience, by choice…

Maybe Copernicus was correct from a mathematical perspective. Mathematics by definition is a set of rules, a language to understand certain events and try to predict them. What the world failed to understand is that Life is ALIVE and cannot be bound by formulas.

So choose and choose without fear for mistakes are only there for you to grow, and all emotions happy or sad are there for you to know yourself, for there is only you and no one else…

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.  -E.E. Cummings

Sadok Kohen