Future thrills

There is almost always a reality to be found in the activities humans engage in – there is a truth. Information leading us to see the truth must be available so that true processes can run their course. Of course we do not always  agree as to what true processes are: maybe so that democracy can function, balanced action is possible.

When we know the truth we can get nearer to what is right, and elected politicians should abide by the truth.

Information control, propaganda, twists, spin have made the truth hard to find. The people with the agendas played out locally and on the world scene now try to control what information you will have access to. Human activity or what goes on – including war –  is not always reported as a true story, there is a fight for our minds – what you can be led to think is going on.

This is the reality of modern information processes. But it is not good enough to leave the truth to be found out by historians in about two hundred years time.

The media are playing along as they let themselves be controlled for reasons unknown – maybe it is a lack of access and resources, they just repeat what they are told. The truth is now hidden – may it always has been – trust in public information is gone.

Wikileaks has popped a little bomb about Afghanistan – some of the realities have been bared. The informants will now be killed, they say.

If it all is about information control we go astray. The power game has gone too far – reality must be reinstated. Wikileaks is there, the rest of the media have doubtful presence, but remember that Watergate exposed a bad president. We need exposure, even power games must tolerate that, the world must be transparent.

This is obviously naive, but truth will out, and hiding the truth can be dangerous. It will be a shame if we did not do right because we did not know.

We use markets for almost everything – put it on the market and supply and demand will take care of everything – you are supposed to get everything you need in the markets.

But this system is not good enough. Many people are left uneducated, in bad health, with substandard housing, in a general state of suppression and poverty.

The market system works well in many cases, but the deficiencies are severe. The industrial and technological developments have made production of food, industrial products possible in abundance. Often farmers and factories have to reduce production to avoid surpluses. At the same time time many people have less than they need.

Some markets may even hurt you, so that you can lose everything or find it impossible to participate. Markets presume efficiency to work well, equality and balance among participants, satisfactorily elastic and predictable supply. This is not always the case.

So a lot of human activity must be kept out of markets to function well. Basics like education, health, roads, water and others too should be shared and made available to all by the community.

Shared resources should therefore be considered part of a common pool and administered as such by users, partners, interested parties – often outside of politics. Many resources could be part of such schemes: metals, fisheries, oil, forests, water. For some resources this could be done on a global basis. The system we have for utilizing the worlds resources is – and have been for centuries – based on powerplay and political scheming, and will one day hit the wall.

So changes must come. Markets must be sorted out, common pool resource thinking must be introduced,  both locally and in some cases globally. We must sort out our thoughts about markets: what can be left to the markets, what is to be provided for all, what are common resources to be administered in a pool for all, what sales should be taken care of by special systems – e.g. distribution of human organs. We should consider that when a product becomes a commodity it is seen as a common pool resource and is to be had by all and financed through taxes and levies.

This change also ties in with politics and the economic system which do not benefit all.

A new, refined and modern thinking related to production – ever cheaper and more efficient – and distribution of goods and services tied in with a new monetary system is hereby placed on the wish list.

Art should not be left to your senses only: you see and you feel an emotional response, you feel well or maybe unwell. The object of your vision is nice or ugly or provocative or… and you react to it. Should you put words to it, intellectualize it? Should you try to conceptualize it, set it into context and make it somehow useful. Your mind is stimulated, you are led into creative processes.

Is the experience of art an individual experience for you alone or can the experience be had in a group of several people or even in a large crowd?

Art can maybe be turned into a useful tool for the development of persons or society, to enhance our lives or improve the way we live. So artists should be challenged to to explain what they are up to, what they intend the outcome of their art to be.

Illusionists use the concepts of the staging, the performance and the effect. May be artists should consider their art as the creation of an illusion and follow it through to as to what effect it is intended to have on individuals, groups or society. On a long term basis we therefore we can see art as a cultural activity in the process of shaping our society – no less! In this way we raise the ambition and improve the effect of art through intellectual/creative activity.

The question of how to commercialize art is also an important one: should individuals, companies, institutions pay up or should art be common pool resource to be shared and paid for by the community.

Art is seldom considered important enough to be elevated to societal importance. Artists should therefore elevate their ambition, strive for effect through staging, performance, economic grounding and ultimately influence and effect on society.

So what can art do for us: show us beauty, form, color, relationships, context, themes, composition … but ultimately and more important be critical of shortfalls, wrongdoings or harmful action in society. It can point the way towards a better, more inclusive and fair  society.

Art can thus be seen part of a total cultural and economic system as a force for development. Artists must enlarge their role – they must be teachers, critics, conceptualizers, political persons, designers and strive for effect.

So artists – let us hear from you – let us begin to see the effect of your work.

Back to basics: The normal or most common infrastructure of companies should be many small, diverse companies run actively, innovatively, with new ideas, technology, methods in an entrepreneurial spirit.

Everything rises, fades and goes away – again and again. This cycle must be followed by businesses, and there is nothing wrong with that. People must understand it too – the job or career you have will involve changes, maybe big changes – may be many job changes. You have to be active, dynamic, on the lookout, follow the times. You should also think of the possibillity of starting your own company.

If there were only big companies you become vulnerable. They also rise, fade and go away. When the big company closes the workers are sent off, and a whole area has problems.

Social systems can smooth out the effects for a while, but the essence is that renewal in an entrepreneurial way is the only way out. Public job creation is a costly and financially untenable solution. The government can ease the pain, but not solve the real problem.

So beware of big companies creating many jobs – you may get hurt.

So what is conducive of entrepreneurship? The right mindset, small-scale finance, acceptance of upstarts and new ideas – a set of factors that must be there and well maintained. And making the right politics: Pave the way for innovation  and change by reducing bureaucracy, build tax breaks, establish good teaching, and leave people alone to run their businesses – and governments should not compete with their own people.

The big players are building relations crisscrossing the world – there is a big powerplay that is kept running. The most active player is the US with its tradition of defending itself on other people’s soil – never on its own – this is an amazing achievement. But China, Brazil, India are increasing their efforts to promote politics, resource use, markets, likability for future use.

Sometimes it is necessary to make war, said Peace Prize winner Obama. This thinking is now making fiscal trouble for the US, and the consequences will gradually be seen.

Balancing the world nations against each other in power play is not a good principle of world development, and very costly too.

We need new ways, and it is hard to say what they should be. Cooperation, consultation, consensus are key words. Balancing the influences of nations is another concept leading to a strengthening of a world coordinator – a healing institution.

An equalization process continues in the world: The economies of countries with many people are progressing steadily and their economies will soon be the biggest too. The consequence is that the West, especially the US, will not dominate any more.

But these countries, especially the US, own development processes that are innovative and efficient and with aggressive business tactics. Brain power counts too.

So what can we expect: A continuation of power play or will we see something better? Globalization by tactics, domination, suppression or globalization in a new new sense of togetherness?

New cameras are entering the market all the time, and the rate of technological development is awesome.

The electronics in cameras are becoming computers – they assist you in composing pictures, recognise faces and other objects, help you with aperture and speed, measure light, suggest improvements, store and track your pictures. Memory cards are growing in size unbounded, video requirements being what they are.

Touch screens are being introduced, and the number of buttons and handles are reduced, resulting in improved ease of handling.

Video functions have been introduced for many DSLRs, and are improving all the time. Now camcorders and DSLRs are converging too – imagine doing video with the lense and sensor quality of a DSLR. Mounts are being stanadardized so that lenses can be interchanged and move between types of equipment.

So keep up the good work – this is well done.

And mobile phones are improving vastly as cameras and video-recorders, cameras now have bluetooth, wireless communication: convergence is coming.

There has always been acts of violence in the world, small scale, isolated incidents aimed at certain problems and disagreements. Now we have world terrorism, organized on a large scale, aimed at the West – this is how it is presented.

The real content of terrorism against western countries – the West – is hard to see. We hear a lot and see preciously little – so far. The rest of the world – the major part – is watching.

The cold war has been replaced by the the war on terrorism. The reasons given for terrorism are sometimes religious, or global, national or local, or based on broad security issues. It is instigated by the US. Everything is collected under the terrorism umbrella – wars in Irak, Afghanistan, 9-11, London bombing etc. There are groups of people keeping this activity going – no states. Somebody is financing the activity, but information is scant. It is not precise at all – it is a chimera – and we hear a lot about it.

If the claims of terrorism are true we should be eager to find the causes, and if possible remedies. We need a solution – we must try to end it. This can be done through dialogue, talks, contact. Nations must be involved, no country protects terrorists. But this is obviously naive.

We are now wasting life, resources and time on futile activity – a huge question is arising: what is going on?

Terrorism is also a construction – it is not to be solved – it is wanted by the instigators – it gives focus – it keeps attention away from other matters – it is good for other things too – it can be kept up forever.

So what is the solution to the terrorist problem? Let the big nations of the Earth join the game properly, infuse security policy with some new ideas – let China, India, Brazil et al. balance the game – the results will be remarkable. We need the new era to start now.

It is sad that lives are lost for obscure reasons.

People are local, what they do is local, the consequences of the action is mostly local. People mostly like to decide for themselves.

Now global thinking is becoming pervasive in the wrong way: Locals are being told what to do by outsiders – they tell you because they know, they say. The outsiders come from many places, but they are not in your place or representing you. They seldom tell you about the rightness of what they say, often the truth is hidden or in doubt. Politicians are also becoming global, finding global rightness that does not fit with the locals. There is risk of a divide.

This will not work. The only way to achieve a common global solution is to make people understand, see what is right and do what is acceptable also locally. Maybe the global solution is impossible to enforce in some localities?

What makes it troublesome is that what is right is no longer agreed upon. There is a obvious forcing of the truth that creates negative reactions and uncertainty. We find people that without debate know what others must do. They will not engage in dialogue about the content and empiricality of what they say.

Climate action, sustainability, war on terrorism, finance are examples – they all must clear the hurdle of local acceptance before global solutions can be pondered.

So why push so hard – it is better to find what is right, enlighten people, keep it transparent, communicate, build acceptance – then maybe some global action is possible.

Have there ever been any global solutions? Will there ever be? Is it really desirable to have global solutions? Or is it just a smokescreen set up to avoid doing anything locally?

The world championships of soccer in South Africa are over. Everything went well.

This is a symbol for the future: we can see emerging strength and self-confidence, working towards a balance with the other continents.

17 African countries have been independent for over 50 years. That is a very short span for a nation. We can see human rights advancing, political systems improving, basics like education, clean water and electricity coming more broadly.

So let us support African self-development away from aid to fully African controlled societies.

Well done Africa.