Three un-Connected Thoughts

Some thoughts cross the mind during the daily commute, and it seems that fellow passengers do get a bit uneasy by my blank stares, often at someone’s shoe, or at the door, or even at the ceiling. ?I have a hunch that these disjointed thought are somehow connected, but I just can’t figure out how:

1. Language and Culture: Research in the social sciences and resulting policies are usually not of much use unless the language that is the medium of the research, policy, or report, is the language of that culture. ?This is probably why scientific research into social issues, and the Western-language policies derived therefrom, do not usually carry much heft with non-Western implementors and implementees of said policies.

2. There should be some causation between economic and moral stress, and reinforcing each other, they can spiral out of control. ?Usually, as the economic stress on an individual increases, his moral choices become more problematic. ?The cumulative effect of moral stress results in a proportional decrease in the optimal efficiency of the economy, resulting in even more economic stress. ?So, how does the cycle go the right way: when kings guarantee justice and economic security, while teachers (priests, shamans) preach economic morality — a morality of managing and sharing resources that enables the king’s just laws to take hold in society. ?(I refer to kings, teachers and merchants quite often as the shapers of societies and nations). ?With the current ongoing economic crisis, which governments are encouraging the virtuous (!) cycle of economic security and economic morality? ?They will definitely come out better.

3. Periodic dilution of economic values and ethics: If the observable trend is a swift boost, and then a long slow decline: the swift boost is usually by an individual or a non-establishment movement or revolution – while the long slow decline is carried out by the establishment and the merchants. ?It is like slow leak in a water tank: values and ethics are the potential energy of a society, that causes things to flow and risks to be taken. ?When the pressure is bled off and trust decreases, flows of human creativity also decrease. ?Corollary: an established political party can never bring about positive change, unless the party is used as a vehicle by a revolutionary person or group. ?Hmmm . . . not even likely . . . not only are political parties entrenched institutions, they are also more opaque and un-democratic than and elected government. ?So, no change.