Change Perception, Change Reality, Change the Future

A program in Brazil could be changing their future for the better.  The gist of it is that they give out small payments to families who meet certain goals; children in school, make it to doctor's visits, etc.  This idea is simple and amazing.

Stick with me on this, as most of you know how completely against charity and the like I am.

This isn't just throwing money at the poor, giving people cash does nothing but make them weak and dependent.  That does no good for anyone.  What they are doing is putting a hard value on improving your children's lives.  When these poor people see that there is another way and that way has value, they are willing to give it a shot.  A year later, when their children aren't dying of preventable diseases, have put on healthy weight and are performing well in school, they understand that these seemingly small things, a lot that we take for granted, can completely change your world.

Their kids aren't having to leave school to find work to help support the family.  They are learning more and going on to universities and learning skills that can get them higher paying work so that the whole family doesn't have to scrape by.

Similar programs are working all over the world.

Here in the good ol' U S of A, we've lost sight of the basics amidst the flash and ease of technology.  Why learn how to properly spell words if spell check will snag it and fix it for you?  Who needs math if there are calculators that can take care of it?  I'm not going to take this the direction of vilifying technology, because I dig it and I think it's an example of how we really can evolve and become better.

At my core, I suppose I could be categorized as a trans-humanist.  Technological advances are one way we can transcend our current weaknesses and become more.  They are not the only way.  And we cannot forget the basic tools that our learning and advances are built on.  They are too important.

Idiocracy was an interesting look at the future.  It wasn't the best but I'm looking at ideas here, not reviewing movies.  It is basically about what the world will look like if the intelligent people continue to have few children and the stupid people continue to breed unchecked.

I don't know that it is the intelligence level of the 'trailer park folk' that the movie uses as an example so much as the pattern of life children in a poor environment develop.  Their parents feel inadequate, which they likely are, and rant drunkenly about how all of these people with better jobs, educations, etc. are what is wrong with the world.  "They don't do any real work, they just sit back on their educations and let other, real, honest people do the work."  Not always true and not something you should be pushing into your children's minds.   I understand that manual labor and unskilled jobs are important to the continuation of our society at this point, but the people with the ability and will to do more are not lazy or dishonest, they are simply intelligent and able.  They may also be dishonest and lazy, but it doesn't hold true for every one of them.

Society seems to vilify ability, I've seen it everywhere.  You have those bitter people who don't make the top of the pecking order because someone else is better at something and they throw around petty excuses and accusations; well, she's just sleeping with so-and-so, he plays golf with the boss and so he got the promotion, his dad was a big mucky-muck somewhere so he got this benefit.  The problem here is that these people standing around in their little groups complaining about other people are wasting that time when they could be improving themselves.  I'm as guilty of this as anyone, I'm sure.

The above examples could all be true, she could be sleeping with so-and-so and I'm sure he's playing golf with the boss.  The fact is, those people are using the skills they have to get ahead.  I may not agree with method, but I can't fault them for it.  That is how things work in the society we've built.  When everything is a competition you have to use every advantage you have to get where you need to go.  There are no rules, only results.  You want that job?  Do everything in your power to get it.  Don't have any power?  Get some.  It isn't hard.  Build relationships, learn new skills, whatever it takes.  Knowledge is power.  So are social connections.  Did someone get that job because they know more than you? Because they are friends with people who have influence?  Does it matter?  The result is the same, they got the job using the talents they have to work with.

I'm not sure how this spun so far out of control, poor planning on my part and the early hour, perhaps.

To move this all back into the original perspective somewhat, making the future better isn't as difficult as you might think.  The payments the Brazilian government hands out aren't huge sums of money, but it is enough to raise people up and its real strength is the value it puts on making the little changes that make everything else fall into place.

Change the way someone looks at the world and you have changed reality for that person.  Change reality for enough people and it becomes the agreed upon world.  Change the world, change the future.

Further interesting reading: Prometheus Rising and Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World both by Robert Anton Wilson and both life changing.

Happy Wednesday,

~H