Juliet Bennett's Blog

POTENTIALISM

“We got greedy in the 1980s, grungy in the ’90s and geeky in the noughties. This decade, we’re eager to explore our potential.” [1]

On my flight home from Melbourne I read an article that excited me. It was called “Meet the Potentialists”. A movement I suppose we could label “Potentialism” is very much in line with what the approach to life I labeled “Creativism” – a life based on discovering and fulfilling one’s creative potential. I think potentialist and potentialism is probably better terminology than creativist and creativism – it’s broader and less close to “creationism”, bit less confusing. What do you think?

(To see entry “Creativism: a Philosophy of Life”, click here)

According to social researcher Mark McCrindle, “The ’90s were about buying bigger, better and more, and then it all ended with a crash… as a result, one in five Australians have decided to use the downturn as a catalyst to reorient their lives.” ONE IN FIVE! That’s a pretty good start!!! “Working from home is one of the key drivers of what we call the ‘hobby-preneurs,” said Mark McCrindle. “Turning a hobby into a business is a way of having it all – of fulfilling your potential and turning something you really enjoy doing into an income earner.” Potentialists are men and women, of all ages and incomes (although I must note Sydney ranked fourth after Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane – come on guys, pick up your act!) still that’s pretty incredible! [2]

Australia isn’t alone in this trend. A quick google searched identified Canadians as movers and shakers too. A survey showed that more than a third of Canadians (38%) actively have a Potential List, and nearly everyone in this group (94%) predicts they will accomplish all or some of the goals they have set out for themselves.’ (A “Potential List” is like a dream board.) “Topping the items included in Canadians’ Potential Lists are travel (77%), philanthropy (41%), learn a new language (32%) and living in a different country (32%) – all activities that align with priorities previously identified by Potentialists to actively live an enriching life.” [3]

I couldn’t find a definition so I thought I’d make up my own:

A “potentialist” is an alchemist of potential – someone who strives to achieve their mental, physical and spiritual potential.

And I’m going start a little Potentialism Blog Series based on some writings I did a couple of years ago when I started the search of my own potential (a search which is obviously still under way). I don’t know, but maybe it will help all you potentialists or potential-potentialists out there as you look for ways to realize your own potential.

Picture:

My mum and my friend looking at my artworks that I am both inside and (sort-of) behind the lens of (I framed the shot but obviously I couldn’t hit the button) that are on display in the Manning Building at Sydney Uni. I still get quite a buzz out of the fact that at school I was the non-creative pimple-faced mathematical/business-minded nerd and now I am on the path to discovering my true potential.

References:

[1] Virgin Blue (April 2010) pp. 34-38.

[2] Deborah Robinson, Australians leading the way in a return to Global Financial Optimism (November 2009) URL: http://www.australianwomenonline.com/australians-leading-the-way-in-a-return-to-global-financial-optimism/

[3] ‘Potentialist’ Group On The Rise As Canadian Optimism Improves’ URL:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2010/02/c5872.html

Based on online survey by Angus Reid Public Opinion on behalf of American Express January 21-25 2010.

Peace, Random Life Stuff Creativism, Potentialism

Buddha’s charter of free inquiry

23 Apr ’10Written by Juliet Bennett

1 Comment

The Kalama Sutta, the “Charter of Free Inquiry” from Buddhism:

Do not accept anything on mere hearsay (ie oral history/ just because many people believe it)

Do not accept anything by mere tradition (ie just because it has been handed down generation to generation)

Do not accept anything on account of rumours (ie new stories / what others say)

Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures (ie holy books or official texts)

Do not accept anything by mere inference (ie suppositional reasoning / axiom)

Do not accept anything by merely considering the appearances (ie philosophical reasoning)

Do not accept anything merely because it agrees with your preconceived notions (ie common sense)

Do not accept anything merely because it seems acceptable (ie your own opinion)

Do not accept anything linking that the ascetic is respected; by us (ie authorities and teachers)

But only after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept and abide by it.

Truth truth. free inquiry

Strange looking animals

22 Apr ’10Written by Juliet Bennett

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So I’m still writing my book – the novel on South America – well, I’m editing it. It’s a tough. I like writing, but not a big fan of editing and filling in the gaps. Does anyone knows a good editor? Anyway, while searching for the name of a strange animal I came across while traveling along Ruta 40 – a 36 hour bus ride – down Argentina. Yes, you heard me right – THIRTY SIX HOURS ON A BUS. Along the way I met a what I now know is called a Pink Fairy Armadillo – which looks like a bit like an echidna, just without the spikes. (photo above).

While googling “echidna-like animals in Argentina” I also came across this Worlds Strangest Looking Animals website. These were a couple of them:

Elephant Shrew

Star nosed mole

http://www.sharenator.com/Worlds_strangest_looking_animals/

I wonder if an elephant began as an elephant shrew? Richard Dawkins’ The Ancestors Tale tells how humans evolved from shrew-like creatures. Did you know whales are related to pigs? I’ll tell you more about that later. What a weird and wonderful world this is…

Truth philosophy

Redefining the “good life”

21 Apr ’10Written by Juliet Bennett

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There is plenty of evidence that ‘the work-dominated and materially encumbered affluence of today is not giving us enjoyable lives, and that switching to a more sustainable society in which we work and produce less would actually make us happier’:

– the ‘stress, congestion, ill-health, noise and waste that come with our “high” standard of living.’

– the ‘rates of occupational ill-health and depression have been shown to be linked to the number of hours we work

All in all they have shown that ‘once a certain level of income is reached further wealth does not correlated with increased happiness.’

You can probably tell from the last few blog entries that my happiness (although still caught up in many societal-determined aspirations) it isn’t caught up in material wealth. I do not believe wealth equals happiness. And so you may ask: what is it that actually makes me happy? I feel at my happiest when I am dedicating my time to something I feel is worthwhile. It may be writing, reading, helping someone, traveling, exercising, cooking, spending time with family or friends – whatever it is, my happiness seems to be inseparable from (my perception of) the worthiness of those things to which I am spend my most valuable (and limited) asset.

One way we can increase the happiness in our own lives, and decreasing the damage we are causing to lives in developing countries and our environment, is to reflect on our conception of “the good life” and make sure it really is guiding us toward a life we desire. A redefinition of the “good life” would focus on the quality of life rather than quantity of “things”. It would begin by addressing the “time poverty” so often experienced in western society.

We would begin by decreasing our work hours, which would lower our incomes but would also mean less stress and less strain on relationships, less commuting, and would allow us to be rich in something else: time.

Photo:

Snapped in Bolivia on the Uyuni Salt Lakes. It was even more magic than it looks.

References:

Kate Soper, ‘The Good Life’, New Scientist (18 Oct 2008). p. 54. Soper is based at London Metropolitan University, specialising in the theory of needs and consumption, and environmental philosophy, author of What is Nature? Culture, politics and the non-human. Also see: Cultures of Consumption Project at www.consume.bbk.ac.uk)

‘How We Kicked out Addiction to Growth’, New Scientist (October 2008). p. 53.

Peace Ecology, Narrative, philosophy

Happiness and relativity

19 Apr ’10Written by Juliet Bennett

1 Comment

Yesterday I had a bit of a rant about the money people earn and spend in the world I live in comparison to the money people earn and spend in the developing world. Here people work around 8-10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week behind a desk (by one’s own choice) and spend their income on clothes and chocolate and cars and properties and parties and holidays. There people spend 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week behind a sewing machine or picking cocoa beans (no choice) just to put basic food on the table and hope their children can have some form of education so that they can enter our rat race too. We really have set up a horrible system that makes economic slaves of everyone… is it making anyone happy?

Sure nice cars, boats, holidays, parties etc are pretty awesome and fun. But are they making us happy? Why is the suicide rate so high in our “rich” world? Does the couple of weeks of skiing make up for the other 48 weeks spent doing a job we don’t really enjoy, that feeds the system’s ugly poverty/environmental consequences, and that leaves us too tired to do much else other than get pissed on the weekend and try to forget… is that happiness??? Does the result actually justify the means?

And when we get that car or have that holiday, does it actually bring us the happiness we expect it to? What about one month later when our friends tell us their buying an even better car than ours, or going on an even better holiday? Then are we jealous and resentful? How long does the happiness gained from materialistic pursuits actually last?

Psychologists and economists have found that the ‘correlation between absolute income and happiness extends only to a certain threshold’ – after that, it’s only our status relative to peers that determines how happy people see themselves.[1]

Buying an expensive car brings with it a message of status. It tells people whose opinions you care about, and it sends a message to yourself, that says “I am worthy”. But without that car we are obviously still worthy. I wonder where our lack of self-worth comes from? Why do we feel we need to compete and be seen by others as this or that?

I guess a perception of self-worth goes further than just material wealth. The relativity of self. We can only judge ourselves as relative to everyone else: How does our body shape compare to others? How about our eyes, our face structure, our skin? Our intelligence? Our creativity? We are constantly judging ourselves – where we sit compared to the people that surround us.

We are all beautiful, we are all special, we are all worthy. I believe this and yet I still find myself victim to the self imposed oppression that comes from societal superficiality’s. Why do I question myself?

Why do we feel a need to justify our worth, and have others confirm it? Where does this need for external (and sometimes the internalised need) for external justification come from? And how can we transcend it?

Photo credits:

Photographer: Gilbert Rossi

Styling: Erin Blick

References:

[1] ‘How We Kicked out Addiction to Growth’, New Scientist (October 2008). p. 53.

Peace, Truth Ecology, philosophy

Small talk. How will we be remembered?

18 Apr ’10Written by Juliet Bennett

Free Documentaries: The Truth Is Free

17 Apr ’10Written by Juliet Bennett

15 Comments

Bored? Never! Check out this website: http://freedocumentaries.org/index.php

In particular I recommend:

Manufacturing Consent – Noam Chomsky … if you haven’t seen this one you better watch it NOW!

The War on Democracy – The US manipulates politics of South America

The Power of Nightmares – The rise of the Religious Right in America, and Islamic Fundamentalists.

Jesus Camp – SCARY!

The Story of God – explores the history of humanity’s search for our creator.

Zeitgeist – as I mentioned yesterday – a must see.

The Corporation – Damn corporations.

The 11th Hour – Leonardo Dicaprio carries on from “inconvenient” message Al Gore shared with us.

And I’m sure heaps more are great. Check it out!!!

Photo credit:

I sneakily snapped this photo in a museum in Peru or Ecuador (no cameras allowed) – they are little Inca statues in erotic positions… You can actually buy packs of cards that each have a picture of a different statue in a different tantric-sex-like pose. I bought some as a gift, now wish I had them to show hehehe funny stuff. How fun is exploring different cultures! I wonder what India has in store for me next month…. okay, I gotta stop yabbering. Enjoy your weekend!

Peace, Truth free documentaries, God, Politics, religion

The Spirit of the Times (Zeitgeist)

16 Apr ’10Written by Juliet Bennett

7 Comments

In the hidden-away tranquility beneath the branches of large shadowy trees, in the Secret Garden hostel in a mysterious little town called Vilcabamba, in Ecuador December 2008, I met a man with white hair and a white beard. It was from this man that I first learned of the Zeitgeist…

The word “Zeitgeist” comes from the German word Zeit, which means time, and Geist, which means spirit.

So basically Zeitgeist means the “spirit of the times” and according to wikipedia this means the “general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambience, morals, and sociocultural direction or mood of an era (similar to the English word mainstream or trend).”

The first part of the first movie (entitled The Greatest Story Ever Told) looks at religion, describes the worship of the Sun, the anthropomorphism of astrological constellations, of an ancient and ongoing battle between Horus and Set, or Light and Darkness, with each morning Horus winning and providing us warmth and vision, and Set conquering as our nights set in. The celebration of the birth of the Sun would occur on the Winter equinox (the 25^th of December), where from then on the days would get longer.

The second part (entitled All The World’s a Stage) looks at the theory that September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center were an inside job.

Part 3 (entitled Don’t Mind the Men Behind the Curtain) looks at the waging of war for the economic gain of international bankers.

The sequel to the movie is called Zeitgeist: Addendum explains “fractional reserve banking”, shows how debt makes us economic slaves that must submit to employment in order to live. How’s this for a quote:

“Physical slavery requires people to be housed and fed. Economic slavery requires people to feed and house themselves.”

A confronting lens from which to interpret reality, isn’t it.

The second part of the sequel is mainly interviews with John Perkins, the ex-CIA economic hit man and the author of “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, a New York Times best seller that is now also a film). Perkins writes:

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly-paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources.

The final part of the Zeitgeist sequel leaves some points of hope, with futurist Jacque Fresco providing a vision of a “resource-based economy” based on abundance rather than the current monetary-based economy based on scarcity. The vision is known as The Venus Project, and it involves the use of magnetic and geotechnologies that have allegedly been suppressed for political and monetary gains that could help us adapt to environmentally friendly and sustainable lifestyles. These technologies sound fantastic, but they need more research and development and hence more funding, which the capitalist system prevents them getting as it gives preference to policies like carbon tax which bandaid a solution rather than looking to solve the actual cause. I don’t know if all that is said is possible, but it’s refreshing and powerful to visualise and imagine.

The last part of this movie turns to our society’s values, oppressive laws, and irrelevant superstitions, and points to a collective ignorance that leads it.

The films have been criticised for containing material that is partially true, and some that is complete bogus, used mainly to ‘maximize an emotional response at the expense of reasoned argument’ which as a result undermines ‘legitimate questions about what happened on 9/11, and about corruption in religious and financial organizations.’[1]

Still even if some details are added for emotional oomph, it seems to me that the core issues they discuss are real issues. They may not have referenced all of their sources but finding sources to support the gist of what they talk about is not hard to find. This documentary is available for free online and is absolutely worth watching, as long as all it’s details are not taken as gospel.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

The core messages in the film are strong, I think it does a good job to capture the spirit of our times, and provide at least some direction and vision as to where we are going. It is for sure that humanity together must seek the emergent and the symbiotic. Throughout history people have desired to fit and uphold the norm, otherwise they are ostracized by their society. But the perpetuation of a closed worldview is not positive for society. It is destructive. Fundamentalist religions are psychologically distorting the idea of faith. The new is ignored in favor of outdated beliefs. We misinterpret myths as literal events. Consider the paradigm shifts of the last two millennia: heliocentric to geocentric and beyond. What we know today was unimaginable 2000 years ago. To be proven wrong should be celebrated. Fluid perpetual change must be embraced. There is no such thing as static knowledge. Nothing is ever static.

We have to stay open to new information at all times; even if challenges our present beliefs.

When the pupil is ready, a teacher will show up. Read a Zen proverb on a gift card in a little art shop in a small Vilcamamban street. It is overwhelming to consider the problems of our worldwide system and their deep historic roots. But what matters is not how we can change the world, but how we can change ourselves. It starts with being ready to learn. I am ready.

And on that note, guess what teacher is showing up in town (my town, ie Sydney)???… JACQUE FRESCO!!! Next Friday the 23rd April 2010, for the Venus Project World Lecture Tour. He’s speaking at my uni – Sydney University – and tickets are open, just under $30, and available here … I hope to see you there!

[1] ^ Chapman, Jane (2009). Documentary in Practice: Filmmakers and Production Choices. Polity Press. p. 171–173.

Peace, Truth God, Politics, religion, zeitgeist

An Aristocratic Future

15 Apr ’10Written by Juliet Bennett

7 Comments

‘If a single phrase could encapsulate society in 2015 it would be “more difference and starker differences”.

Those differences will be between individuals and households: those with high skill levels and those without; those with property-related inherited wealth and those without; those who are fit and healthy and those who are not; those in traditional households and those who are not.

There will be differences between communities: those that are ethnically mixed and those that aren’t; those with access to employment opportunities that match the new global economy and those without; those that are casualties of environmental pressures and those successfully responding to them.’

Phil Swann in The Guardian, Wednesday 10 May 2006

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/may/10/guardiansocietysupplement.localgovernment1

It’s crazy to imagine the growth and speed of life continuing at this increasingly exponential pace. If Sydney prices keep rising as they are, which they probably will if the population continues to increase as it’s supposed to, then soon young people will NEVER be able to buy into the market. That means you either inherit property, or you rent for life. And I guess the more people who want to rent, the high the rents will be. And if income separation continues it we will simply see greater and greater division between the haves and the have-nots, even within our own society. Either your born wealthy, or you’re not. I’m not so up on the political lingo but isn’t that an aristocracy?

I guess one response to this would be to freak out, try to earn as much money as possible, and buy into the market while we still have a chance – “secure” a future for ourselves and our children. But then again, what happened to the aristocracies of the past? Doesn’t aristocracy lead to revolutions of proletarians and heads being chopped off? I need to read up on my history so don’t quote me on this one!

I do know that if we continue down the path we are going the planet won’t be habitable for that much longer. So I say screw it! I really don’t feel like becoming a stress pot with a mortgage – I’d rather live my life, enjoy the moments, and putting my efforts toward bigger futures than the securing of a couple of generations of property inheritance. I could spend my life aiming at owning a house and waste my life in the process. No one what’s going to happen in the future: currencies can be worthless overnight; countries can be invaded; heck, aliens or meteors may even be headed our way. Either way with population rates I doubt our lifeways are just going to potter along without much change. Change is our only certainty.

That being said when my book becomes a best-seller I might just buy a little apartment, or an island (with mango trees, a few wood-cabins, and not much else), and if ends up being the later then you’re all invited 🙂

Picture Credits:

Melissa Smith

http://www.melmelsmith.com/

Peace Politics