On top of that particular idea, or even as a replacement, I believe we should throw in a requirement that takes precedence over age alone. This requirement to vote involves citizens earning the right to vote. Many people may have an issue with that because they believe all American citizens are entitled to certain privileges… voting in my mind is a privilege to be earned. You have to earn your driver’s license… You have to earn your way into college with good grades… You have to earn your way for most anything that means anything in our world. However, the right to vote is given as a simple return for becoming age 18.

Voting to me is one of the most important tools of a democracy and therefore it should not just be handed out to those who do not earn their right to vote. You may say that isn’t exactly a democracy… Well, according to various definitions of democracy, it is. Our citizens are still free, have a right to the power to become an elected official to govern at any level, and they have certain unalienable rights and freedoms from being an American citizen. Earning the right to vote does not deprive any citizen, but it creates a specific delineation amongst the citizens. The delineation revolves around a citizen filing taxes.

You read that right. You get the right to vote if you file taxes. I don’t care how old you are, if you file taxes, you get the right to vote. Why? Too long have our political races been determined by the non-working leeches of our society who only vote those people who promise to provide them government welfare, wealth sharing, and other tax subsidies. Citizens who have paid into the tax booty should have the ultimate say in how their money is distributed. Non-filers are nothing more than people with their hands out asking those who work for a living to provide for their way.

This is of course the straight and narrow point of view. There would be several distinctions which would allow those who cannot work be given exemptions. Disabled people, married homemakers, etc would all be given their right to vote. My problem is with those who have the ability to work and do not. My problem is with those who should pay taxes, but do not. My problem is with those people who drain the wealth from our society and provide nothing in return. Everyone can do something valuable, not doing so and asking for something in return is as greedy as the Wall Street financial wizards who raped our economy of trillions in wealth over the last few years.

Simple and easy, earn your right to vote by working for a living. Working for a living provides a much different perspective on life and responsibility than living a life of entitlement. People who have a third, or more, of their check whacked off with a rusty IRS tax blade have a much better idea of how this country should be run than those who have their life funded by the government. Paying taxes earns the right to vote.

The natural side effect of this policy is that voter fraud would be drastically reduced. Before you would be allowed to vote, you would have to file taxes, which would mean you have a valid Social Security Number and that you are also an American citizen by place of residency, etc. There would be a centralized database of all tax payers with the right to vote and as they enter their vote, they are tracked and marked. Protect the computerized environment from tampering and you have the ultimate no-recount necessary voting application.

We need to understand that our lives and freedoms are not simply bestowed upon us because we can perform such necessary tasks as breathing oxygen or blinking our eyes. We need to have a system where those who provide for the country are rewarded and not reprimanded. I believe we should be required to earn the rights we have, not simply given them because we turn a certain age. Think how much of an impact this simple ideology would change our world… Rather than a society of lazy people with a self serving sense of entitlement, we would have a group of people working for the betterment of our nation… as our forefathers did.

There is a major difference between being inconsiderate and downright disrespectful and rude. As I read the news and associated blog sites online, I am overwhelmed by the complete lack of civility people have with their online personas. I call them personas because if their actions and words are anything like their online gibberish, they would most likely be instigating fights every time their mouth utters a spoken syllable.

People have used the “anonymity” of online to disguise who they really are and with this disguise, they are continually revealing their distinct lack of maturity and respect for others around them. What really bothers me is that the “normal” people that frequent sites rarely speak their minds because they have become afraid to speak up in fear of a public flame war. It appears that the vast majority of online conversationalists is decidedly liberal and of the mind that they can do whatever they want without any ramifications.

I’ll admit that I frequent several sites and read news stories and posts but I don’t join in. In the midst of 300 posts, a rational statement is thrown under the weight of such ignorance that it simply fails to dent the careening momentum of the massive stupidity. At times, I will read something so disgraceful that I am left speechless. I can’t believe people think a certain way let alone write it for everyone to see. Sometimes, I think people post online just to push the limits of what we will accept.

If we don’t respond, these people will continue to think that their actions are acceptable because they haven’t been reprimanded. Eventually, their online persona will infect their real life persona. I believe our society is currently at this stage. After a generation of young adults has grown up with the Internet in their life, they cannot distinguish real life, from online life. They act the same and they allow their mouth to speak anything that comes to mind without fear of retribution.

What we are really missing are the mentors of our lives. There is a distinct lack of mentors in our real lives and there are zero mentors online to direct people and keep people in line. Online is a place where anything goes and everything is acceptable it seems. Our real lives have been infected by this way of thinking and we are paying a social price for that.

My online persona is the exact same as my real life persona. I treat people online the same way I treat them physically. What I think we need to do is return correctness to our online communities. Sure, it is exactly like trying to move a mountain, but we can all do our part to inject a little bit of rationality, respect, and civility in the sites we visit. When you read something that offends you, post a rational response to it and let them know what has been said is disrespectful, hurtful, or just plain wrong.

Don’t fear the online flame wars, they will happen. But, if other normal people see the fight being taken, they will be more comfortable joining in rather than diving in by their lonesome and simply giving up. We need to do something because the longer we allow the online community become so acceptable to outrageous behavior, the worse our real world will become. Our younger generation already has no idea how to discern online life from real life. Their facebook or myspace is more important to them than their grades are…

These days, Wal-Mart is the new mall of America… for even the so-called wealthy. Secondhand shops are selling more clothes than ever. Aldi’s, an off brand grocer, is packed on a daily basis… with a parking lot full of high end vehicles people cannot afford… or trade. People HAVE to spend money even during a deep recession or dare we say a modern day depression. We must survive. However, the choices we make as a country with limited financial resources affects the entire country and by simple economic mechanics, the entire world’s economy.

Wall Street is feeling the pains that mainstream America has been feeling for a very long time. Corporate earnings lagged behind as the families on your street were all succumbing to the pressure of financial hardship. Profits and yearend bonus money for the executives didn’t quite have that instant prick of pain that you and I felt each month as our gas bills ate away at our grocery budget. However, the last year has seemingly caught the markets unaware of just how bad things are. Where were they living? Were they living in gated communities oblivious to the real world? Are they so out of touch that they failed to recognize that the average citizen no longer has any discretionary cash to spend? They are paying the prices as we speak for their lack of attention and forethought… and it’s hurting us all.

With Wall Street collapsing under tremendous pressure, where is Main Street? Main Street in our town and surrounding area has been hit hard. We see going out of business signs more often, we see multi-generation owned businesses failing and shuttering stores, we see car lots having their inventory seized, and we see lots of friends and family forced out of jobs they believed to be their retirement job. Our bills haven’t gotten any smaller and we are all paying the price for our excessive spending through the last decade on top of all this. Wall Street loses millions, billions, and even trillions while the local economy loses thousands and sometimes millions. Which is worse?

Consider the fact that small business owners are one of the most critical economic segments shouldered with driving our country forward. These small business owners largely reside in small towns. With Main Street being hit hard before Wall Street ever had an inkling of how bad things were, we are farther down the path of this economic recession than the corporate profiteers realize. Money at the top will not clear this mess up. The mess must be won at the front lines and that front line is the local shop down the street from my house. It’s the local job reappearing that your friend used to work his 40 hours a week at. It’s the local 12 employee business in your town that needs to hire 3 more people. That’s where we must turn this financial breakdown around.

Pouring millions, or billions, of dollars into failed banking institutions preserves the large corporations from failing, but it does nothing to help mom and pop down the street. Trickle down economy you say? Sure, it happens, but not in the timeframe that allows Sally from next door keep her job at the town’s florist. Without money in the consumer’s pocket, the larger corporations will fail just as mom and pop, with our without bailout money.

Are people going to buy food to live or a new tv? Are people going to pay their credit card or their house payment? Are people going to buy a new pair of shoes or wear their old ones until the soles fall off? Are we going to start spending money after we have been scared straight this time? We cannot return to the excessive way of life before our current recession or the next one could be one of complete disaster. We must start spending money, but we must make wise choices and live within our means. But, when will the day come when we decide that we can afford something that is not deemed a necessity? It’s been over a year since we have officially entered this recession and there doesn’t appear to be a likely end in sight. All we can do is not spend money, which makes things worse in itself. But, when Main Street begins to add jobs, the end may be near and money may well begin to flow.

Lose weight/Get in better shape/Become healthier…

This seems to be the standard resolution for the majority of society for a variety of reasons. I’m right there with you. We can always strive to become healthier in how we eat, exercise, and live our lives. We must set goals that are attainable so that we do not become discouraged… nothing happens overnight. Remember, it took a long time to get into the state we are in and it will take time to reverse it. Focus on small battles on the way to the overall victory. Think about things in terms of weeks and months, not days and never allow a minor setback destroy your resolve or momentum in your journey.

Save money/Get out of debt

Everyone always wants to make that nest egg a little bit bigger. We also want to reduce the stress in our life that debt creates. Managing our money better during the new year is also a very important battle we wage each and every paycheck. Again, we must focus on the small victories in the course of our war on debt and savings. This particular battle may be a multi-year war and thus there are many opportunities to stray off course and allow the pitfalls of the war disintegrate our willpower. We must focus on the small victories and remember that things take time to right the wrongs of the past.

Be nicer or more caring/Volunteer more

As human beings, most of us have the born in need of wanting to help others. Giving our time freely by volunteering and helping others in need is a prime opportunity to satisfy this need. However, we all know how strained our current time allocations are. We can’t arbitrarily state that we will join several volunteer groups in our community or church and believe that we can sustain a drastic change in lifestyle. As with our other resolutions, we must think small first, and move to bigger and better things.

Many resolutions are dead and buried by the 2^nd week of the new year and some may only last into the 2^nd month. Overall, our resolutions are made in good faith because we all want to become the person we envision ourselves to be, but it’s very easy to become discouraged and migrate back to our previous way of life. If we make too many changes, we simply cannot stay on track and our resolutions become nothing more than pipe dreams. Stay small and focused and true change can happen.

With the economy, housing market, and job market in the dire states they are currently in, what kind of new resolutions make sense to make this year?

Work harder/Be more efficient

With jobs becoming scarce, we all need to work harder at the jobs we do have and also become more efficient at them. Society is spending less money and as a result, there is less money in corporate pockets. Production decreases and job slashing will continue to erode the job market. If we can make ourselves more valuable while decreasing overall costs by becoming more efficient, we can help protect our jobs.

Rebuild family/friend relationships

As the overall economy deteriorates, we all need help at some point. That help comes from our family and friends for the most because the government is not our support system. If there are issues that currently are keeping family or friend relationships broken, they should be worked through because these relationships with loved ones can make the difference between a lifestyle of depression versus one with hope. We all need loving relationships in our lives. Repair those that are broken.

Find your faith/Become active in church

America was born upon the Christian philosophy and faith. The vast majority of Americans still consider themselves Christians. However, church attendance is down. Our church family is another relationship we must rebuild and refocus our attention on. If we can come together again and put away our selfish and greedy differences and focus on living our lives through our faith, we can overcome the trials and tribulations the world continually tries to punish us with.

The new year can be a great year. Focus on each day by doing whatever you can to achieve your overall goals. Remember that winning the battles will not be easy and they will take time… some will take years. However, if we truly work on them, we can make a major difference in our lives and also those around us by simply trying to become better people. Our individual attention to ourselves will translate to everyone around us and we can make an immeasurable positive impact on society.

Factor 1: Moral & Ethical Makeup

This is my ultimate tie-breaker, game changer, and make or break factor. If a candidate does not display these qualities, there can never be a level of trust which would involve me casting my vote for that candidate. Liars, immoral people, and untrustworthy politicians are at the root of the problems we are facing these days. If more people factored in the real person hiding behind the Party’s ticket, we would not have the overwhelming governmental problems we are facing today.

Factor 2: Economic Policy

I put economic policy on a fairly high standard because of a simple historical fact. If the United States fails to be an economic super power, then we are at risk of an inevitable collapse. Countries and governments cannot survive and be stable for the long term without solid economic policy. History has shown and proved this fact time and again. Strong economic policy is a must. Creating jobs, taxation policy, trade agreements… all are key components when determining who should be your choice.

Factor 3: Constitutional Rights Policy

Within this segment, I focus upon our rights as citizens. How does the candidate deal with and support our Constitution? Does the candidate uphold what our forefathers detailed and supported via the Bill of Rights? If a candidate prefers to rationalize and shred the documents our country was founded upon, it’s a deal breaker no matter what the other factors direct me to do.

Factor 4: Military Policy

Our President, our commander in chief, MUST have a strong military policy. We cannot rely upon diplomacy as our first weapon of defense in every situation. We must not rely upon the United Nations to protect our interests abroad. We MUST focus on creating and maintaining the most technologically advanced military in the world. We MUST have the best trained fighting force and have the best equipped service men and women.

Factor 5: Foreign Policy

Foreign policy has become more important through the years as our world becomes “closer.” No longer can we utilize isolationist policies and be competent. We must focus upon globalization and focus upon the world community when interacting with the foreign communities.

There are many other factors which affect people’s choices but I believe if you find a candidate who satisfies the above factors, the remaining factors will fall into place. What about education policy or health care policy? What about civil rights? What about immigration policy or affirmative action policy? As I said, there are many factors and each of us has varying degrees of sensitivity to them. But, when it comes down to it, our President should MASTER the above five categories and if that is the case, all underlying policy decisions will likely be satisfied accordingly.

If you don’t know where your candidate falls within each category, then you have some investigating to do. If you vote and don’t know what they stand for, you are hurting not only yourself, but the entire country. Learn what the candidates are about and decide honestly on where they stand and not what you HOPE they will be. One thing to remember, no candidate will ever satisfy your decision tree 100% but you must focus upon the deal breaker factors when you choose. Choose wisely and make an informed vote, our future depends on it.

Premise of the situation is as follows. Man facing dire economic conditions has a choice: pay his house mortgage or pay for his lawn to be replaced. Now, I’m fairly certain any rational homeowner would make the sane choice in this manner and pay his house mortgage. The man of course paid his mortgage and allowed his lawn to deteriorate into a brownish display of dead grass. Wouldn’t we all? Well, his brown grass created such an outrage in his community that he was served a notice requiring his appearance in court to settle the damage created by his “criminal action.”

Like any good citizen not bullied into following the rules and regulations of those who wield power as if it’s a magic wand, he didn’t appear in court. The local judge, “enraged” by the citizen’s use of free will, decided that it was appropriate to arrest and jailed the man for 2 days. Contempt of court, show up or be jailed. Seriously… arrested, finger printed, photographed, entered into the criminal database and jailed for 2 days over a brown lawn? Yes, it actually happened.

How can something so simple be allowed to reach this level of absurdity? How hard would it have been for the Civic Association to work with the man in an effort to settle this issue without it going to court? Knowing that he is a retired individual living on limited resources, they should have understood the situation and worked on a human level to help correct the issue. However, their “rules are rules” approach led to this man being treated like a second rate individual.

A testament to the fact that humanity and rational thinking still exists, a man and several volunteers helped the man replace his lawn and make it a nice shade of compliant “green.” Who was this kind gentleman? He was a former resident and former Marine who felt the man was treated unfairly. Thank goodness for some basic common sense in our uncommon sense world.

How much time was wasted because of this lunacy? How much money did it cost taxpayers by having the courts and law enforcement involved in this “incident?” Why did this man have to be demeaned in front of his neighbors, his family, and country because of his lawn? Sometimes I just cannot fathom what our judicial system is used for when there are actual criminals roaming the streets because they don’t have the time to charge and prosecute them or place to keep them jailed.

Can’t these matters be taken care of without laws, rule books, and police involvement? Can’t we act as rational adults and work these things out without someone with a gun enforcing the “law?” Weren’t we taught in school, and even as toddlers, the ideas of compromise and helping others? Since when did we become accustomed to a third party being necessary to mediate all disagreements or arguments? I’m pretty sure people are generally smart enough to work things out in an agreeable manner without help from an “objective” third party.

We need common sense to return. Without it, we are nothing bunch a bunch of crying babies asking for mommy and daddy to come solve our problems because we didn’t get what we wanted. Next thing I know, I’ll be reading about a grandma being arrested because she left her laundry on the line for 2 days when it clearly states in the bylaws of the subdivision that all laundry must be removed 30 minutes prior to dusk. Oh, you think that won’t happen? Did you think someone would go to jail because their grass was dead before you read this?

Citation: http://www.nypost.com/

We are all subject to a certain level of mind control. Whether it is spoken words, print media, or television, media has always grasped the fact that our minds are available for potential direction and cajoling. Throw in our needs to fit in and we have created a fertile ground for the seeds of control to grow. Most of the time, the controlling nature of media is very subtle. The goal is to “train” us over time and generate a predicted outcome from society. However, there are times when immediate action is sought after. This is where we see extremists in our media “pushing our buttons.” Provocative reports, fear mongering, and violence on television provide the necessary means for pushing the public in certain directions.

Think about it, how do you react to certain cues when you are watching television, listening to the radio, or reading a book? I’m sure there are times that you feel the absolute need to immediately say something to someone. Media is looking for a reaction, they are counting upon it. Sometimes, you may even decide to change the channel, turn the station, or just stop reading a certain book. You may even walk away from a public speech if you are so inclined. This is the process of “weeding out” people who are not agreeable to certain cues. The remaining public however is what they are looking for. They now have a receptive audience who they can utilize additional mind control techniques on. Mind control within the formation of a small society.

Do you know of any societies such as these? I’m sure you do, they exist in our everyday lives and come in all shapes and sizes. There are groups that become quite large and can exact pressure at our highest levels of government. Our two political parties are an example of mind controlling methods at work. Through print, television, and other forms of media, they create a community of “like minded” individuals and work towards adding more to their group. Originally, the intent was to work towards achieving what was best for the country and everyone within it. Now, the goal seems to have become a race for power and money and not necessarily what is best for the individual voters.

Everyone is susceptible to various forms of mind control. It’s in our human nature. Knowing this, we have to be wary of the intent behind what is going on around us and we must ask ourselves if we are truly making up our own mind or are we being led down a predetermined path designed by the media? We will still be affected by our environment, but we can limit the effectiveness of the tools being used against us.

Personally, I try and fight the methods of control by choosing to experience multiple viewpoints. I do not stick to watching a certain news channel. I don’t read a specific author and similar agreeable content. I listen to alternate viewpoints. I do this on purpose, even if the content infuriates me. I have made a choice to open my mind’s horizons by doing such things. Too often, groups of people choose to disregard anything that could possibly be opposite of how they think and they are falling into a trap. They are falling into the mind controlling tools of their society. Without experiencing opposite viewpoints, the mind will only continue down the path of what is known, until some enlightening experience should come along. We’ve all seen it. Groups of people become like each other over time. Why else would parents want to make sure we keep our kids away from the “bad apples?”

To go back to books being a mind control object similar to television, we are missing one important aspect of television when compared to books. Television comes with instant visual and sound cues along with the content. Books require the mind to create the environment within. The simple fact of television displaying the environment to us desensitizes us to our environment. Viewing violence and bad behavior carries with it a much more profound effect upon us than reading and creating a fictional world in our minds. Yes, television is mostly fiction, but society places undue emphasis on the television “reality.” We speak of television as if it were real, we assume because it’s on television, people act that way and it’s acceptable. Television infiltrates millions more of our minds than a single book designed for mind control could ever hope to achieve.

Television is a ubiquitous medium that affects everyone. Reading is limited to those who choose to read. Usually, the people choosing to read are more adept at distinguishing mind control tools. People who read are statistically proven to be on average smarter than those who do not. The general concept of mind control can be thought of as simple “gang mentality.” Focus on the weaker individuals, give them something to grasp onto, and create a community of likeminded individuals. Gangs are the epitome of mind control at work.

In summing up, sure, books can be devices of mind control. But to think books are at the same level of mind control as television is incorrect in my opinion. Television creates a fictional “reality” which people place value upon. Books create a fictional world inside the mind of the individual and this world will be vastly different from reader to reader. Television desensitizes our society where books generally expand our knowledge (yes, even fiction). We can create road blocks to mind control techniques the media uses by making appropriate choices in how we interpret our environment. We must also open our minds to alternative viewpoints or we will risk walking the path like the lemmings they want and believe us to be.

Not so long ago, the only people using these digital lifelines were business people and people with a little extra money to spend. However, times have drastically changed. Everyone now has access to these mini-tracking devices. In a report from 2007, cell phone penetration was above 80%. I would venture a guess that today we are over 90%. EVERYONE has a cell phone. Why not you may say? They are inexpensive and they have so many “justifiable” uses. I agree. The cell phone has altered our way of life. But, what price have we paid? As the article title implies, I’m going to talk about courtesy. Cell phones have played a major part in destroying our basic ability to show courtesy in many situations. We have become more worried about our life beyond the cell phone than we are about what is happening directly in front of us.

That’s a fairly broad statement isn’t it? Cell phones are responsible for the decay of courtesy in our lives? Let me ask you a few questions. While driving, how many people do you see on the phone whether it’s in town, in a parking lot, or on the interstate? When you are in a store, how many people do you see walking around on cell phones? When you are checking out, how many are on the phone? When you are having a conversation, how many people answer their phones while you are talking to them? When you are in a waiting room, how many people are having a private conversation, in public, on their phone? How many places do you see or hear reminders about “turning your phone off” for the benefit of everyone else? How many people are so absorbed in their cell phone life, their immediate physical life is on the back burner?

The one common theme among every one of those questions is courtesy for others. If you are involved in a cell phone conversation, you are not paying attention to your current surroundings. Those current surroundings include many other people. I will admit, I do all of the above, we all do. It’s a part of our new life with cell phones. Is it a good thing? Clearly, I think not. Our common courtesy has been undermined by the ability to bring our digital lifeline wherever we go. That lifeline has overtaken our ability to be courteous to others in a variety of ways. We fail to pay attention to those we are in contact with. We force strangers to listen to conversations in which they are not willing participants. We give people the very basic attention necessary to accomplish our immediate tasks. We annoy most everyone around us with our actions while on the phone. Everyone loses, including the cell phone user.

I ran across a small tidbit this morning that sparked this particular conversation. There was a photo online showing a small printed notice inside a Subway restaurant informing the patrons that if they were on the phone while ordering, they would be placed at the end of the line. Sounds like a fair and good idea to me. The cell phone user is not paying attention to the workers who are trying to complete his order in a timely fashion. Cell phone users in line disrupt the ordering process and delay everyone behind them. Courtesy. These situations exist everywhere around us, but this particular store decided to do something about it. Isn’t it a sad testimony about our nature when a sign such as this needs to be created? How self involved have we become?

Cell phones are very important. They give us access to our world in the case of emergencies or important issues requiring our attention. But, they are not the focal point many of us have made them to be. If it rings, it doesn’t HAVE to be answered. If there is a text, it doesn’t HAVE to be replied to at that moment. If you have access to special ringtones, you don’t HAVE to make it an annoying sound. If you have a Bluetooth headset, you don’t HAVE to wear it EVERYWHERE you go (by the way, it makes you look stupid wearing it everywhere you go). See where I’m going here? Cell phones are available for our benefit, but they are not the ONLY thing that matters when it rings, beeps, flashes, or vibrates.

I challenge everyone to start focusing on how they use their cell phone. Think about how you are impacting those around you. Are you showing them the common courtesy they deserve or are you part of the problem? Put yourself on the other end. If you were in their shoes and someone was on the phone making your life harder, would you feel as if you were being treated with respect? Stop answering the phone while you are in the middle of a conversation. Stop talking on the phone when you are talking to someone else. Stop talking on the phone while you are driving. Stop treating the cell phone as if you would cease to exist if you weren’t on it. Bring back common courtesy. It can be done.

That’s about all I have for a book review, it’s a pretty cut and dry subject. If you are interested in blogging, buy it. So what does the topic have to do with this book? Not much really, but there was a statement contained within that I believe can be related to our daily lives. The authors cite a usability study performed by Jakob Nielsen which reports “90% of online community-users are lurkers (read or observe without contributing), with only 9% of users contributing “a little” and 1% actively contributing.” Great, but what does that have to do with life outside of Internet community usage? My theory is this: People are not only actively contributing 1% of their time online, but they are only actively contributing 1% of their time in the real world.

Well that seems like a huge chasm to bridge doesn’t it? Or does it? People live their lives a certain way and along with that, everything they do follows a similar pattern in how they contribute their time. It’s not a long bridge or leap of faith here. People are habitual and if they are inactive in society, they will be inactive in almost everything they are involved in. If a person is very active in life, they will bring their level of enthusiasm to everything they do. This is a case where there isn’t a middle ground as shown by Jakob’s research. 90% of people fail to contribute to the online community. In a normal bell curve, you would expect the percentage to be much closer to middle. But, it’s not. Why? The answer is because people are not actively contributing in their real lives. Each and every one of you can take a quick look around you and think about those you know or even think about yourself and readily see the lack of commitment our society has for active contribution.

Each time an election comes up, everyone talks about voter turnout. It seems that as our country ages, our population is less concerned about how our votes impact our government. We are “happy” with 60% turnout. That is terrible. We should never have less than 90% turnout for a vote affecting our society from the federal all the way down to the local level. Our apathetic society is actively NOT contributing, not just online, but in everyday life. The report above is just a simple illustration of just how far our apathy has infected what we do. So, let’s ease it a bit and include the other 9% of “sometimes” contributors. That gives us a whopping 10% of people who are willing to engage their mind in some sort of discussion. Does that mean that the other 90% already know everything and have nothing to contribute? Of course it doesn’t. We all have something to contribute whether it is physical or mental contribution.

Are you a one percenter? Are you part of the 10%? Or are you part of the 90% who slide by and offer no input to society? I am personally in the 1% of active contributors in most everything I do. I cannot sit idly by and “let” things happen to me. I will admit that in my younger years, I was all about being a part of the 90% lurker community. It is so much easier to hold back and not contribute. Your mind is much less stressed. Everyday life is easier because you know the other 10% will take care of what needs to be done. You can depend on those people worrying about the “greater good.” It comes down to one simple fact. People choose to contribute because it’s necessary. Without active contributors in our world, our society would cease to exist. The efforts of those active contributors are serving more than just the individual. The contributions carry over to the sometime contributors and lurkers in life.

Lurkers are riding piggy back. The contributors of society are of course providing the ride. How can we get more people to move from lurker to contributor? Is there an incentive for switching sides? Yes, there is an incentive, but it’s not monetary. The incentive is in knowing that you can, as an individual, contribute to society and make things better for more than just yourself. If everyone chose to be a contributor, the time and effort of those contributing would actually be less because more people would be shouldering the load. Right now, we have a few carrying many. We could reverse that and have many carrying a few.

The question remains, how can we motivate people to switch their alliance? With no money, promotion, etc as a reward for creating more “work” for yourself, why would you choose to switch sides and make your life more difficult when everything is going ok as it is? The above incentive of self satisfaction is not enough for most otherwise we wouldn’t have 10% contributing to society. There has to be something else to motivate our society. I believe it comes down to something I like to call basic training. When we were young, we were taught right from wrong. We learned about our moral and ethical makeup. We had the innocence of being young. These basic lessons of life are evident in contributors. Somewhere, between being young and being an adult, we have lost our need to contribute. Was it taught to us along the line? Did our environment make it ok to accept being apathetic?

We must return to our roots. Bring back our willingness to step out of the shelter of lurker life and join those who are pushing us forward. Without contribution, we will go nowhere. What happens when the backs break of those our society is living on? What happens when the contributors decide they have had enough? Will there be anyone there to take their place? If we begin living our lives with our basic training in mind, we can all become active contributors to society and our lives will be rewarded in many ways that money cannot buy. Don’t sit on the sidelines anymore. Become part of that 1% and grow it by choosing the engage rather than lurk.

How selfish are we? Do I think I’m selfish? Of course you won’t sit there and tell me you’re a selfish person that would be “too” honest. Well, how about this, I can admit to everyone out that there that I’m selfish. Gasp, how can that be, I must be a horrible person. Let me give you a little better point of view. We are all selfish no matter how much we want to deny it. Some of us are better able to control our selfish nature and focus more on a giving attitude but some people just cannot control the monster within. I am selfish because I am human. It’s in all of our nature. I am even selfish in other manners within my life. I like to have things a certain way sometimes because it makes me feel good. I could insert any simple example, but it comes down to being selfish desire. If you want to look at your life, take a quick count of how many statements you say or thoughts you have that begin with “I want….”or “I need….”

Scary isn’t it when you actually think about it? Does that makes us all horrible people? No, I don’t believe so. However, the title of the article focuses on the people who take selfishness to the extreme. I personally believe the balances of the scales are tipping to being a majority of selfish people which are consumed by it. No longer are we living in a society where people can be trusted to do the right thing. No longer can we assume that people are doing things out of the goodness of their hearts. Is there a hidden agenda that people carry around which I am a pawn being used to carry out? The selfish desires of our world have taken their toll on the good natures of our society. We may have some good communities, some good local groups, or some close knit organizations left, but as a whole, our society has succumbed to the selfish desires for motivation and advancement.

Selfishness is not some master plan. However, it is very evident in our daily lives. How often are you waved through an intersection when there was a “tie” upon arrival? How often do you see women allowed to pass through a door first? How often do you see opened doors slam into the incoming customer’s face when it can easily be held open for them? How often do you see people using the fast checkout lanes with more items than allowed? How often do you see people driving exceedingly fast on the freeway? How often do you see people using cell phones in the wrong places? How often do you hear curse words wherever you go? How often….? There are millions of examples. These are just VERY simple examples that display a very rudimentary view of the internal selfishness of those in our society. Sure, a single instance cannot deem a person is utterly overwhelmed by selfishness, but we see this on a continual basis, EVERYWHERE.

Our needs are our personal worry. Our needs are first and foremost. Our needs matter more than your needs. That is what it comes down to. Our needs are first priority, everyone and everything else comes afterwards, if at all. Are there times in your life when your focus was completely upon satisfying your selfish desires? Did you feel as good as you thought you would after you “accomplished” it? Maybe you weren’t even aware of the people you possibly encountered along the way. Maybe you were so entirely wrapped up in your goal and the rest of society was a blur along your highway to satisfaction. Selfishness usually will do this. We will become so focused on our internal desires we live with blinders on. Blinders remove the need to think about the well being of others both in our lives and around us. We need to remove the blinders and stop worrying about being “satisfied.” If we control the desires of only satisfying our self serving needs (you can interchange want here at anytime), we will have more time to think about how to be more giving of ourselves.

That’s the basic issue. Selfishness removes giving by default. Our world and communities thrive when people give and not continually take. Selfishness takes and never replenishes. Giving will always give a great return than receiving. How can we take a step forward in helping with this human nature issue that has been pushed to the extreme? I believe that parents have the keys to this issue. Parents need to motivate their children and family to be giving citizens. Be courteous, leave the rude behavior behind, take the blinders off, and look forward to helping the community. People that are self serving generally end up very lonely because they are only worried about their singular existence. People that live a giving life generally are involved with many people and that can be a very rewarding experience. After the parents, school would be the next major stumbling block to correct. If we can make progress on these two fronts, our society would shift from a self serving focus to a society of givers. Imagine the peace and prosperity where people are actually worried about other people? Imagine how easy it would be to build relationships upon trust and honesty? Imagine.

Self serving needs will always be ingrained in our beings. However, we have the final say over our actions. We have the ability to control the monster. It is our CHOICE to do so. Join with me and admit that you are selfish and then take the necessary steps to move forward without serving only your personal needs. Next time you go to a store, hold the door open for someone. Next time you are at the intersection, let the other person go first. Next time you want to get out of the store fast, let someone with fewer items go in front of you. Next time, make it this time. Giving will take your blinders off and allow you to experience a better world. Each time this “next time” happens, it will eventually become all the time. The giving nature will overwhelm the selfish nature and you will have the reigns controlling selfishness in your hands. Hold on to them and lead your life in a new direction.