Failing To Fulfill Your Potential - Simplified.

First, many of us feel unfulfilled; just ask any single parent, in many areas of our lives. Part of this is due to the limitations our culture imposes upon us.

Our institutions; government, education, finance, etc. are part of our culture. And they can become bearish brutes about "conforming to policy." So they refuse to change, and punish those who challenge the status quo ("the way we do things") or represent healthy change; whistle blowers, prophets, or true alphas (not the punitive bullies), by giving them negative labels like troublemaker, Satan, terrorist, heathen, atheist, traitor, etc.

Many of the large private businesses which exist today received financial backing from our government. Or they were able to patent the results of government funded research. Rather than pay the government/taxpaying public a return on our initial investment, the corporations are adding insult to injury by refusing to pay fair taxes on their financial earnings (offshore tax havens).

If any of us wish to feel more fulfilled in our lives; not to mention leaving a healthier planet with abundant resources for our kids, then it is very important that we reflect on our "culture" and all that it contains.

Long story short:  Everything cultural is made by humans; not handed to us by any gods. That's just a power play to usurp physical wealth from the simple masses who refuse to think about more than either Keeping Up With The Kardashians; where a guy wants to become a woman while keeping his penis, or 19 Kids and Counting; where God tells them to have more kids than they can healthfully take care of while ignoring incest & molestation.

When you're dead, you're dead; no amusement parks after Earth. So keep on ignoring natural resources; your grandkids won't be singing praises to your name, they'll be cursing you for not doing something more than praying when you had the chance.

ARE YOU FAILING TO FULFILL YOUR POTENTIAL?

Did you know that a great many of our private mega-corporations were publicly funded? Would you like to know when we’re going to receive our cut?

As I was scanning news articles the other day I came across an article on alternet.org written about Noam Chomsky; for any of you unfamiliar with him I’ll just say that he can offer you a more objective and ethical view of what is transpiring in this country and our world.

The article was written by Alexandra Rosenmann on May 20, 2016 and is titled “Noam Chomsky Reveals The Hypocrisies of Capitalism in the Financial Capital of the World.” Anyway, Mr. Chomsky was talking about how our financial sector is tax-funded, and that instead of giving the public (that’s us) their fair share of the profits after all these years; like they would a regular investor, they kept it for themselves. I’m thinking about the billions of dollars residing in offshore bank accounts (Microsoft, Apple, & many others) at this moment.

You can find the article here:  http://www.alternet.org/economy/chomsky-reveals-hypocrisies-capitalism-financial-capital-world.

So I got to thinking about our institutions and what we can do to improve them. My study of modern Chinese history and the horrible consequences of their cultural revolution revealed that throwing away our entire history would be very detrimental to our future. Therefore, our best hope is to analyze and remodel the parts of our society and institutions that don’t function effectively. I needed more information about institutions.

I looked on my home bookshelf and found what I was looking for. In 1976 (reprinted in 1981) Edward T. Hall introduced the world to an amazingly stimulating book called Beyond Culture. Mr. Hall expressed the opinion; along with other great students of the human mind, that failing to fulfill one’s potential is the greatest tragedy that can befall a person. He goes on to explain that our cultures and institutions act as anchors which prevent us from fully developing as individuals and as groups.

This reminded me of a video by Alan Watts (philosopher) where he explained that the true goal of spiritual doctrines was to help people see beyond them; because they are artificial creations of humans and limit us. You can view it here in two parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtgNjBqUVgU.

What do you think? Want to know more?