Capitalism Without Zero-Sum Conflict: A Re-alignment for a New Era

Capitalism Without Zero-Sum Conflict:
A Re-alignment for a New Era

Dear Friends:

I know, I know..... "oh what pride cometh before a fall."

Notwitstanding that cliche, I wanted to share the most recent [02.07.2010] Update Bulletin from The National Networker with you. Reading along, and through the self-promotion and back-patting, what I would like for you to notice is the tone, the sentiment, the flavor (if you are in the U.K., Australia or any former U.K. "colonies," this would be "flavour") of the writing; importantly, it reflects an increased focus on several important notions:

1. Internationalism, and the World viewed as a large community;

2. Rendering of services to clients as well as information and intelligence to members;

3. The proliferation of information, via e-media, internationally -- across government-imposed barriers, cultures and the differences that we too often permit to divide us instead of unite us. This is indeed good news;

4. The next socio-economic entity...the GICBC -- the Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community;

5. The direct (and implicit) references to members becoming stakeholders. One of the conflicts that is a destroyer of the unqualified idea of capitalism (which, of itself holds great promise for innovation, progress and the breaking of the timeless stigma of the caste system) is that the interests of stakeholders (owners) all-too-often conflict with those of customers, and the general public...the tax-paying citizenry. What if you could re-align the interests of stakeholders so that they no longer conflicted with those of customers? What if the consumers' interests became more precisely aligned with those of the corporations'?

Communism? Socialism? - Neither! The world's simplest and best employee-ownership incentive plan does not defy or deny capitalism by a long shot. It just eliminates the zero-sum game that pollutes capitalism and destroys motivation. Capitalism does not require victims and victors. Its inherent synergy can provide more than adequate rewards for all parties involved. 

Enjoy what follows, with my compliments, and with my hopes.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
---------------------------------------

Free Membership and Subscription? Click HERE.
Free RSS Newsfeed? Click HERE.
Free Daily Email Supplement? Click HERE.

Dear Friends:

This is the TNNWC Update Bulletin! for the first week of February, 2010. We have made incredible progress since our inception five years ago as the first "Consumer Reports" of the Networking Industry. The first subscribers to the TNNW Newsletter signed on because of their sharing Adam J. Kovitz' vision of the potential in networking, connecting and building Relationship Capital. Adam and his wife, Wendy, recruited our first writers, as well as our first readers and sponsors by themselves, as a labor of love. They published the first issue, and have overseen the publication of every single issue since.

Fast forward five years ... We are now The National Networker Companies, with:

• Two publications -- The National Networker Newsletter and The Blue Tuesday Report;
• A growing media machine -- with radio programs, news releases, special featured reports, multiple RSS feeds, Buzzworks, Blogworks and The National Newspicker Page -- we have the full complement of widgets, blidgets, buttons, feeds, with growing marketshare, higher visibility, both in the United States and internationally... we have been re-published in The Wall Street Journal [Europe], the BNI Newsletter [New Zealand] and in a tremendous number of e-media venues;
• The world's very first Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community (GICBC), destined to set a new socio-economic model for a world in need of some serious attitude adjustment;
• A Suite of the best, most unique and most useful (did we neglect to mention most cost-effective?) Professional and Business Development Services for all of our Members. Basic Membership is still free, as are our publications;
• Fabulous writers representing all types of vertical specialties from around the world... Alaska, Africa, China, France... we have a phenomenal crew of brilliant, edgy, opinionated and outspoken writers (but we don't mean to brag).

To say that we have made progress is an understatement.

Our mission has changed - The National Networker Companies, as a group, is a provider of news, intelligence, unique content and business development services to the professional, corporate and entrepreneurial sectors.

Our orientation has changed - Networking is only the beginning - TNNWC is not just about "networking" (which has become a vast term with multiple meanings to many people; where every person believes that he or she is an "***EXPERT***") -- we are all about increasing revenues and productivity by creating viable, real connections; building partnerships (domestically and globally); providing interactive forums; and furnishing services to increase your roster of clients, your buzz, your branding, your market presence (in existing and new, emerging and potential markets) and your sales by every means possible. We live to inform, assist, interact with and promote every member's business, practice or cause.

Our structure has changed - We are an information producer, cross-media broadcaster and a promotion mega-machine. We make things happen for our members, and for our clients.

We've got some things for you to look at, too - the items which follow have been posted, re-posted, tweeted, digged (dug?) and otherwise promulgated. Read them. Click on a few links. Then come back here. We're patient. We'll be waiting...

1. Before you fill that prescription... http://twitlik.com/DrugWatch. Through our Links 4 Life public service site, we have now formed a strategic alliance with Drugwatch.com. TNNWC is a major provider of Public Service Announcements in the interest of promoting exemplary corporate citizenship. Peace, Prosperity and Health.

2. Hot, highly buzzed TNNW themes and fresh ideas from BlogCatalog, a blog search engine. Visit them at http://twitlik.com/TNNWHeat . Our ideas about jumping the turnstiles of the status quo, being unique, being proactive and being collaborative are getting us attention. That's the point, isn't it?

3. TNNW is ever-grateful to Graham Southwell of BNI New Zealand, and Dr. Ivan Misner (the Founder of BNI and the father of organized business networking) for talking about the need for activism amidst apathy. http://twitlik.com/BNI . They are re-publishing some of our most exciting content.

4. We recently had an article about The Ten Essential Principles of Networking published in the Wall Street Journal (European Edition). It is a "must read!" at http://www.wsje-flp.com/articles.php/65/business-networking-ten-essential-principles. Going further, we are building a fabulous relationship with the international leaders of the future through our budding alliance with THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE FUTURE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE.

5. The articles in this week's issue of The National Networker Newsletter... they're coming up.


Help us build the world's biggest subscriber list -- Forward this article (or this email) to a friend, colleague or business associate.


As always, thank you. You've let us become a part of your life. Through our GICBC (details unfolding rapidly), you will be able to become a stakeholder in The National Networker Companies. Our Growth Will Guarantee Yours.


With All of Our Best,


Adam J. Kovitz and Douglas Castle





Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free, and get your BLUE TUESDAY REPORT, too. - Click HERE.
The National Networker Companies

#### Sphere: Related Content

"When the unconscionable becomes the norm, we stand at the precipice of socio-economic extinction." - Douglas Castle

"When the unconscionable becomes the norm, we stand at the precipice of socio-economic extinction." - Douglas Castle

The article which follows was written by Douglas Castle, author and advocate of the Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community (GICBC), a new form of entity based upon a collaborative paradigm of shared contribution and shared rewards which may provide a vehicle to save the fast-fading notions of democracy, government by the consent of the governed, government by and for the People, advancement based upon merit, and a form of industrious capitalism where currency is a means of exchange and store of value, but not a mountain of scrip standing between the entrenched and protected "ruling class," (a small minority of persons controlling in large part the fate of everyone) and the dispossessed, disillusioned and desperate masses who no longer experience a quality of life that gives them cause to live. Please do consider becoming a member of The National Networker Companies, an organization which is Humankind's first GICBC in the making. Become a member for free by clicking on http://twitlik.com/IN . I am honored to be the Vice-Chairman and Director of Strategic Planning for this instrument of change.

Dear Readers:

Two articles are re-printed for your information below. The first is labelled People's Exhibit A, and the second, People's Exhibit B.

The first article is the now-commonplace whining (with no actual question, answer, or opinion provided, at all -- very dry stuff, like cayenne pepper) about AIG awarding giant bonuses to a horde of unscrupulous, compunction-free gamblers who have all but stolen money from the ever-thinning wallets of the American People, and will, with great encouragement, continue to do so. The article is really just there to rile you up a bit. You'll be more receptive to Exhibit B when you are infuriated to the point of screaming until your vocal cords are bloody.

Exhibit A should get you you there. If it does not bother you, or if it makes you shrug your shoulders like Oscar Madison and say something along the lines of "So what else is new? The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I'm going to get a coffee. Want some?" then don't read Exhibit B.

If what you might instead be looking at is. "How has it come to this? That here, in what used to be called 'The Land of Opportunity,' the poor, or even the middle class are no longer permitted a chance at becoming rich? That's not opportunity -- that some kind of trap. We need to pull this poisoned tree up by its roots, and plant something fresh and new in its place. The existing system is so convoluted and conflicted that trying to "fix it" is as futile as raising the dead by singing a song to a worm-riddled corpse. This has to be scrapped and replaced. This is like a 20-year old car that needs so much work every month that it would be cheaper to junk it and buy a new one...in fact, I could have bought three news ones by now with all the money I've thrown into that depreciating hunk of crap! Let's dump this vehicle and shop for something that works!"

If this reaction comes out in you, I heartily encourage you to read Exhibit B.

Message:

Author and Commentator Robert Reich is looking in the right place. Instead of complaining about "Big Government" he is concerned, and rightly so, about our shrinking Democracy. This is truly the core issue. I will be adding the Huffington Post to my Twitter resource and news update list, and I feel a blog post coming on...Google the term "GICBC."

Please stick around for the read...er....the ride.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

People's Exhibit A
Reports: AIG to pay out $100 million in bonuses

Wed Feb 3, 7:05 am ET

NEW YORK – American International Group Inc. is set to pay out about $100 million in a fresh round of bonuses to employees of its financial products division, the unit whose risky bets helped sink the company leading to a $180 billion government bailout, according to reports published Tuesday.
AIG agreed to cut the retention bonuses by $20 million but will still hand out $100 million Wednesday, The New York Times reported, citing people with knowledge of the negotiations.
The Washington Post, also citing people familiar with the situation, said the retention payments are for employees at the division who agreed to accept 10 to 20 percent less than AIG had initially promised them two years ago. In return, they are getting their money more than a month ahead of schedule.
AIG is still due to pay out tens of millions of dollars more in March, mostly to former employees who did not agree to the concessions, the Post reported.
A message was left with an AIG spokesman seeking comment.
New York-based AIG faced intense public and Congressional criticism last March when it paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in retention bonuses to employees months after receiving the government bailout.
When the credit crisis hit in the fall of 2008, the U.S. government rescued AIG from the brink of collapse in exchange for an 80 percent stake in the insurer. AIG's near collapse was not due to its traditional insurance operations, but instead risky derivatives contracts written by the financial products division. ####

People's Exhibit B

The item which follows was written by Robert Reich, and I happened to stumble upon it while glancing over the Huffington Post.

Robert Reich

Former Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley. Posted: February 2, 2010 06:24 PM

Our Incredible Shrinking Democracy

A version of this column appears in the current issue of The American Prospect.

I wish conservatives would stop complaining about big government and start worrying about the real problem -- small democracy. I wish we'd all worry more about our incredible shrinking democracy.
It seems as if more and more decisions that should be made democratically are being shunted off somewhere to a few people who make them in back rooms. Which programs should be cut, which entitlements pared back, and what taxes raised in order to reduce the long-term budget deficit? Hmmm. Let's convene a commission and have them decide.
Commissions are a default mechanism when politicians want to hand off difficult issues to "experts." But reducing the long-term budget deficit has almost nothing to do with expertise. It's about our nations' values and priorities. Nothing could be more central to the democratic process.
Democracy requires at least three things: (1) Important decisions are made in the open. (2) The public and its representatives have an opportunity to debate them, so the decisions can be revised in light of what the public discovers and wants. And (3) those who make the big decisions are accountable to voters.
But these principles are in retreat, and I say this not just because of the proposed deficit commission.
The notorious Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) began with a virtual blank check from Congress. Treasury officials then secretly decided which companies were to receive hundreds of billions of dollars. Why these particular entities were chosen and not others remains a mystery. For months, the Treasury didn't even disclose the identities of the major banks that giant insurer AIG repaid with its bailout money -- 100 cents on each dollar AIG owed them.
The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, has gone far beyond its traditional role of setting short-term interest rates. It has bought up massive amounts of debt -- mortgage debt, Treasury bills, and debt instruments emanating several public agencies, many of them supporting a wide range of private entities. No one outside the Fed knows the ultimate beneficiaries of all this government backing, the criteria used by the Fed for making these commitments, or even how much debt the Fed is buying.
Even if the economic emergency justified such secrecy -- and it's hard to see exactly why it would -- the emergency is over, and yet closed-door decision making continues. Will Treasury use what's left of TARP to help stimulate more jobs and, if so, how? Will the Fed stop buying mortgage-backed securities? No one knows.
The same pattern is evident on other issues. Congress can't decide whether or how to limit the pay of financial executives. So where does the issue end up? The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Fed both say they're going to look at whether pay levels are appropriate. The House and Senate can't agree on what to do about climate change. Who decides? The Environmental Protection Agency concludes it has authority to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act.
The debate over health-care reform looked like democratic deliberation until you realize the key negotiations that framed the deal occurred behind closed doors, between the White House and Big Pharma and Big Insurance. The Administration promised these industries some thirty million new paying customers. In return, they agreed not to oppose the plan. Big Pharma even placed a firm limit on how much it would cut its costs over the next ten years -- $80 billion, and not a penny more. How do I know this? Not because this crucial deal was made in public, but because it was leaked to the press.
Personally, I want the government to limit the pay of financial executives, regulate greenhouse gases, and reform health care. And no one wanted a financial meltdown. But I'm appalled by the process that's been used to reach these objectives.
A big piece of the problem is this: Washington is now so overrun by lobbyists representing moneyed interests that it's become almost impossible to make policy in the open. If the Treasury and Fed tried to decide publicly which industries and firms should get hundreds of billions, they'd be inundated. Wall Street lobbyists are blocking real financial reform. The energy industry has filled the House's cap-and-trade bill with special subsidies and exemptions. Big Pharma and Big Insurance would have killed off the health-care reform if they hadn't been bought off. When it comes to the long-term deficit, Congress is incapable of acting because so many special interests have their hands out.
But the answer isn't to give up on democracy. Back-room policy making can succumb to private interests just as easily as lobby-infested legislatures (much of the public suspects the Treasury of being too cozy with Wall Street as it is).
The real answer is to recommit ourselves to cleaning up democracy. Yes, I know: The Supreme Court's recent grotesque Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, which decided corporations are people entitled to First Amendment protection, complicates this. But the goal is still possible to achieve with more public money for congressional and presidential candidates who refuse private funding, more constraints on lobbyists, tighter rules for who must register as a lobbyist, fuller disclosure, and tougher rules on the revolving door between public service and private gain. Yale's Bruce Ackerman recently came up with another good idea: A $50 tax credit per person, which they can send to the candidate of their choosing.
Yet nobody seems to be talking about these sorts of reforms. They don't appear on Obama's agenda. True, they don't generate lots of public excitement or appreciation, and they're murderously difficult to enact. But without them our democracy doesn't stand a chance.####

Please stay with me. Follow me on Twitter, The National Networker, Linked In, the blog reviewers. Don't be afraid to get in touch with me directly.  If you are as ambitious as you are angry, then we are not merely destined, but obligated, to meet. I can be emailed at DouglasCastle1@live.com.  Thanks.

About Douglas Castle 

Douglas Castle - LinkedIn Profile

The National Networker Companies

Braintenance - Stay razor sharp.

The Internationalist Page - A world without barriers.

The Global Futurist - Revealing trends.

Taking Command! - Mastering your fate.

Follow Castle on Twitter 

Follow TNNW on Twitter

Subscribe Free to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and the BLUE TUESDAY REPORT. Sphere: Related Content

We Consistently Reward Incompetence and Misconduct - Reaping What We've Sown.

We Consistently Reward Incompetence and Misconduct - Reaping What We've Sown.

Note: This article was written by author Douglas Castle for simultaneous publication in his personal blog (Douglas Castle), as well as TAKING COMMAND!, HUMANITAS MAXIMUS, Douglas Castle's INTERNAL ENERGY PLUS and in THE NATIONAL NETWORKER RSS Feed and Daily Email Supplement. You can (and should) get the Supplement for free at http://twitlik.com/Daily, and you can join The National Networker GICBC (also, at no cost) by clicking on http://twitlik.com/IN.

Dear Friends:

I chanced upon this unsurprising but nonetheless saddening piece of news in an excerpt from the venerable New York Times today:

Breaking News Alert

The New York Times
Thu, January 28, 2010 -- 4:13 PM ET
-----
U.S. Senate Confirms Ben Bernanke for a 2nd Term as Fed Governor


The Senate confirmed Ben S. Bernanke to a second term at the
helm of the Federal Reserve. The confirmation was a victory
for President Obama, who had called Mr. Bernanke a critical
leader in the nation's recovery from recession, but the
rancor surrounding the vote also signaled the extent to which
the Fed, once little known to the public, has become the
object of populist anger over high unemployment and bank
bailouts.


Read More:


http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na
####


Let me warm to the topic by saying that I'm not interested in making a political statement here. I am interested in posing a brief commentary on behavioral psychology and sociological evolution.

Some of you may recall that it was during Mr. Bernanke's "watch" that the United States Federal Reserve, with either the consent, an incredible lack of vision, or a hideous dereliction of duty on the part of a huge number of other governmental agencies (including, but not limited to the Treasury, The Controller of the Currency, FINRA, The SEC, The Commissioners of Insurance, The Legislature, The Executive Office and a host of other regulatory and enforcement bodies charged with the responsibility of protecting the citizenry and its hard-earned assets from pilferage and fraud by dirty, rotten scoundrels, con-artists, and other classes of persons whose debits never quite equal their credits) allowed an uncontrolled economic avalanche to destroy the United States economy, the lives of countless individuals, and the credibility (or the already-decaying nostalgic memories of credibility) of the  notion of an "honest" government to serve and protect the interests of the citizens whose contributions (through taxes and other tribute) actually finance the government...that is, of course, when the government isn't simply printing out bargeloads of paper currency and issuing debt instruments which it has no genuine plans or means of paying.

Mr. Bernanke just got himself confirmed for a second term at the helm of the U.S. of A. The thinking (using this latter term loosely) is that although he made a few "small mistakes" that "might have" helped to precipitate a "major recession," he kept things from getting as bad as he could have let them become. He bailed out the largest, greediest and most irresponsible financial institutions and other corporate interests because "they were too big to fail," [I'm inventing here] "too large to fit in jail," or "too fat to impale." 

He now gets rewarded for, in effect, driving drunk, hitting an elderly woman (who was walking her poodle) and managing to put her in his car and leave her on the steps of a hospital. This chap is the same symbol of shoulder-shrugging status quo who rewarded the unconscionable wrongdoing of an elite few at an incalculably devastating cost to this generation and to numerous generations to follow.

Why does this type of seemingly irrational system of "inverted incentives" continue to proliferate? Here are my guesses:

1. We have lowered our standards and our expectations;
2. Our perception is that any known quantity is better than a walk into the unknown;
3. We believe that our thoughts and feelings no longer make a difference;
4. We have lost our faith in our own fundamental values, because we live in a society where evil all too frequently triumphs;
5. We have lost our will to be free, and have resigned ourselves to being institutionalized;
6. We have lost the stamina to be activists, advocates and fighters;
7. We are living in fear of the government that is supposed to serve us.

An old colleague had two funny posters in his office at Hofstra University. One said "NO GOOD DEED SHALL GO UNPUNISHED." The other stated "UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES, THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE."

Facing facts, if we continue to stand idly by while incompetence and misconduct are permitted free reign, we don't deserve anything better. If you weren't insulted by that last sentence, then you probably will also fail to see that this is not a blog posting. It is a call to action.

You can get in touch with me by pressing the blue button below.

It's time for this GICBC notion to become a movement. Cooperate. Collaborate. Synergize.

We cannot build a peaceful prosperous future upon a cracked and decaying foundation, just as we cannot expect to find gold nuggets while panning in a tar pit, or expecting to grow fruit trees when we are planting sawgrass.

Trying to work within the constructs and constraints of the current paradigm is very much like trying to polish a turd. Stop for a moment and visualize it. Hmmm...

I enjoy ranting. How about you?

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle



Douglas Castle - LinkedIn Profile
Follow Castle on Twitter 






Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free, and get your BLUE TUESDAY REPORT, too. - Click HERE.
The National Networker Companies Sphere: Related Content

Visionaries and Experts Needed. - From Douglas Castle

Subject: Collaboration Experts and Visionaries Needed.

 

Dear Colleagues:

I am aggressively seeking collaboration experts, advocates and thought leaders who are interested in writing (brief entries as part of a cooperative forum) and promoting their views about any of the topics below:

·         Collaboration software and technology;

·         Collaboration ideology, theory and philosophy;

·         Breakthrough thinking through collaboration;

·         Equitable sharing of the efforts (costs) and benefits (profits) of  intellectual property and other assets developed through the collaboration mechanism;

·         Trends and future predictions regarding the expansion of the practice of collaboration and/or the technology associated with it.

This effort is being undertaken in conjunction with The National Networker Companies (http://www.TheNationalNetworker.com), and has the promise of being high-profile.

Should you have an interest, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this project with you in greater detail. The Group will be called "Accelerated Breakthroughs," and will be working under the auspices of TNNW’s GICBC (Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community). We already have a substantial readership and prospective market base upon which to showcase our group, and to whom we can intelligently and tastefully promote the services of each of our principal forum participants. There exists a tremendous opportunity for participation in the ownership of valuable intellectual property, publication and promotion.

You can find my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/douglascastle, or at http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com .

Please send your inquiries and expressions of interest directly to http://twitlik.com/Collaboration. (a pop-up instant email form). Please write the word “Collaboration” in the subject line of your correspondence. 

I hope to hear from you very soon. Thank you for your consideration.

Best Regards,                              

Douglas Castle

----------------------------------------------------------

Sphere: Related Content

Away Message From Douglas Castle

Away Message From Douglas Castle

Dear Friends:

I will be out of town from 18th January, and returning on 26th January. During this interval, I will not be accessing or responding to any emails, telephone messages or posting any material to blogs or social media. I look forward to being in touch with you soon after my return.

All the best, Respectfully,

Douglas Castle

Primary e-mail address:douglas.castle@yahoo.com,

douglascastle@gmail.com,

douglascastle.cybersphere@gmx.com  

About Douglas Castle 

Douglas Castle - LinkedIn Profile

The National Networker Companies

Braintenance - Stay razor sharp.

The Internationalist Page - A world without barriers.

The Global Futurist - Revealing trends.

Taking Command! - Mastering your fate.

Follow Castle on Twitter 

Follow TNNW on Twitter

Sphere: Related Content

We are a mighty force...

We are a mighty force if work together instead of against each other. The most dangerous people win by dividing us. - Douglas Castle 
Please visit http://twitter.com/TNNW_BUZZWORKS . We'll follow you back.

Please visit http://twitter.com/GICBC . Be part of the start. And yes, we'll follow you back, too.

About Douglas Castle 

Douglas Castle - LinkedIn Profile

The National Networker Companies

Braintenance - Stay razor sharp.

The Internationalist Page - A world without barriers.

The Global Futurist - Revealing trends.

Taking Command! - Mastering your fate.

Follow Castle on Twitter 

Follow TNNW on Twitter

Join us! With your free membership, you'll receive THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and The BLUE TUESDAY Report. Click on: http://twitlik.com/IN. You'll also want to get your free RSS feed or Daily email delivered to your inbox -- just click on http://twitlik.com/Daily and make your selection.

________________________________________________________
KEYWORDS, TERMS, LABELS AND ORGANIZATIONS:


globalism, internationalism, cartels, CFR, NGO, UN, EU, WTO, IMF, central bank, outsourcing, offshoring, capital markets, import, export, international trade, strategic alliances, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, social networking, banking, finance, trade, ventures, business, securities, stock exchanges, indexes, futurism, trends, citizen ambassadorship, enterprise, capitalism, international politics, commodities, prime rate, LIBOR, foreign currencies, foreign exchange, blogs, blogging, bloggers, aol, google, yahoo, msn, AP, news, media alerts, world government, world governments, international affairs, treaties, tariffs, trade restrictions, marketing, advertising, business development, arbitrage, obtaining capital, promotion, publicity, EU, NATO, military affairs, government regulation, trade restrictions, liquidity crisis, business opportunities, web-based businesses, communication, communications, technology, intelligence, embassies, consulates, business resources, Douglas Castle,The Internationalist Page, The Global Futurist, international politics, elections, time management, cyberspace, AI, energy, industry, productivity, Mixx, Digg, Technorati, Sphere, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, advertising, economics, strategy, management, cooperation, widgets, blidgets, links, incoterms, CCH, UCC, freight forwarding, custom house brokers, diversity, employment, culture, micro-loans, technological convergence, trends, financial planning, FOREX, futures, stock index, inflation, recession, sub-contracting, Department of Commerce, the next generation, amnesty, humanitarianism, foreign aid, philanthropy, charity, cooperation, peaceful cooexistence, a world without walls, The National Networker, Artificial Intelligence, AI, symbiosis, Interworked Cooperative Business Communities, ICBC, Lingovations, commerce versus combat, trends, analysis, imagination, innovation, introspection, exponentialism and the mastermind, exponentiality, predicting the future, shaping the future, adaptation, evolution, twitter, google, social media, networking groups, tendencies, statistics, joint venturing metrics, prediction, strategic interdependence, communications technologies, skype, New World Order, The 1% Rule, Mutually Assured Destruction, imperialism, fuedalism, freedom, peace, prosperity, demography, allocation of wealth, Digg, Zimbio, TNNW BUZZWORKS, Articles by Douglas Castle, search engines, entreprenership, business tools, networking, relationships, convincing, negotiating, energy, parapsychology, systems, chaos, complexity, perspective, entropy, behavioral psychology, systems of government, sovereignty, ethics, objectivisim, subjectivism, relativism, multidimensionalism, perspective, inflation, recession, valuations, intellectual property, trust, balance of power, balance of trade, balance of trade, gross domestic foreign investment, indexing, growth industries, commodities, options, exhanges, control strategies, risk evaluation, survivalism...

Subscribe Free to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and the BLUE TUESDAY REPORT. Sphere: Related Content

When Life Falls Short of Our Dreams - An Emerging Trend With Frightening Implications For Our Species.

When Life Falls Short of Our Dreams - An Emerging Trend With Frightening Implications For Our Species.

 

by Douglas Castle [ http://www.linkedin.com/in/douglascastle and http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com ] 

 

 

Dear Friends:

 

A great friend of mine who is an excellent writer herself and is not generally given to profanity, but who has a wonderfully dry sense of humor (and a fabulous sense of irony as well) forwarded the following email to my attention. It appears uncensored and unedited in an manner -- please accept my apologies in advance if I have offended your sensibilities by printing this; but I do so with sincere educational intent:

---------------------------------------------------------

Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown in the economy, Congress has decided

to implement a scheme to put workers of 50 years of age and above on early retirement, thus creating

jobs and reducing unemployment.

This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early).

Persons selected to be RAPED can apply to Congress to be considered for the SHAFT program
(Special Help After Forced Termination).

Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under the SCREW program
(System Covering Retired-Early Workers).

A person may be RAPED once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as Congress
deems appropriate.

Persons who have been RAPED could get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependants & Spouse)

or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance).

Obviously persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further
by Congress.

Persons who are not RAPED and are staying on will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity
Training) as possible. Congress has always prided themselves on the amount of SHIT they give
our citizens.

Should you feel that you do not receive enough SHIT, please bring this to the attention of your
Congressman, who has been trained to give you all the SHIT you can handle.

Sincerely,
The Committee for Economic Value of Individual Lives (E.V.I.L.)

PS - - Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current
market conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.

 

----------------------------------------------------------
I believe that the foregoing letter, intended to be humorous (and it is -- I am a big fan of acronyms), makes a very serious statement regarding the sentiment of the times in which we live. It speaks of cynicism, skepticism, disillusionment, hopelessness and deeply-ingrained sorrow. The global economic recession (as well as the very deep US recession) is far overshadowed in its severity by the cloud of emotional depression that has engulfed our home planet. I am personally prone to depression, and know what steps I must undertake in order to keep it from overwhelming me; but there are altogether too many souls who are neophytes to deep, heart-wrenching depression and who are experiencing it full-blown now.  It is a killing thing, and it is highly contagious. Take a look (after you have read this article) at LINKS 4 LIFE, a public service blog site which is loaded with articles, information and resources about depression. It can be found at http://lifelinksiep.blogspot.com , and I would strongly advise that you make it a favorite.

 

The growing disparity between the reality which we experience and the dreams we have harbored and run off into since chidhood has widened and continues to widen. As this disparity between infinite possibilities and barely-tolerable realities grows, we are being drawn into a deepening well of depression. Prophetically, this is beginning to lead us to a potentially lethal mindset: the mindset of the automaton, merely existing, but not functioning as a Human Being, with all of the imagination and dreaming that makes joy possible, and joyous innovation more probable.  We are becoming more animal and less divine. We are wounded, and we are surrendering to sorrow and self-pity. At stake are our Humanity and the very future of our species. Deprived of hopes, faith and dreams, we die. This poverty of spirit should not be permitted to continue.

 

Through my affiliation with The National Networker Companies, I have promulgated the notion of the GICBC - the Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community as the Next Business Entity...a sort of entrepreneurship-driven synergy generator for the sustainable financial support of all Members. I am part of a growing movement to make the GICBC a successful reality. You can join the world's first by becoming a Member of The National Networker Companies' GICBC at http://twitlik.com/IN . It is free, and Members who contribute to its success will ultimately be stakeholders and annuity recipients - it has the advantage of being a self-fulfilling Meritocracy, without insurmountable capital requirements (there are none), and no birthright privileges or bigotry. Simply put: Contribute more. Own More. Earn More.

 

What I had not thought about was the GICBC's potential to be a viable emotional support system -- a vessel of hope, of reinforcement, of camaraderie, of spiritual synergy. I was trapped into the "survivalist" limitation of thinking of only financial security for myself, and for all Members. I had underestimated my own idea and its potential. You see, I too, can be all too easily sucked into the black hole of negativity, and of negative thinking. This adaptation of Adam J. Kovitz's original (albeit somewhat ethereal and a tad amorphous -- Adam is still a philosopher and a rocket scientist at heart) notion of "Relationship Capital" has turned out to be much greater, and much more significant than I thought.

 

We had better start getting together. We can save ourselves by saving each other.

 

My friend and colleague, Yossi Feigenson, forwarded the article (courtesy of CNN) which follows. It makes my case. And disturbs me beyond my ability to express. Read on:

---------------------------------------------------------  

Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues By Jo Piazza, Special to CNN STORY HIGHLIGHTS Some fans say James Cameron's "Avatar" may have been too real "Avatar Forums" has a topic thread discussing depression over "Pandora being intangible" Cameron's movie has pulled in more than $1.4 billion in worldwide box office RELATED TOPICS James Cameron Movie Reviews Entertainment (CNN) -- James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora. On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie. "I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ," Baghdassarian said. "But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed." A post by a user called Elequin expresses an almost obsessive relationship with the film. "That's all I have been doing as of late, searching the Internet for more info about 'Avatar.' I guess that helps. It's so hard I can't force myself to think that it's just a movie, and to get over it, that living like the Na'vi will never happen. I think I need a rebound movie," Elequin posted. A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site "Naviblue" that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie. "Ever since I went to see Avatar I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' " Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality. Cameron's movie, which has pulled in more than $1.4 billion in worldwide box office sales and could be on track to be the highest grossing film of all time, is set in the future when the Earth's resources have been pillaged by the human race. A greedy corporation is trying to mine the rare mineral unobtainium from the planet Pandora, which is inhabited by a peace-loving race of 7-foot tall, blue-skinned natives called the Na'vi. In their race to mine for Pandora's resources, the humans clash with the Na'vi, leading to casualties on both sides. The world of Pandora is reminiscent of a prehistoric fantasyland, filled with dinosaur-like creatures mixed with the kinds of fauna you may find in the deep reaches of the ocean. Compared with life on Earth, Pandora is a beautiful, glowing utopia. Ivar Hill posts to the Avatar forum page under the name Eltu. He wrote about his post-Avatar depression after he first saw the film earlier this month. "When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed ... gray. It was like my whole life, everything I've done and worked for, lost its meaning," Hill wrote on the forum. "It just seems so ... meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep ... doing things at all. I live in a dying world." Reached via e-mail in Sweden where he is studying game design, Hill, 17, explained that his feelings of despair made him desperately want to escape reality. "One can say my depression was twofold: I was depressed because I really wanted to live in Pandora, which seemed like such a perfect place, but I was also depressed and disgusted with the sight of our world, what we have done to Earth. I so much wanted to escape reality," Hill said. Cameron's special effects masterpiece is very lifelike and the 3-D performance capture and CGI effects essentially allow the viewer to enter the alien world of Pandora for the movie's 2½-hour run-time, which only lends to the separation anxiety some individuals experience when they depart the movie theater. "Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far," said Dr. Stephan Quentzel, psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. "It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect." Fans of the movie may find actor Stephen Lang, who plays the villainous Col. Miles Quaritch in the film, an enemy of the Na'vi people and their sacred ground, an unlikely sympathizer, but Lang says he can understand the connection people are feeling with the movie. "Pandora is a pristine world and there is the synergy between all of the creatures of the planet and I think that strikes a deep cord within people that has a wishfulness and a wistfulness to it," Lang said. "James Cameron had the technical resources to go along with this incredibly fertile imagination of his and his dream is built out of the same things that other peoples' dreams are made of." The bright side is that for Hill and others like him who became dissatisfied with their own lives and with our imperfect world after enjoying the fictional creation of James Cameron, becoming a part of a community of like-minded people on an online forum has helped them emerge from the darkness. "After discussing on the forums for a while now, my depression is beginning to fade away. Having taken a part in many discussions concerning all this has really, really helped me," Hill said. "Before, I had lost the reason to keep on living -- but now it feels like these feelings are gradually being replaced with others." Quentzel said creating relationships with others is one of the keys to human happiness and that even if those connections are occurring online they are better than nothing. "Obviously there is community building in these forums," Quentzel said. "It may be technologically different from other community building, but it serves the same purpose." Within the fan community, suggestions for battling feelings of depression after seeing the movie include things like playing "Avatar" video games or downloading the movie soundtrack in addition to encouraging members to relate to other people outside the virtual realm and to seek out positive and constructive activities. #### ---------------------------------------------------------- Dear Friends, again: Please give what I have said some serious thought. Then take some serious action. Become a recruit in the battle to save our species. Join me at http://twitlik.com/IN . Bridge the gap between the greatest, happiest dreams and The Human Experience. We need a critical mass of positive minds. Now. It is never to late to become the person you once dreamed of becoming. Faithfully, Douglas Castle  Yes. Really me. As I still am inside. - DC

About Douglas Castle 

Douglas Castle - LinkedIn Profile

The National Networker Companies

Braintenance - Stay razor sharp.

The Internationalist Page - A world without barriers.

The Global Futurist - Revealing trends.

Taking Command! - Mastering your fate.

Follow Castle on Twitter 

Follow TNNW on Twitter

Join us! With your free membership, you'll receive THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and The BLUE TUESDAY Report. Click on: http://twitlik.com/IN. You'll also want to get your free RSS feed or Daily email delivered to your inbox -- just click on http://twitlik.com/Daily and make your selection.

________________________________________________________
KEYWORDS, TERMS, LABELS AND ORGANIZATIONS:


globalism, internationalism, cartels, CFR, NGO, UN, EU, WTO, IMF, central bank, outsourcing, offshoring, capital markets, import, export, international trade, strategic alliances, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, social networking, banking, finance, trade, ventures, business, securities, stock exchanges, indexes, futurism, trends, citizen ambassadorship, enterprise, capitalism, international politics, commodities, prime rate, LIBOR, foreign currencies, foreign exchange, blogs, blogging, bloggers, aol, google, yahoo, msn, AP, news, media alerts, world government, world governments, international affairs, treaties, tariffs, trade restrictions, marketing, advertising, business development, arbitrage, obtaining capital, promotion, publicity, EU, NATO, military affairs, government regulation, trade restrictions, liquidity crisis, business opportunities, web-based businesses, communication, communications, technology, intelligence, embassies, consulates, business resources, Douglas Castle,The Internationalist Page, The Global Futurist, international politics, elections, time management, cyberspace, AI, energy, industry, productivity, Mixx, Digg, Technorati, Sphere, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, advertising, economics, strategy, management, cooperation, widgets, blidgets, links, incoterms, CCH, UCC, freight forwarding, custom house brokers, diversity, employment, culture, micro-loans, technological convergence, trends, financial planning, FOREX, futures, stock index, inflation, recession, sub-contracting, Department of Commerce, the next generation, amnesty, humanitarianism, foreign aid, philanthropy, charity, cooperation, peaceful cooexistence, a world without walls, The National Networker, Artificial Intelligence, AI, symbiosis, Interworked Cooperative Business Communities, ICBC, Lingovations, commerce versus combat, trends, analysis, imagination, innovation, introspection, exponentialism and the mastermind, exponentiality, predicting the future, shaping the future, adaptation, evolution, twitter, google, social media, networking groups, tendencies, statistics, joint venturing metrics, prediction, strategic interdependence, communications technologies, skype, New World Order, The 1% Rule, Mutually Assured Destruction, imperialism, fuedalism, freedom, peace, prosperity, demography, allocation of wealth, Digg, Zimbio, TNNW BUZZWORKS, Articles by Douglas Castle, search engines, entreprenership, business tools, networking, relationships, convincing, negotiating, energy, parapsychology, systems, chaos, complexity, perspective, entropy, behavioral psychology, systems of government, sovereignty, ethics, objectivisim, subjectivism, relativism, multidimensionalism, perspective, inflation, recession, valuations, intellectual property, trust, balance of power, balance of trade, balance of trade, gross domestic foreign investment, indexing, growth industries, commodities, options, exhanges, control strategies, risk evaluation, survivalism...


Subscribe Free to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and the BLUE TUESDAY REPORT. Sphere: Related Content

Closing The Doors To Productive Discussion

Closing The Doors To Productive Discussion

Note: This article was written by Author Douglas Castle for publication in THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE and in THE NATIONAL NETWORKER NEWSLETTER. This article may be reprinted, re-published or otherwise transmitted without the permission of the author provided that it is reprinted, re-published or transmitted in total, unedited, with all hyperlinks left intact and live. Proper attribution should always be given the author and the initial publications where the piece appeared. You are invited to join the National Networker as a member of its GICBC -- you will also receive (free) the TNNW Weekly Newsletter and the Blue Tuesday Report - Simply click on http://twitlik.com/IN. To also receive RSS feeds or daily email from The National Networker Companies, click on http://TheNationalNetworkerWeblog.blogspot.com and make your selection. -DC

Dear Friends:

I am neither a fan of John Kerry's, nor of Bob Livingston's, but I find valuable information in unlikely places because I am always willing to listen, and to learn. Kerry, of the US, leans politically toward the Democratic Party and some ideologically imprecise progressivism (which some refer to as liberalism), while Bob Livingston, the publisher of The Liberty Alert and The Liberty Digest, is a self-professed ultra-conservative, right-winger. The two would seemingly have nothing in common, except that both do a great deal of speaking and promoting within their respective realms of expertise and in accord with their respective agendas for political and social change. Frankly, I find them both a bit annoying - but I am willing to listen to either of them, which is an important point.

The United States, the UK and a number of other nations have become increasingly concerned about the potential for Iran to build up significant nuclear weapons capabilities. Whether or not, any nation has a right to dictate policy regarding self-defense or military strategies to Iran or any other sovereign is another issue. But nonetheless, Iran's reputation for either condoning or sponsoring certain known terrorist organizations, as well as its internal political instability make it an object for concern throughout the Middle East, Asia, Europe and America.

While I do not believe that any nation (or any Human Being) should simply "do what it is told" by the established international community (e.g., the most powerful industrialized nations, plus a few smaller "roaring mice,"), I believe that Iran has made a terrible mistake in its refusal to honor a visit by Senator John Kerry until (through the Iranian Press) "The US changes its policies." This is useless petty political extortion, posturing, and anger-engendering. Imposing conditions by one country upon another before the first will grant an audience to the second sends a message of animousity, and it serves to lend further gravity to any negative feelings and suspicions. The temptation is then to escalate the hostilities on both sides until the scenario is like having a tennis volley with a time bomb as the ball.

Keep all doors wherein there is a possibility for productive, peaceful discussion open. Don't predicate a visit or conversation on an immediate policy change or action on the part of the other party -- a lack of open communication leads each side to suspect the worst of the other.

Ultimately, it comes down to this: Either engage in conversation, or augment the risk of eventual conflict.

Closing the doors to productive discussion can never be a good policy.

An article from Mr. Livingston's publication follows for your information. It puts my point further across.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle,

Internationalist and Individualist

--------------------------------------------------------

John Kerry Refused Permission To Visit Iran

January 6, 2010 by Personal Liberty News Desk  at The PERSONAL LIBERTY DIGEST

Legislators in Iran have rejected top Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) request to visit the country, the media have reported.

According to TheHill.com, Iranian media have said that Kerry, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had submitted an official request to visit Tehran as an emissary.
Iran’s Fars News Agency has quoted Zohreh Elahian, a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, as saying that "The Islamic Republic of Iran has no plans to negotiate with any American official, unless [the U.S.] changes its policies," which was quoted by TheHill.com.

The Iranian news source also said that Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani advised Kerry to end America’s hostile policies toward his country, particularly regarding the nuclear issue.

When questioned by journalists, the senator’s spokesman, Frederick Jones, said no trip to Iran was planned at the moment.

The United States and Iran broke off diplomatic relations in the wake of the Iranian hostage crisis during which 53 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from 1979 to 1981 at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The two countries have held no bilateral talks for the past 30 years, but after his inauguration President Obama suggested he was ready to start talks on normalizing the relations.
However, last September Obama, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Great Britain and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France alleged Iran has covert plans to build an enrichment plant about 100 miles outside of Tehran, according to The New York Times. ####
---------------------------------------------

__________________________________________
Subscribe Free to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and the BLUE TUESDAY REPORT.

Labels and Tags: Iran, John Kerry, Bob Livingston, The Internationalist Page, The National Networker Companies, GICBC, Articles by Douglas Castle, Sphere: Related Content

SUICIDE: Being Proactive Can Save a Life.

Public Service Announcement:

The American Foundation For Suicide Prevention Programs. Help save a life. Learn more - http://twitlik.com/AFSP   Every life is precious. Know how to help. Know how to access emergency treatment. Always take any discussions or thoughts of suicide seriously. Don't ever leave a suicidal person alone. An hour of conversation while waiting for emergency help to arrive can make all the difference.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call for emergency treatment (there are some excellent resources at LINKS 4 LIFE), and then call a friend or family member. Keep calling until you connect. If you can't get anyone, get to a place where there are people and some activity. There's hope... and there's help. I promise.

Douglas Castle,
THE NATIONAL NETWORKER COMPANIES

About Douglas Castle 

Douglas Castle - LinkedIn Profile

The National Networker Companies

Braintenance - Stay razor sharp.

The Internationalist Page - A world without barriers.

The Global Futurist - Revealing trends.

Taking Command! - Mastering your fate.

Follow Castle on Twitter 

Follow TNNW on Twitter

Join us! With your free membership, you'll receive THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and The BLUE TUESDAY Report. Click on: http://twitlik.com/IN. You'll also want to get your free RSS feed or Daily email delivered to your inbox -- just click on http://twitlik.com/Daily and make your selection.

Sphere: Related Content

Look What a Mere $10.0 Billion Gets You.

Look What a Mere $10.0 Billion Gets You.


Dear Friends:

In these trying times of economic recession, when banks and world governments are playing "musical chairs" with vast sums of unsupported currency and credit, I often worry about the value of the United States Dollar.

Despite being an Internationalist, my roots (and a few other parts) are still in the United States of America, and there is an unmistakable pride that wells up inside of me when I see someone salute the flag, or upon hearing a rousing political speech by some true patriot or well-scripted political aspirant.

Imagine my delight at seeing the headline (courtesy of the Associated Press) below! For a cash advance of a mere (Emir?) 10.0 Billion USD, the almost-bankrupt Dubai named its tallest building (which is likely the tallest building in the world, if you don't count the monasteries on some Asian mountaintops -- I mean, take away the height of the mountain, and these are just shorties) after its fiscal savior. This is not only a demonstration of the power of the United States Dollar, but it is an encouraging show of gratitude on the part of Dubai.

Once, in exchange for several thousand dollars, I had a pew in a church named after me. I felt like a king. Another time, for several thousand dollars, I had my whole family's names engraved on a piece of metal shaped like a leaf and mounted on the wall of a synagogue.

On a serious note, bad loans are simply bad loans, regardless of cause or currency. When a bailout loan is made with the full knowledge that the borrower does not have the means of repayment, a cascading credit calamity ensues, with one default precipitating another. A banking avalanche. And who, generally, is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice to pay for these bridge-to-nowhere loans? The taxpaying, hardworking citizenry.

In evaluating any transaction or political policy, it is always a worthwhile endeavor to find out who is benefitting and who is ultimately paying. The referenced Dubai article follows for your review.

Dubai renames world's tallest tower Burj Khalifa (AP)

AP - Dubai has renamed its new skyscraper, the tallest in the world, the Burj Khalifa, state news agency WAM reported, in a surprise move apparently intended to honor the United Arab Emirates' president. ####

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle,
THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE

About Douglas Castle 

Douglas Castle - LinkedIn Profile

The National Networker Companies

Braintenance - Stay razor sharp.

The Internationalist Page - A world without barriers.

The Global Futurist - Revealing trends.

Taking Command! - Mastering your fate.

Follow Castle on Twitter 

Follow TNNW on Twitter

Join us! With your free membership, you'll receive THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and The BLUE TUESDAY Report. Click on: http://twitlik.com/IN. You'll also want to get your free RSS feed or Daily email delivered to your inbox -- just click on http://twitlik.com/Daily and make your selection.

Selected Terms and Labels: Dubai, credit crisis, bad loans, who benefits vs who pays, government policy, bridge loans, cascading defaults, Articles by Douglas Castle, TNNW Newsletter,

Sphere: Related Content

Radical New Ideas, or the Return of Old, Sensible Ones?

Radical New Ideas, or the Return of Old, Sensible Ones?

Dear Friends:

Ideas constantly go in and out of fashion, depending upon the culture and concerns of the times. Many of these ideas are simply too seemingly radical to be acceptable given the prevailing and socially entrenched beliefs and protocols of the times. Many of them simply go out of fashion because they become part of the body of conventional wisdom, and they no longer need to be stated.

Human Beings always fancy the notion of progress, and so they tend to leave both the good and the bad teachings and principles behind, without much discrimination or differentiation...it is almost as if "old" means "obsolete" and "new" means "improved" -- that is unless we are dealing with antiques.

How about revisiting these ideas?:

1. Instead of "networking," let's have socializing, introductions, and making new friends;

2. Instead of "connecting," let's have building bonds of trust through becoming familiar and investing in getting to know eachother;

3. Instead of "collaboration," let's have a team effort toward a common goal -- sharing the work, and sharing in the rewards;

4. Instead of "Internationalism," let's have global conversation, communion and sharing;

5. Instead of "celebrating diversity" (which is pallid and empty slogan, with neither teeth nor heart), let's become educated about eachother, find our areas of commonality and our areas of difference, let our great areas of commonality become the common denominator to create stronger bonds of respect and friendship between us, while we capitalize on our fascinating areas of difference by seeing them in terms of complementarity, greater knowledge, greater opportunity and an expanded set of survival skills to be shared by all. Maybe we could invest some time in getting to know eachother, instead of forming little ghettos of "pure" and stagnant culture. Maybe we should befriend eachother instead of begrudgingly tolerating eachother.

Perhaps we should cease our failed habit of conjoining the terms of discrimination and bigotry. Let's let bigotry be closed-mindedness and prejudicial exclusionism, while discrimination could simply mean (as it did many, many years ago), making the best choices. Remember phrases like: "Only the discriminating eye can see the difference in quality."?

We can keep the same contemporary terminology (after all, new terms are fun -- a good lingovation always warms my heart), but let's re-evaluate the meaning and significance behind these terms. Let's strive to keep them in mind, too.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. Maybe we should also bear in mind that "progress" is movement toward an objective. How can we indiscriminately refer to any movement or change as "progress" when it might actually be taking us away from our proper trajectory? And, more importantly, how can we progress toward a goal which we have not clearly identified and agreed upon together?

About Douglas Castle 

Douglas Castle - LinkedIn Profile

The National Networker Companies

Braintenance - Stay razor sharp.

The Internationalist Page - A world without barriers.

The Global Futurist - Revealing trends.

Taking Command! - Mastering your fate.

Follow Castle on Twitter 

Follow TNNW on Twitter

Join us! With your free membership, you'll receive THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and The BLUE TUESDAY Report. Click on: http://twitlik.com/IN. You'll also want to get your free RSS feed or Daily email delivered to your inbox -- just click on http://twitlik.com/Daily and make your selection.

________________________________________________________
KEYWORDS, TERMS, LABELS AND ORGANIZATIONS:


globalism, internationalism, cartels, CFR, NGO, UN, EU, WTO, IMF, central bank, outsourcing, offshoring, capital markets, import, export, international trade, strategic alliances, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, social networking, banking, finance, trade, ventures, business, securities, stock exchanges, indexes, futurism, trends, citizen ambassadorship, enterprise, capitalism, international politics, commodities, prime rate, LIBOR, foreign currencies, foreign exchange, blogs, blogging, bloggers, aol, google, yahoo, msn, AP, news, media alerts, world government, world governments, international affairs, treaties, tariffs, trade restrictions, marketing, advertising, business development, arbitrage, obtaining capital, promotion, publicity, EU, NATO, military affairs, government regulation, trade restrictions, liquidity crisis, business opportunities, web-based businesses, communication, communications, technology, intelligence, embassies, consulates, business resources, Douglas Castle,The Internationalist Page, The Global Futurist, international politics, elections, time management, cyberspace, AI, energy, industry, productivity, Mixx, Digg, Technorati, Sphere, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, advertising, economics, strategy, management, cooperation, widgets, blidgets, links, incoterms, CCH, UCC, freight forwarding, custom house brokers, diversity, employment, culture, micro-loans, technological convergence, trends, financial planning, FOREX, futures, stock index, inflation, recession, sub-contracting, Department of Commerce, the next generation, amnesty, humanitarianism, foreign aid, philanthropy, charity, cooperation, peaceful cooexistence, a world without walls, The National Networker, Artificial Intelligence, AI, symbiosis, Interworked Cooperative Business Communities, ICBC, Lingovations, commerce versus combat, trends, analysis, imagination, innovation, introspection, exponentialism and the mastermind, exponentiality, predicting the future, shaping the future, adaptation, evolution, twitter, google, social media, networking groups, tendencies, statistics, joint venturing metrics, prediction, strategic interdependence, communications technologies, skype, New World Order, The 1% Rule, Mutually Assured Destruction, imperialism, fuedalism, freedom, peace, prosperity, demography, allocation of wealth, Digg, Zimbio, TNNW BUZZWORKS, Articles by Douglas Castle, search engines, entreprenership, business tools, networking, relationships, convincing, negotiating, energy, parapsychology, systems, chaos, complexity, perspective, entropy, behavioral psychology, systems of government, sovereignty, ethics, objectivisim, subjectivism, relativism, multidimensionalism, perspective, inflation, recession, valuations, intellectual property, trust, balance of power, balance of trade, balance of trade, gross domestic foreign investment, indexing, growth industries, commodities, options, exhanges, control strategies, risk evaluation, survivalism...


Subscribe Free to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter and the BLUE TUESDAY REPORT. Sphere: Related Content

2010 - The Year Of The Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community

2010 - The Year Of The Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community (GICBC): A viable, sustainable alternative to the limitations and lamentations of the status quo.

________________________________________________________

"Ranting has done more to change the world than chanting ever has." - Douglas Castle

I would ask that each of us become an activist for the right reasons and for the right causes. There is much that is wrong in this world, emotionally as well as economically. Misplaced trust and disillusionment must not be permitted to allow us to accept an ever-declining standard, to embrace mediocrity, to be less than the greatness of our potential...our birthright. I have heard it said that "all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good persons to stand idly by and do nothing." But I also believe that a "critical mass" of good people, working together in cooperation, collaboration and harmony toward a great and noble goal can achieve anything. 

Let this year be the year that we celebrate our diversity with a spirit of unity, for those many things that unite us are far greater and far more important than those things which we have let divide us. We cannot depend upon governments, giant corporate conglomerates and that miniscule and manipulative percentage of the population which controls the bulk of the world's vast wealth to bring us peace and prosperity. We must look inside of ourselves, and toward each other. 

Working together, in the spirit of sharing of efforts and rewards can help us, as entrepreneurs, as Internationalists and as Human Beings, to become free from the misery that the erosion of productive and ethical initiatives has brought upon us. We do not have to beg when we can build. Not one of us has to stand alone. We must take back the power to be great, and to truly be free.

This freedom entails responsibility. And we can no longer abdicate our responsibility or depend upon an economic wave or a taxpayer-financed supernatural miracle to save us. We must break the cycle of pettiness and knee-jerk reactions and start being thinkers and planners and doers. We have let our will to win atrophy. We have muscles which we have forgotten how to use.

The awesome magic of our species is our ability to complement each other, to teach each other, to assist each other. As a community, as a Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community we have access to unlimited communications, resources and power. We have been fools not to see it -- we would be far greater fools not to use it.

As a multitude, as a collective, we are far greater than the sum of our individual constituents. We have the synergy at our disposal.

Join my club. Become proactive instead of reactive. Let's get to know eachother. This is not about networking. This is not about connecting. This is about combining, sharing and prospering.

When I joined The National Networker Companies over a year ago, my dream, my hope was to utilize the framework that Adam Kovitz had created out of love and inspiration in order to build a colossus of an entity wherein each participant would contribute resources and efforts, and where all could share in ownership and profits from a diversified and ever-growing stream of revenue.

Join us. Show us who you are. Let us get to know you. Let us discover our areas of commonality and our areas of complementarity. Let us build peace and prosperity as if we were a sovereign nation in the limitless realm of cyberspace. And most of all, let's make it personal as well as professional. To accomplish what needs to be done, we must re-discover the notion of caring about each other, and set aside the constant scrambling to steal from each other or to sell to each other. Let's stop the self-defeating frenzy and become committed allies.

The National Networker Companies will become the world's first GICBC. It costs nothing to say "yes" and join. In an entrepreneurial meritocracy, some of our numbers will leave. but many will stay. I hope and pray that we will grow to be a force to change things for the better for every one of us...and for us to show each other, and the world, that we are capable of being a great civilization.

Join us at http://twitlik.com/IN . We owe it to ourselves and to one another to see just how far we can go - working together. We owe it to our children and to the future of Humankind.

Thank you, one and all. May the year 2010 begin not merely our own, home-launched economic and social recovery, but may it be a year of the re-kindling of civilization, with its peace, prosperity and greater security.

Douglas Castle
Vice-Chairman and Director,

THE NATIONAL NETWORKER COMPANIES

Join us today at http://twitlik.com/IN. Get a free subscription to our RSS feed or our Daily Email at http://twitlik.com/Daily. Pay it forward. Tell your associates, colleagues to join us too. Tell them that you've decided to become part of a revolutionary idea, and that you are going to ride that idea into a reality. 

About Douglas Castle 

Douglas Castle - LinkedIn Profile

The National Networker Companies

Braintenance - Stay razor sharp.

The Internationalist Page - A world without barriers.

The Global Futurist - Revealing trends.

Taking Command! - Mastering your fate.

Follow Castle on Twitter 

Follow TNNW on Twitter

Sphere: Related Content