A Protest on Behalf of our Environment

Lessons from an Eco-Village

By John Taylor; 2009 June 13, Nur 07, 166 BE

We should develop a universal building code run under a world building authority. While there are undeniably aspects of buildings best fitted to a particular locality, most apply everywhere in the world and should be open and standard. We are living under a regime ideologically opposed to standards and planning, otherwise in the face of climate crisis we would set up goals like these:

For every new building with a flat roof, include at least one raised vegetable garden. Have residents plant and tend it, and let its harvest be consumed locally, preferably on the premises.

For every new building with a flat roof, install at least one solar panel and one small wind turbine to offset the energy costs of the building. This would reduce power transmission costs.

Phase out non-flat roofs on new buildings, which are not environmentally tenable. Sloping roofs should be required at least to be "green," that is, to have a plant covering. Incentives should be introduced to convert sloped roofs to flat ones.

As anybody who has built a solar panel or wind turbine will tell you, you have to figure in a large overhead for red tape and bureaucratic delays. Why not make it a goal to see that rules are upheld while still encouraging innovation?

In summer, why not save on air conditioning by doing what residents do on flat roofs throughout the Middle East? For every building with a flat roof see that there is temporary, outdoor sleeping accommodation for residents, even if it is only hammocks.

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High density housing is the most efficient and least environmentally harmful, and low density housing is the worst thing that can happen to the balance of nature. Therefore the goal of social vivification and that of environmental protection are congruent. Lest any doubt that the way to counteract environmental degradation is to increase the interest and vitality of social life, let them consider a small town in Germany that decided to do everything it takes to eliminate waste. This is from a special report by The Economist Magazine on how to reduce waste:

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"Sieben Linden, a hamlet in former East Germany, half-way between Hamburg and Berlin, looks deceptively normal. There is a cluster of houses, some fields, a few cars parked by the side of the road and a small shop, all set against the backdrop of a looming pine forest. Closer inspection, however, reveals a few peculiarities. Several of the modern-looking buildings turn out to be made of wood, straw and mud. There are huge quantities of logs, because wood-fired stoves and boilers provide all the heating, and quite a few solar panels, which generate most of the electricity. And there are more young people around than usual in rural Germany. Sieben Linden, a self-proclaimed eco-village, is growing fast, unlike the surrounding towns.

"The 120 inhabitants have decided to live in as green a manner as possible. They are trying to wean themselves off fossil fuels, grow their own food and timber, acquire fewer frivolous possessions and produce less waste. Food comes either from their own fields or from wholesalers, so there is no need for much packaging. Any scraps are composted. Urine from the toilets is diverted to a reed bed for natural purification, and the faeces are turned into compost for the community's forest. The residents live separately but share big appliances such as washing machines and cars. Before buying a new tool, say, they will put a note into the community's logbook to ask if anybody has one they could borrow. If not, they will probably buy one second-hand. They often wear one another's hand-me-downs. Unwanted possessions are left out for others to help themselves.

"Carefree consumption is not actually forbidden, though it would raise eyebrows, says Eva Stitzel, who helped to found Sieben Linden over a decade ago. But the main reason the inhabitants buy less and waste less is that they have a rich community life which does not revolve around trips to shops, restaurants and cinemas. They go ice-skating on a nearby pond in winter and swimming in summer; they teach one another horse-riding and yoga and tai chi; they put on plays and concerts and seminars.

"The idea, explains Kosha Joubert, another resident, is not to adopt a dreary, ascetic lifestyle but to demonstrate that it is possible to live in a green manner without undue sacrifice or disruption. Western urbanites could easily adopt elements of the eco-village lifestyle, she says, by forming car pools, say, or shopping co-operatives." ("A special report on waste, Less is more, The ultimate in waste disposal is to tackle the problem at source," Feb 26th 2009, The Economist, February, 28, 2009, p. 16 (http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13135425&fsrc=rss)

John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

The Second Vlog for the Badi Blog, June 10

Second installment of the Badi Blog's video, includes latest essays available on the Blog, a report of the War of 1812 reenactment in Stoney Creek, Ontario, the kids' reaction to a "cartridge candy...









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EP's Golden Rule

Getting Back to Where We Went Astray 

By John Taylor; 2009 June 12, Nur 06, 166 BE

John Comenius stands with Socrates as one of the greatest teachers and theorists of curricula in the history of education. We have seen since the beginning of our study that Comenius believed in making full use of whatever means necessary, including humour, demonstrations, field trips, and even games and amusements, to arouse the interest of students and to remove their inertia and apathy. Since his aim was always universality -- hence the name Panorthosia, Universal Reform -- he held that the teacher should go to whatever lengths necessary to reach everybody, and not leave virtue, knowledge and action only to a few.

As part of accomplishing this, he proposed that the leaders, guides and teachers of society make full use of what we now call slogans. We have already studied in detail the brief slogans he proposed for the three branches of world government, as well as for the individual and the family. Comenius suggested that these slogans be posted in prominent places as constant reminders of what the institution in question is all about. I have suggested that we make beautiful, dynamically updated designs based upon them called "escutcheons." Escutcheons would be a system of public rewards posted not only above doorways and on walls but also on websites and other prominent locations in cyberspace.

At the end of the sixth chapter of Panorthosia Comenius suggests a slogan for the purification principle we have been studying, that of elimination of prejudice. He calls it the "Golden Rule" of removing of blocks to reform,

"Even now it is obviously necessary to adopt as a golden rule: LET US RETURN TO THE WAY FROM WHENCE WE HAVE GONE ASTRAY!" (Panorthosia II, Ch. 6, para 10, p. 102)

As he makes clear, Comenius has in mind Isaiah 53:6, "We had all strayed like sheep, each of us had gone his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all." (NEB) Like sheep or other herding animals, when humans no longer know, will and act in unison the survival of the whole is compromised. A single wolf, as it were, can pick them off one by one at its leisure. Wandering alone, each sheep sees only its own way, which dooms not only it but the whole flock. The only salvation is through suffering and sacrifice. Although it is a profound spiritual reality, it has visible outward characteristics towards which we can navigate.

"LET US RETURN, therefore, I. from confusion through simplicity to unity; II. from errors through rejection of opinions to truth; III. from conflicting pursuits and fighting through love of common welfare to peace and concord." (Ch. 6, para 12, p. 102)

The need to return to where we went astray is increasingly being recognized as we try and fail to respond substantively to climate change. One Dutch scientist who was part of an international panel examining how to make agriculture sustain humanity without destroying the environment confirmed the need for this in a recent essay.

"A close understanding of how institutions determine individual behaviour might even curb the enthusiasm for `methodological individualism', the tendency to explain collective things such as the marketplace as a necessary outcome of individual choices." (Niels Roling, "Why we need a proper study of mankind," New Scientist, 14 January 2009, http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126911.700-why-we-need-a-proper-study-of-mankind.html?full=true)

At the heart of prejudice, then, is so-called "methodological individualism," a reductionist belief that it is possible to chop knowledge into component atoms and still come to grips with the whole. The path from which we have gone astray and to which we must return now, then, is that of polity, where everybody has a common vision, where every part learns and works together in harmonious groups and subgroups for the welfare of all. Comenius explains his "return whence we went astray" solution thus:

"But as it will become evident that we have all taken such divergent paths since we departed from the true way (I mean the way of universality which we should all follow, and the way of simplicity, where we should go without stumbling, and the way of agreement which we should gladly take towards ends that are manifestly good, according to God's will for all of us) it will at the same time be obvious that we must all return to a common way." (Ch. 6, para 9, p. 102)

The question remains, in what sense is this a "Golden Rule" of elimination of prejudice? Let us put that off until tomorrow.

John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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Book Recommendations

Betty Frost passed this on from stalwart Niagara Baha'i Jeanne Mason:

Dear Friends -

 I have just finished reading (for the umpteenth time) "Fires in Many Hearts" by Doris McKay - a record of the development of the Faith in America and eastern Canada from 1923 to the early 40s - through the great depression and the 2nd WW.  An inspiration to us all.

Two new books you might want to read are "King of the Messengers: The Bab" ( available at Amazon books) - a spiritual journey into the life and revelation of the Bab.

"Take my love to the Friends"  the story of Laura R. Davis - the "mother" of the Toronto Baha'i community - from 1919 for nearly 60 years - a history of Toronto and a most dedicated Baha'i.

These three books are a must I believe - to help us, incourage us and guide us through these times.

With love to all, 

-- Jeanne.

Soft Censors

Computerized Censors

This morning's email version of the New York Times includes an article by one Andrew Jacobs called, "China Faces Criticism Over New Software Censor," with the by-line,

"China is facing a storm of protest over new regulations  requiring all personal computers sold in the country to include filtering software." (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/world/asia/11censor.html?th&emc=th)

This new law requires that each new computer sold in China be required to include a dynamically updated censorship service, not unlike what software companies like Microsoft and Apple offer their customers to protect the Windows Vista and Panther operating systems from viruses. The companies close up vulnerabilities of all sorts without most users knowing or caring how their operating system has been changed. The worry is that this capability will give government the power to raise or lower the level, quality and direction of censorship without knowledge or consent from computer users. On the other hand, most computer users are happy to have the latest and safest version of any software, not only operating systems, to be installed automatically as soon as it becomes available.

The problem with a censorship update service run by government is that it may be tempted to hide sites that need not be hidden. A tyrannical government tends to censor sites that are only annoying to it, and that are not necessarily treasonous or dangerous. You never know what an update service like this is blocking.

But notwithstanding, I am not entirely convinced by that suspicion. The Linux operating system uses an open systems approach to its updates that is relatively equable, if not totally democratic. Its security updates are not secret, and in fact Linux software is the most dependable and secure in the world for the very reason that its underlying code is free and open to examination by all. It is confidentiality and trade secrecy that made Vista so expensive and cumbersome to update.

The saying goes that if something has been done it must be possible.

Since a secure, non-proprietary, un-tyrannical and open update service has been accomplished in the complex world of computer software, it must be possible to do so for our other security needs as well.

For that reason I say: There may be a "storm of protest" over this computer update initiative in some quarters but, using the language of the press, I and the Badi Blog want to "hail" this initiative. What a great idea! All hail China! Indeed, why not offer a censorship service to everybody, everywhere, with every computer in the world, old or new? This is exactly what the world needs to limit the endemic abuses of the Internet. Not only software has vulnerabilities; not only governments have vulnerabilities. Individuals have vulnerabilities too. The human mind has weaknesses built into it, vulnerabilities that in early days were termed idols. Frances Bacon, for example, wrote that,

"Idols and false conceptions which have hitherto occupied the intellect of man, and are deeply implanted therein, not only so beset the minds of men that it is difficult for truth to obtain an entrance..." (Bacon, Novum Organum I, Ch. 6, para. 38)

We should not idly condemn those who would protect us from our own built-in weaknesses. As Shakespeare's Brutus put it in his famous speech, "oft the wrong men do lives on, while the good is buried with their bones." Idols, fads and rumours capture attention and spread faster than important but boring issues, and the universal connectivity of the Internet only makes this worse. We therefore must be ever vigilant to defend ourselves.

The computer is a wonderful tool, but it would be even more wonderful if it could update itself with built-in protections devised by the best guardians, psychologists and security professionals that the world has to offer.

Nobody is perfect. We all are weak in some way.

I personally have a vulnerability to edibles, especially what is sweet or savoury. If a host places a bowl of food on the table during a meeting, I cannot think about what is being said or considered until that bowl is empty. I am like some dogs, which, if you leave out a bowl of water that automatically refills every time it drinks from it, they drink and drink until they die. This happened to one of my brother's friend's dog. He learned too late that the solution was to take away the refilling dog dish.

I am so weak that I notice that if a web page I am reading includes a prominent advertisement with a picture of food, I cannot concentrate on anything else but that dish. I have to cover that part of the screen. Same way, if somebody in our household buys the wrong sort of junk food and I know where it is, I cannot rest until it is gone. This is a known vulnerability, and it takes effort on my part and from those living with me to cover my vulnerability up. I would welcome an Internet update service that would give me the option to filter out pictures and references to food. That would be a tremendous advantage to me in my quest for purity and my need not to be corrupted willy-nilly by anybody or any corporation that pleases.

And what about the family? The family has any number of known vulnerabilities, but the most obvious is the male predilection for the unclad female form. For millions of years humans lived in an environment where such images were rare. Clothes were invented in part to limit exposure to such data, and it is not a coincidence that most scriptures use clothing as a symbol for the religion of God.

It is in the interest of the institution of marriage, not to mention that of God and the dignity of men, that hard core pornography not be a few clicks away from any and every computer user. Nor is it in the interest of this foundational institution that the sexual weaknesses of men to certain images be exploited for advertising purposes. An update service run by and on behalf of families should be available that would expunge all such corruptive influences from the cyber-world of their male members. If the family had any power at all, it would have the power to update and adjust the content of any computer in its purview, just like what the government is trying to do in China.

As mentioned, these protesters in China do have a valid point that an update service, being covert, can itself become a tool of oppression. Such an invisible system admittedly has the ability to compromise the freedom we all value.

At the same time, we should bear in mind that there is good reason to keep issues involving security confidential. This is already what Microsoft, to cite the best known example, is doing with its updates to Vista. Microsoft obviously does not want to publicize the fact that some penny ante hacker can bring Vista computers around the world to their knees with a few keystrokes. They want to shut each vulnerability down as soon as it is known. They need to do this very quietly, since as soon as a flaw becomes known among hackers they will rapidly figure out how to get around it. Any new way to get around a weakness will rapidly spread, and it is in the general interest that such information be suppressed.

As for government censorship, I think that not even the most rabid protester can deny that there are situations, such as terrorism, riots and violent insurrection, where censorship would save lives. At the same time, knee-jerk protest can polarize a situation and provoke the very behaviour that it sets out to counteract.

We should not assume that the motives of government are always sinister, or that there are hidden, nefarious motives behind everything they do. We should remember the warnings of Baha'u'llah in His Will and Testament. "Lofty is the station of man, were he to hold fast to righteousness and truth..." (Tablets, 220) and,

"Kings are the manifestations of the power, and the daysprings of the might and riches, of God. Pray ye on their behalf. He hath invested them with the rulership of the earth, and hath singled out the hearts of men as His own domain." (220-221)

This admonition to pray for our leaders we should take very seriously, for it forges a tie of love and a bond of trust between us and those who serve the general interest. It is hard not to feel differently about somebody when we have stood before our God and mentioned their name and begged divine bounties and assistance on their behalf. Insofar as we have made our heart the domain of God, love and goodwill towards leaders and public servants must be strengthened by this moving command of Baha'u'llah that was among the last words He ever wrote.

Whereas materialism and kneejerk protest tend to have the effect of a nocebo ("I will harm"), religion at its best is, at worst, a placebo ("I will please"). Good doctors recognize that a placebo, a neutral sugar pill, can have a powerful effect on the body if it is given in the right psychological circumstances. In the same way, we need to see to it that guardians be set up to protect us from the cybernetic nocebos proliferating on the Internet, and that as much as possible placebos take their place. There is a fine line between the two, and we need to be confident that somebody somewhere is at least trying to sort them out in the self-updating world of computers. Again, this is an effect that Francis Bacon mentioned at the dawn of science,

"There is no slight difference between the idols of the human mind and the ideae of the divine mind; that is, between certain vain conceits and the true marks and impressions made on created things as they are found by us." (Bacon, Novum Organum I, Ch. 6, para. 23)

John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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Choirs at Wilmette

How Prejudice Works

Comenius on How Prejudice Works

By John Taylor; 2009 June 08, Nur 04, 166 BE

In our collective childhood, an illiterate majority was forced to act for limited ends. Slavery was prevalent, and prejudice was not a prominent concern, unless it served the interests of the elite. Now that freedom and education are approaching universality, however, the few have learned to use persuasion, artificial prejudice as it were, in the mass media to cajole and manipulate the majority into compliance with similarly limited purposes. Comenius wrote Universal Reform (Panorthosia) as an exploration of how we might go about affecting change for universal ends, reform in the interest of all.

As we have seen, Comenius devotes the entire sixth chapter of Universal Reform to how to remove "hindrance to reform." He starts off saying that our most serious obstacles are mental blocks, the stupidity, "careless prejudice" and obstinacy at the "true root of all corruption." These "bind us from within" and "render us incapable of undertaking any reform whatsoever." (Panorthosia II, Ch. 6, para 1, p. 99) This inertia confronting us affects everything, from social cohesion, to thought, to our very goodness.

"For we have indeed gone astray I. from unity, through countless opportunities leading to countless confusions, II. from Truth, through countless opinions leading to countless errors, III. from Goodness, through countless temptations leading to countless particular deadly desires and pursuits."(Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 6, para 11, p. 102)

The key to removing prejudice is, as we have seen earlier in this series, the principle of purification. Just as our bodies need clean air and water in order to be healthy, mind and soul require pure sustenance too. Various kinds of pollution cause the bad attitudes, obstinacy, apathy and passive resistance that block change for the better.

"The first solid beginning of reform would be like the removal of all the mud of indifference, prejudice and wicked obstinacy from the springs of the senses, the fountain of understanding, and the outflow of the will, so that the rivulets of attention, judgment and ready inclination towards every improvement begin to flow forth in greater purity for the benefit of all."(Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 6, para 16, p. 103)

Comenius understood that three faculties, sense, understanding, and volition must be fully involved in order for willed, conscious action to take place. We need to pay conscious attention, have the right attitude and judge aright what to do; in the words of Baha'u'llah, "Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements." (Proclamation, 116) Our concern and resolve to act are systematically dissipated by bad habits, which we can only counteract with systematic countermeasures.

"Three factors contribute to this habit of inwardly accepting the evils into which we have fallen, namely: I. carelessness and stupidity; II. prejudice concerning the true and the good already possessed; thence producing indifference; III. lastly, the most pernicious jealousy for one's own affairs and hatred for those of others. These three hindrances must be completely removed and replaced by their direct opposites, namely I. urgent attention to all current affairs; II anxious concern for truer knowledge of affairs; III. readiness and enthusiasm to adopt improvements." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 6, para 3, pp. 99-100)

In spite of our increased sophistication in this age of education, we still, each and all, need to fulfill these three conditions, attention, concern and readiness, if we are to push aside the prejudices that block an active response to the "needs of the age." As mentioned at the beginning, these three faculties, which should be the foundation of freedom, are instead being systematically suppressed and redirected by commercialism and ideology. However, there is nothing stopping us from purifying self by removing prejudice in our own thought, and in the public forum by placing the elimination of prejudice at the top of the public agenda.

John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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Good and Evil Talk

We are having our monthly public meeting on Tuesday. Here is more about the topic, from the newspaper article written by the speaker, Betty Frost.

WHY DOES GOD PERMIT EVIL TO EXIST?

Next Tuesday evening, June 9th at 8:00 p.m. in the Garfield Disher Room of Dunnville's Library, this subject will be explored by speaker, Betty Frost.

Many people over the years have asked the question as to why God permits evil to exist, especially when they think about horrendous events such as the Holocaust; any of the wars which have been so viciously fought down through the ages; persecution for whatever reason; individual acts of
violence - or following a senseless act of terrorism in which innocent people are killed.

In the presentation, the question of what is evil will be explored. One dictionary summarizes evil as 'that which violates or leads to the violation of moral law; violating or inconsistent with moral law; anything causing injury or harm." Unless we are declared atheists, most of us probably believe that God established moral law. Since God is All-Powerful, how is it that so many of these laws are broken every day? Why do we see hatred, racism, violence, anger, self centeredness, greed, a relentless desire for power, etc.?

These questions will be considered during the meeting along with a belief which was commonly held that Satan is responsible. Is there such a being? Another question is if evil is innate within the character of man, isn't war (a definite evil) inevitable? Is there anything we can we do if we
perceive something as evil ?

from the section called:

AROUND TOWN

Tuesday, June 9
In the Garfield Disher Room of Dunnville's Library, Betty Frost will examine the question: Why Does God Permit Evil to Exist? Since many people have had their faith in God shaken when some horrendous thing has happened to them or to others, this theme may well be of interest to many.

8:00 p.m.

All welcome

Improving Transport, Part II

"Goodbye GM" Counter-suggestions


By John Taylor; 2009 June 07, Nur 02, 166 BE


We continue going through the suggestions Michael Moore made for improving the transport system in his recent essay, "Goodbye GM." Moore's fifth suggestion is:


Moore: "5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses."


JET: Until we moved into the country in the late 1990's I refused to own a car and for at least twenty years used mostly buses to get around Hamilton. I spent a large proportion of my time waiting around for the next bus. So I can tell you from first hand experience that this system needs a great deal more fixing than just manufacturing more buses, however clean and energy efficient they may be.

What killed the bus was not so much a plot by big brother as it was little brother, the unions. If we really wanted people to use buses again, you would have to break the leech-like hold of the teamster's union. That would mean cutting through a mountain of red tape and introducing free enterprise into the equation.

The cheroots of Israel and share taxis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_taxi) used throughout the developing world could be adapted to follow flexible routes and pick up passengers until they are full, with costs shared by them all. Combined with better regulation, on demand methods and connected devices, this would would fill the gaps between various modes of transport.

I still resent being forced to own a car, which is against all my principles. So, why not let amateurs compete head on with professional drivers by allowing any motorist to pick up riders along the way, with times, routes and fees already negotiated by GPS and Internet connected computers? Any reliable motorist could offset expenses by picking up passengers, while at the same time decreasing the wasted resource of one-occupant vehicles.

The kids and I have as our daily reading lately, "One People, One Planet; The Adventures of a World Citizen," by Andre Brugiroux, the story of a Frenchman who traveled around the world (and when he hit Alaska, heard about and became a Baha'i) on a dollar a day, exclusively by hitchhiking. This book reminds me of what a great experience it is to travel by thumb. When I was in school and my mother had a mortal illness, I commuted from Hamilton to Guelph University almost every day for a while. I remember learning far more from the stories and comments of the kind souls who picked me up than the rigid, overly stiff lectures I attended. A few years later it became impossible to get a ride, thanks no doubt to a terror campaign against hitchhiking by the mass media. Rich, centralized money machines have no interest in competing with rides for charity.

But, now that I think of it, if journalistic terrorists were removed from the picture, present cell phone technology would make hitching far more pleasant and convenient than before. You would just punch a virtual thumb into your Blackberry and any driver in the area who feels like gabbing in exchange for a ride would pick you up. In case a crime were committed, there would be a record of who both both are indelibly inscribed on the Net. Hitchhiking would be safe and relaxed for all concerned.


Moore: "6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true)."


JET: Moore is stuck in the past, a time when huge factories and unions ran the roost. We do not need ruthless predators to dominate, centralize and subvert the economy again. In early days, local machine shops designed cars. Gradually, big assembly lines exterminated them. Now technological efficiency has shifted back to the local level. Let the workshop come back. Using three dimensional printers any part can now be fabricated on-site at the punch of a button. All the retooling of electrification can go on at your local garage. Larger but still local workshops could, with existing technology, quickly convert every existing car to electric, and then go on to greater things.

There is no doubt that a shift to local manufacture would create far more and better quality, more creative jobs than factories ever did. Once every present car is electric, local shops and garages could start designing and manufacturing new cars based on local demand. There is no real need for big factories any more, except sometimes to make standardized, specialized parts. Local enterprises can assemble mass produced parts into vehicles, and, whenever necessary, make their own parts. All we need to do this would be agreed upon standards. Standard parts for an open-system designed series of cars and trucks could be designed, tested and negotiated in the same way that the Linux operating system was worked out, by a combination of paid and volunteer workers whose output is mediated by Internet-connected software.

Clearly, local workshops too could be taken over by larger interests and made into franchises as centralized, undemocratic and narrow sighted as GM ever was. However, well designed profit sharing schemes and open accounting can be designed to counteract that tendency. With good laws and accounting methods, a local shop can be a worker's cooperative using the same combination of competing amateurs, professionals and expert consultants that would reform the other, consumer end of the industry where buses, cheroots, taxis and hitchhiking compete with one another for the common good.


Moore: "7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them."


JET: Absolutely! I can only add that we need to set up a very elaborate set of goals and deadlines to accomplish this complex task. It is as much a legislative and intellectual challenge as an industrial one, because solar energy is local by definition. Sunlight falls on every point on earth equally, not only on Washington, London or Beijing. If our political reflexes responded to needs of the locality, we would have converted to solar power long ago. The great challenge posed by total solarization of energy is to decentralize democracy, and that can only be done once a world confederation is formed. Otherwise the continual threat of war will swing the balance to the center and the local will continue to be starved out.


Moore: "8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy."


JET: Not nearly enough. We need to give neighborhoods real decision making power. We need to discourage freehold dwellings, and encourage higher density, modular housing. This will only happen once we have come up with legal mechanisms to see that everything in a neighborhood is both democratic and up to world class standards.


Moore: "9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them."


JET: This is a great idea but no politician who dared advocated it would survive the next election. The electorate is a spoiled child who wants his cake and demands to eat it too. Surely another example of the tyranny of "Little Brother." This is why the Baha'i administrative order permanently eschews the approval of voters for policy while upholding their right to choose the individuals who, in a group, arrive at and carry out policy. Some political thinkers put it this way: a politician is either a leader or a representative of the will of the people, but cannot be both. If she is a representative there would be no need for a human being to be there in the first place, public opinion polls or referenda would determine every decision. In this time of crisis, we clearly need leaders. And mostly, we need local leaders.


John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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school and travel

Improving School and Travel

By John Taylor; 2009 June 05, Azamat 19, 166 BE

The Globe and Mail featured last week in "Facts & Arguments" an interesting essay on education by Dayle Peters called, "Nearing 50 and back in high school." He writes,

"After 35 years, two university degrees and six jobs, I recently returned to high school to pick up two pesky credits I was missing in math and physics. For the first time in a long time, I would be required to memorize things: formulas, definitions, procedures... I enrolled in the courses at a day school for students over 21. Almost all my classmates were in their early 20s. A few were in their 30s, but I was easily the oldest student." (May 27, 2009, Globe and Mail, Facts & Arguments)

Having just returned from the work force, he notices how reliant students at this level are expected to be on memory. In the workaday realm, if you do not know something, you look it up. This is the effect of the surprisingly influential Thomas Edison, a hypocrite, all but unschooled himself who nonetheless enjoyed sadistically testing his more educated employees on their factual recall. This is not education but a reductionist stereotype. In Edison's view, learning is nothing more than vomiting back a bunch of spoon-fed memorized facts. Sure, that is just how he invented the light bulb, by memorizing facts taken out of electricity texts. Influenced by this stunted way of knowing, an American broadcaster once asked Albert Einstein what the speed of sound is. "If I need to know that sort of thing," he replied, "I look it up in a book." Not so in a high school course. You have to memorize or it is assumed that you do not know it.

"My ... objection was: why should I have to (memorize)? My future at work, in the real world, never depended on whether or not I could summon a specific memorized fact without double-checking it. At work, if I needed a number, a customer name or an order process and I couldn't remember it, I'd look it up or ask someone. ... high school isn't like work. The curriculum still imagines students have no connection to the outside world. Writing a test or exam is like being sent on a journey in a leaky canoe with only the survival items you'd thought to bring. You arrive at your exam hoping you packed the right things in your head, hoping there will be no surprises and hoping you've got what it takes to get to the end without being swamped."

Peters makes some other pointed criticisms of education (to hear the whole thing read aloud, go to the iTunes store and look under "Facts and Arguments" for this podcast). For example, he notices that there is still no credit given for the ability to work cooperatively in a group. Team players, highly valued in the workplace, are not encouraged in school. Instead, individual performance remains the sole criterion for success as a student.

The theory of evolution does not describe nature only. It also is the model for schools. It is the only explanation as to why, after so many decades, education remains uninfluenced by such obvious criticisms. In school we consciously select for a narrow set of skills. The examination system selects solely for the ability to parrot information by rote. The best parrots become teachers, and they have a vested interest in continuing the examination system. It selected them, didn't it? How bad can the exam method be? Any attempt to point out that the parrot is dead is met with the same obdurate denial as in the famous Monte Python pet store skit. Same thing with politics, democratic politicians have no interest in tinkering with democracy, no matter how ridiculous and corrupt the system becomes, since that system picked them out. If I rose to the top, how bad can the electoral setup be? Nobody wants to kick out the ladder that took them to the top, but that is just what needs to be done today, more than at any other time.

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A reader sent me a recent essay by the American pundit and documentary filmmaker extraordinary, Michael Moore, called "Goodbye, GM." (http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php) In this essay Moore suggests a nine point plan to get the auto industry back on its feet. While I agree that they are good ideas, I do not think they are radical enough. Here are parts of some of his ideas, along with my comments.

"1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated."

jet: This is a very good point. All you need is a clear goal and a broad consensus that the job must be done immediately. We forget how quickly we can turn things around. The problem is not capacity, it is corruption. The oligarchy is telling society what to do, not the other way around. Factories are their jealously guarded property. Besides, Roosevelt had a history of standing up to the fat cats, even admonishing them in harsh terms, something you never see today. Yet so great was the emergency that they gladly retooled their factories and executives volunteered work for a dollar a year. Who has that mettle today?

"2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now."

jet: The problem is not this simple. Yes, you have to keep them working or the expertise of an entire generation of workers will be lost. But the structure of business itself has to be retooled at the same time. The workplace at present is nowhere near democratic. Wealth is not shared, especially with workers on the lower rung. Profit sharing schemes must be adopted, and the artificial chasm between ownership, management and workers closed up. Companies that deal across borders must be licensed by a world regulatory body. As we convert energy to electric and transport to mass transport, we must also change the rot that brought this emergency into existence in the first place.

"3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. ... Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now."

We should also think about converting to fully modular transport, as suggested by many visionaries in the past. With a standard chassis, it is now possible to have removable passenger compartments that would move from car to train to any other means of conveyance without the passenger ever leaving. This containerization is already universal in transport; it should also take over transit.

4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.

Again, not enough. Commutes are as much to be avoided as recreational and educational travel are desirable. Housing and city planning as well as transport specialists need to design everything around modular, mobile houses. These would allow residents to find a perfect location for their own needs. Integrated with a modular transport system, residents would gravitate to a location close enough to work, shopping and other facilities not to need mechanical transport. Instead we should walk or bike. Let long commutes become a thing of the past.

I'll look at Moore's last five points later.

John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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Locating EP

Locating the Elimination of Prejudice

By John Taylor; 2009 June 04, Azamat 18, 166 BE

From a physical viewpoint, farming, converting sunlight into food, is the fundamental profession. Without farming, civilization would die out, along with all but a tiny number of hardscrabble survivors. As soon as agriculture was born, two basic needs immediately became apparent, growth and protection. Farmers needed to grow food but just as importantly, they had to protect crops from all manner of threats. Natural attacks are challenging to defend against, but nothing can compare with human predation. An invading army with a scorched earth policy leaves no farmers or arable land behind. Only a powerful entity can protect farms, which are spread throughout the countryside and are therefore highly vulnerable to looters and marauders.

The most important protective role of farming was therefore delegated to the largest political federation practicable at the time. Throughout history this protective body grew in size from the village, to city-states and then to nations. Now it is painfully evident that the nation state is inadequate to protect the ecosystem of an entire planet. The protective responsibility of sheltering agriculture is about to be passed on to the ultimate level, that of a world federation. Once dire and immediate external threats, such as war and chaos, are eliminated by a planetary political confederation, subtler dangers undermining unity will emerge into full view. In a similar way, a farmer, once the threat of imminent invasion by looting invaders is removed, can turn his full attention to the many, ever changing threats that nature constantly pits against his crop.

But we should not forget that protection is not just a physical law. Materiality, in fact, is a mere reflection of an underlying, unseen spiritual reality. The principle of protection reflects how God rules the universe. God creates and nurtures, but also furnishes the means of protection for each creature. As humanity grew to maturity, the task of protecting our means of survival gradually passed over from our natural environment to our willed, conscious control, as Jesus' parable of the Watchtower (a high tower for a watchman to protect a farmer's field from looters) and Baha'u'llah's principle of Covenant both demonstrate. The Qu'ran also warns against using the tyrant's divide and conquer technique on the great spiritual farm, divine scripture.

"We will surely punish the schismatics, who have broken up their scriptures into separate parts. By the Lord, We will question them all about their actions." (Q15:90)

Just as farming and all types of agriculture depend upon an underlying foundation of a healthy, diverse ecosystem, so, the Qur'an assures us, divine scripture must be understood holistically. We must apply its wisdom in an organic, unified manner if religion is ever to protect, rather than undermine, human survival. This holistic integrity begins in the soul and spreads through broadening circles of unity, just like the historic growth of political unity did throughout history. Comenius expresses this with great verve in his masterwork, the Panorthosia,

"This means that every man should be a self-contained individual, an undivided whole, and every family and household should constitute one body, and similarly for every city, kingdom, and people. And finally the whole human race, with the whole complex of its affairs and all the choirs of angels, should be one unit under the ONE GOD, who is truly ONE, and ever shall be ONE to all eternity. And to HIM ALONE shall be the praise and the glory for ever and ever, Amen!"(Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 6, para 13, p. 102)

As Comenius points out, the only known way to counteract pride and false, self-serving ideas is to purify mind and heart thoroughly by immersing them in truth, by friendship with the One True God. Such spiritual means as purity, oneness and integrity help eliminate prejudices before they can catch hold. Just as a farmer depends upon the largest political agglomeration possible to protect against the worst danger, so the individual must appeal to the ultimate, the most powerful spiritual Being, God Himself, to do the lion's share of protection.

The Baha'i principle we are now studying, the elimination of prejudice, is the application of this spiritual principle of protection to the intellectual and social realms of human endeavour. Prejudice is a virus that uses satanic power, ego and pride, to divide and conquer. It has always been our greatest threat to security, since without widespread prejudice against out-groups it would be all but impossible for leaders to persuade large numbers of young men to march off to war, especially for dubious or frivolous reasons.

In his talks and tablets, when Abdu'l-Baha went through a representative selection of the Baha'i principles He would usually list that of eliminating prejudice and fanaticism in fifth place. By coincidence, Comenius places his chapter on this topic in the Panorthosia in the sixth of twenty-six chapters. He calls the chapter: "concerning the evils which are powerful barriers to the UNIVERSAL Reform of our Affairs, and how to remove them: and first and foremost the task of ridding our minds of stupidity, careless prejudice, and obstinacy." Next time we will examine what he says there in more detail.

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The Astounding World of the Future

Badi' Vlog, Episode One

The Goal of all is Happiness

By John Taylor; 2009 June 03, Azamat 17, 166 BE

After many years being stymied by what I call my "video curse," yesterday I made some progress. I had collected some good footage on our camcorder of a new skateboard park that Tomaso and I visited last weekend in Hamilton, but neither our Mac nor Vista computer would recognize its Firewire connection. The camcorder was as good as invisible. Meanwhile I had found an excellent video tutorial on the Web about how to use the video editing program that I bought last week, Final Cut Express. It was very helpful and cleared up basic things about cutting video that had utterly mystified me.

Unfortunately, with an invisible camcorder there was no way to try out what I had learned. Then I remembered that I had tried out the recording function of our new little digicam and that its compressed files had loaded onto the iMac perfectly. So I spent an hour or two splicing this limited material together into an eight minute demo, which I immediately uploaded to YouTube before the curse could catch up with me. This first episode of what I hope will be a series of Badi' Vlog videos is not going to win any Academy Awards, but I hope it will break the logjam of FUBARs that has sapped my confidence as a videographer for so long. You can see the video on the Badi Blog at:

http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/badi-blog-vlog-for-2009-may-29.html

Or on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnY0YAKLXj4

My other videos are at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnedwardtaylor

We went to the cinema in Welland for the evening and when we got back eight people had already viewed the video, and it had no fewer than two comments. For me, that is a lot. I can go several months of daily essays without getting two comments for a submission. Sure, I could easily get more than two responses by talking about something controversial, like homosexuality or some inflammatory public figure, but that would be cheap and superficial. I prefer to earn my notoriety through laboured and profoundly stupid themes.

Anyway, I want to talk about the movie I watched. Tomaso and Marie took in the new Pixar release, "Up," while I watched "Terminator 4, Salvation." If that is salvation, give me perdition any day. When the early Christians went around offering salvation, I do not think this is what they had in mind. What a bleak, flinty, iron hard vision of a future of war and oppression gone wild! The Skynet terminator machines collect together human beings like cattle and -- I never thought I could say this -- the glowing-red eyed prison guards make the Nazis look warm and cuddly! And the music, or sound effect theme, or whatever it is of the soundtrack is truly unnerving. It had me jumping out of my skin every few minutes. That is just what the human race needs, super-intelligent machines determined to exterminate us. I got out of the cinema, jumped straight into my car and pounded my fist into the radio, so angry I was with machines and technology. My fist hurt, but my soul felt better. How could they do this to us?

I have been mulling over the following words of `Abdu'l-Baha, and the Terminator vision of a future where military means of destruction get so sophisticated that they become independent and take command seems like only a slight exaggeration of what we are up against right now.

"However, until material achievements, physical accomplishments and human virtues are reinforced by spiritual perfections, luminous qualities and characteristics of mercy, no fruit or result shall issue therefrom, nor will the happiness of the world of humanity, which is the ultimate aim, be attained. For although, on the one hand, material achievements and the development of the physical world produce prosperity, which exquisitely manifests its intended aims, on the other hand dangers, severe calamities and violent afflictions are imminent." (SWA 283-284)

This is important for two reasons, one, because it assumes that the ultimate aim of all, and especially of God, is human happiness, and two because it projects the same trend that Terminator takes to an extreme, "severe calamities and violent afflictions." All we need to do to avoid them is to back up our material progress with spiritual virtues and mercy. Throughout the film I kept thinking, "If that really happened, humans would not stand a chance." For example, main characters walk away impervious from a full-scale mushroom cloud at least three times in the film (I missed the first part so there might have been more). In reality the result would be cancer, radiation sickness and who knows what all else. Flimsy humans, what hope do we have against the Machine?

We need to start what Comenius called the Great Postliminium (a return to one's former home to resume one's ranks and privileges after war or exile) while there is still a home to come home to. Those means getting rid of all warlike ways of thinking, not negatively by banishing bad thoughts but positively, by holding in mind and heart the vision of a God who loves us and wants our happiness. At the same time, we need to assert our right to be world citizen. Consider what the Baha'i declaration of rights, written in response to the newly formed United Nations' "Universal Declaration of Human Rights," declares:

"World order has become legally possible, socially imperative, and divinely ordained. The principle of federation has already united previously independent communities diverse in race, language, religion and size of population. The nations can find just expression for their legitimate rights and needs through proportionate representation in a supranational body. Until world citizenship is guaranteed as a social status, the human rights and privileges developed in the past are undermined by the disruption of modern society." (Baha'i International Community, 1947 Feb, A Baha'i Declaration of Human Obligations and Rights)

John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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Badi Blog Vlog for 2009 May 29

This video is the first of a series about my life, faith, family and friends, made for the Badi' Blog. This is what we did on the Ascension of Baha'u'llah, using our new digicam, a Canon PowerShot A1000IS. Peter explains his latest inventions, Silvie revels in our new puppy, and she and Tomaso play in Peter's pool and on his trampoline.

This is produced by John Taylor, author of the Badi' Blog, badiblog.blogspot.com

An Assembly Line for the Elimination of Prejudice

Suggestions for Eliminating Prejudice and Corruption

By John Taylor; 2009 June 02, Azamat 16, 166 BE

From my study of Comenius I have learned at least two new things about the disease of prejudice. First, that prejudice on the individual level leads directly to corruption on the collective level. Second, that prejudice always hides behind hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy, which comes from the Greek word for "acting," is a defence mechanism that substitutes pretence for a neglected inner reality. In religion, its symbol is the idol, a sham that we set up as a substitute for God.

"It will be necessary for you to be reformed truly and seriously, so that all these changes in you are real and practical things, not shadows without substance. It is a mistake for men to wish to give the appearance of reform according to God's will without working towards the reality of it. Certainly hypocrites and idols, which are an abomination in the sight of God, must be destroyed forthwith and have no place under Heaven. The tables of the testimony which Moses carried down from the mount in his hand were written on both their sides, and they were the work of the Lord (Exodus xxxii, 15, 16). As a reformed Christian, you must be this kind of tablet, graven within and without, that is, presenting the same kind of front whether to yourself or to others, such as God and your neighbour, made in every detail by the work of God, which means truly. For God is truth, and the works of God are all done in truth." (Panorthosia, Ch. 20, para 20, p. 27)

God is truth and his works are done in truth, which is to say that all true reform begins in a sincere desire to remove all prejudices. Whether social change leads to good or evil depends upon this sincerity. How long our reforms will last also depends upon sincerity.

This recalls my first lesson from Comenius.

To say that a government, a religion or a scientific organization is corrupt is the same as saying that many individuals in these groups are subject to prejudice. The most effective way to remove corruption, then, is to be systematic and efficient about the removal of prejudices. This starts with careful self-examination of the self, and continues through every stage of reform.

In the 19th chapter of Panorthosia Comenius suggests posing at each of three stages of reform a question designed to uproot corruption by testing its prejudicial presuppositions.

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I. What corrupting forces are at work there ruining that stage, and how can they be stopped? (In other words, what defects or excesses and transgressions have marred its existence and still debase it, and how can they be wiped out?).

II. Then what forces must replace them to restore each stage and reform its corruption?

III. What action must be taken to establish each separate stage once it is restored, so that it cannot easily fall into disorder, and deteriorate again?" (Ch. 19, para 18, p. 17)

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While such testing is essential to implementing reform, it is also important to avoid on the one hand impugning the sincerity of others before testing our own, and on the other neglecting the social responsibility to remove prejudice by allowing inefficiency and duplication of effort.

"But who will manage to remove prejudices? No-one thinks that he is prejudiced, and all men think that their judgement of affairs is sound. The answer lies in my salutary recommendation that a systematic collection of all the facts of human knowledge should be begun, so that all men start their investigations from a common point where we cannot tear ourselves away from the common light of the human mind, even if we wished to, and from there we would gradually be uplifted until an end was found to our disagreements. This will inevitably depend upon our knowing the right way to establish Universal Wisdom. (Panorthosia II, Ch. 8, para 32, p. 122)

This shows the influence of Frances Bacon. In Panorthosia, Comenius fully endorses Bacon's recent proposal to collect errors and superstitions into a single, integrated library or database. Once a fallacy has been debunked once, Bacon thought, we should see to it that we do not have to constantly repeat that labour every time an error raises its head again in a new guise. The refutation for each popular superstition or misconception must be given broad exposure in the public eye.

Their suggested project to expunge prejudice was partly implemented by the Royal Society and its development later into what we now call science. Eventually, free, compulsory public education has spread to almost all countries in the world. However it was not universal in the Comenian sense until the Internet and World Wide Web were invented.

Even now, many worry that the Net is propagating as much as eliminating superstitions, crackpot theories and wrongheaded causes. It may yet be decades before everybody on earth is in a position to "start their investigations from a single point."

As a lawyer, though, Bacon believed that to remove unproven, false or harmful ideas is as easy as promulgating a law. As a teacher and school principal, though, Comenius was well aware that this would be far from sufficient. The only way, then, to purify society from corruption and prejudice would be to incorporate their removal into a comprehensive, positive curriculum of research and reform, since "truth must be taught before errors are untaught." (Ch. 18, para 16, p. 246) This is because it is not so much errors in fact that keep us back as it is prejudicial habits that gradually, throughout childhood, became second nature. Once we regard an idea as innate and natural we defend it, right or wrong, as we do our own lives. Once the weed takes root it takes tremendous energy to uproot it.

"Then certain difficulties must be removed, such as habit which has perhaps developed into a natural characteristic. One must show that this can be conquered by a contrasting habit, provided that we begin by destroying the former one." (Ch. 18, para 16, p. 245)

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