IDU scrap notes and working blogs bet. 2007-2009 that may be of interest
Except for few key articles, Ignore the spelling, grammer errors as these are meant to be scrap notes
However, I did find 3 sites that are at least attempting to solve some of the moral dilemmas/hazard/ issues – globalethics.org, procon.org and responsibilityproject.com.
Below is a summary of key pts that I think are important for a Universal Moral Codes Platform, more like a wikepdia for moral codes/hazards. A user should be able to go to the site and pinpoint their moral hazard, read about it, and have tons of well-organized similar examples/discussions to learn from.
Argument for a Moral Code Platform
1. Moral hazards could be solved by 2 approaches. Top-down or bottoms-up. Bottoms-up pinpoint the specific issue and try to come out with the solution thru heavy discussion. The top-down approach would be to set up a universal acceptable moral codes and try to apply them to all issues – and hopefully solve them thru the process of obvious right/wrong elimination.
I strongly believe the top down approach should be attempted since once set up, the universal moral codes will be broad enough to eliminate most of the common hazards. Just a simple line of “have full consideration of all others at all times” solves a lot of the common hazards.
Although true that every issue is not exactly the same under different circumstances and need strong personal judgment at times, solving each issue the bottomsup way would take too long as there are too many hazards to devote time to each one. If somehow we could first apply a set of moral codes top down to eliminate the obvious ones, then we would have time, resource and focus for the grey ones.
Platform for proper etiquette and proper culture.
2. Beside a set of universal accepted moral codes, I think its important, if we considered ourselves evolved beings, to include a platform of proper etiquette and proper culture.
After months of serious research and thinking, I think the below is broad enough -
Proper etiquette = politeness, respect, tolerance, acceptance, full consideration of our speech/action to all others at all times
Proper Culture =love and compassion as first nature= positive action, positive criticism, no criticism out of mockery or insult or any negatives – only out of positive intention to help/improve(which mean we should only criticize if one has the intention to help /improve), no procrastination of action, helping others to help themselves, constantly improve ourselves to help others, proper etiquette and doing the right things at all times. Understand that love is a selfless energy that encompasses al, that we are all connected and the same, that all our actions are collective, that we don’t complete ourselves without completing others, that all strangers are family and friends.
If we all follow the above etiquette and culture, life would indeed be more peaceful and most moral hazards wont be hazards.
ACTION OVER INACTION
3. I also think its important to include a campaign to promote Responsibility of action, or Action over inaction, and that power of the individual= power of collective – that every small individual act and instance is crucial to the whole.
Even knowing whats right or wrong, most people wont take action because the average joe is lazy, shy, complacent, stressed-out, tired and have no time, and perhaps have ADD!!
So we need a forum to constantly remind them of the below-
ACTION vs INACTION – courage to speak up against significant others or strangers,avoiding laziness, complacency, shyness, as we are all family and friends
Having consideration, respect and tolerance and acceptance for differences do not mean not doing the right things,
Practice doing without doing- not shying away from the problem but facing them now.
Understand that minor problems could evolve into bigger problems
Admitting mistakes and correcting them instantly
Avoiding the negatives and shock values, controversies to promote self interest
INACTION due to laziness, shyness, lack of time, money, stamina, stress, fear , inconvenience = lack of culture
SOLUTION – making ACTION a daily culture and habit, doing one good deed a day, doing charity in grps
IMPORTANCE OF TACT AND TONE
4.And lastly, it is not enough to educate the public on WHY to take action but also on HOW to take action – how to use TACT and TONE especially verbal communication, under different circumstances. How many times that we want to approach someone, either stranger (say a homeless?)or closed one to advice them and positively criticize them but did not since we didn’t know how to take that first step to open our mouth? A simple sentence, but yet so complicated.
There is truly complexity in simplicity.
HUMOR as key concept for TACT and TONE
The power of humor cannot be underestimated and should be employed in education, mentoring, and communication.
Besides having the courage to take action, we need to know how to take action in different circumstances
To be verbally effective, instead of sounding offensive or negative. Clearly it is not easy, at least not for most people as most people are not extroverts by nature. If somehow we can collaborate to come out
with specifc lines of communication or tact and tones, something easy to remember, to apply, even for the average joe. Like the phrase”no hard feelings” or “just being friendly” help smooth out tension in dialougue.
And if we somehow incorporate humor into it, it will no doubt be more effective. Effective Humor is known to defuse even the most offensive people. Or situations.
How many times have we seen people get into fights based on different cultural understanding, ego, or simply lack of a good tone. Instead of brushing off these situations as childish and immature, maybe it is time to evaluate what casue these simple conflicts that could evolved into bigger conflicts. It is always started with bad communication, a bad tone, or lack of tact.
Awareness of these issues and solutions must be promoted to serve as daily reminders constantly in oir minds.
Clearly it’s a huge mountainous task to combine the two.
The FORUM - But perhaps we could get both the communication expert and humor experts together to devise the forum.
<Commedians, standups, IMPROV, humor with life conceptual script writer> are all gd for collaboration with <coaches and mentors, comm.. experts, teachers, psychology counselors>
The forum will go thru various what-if scenarios in each category, form the simplest human act,to any social, corporate, or global affairs . Very much similar to a harvard business roundtable, with strong improvbrainstorming sessions on various potential situations/dilemmas with participants of different personalitiesto conme out with optimal course of action.
To summarize in one sentence- how to use the right tact and tone to coach/mentor/communicate conceptually under different context with different personalites.
With gd humor incorporated in tact and tone, these simple to use sentences could be used for mentoring , parenting, coaching in different situations with friends or strangers.
THREE OTHER KEY ISSUES
Other common moral hazards/life dilemmas include:
A. Compromise vs rules structure
Love and compassion over ego, pride, accountability
Forgiveness vs accountability
B. Positive anger and criticism over being false sense of peace –zen
Ego, pride equals doing the right things at all time, full consideration of all others
Freedom=responsibility to do the right things at all times
C. Competition and empowerment could go hand in hand
– “To compete is to better(making both my competitor and I stronger), not batter our competitor”
Success in business= success in life first.
Success, ego, ambition, obsession vs love, compassion
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On Action over Inaction: A viable Communication Platform that solves the problem for people who DO care.
From the smallest personal misunderstanding to public violence.
Why Inaction over Action?
1.Shyness- introverted individuals have trouble approaching strangers or people, especially in last minute, moment of
truth situations. Even if one practice courage, it will still difficult as some people were born to be introverts.
3 Complacency, inconsiderate to the whole, laziness, inconvenience.- a culture issue, however most people were born complacent – a real problem!
3 lack of time or stamina due to daily schedule- this is more excusable but still doesn’t make ignoring the problem ok.
2. Fear of security – fearing that intervening will involve personal danger amid of the crossfires – a real concern!
3. lack of Knowledge, Stunned, Frozen to the pt one couldn’t think fast enough-
Not knowing what to do- verbally, physically, tact and tone.
Solution : Most people are more shy or complacent verbally and therefore the solution will be one that is based on texting. Texting resolves all the above Inaction issues.
It doesn’t take a lot to text. No more fear, laziness, complacency, shyness, lack of time/stamina.
However we need to train the public or how to text or write short msgs effectively.
One doesn’t need to know how to write well to learn how to text well. Texting is about using short common abbrieviation with as few words as possible- all easily recognized by common users. This will encourage texting as a most recognized mean of communication under emergency situations or non urgent social situations.
Gd communication simply becomes gd texting.
Simple and easy to educate.
Namely a Twitter platform for various imminent social problems/issues to report problems or seek help/advice or seek immediate attention.
Each social issue or problem will have a twitter # affix sign that will have the specific text issue reported to the proper group or authority. This will gather the most immediate response or advice to address the problem.
Each msg could be very short describing the situation since the # sign already categories the issue.
For eg. [ #Homeless he looks ill and dying on 36 st 5ave ] will have this msg directed to the proper authorities or proper grp of people to solve the problem immediately.
Other eg include
[#SAFETY gangsters play firecrackers 214st Bway, fire imminent]
or
#SOCIAL dad hits kid violently on 112st 3ave- kid helpless
#URGENT-CAR needs car immed to drive a heart attacked to hospital 23st 2ave
Any # category could be created based on nature of issues or urgency.
Or it could be simply be a small personal, private issue like
#SELFHELP I m pregnant and want to abort, need advice
# ANGER I feel like killing this person after what he did, needs help
# APOLOGY I need advise on how to apologize to a friend