[Ailist] Loving Politicians etc

[Kevin Kervick]

Hello Nick:

Your ideas are inspiring and especially this from your blog:

Empower some people to be "free spirits"

A "free spirit" in this context is a person whose job is "To do whatever she 
or he can do to make things better". They would be change agents and 
catalysts, listening to people and teams, linking people, encouraging new 
thinking and facilitating conversations towards win-win solutions. They 
would gain access to people because of their personal skills, reputation for 
trustworthiness and honesty, their humour and their compassion.

It would be a very great honour and privilege to do this work. Ordinary 
people or governments could fund it. If we had 1000 people with this role 
world wide, it might cost £100m a year. If one person helped organisations 
to solve one problem, for instance by building better understanding between 
competing agencies, this would easily recover the costs.
--

I fashion myself being one of these lucky people but wonder about getting 
paid as it seems that unless one is somehow tied to the means of production 
(and that may be counter-happiness) it is difficult to make a living.  How 
do you do it?  And what language do you use?

I've got some similar ideas here:

http://home.comcast.net/~kervick/weblog/kevinskorner.htm

>From one free spirit to another.

regards,

Kevin
www.kevinkervick.com


>I have had some thoughts about making the world a better place for a long
> time and just wanted to share them with you. I have a feeling they just
> could make a difference and be quite simple to do. I wonder what you 
> think?
>
> Love politicians
>
> This is a radical thought! Politicians are people so, however it may 
> appear,
> just like us they are always doing the best they can. It may not be the 
> best
> possible, but given their history and circumstances it is the best they 
> can
> at the time. So blaming and criticising is no help. In any case, you can't
> manage the past only learn from it.
>
> Politicians may enjoy exercising power, but so do we all. They do decide 
> to
> manage on our behalf anything that may happen. This is an awesome
> responsibility. All of them would earn much more in a less demanding role.
>
> I would like to see us supporting and loving politicians rather than
> criticising them personally. Challenging their ideas is fine. If we elect
> them to help us, we should help them. One way might be to catch them doing
> something right and send an appreciative note. Another might be to offer
> some time or a listening ear. What do you think you could do?
>
> Finding the healthiest happiest people and discovering why and how
>
> Some people are both healthy and happy. They are not necessarily "rich".
> There is no evidence that material wealth, beyond quite a modest income,
> adds to either. It could be that these happy and healthy people are doing
> some things, or thinking some things that directly contribute to them 
> being
> happy and healthy. If this is so, and we knew what it was, we could choose
> to do the same.
>
> We could find some healthy and happy people and find out what they do and
> how they think. Who knows, there might be simple things we could all do.
>
> There are already some clues active churchgoing can add years to active
> life. A positive attitude to ageing can do the same.
>
> Neighbours from heaven
>
> I get fed up and depressed by all the television programmes that show 
> people
> at their worst. They are typically called "Neighbours from hell". I 
> imagine
> the effect on the viewers is either to confirm their prejudices that 
> people
> are awful or that this is all you can expect from a particular class or
> group of people. Neither is very productive.
>
> So, what about some programmes e g "Neighbours from Heaven" that showed 
> the
> best of people instead? These would show heart-warming stories of
> extraordinary generosity and kindness. Instead of depressing the viewer,
> they would challenge and inspire her or him to do something similar. This
> would increase the amount of positive energy and spirit. If might 
> encourage
> more of us to pay attention to good things, and then we would feel better
> too.
>
> These are three of a longer list that is here
> http://makeyourworldhappy.blogspot.com/
>
> If you have any comments, or can suggest ways of progessing these 
> thoughts,
> I would be glad to hear them.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Nick
>
> Web: www.nickheap.co.uk
>
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