Whenever I think about the worldly, I find that the Tao Te Ching says it all:

13:
See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.

28:
be a pattern for the world.
If you are a pattern for the world,
the Tao will be strong inside you
and there will be nothing you can’t do.

29:
Do you want to improve the world?
I don’t think it can be done.

57:
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.

To gain scope on this post, those having Google Earth, or Microsoft Virtual Earth should bring up the Bird’s Eye View on Sun City, and Surprise, AZ. Those two areas, side by side, are excellent examples of excess of building and lifestyle. They are simply two selected at random. Circles and circles of subdivision streets, running into each other, roofs nearly touching one another, streets running in what appears to be computer generated circles, swimming pools dotting the scenes, and these, in this area, are average(?) homes. Guessing without really knowing, I would say 2500 – 3500 square feet each. Close proximity to all of them are HUGE car lots, A couple of mega-malls, many strip malls, and other money-grabbing establishments.
Freeways running alongside the subdivisions, enabling much traffic congestion and dangerous egress in the event of disaster in the areas. My point, in accordance with Jacob’s post, is THIS the world we deserve? This must be the area in which the famous “Jones” family lives that everyone else is trying to keep up with. On my current version of Microsoft Virtual Earth, I can hone in on the patios, pools, lawns, and even in some cases see the vehicles they own/loan/lease. Again, this is just an example I picked, there are doubtless many more better ones out there.

Clarity of Purpose helps, you can’t change much if you don’t know inside yourself what you want to change or why you want to change it or how you want to change it.

I find your burger/cheez whiz -> cholesterol meds connection fitting. I recently moved to Chapel Hill, NC, right next to Duhram, and realized that they have had the best racket in the world going for quite some time now. They got rich off of selling tobacco, then transformed themselves into a major center for treating the ailments caused by the use of their first cash crop. Brilliant!

This post really hits home with me, especially since becoming a father. I realize now there is a small set of eyes watching my every move. What will he learn from me today? It’s amazing the things a 2 year old will remember. I’ve lived by a version of this mantra for the past two years:

Hence, to change the world, simply “be the change”

However, in my case, it’s not to change the world, it’s to mold and teach my son. I guess the 2 are related in a macro/micro sort of way?

Great post: funny, well-written, and spot-on!

I’ve always done things my own (analytical/creative) way and have sometimes inspired people to change their ways; mostly though, people just reckon I’m weird. My PR musn’t be good enough 🙂 OK, it’s also occasionally because my way is not as good as the conventional ways; I often start from scratch, re-inventing the wheel, rather than taking existing ways of doing stuff into account. Some of it is probably rather annoying too: I never answer the phone unless it rings twice or for a very long time, to filter out all not-very-important calls 🙂
But, on the whole, I have a reasonable, low-scale success and satisfaction in figuring out good ways of doing things, whether it is about specifics in my work or at home, or about our careers, raising our kids, minding our economy, doing good, enjoying life, and so on. I used to call it “life hacking” but it’s really “culture hacking”.

However, the last five years have changed my viewpoint around 180 degrees since I have begun to properly realise the value of being a sheep in a flock. For me, it streamlines things, both socially and practically, with greater efficiency and less friction; I try to be more compatible and less confusing to people. For society, a common identity can lead to social cohesion which is the main factor in getting a society to work, for loads of reasons. For instance, almost everything in Denmark that works well works well because of social cohesion, and most things that fail in the US fail because of this lack in cohesion. It’s also often about cooperation: a bad cooperative solution is often better than no solution, as we will hopefully see in Copenhagen next week.

Is it just me, or is Jacob posting more often lately?

Keep ’em coming Jacob. Your writing is thought provoking.
Again, thank you.