Me:  Ken, the whole of human life and history is a struggle with oneself, with others and with ideas. The only concept and experience that enables individuals to rise above themselves, others and their ruminations on Life is grace the most basic definition of which is nothing more…and certainly nothing less than love…..in action within oneself and toward others and the world. Rationalism/intellectualism while an excellent and necessary mental tool will never be sufficient to get us to Valhalla because it is all epi-phenomenon. This is not religion it is natural philosophy and a commitment to cultivating the experiences behind dogmas that are intellectualizations of them.

You’re quite correct to point out that broken or diseased people do not/will not follow Maslow’s hierarchy, but creating an economics, a culture and a world view on grace/graciousness would be the mental infrastructure upon which homo sapiens/wise and discerning man could finally begin to fulfill his species designation.

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

KZ:  Craig, only some human interactions are struggles. Others are simple and pleasant, while others are working outs of specifics of actions and beliefs. And there is love, admiration, respect, etc. as well. If rationalism-intellectualism is epiphenomenon then so also is love, desire, respect, etc. But not to worry. Most of human life is epiphenomenon. Make believe is how humans create and carry out their lives. It’s the way we’re thrown into existence. I’ve worked with “broken” people for years. Don’t assume they, like you and I, believe they are broken. They see themselves as a normal. The purpose of therapy is to change how they understand normal and thus how they act and believe. Therapy is a socialization process. And sometimes a quite invasive one.

Me:  “Most of human life is epiphenomenon.”

True. However, the definition and experience of Wisdom is that it is DEEPER understanding. Wisdom is the integration of truths in opposing perspectives. ( truth x truth) That’s why you and I and others can agree on so much. We’re integrating a duality. But there is a pinnacle of Wisdom and curiously the striking experience pointed at and written about by all of the major wisdom traditions (satori, samadhi, atonement, grace) is an extraordinarily unified thirdness greater oneness totally conscious one [ (truth x truth) <–> greater truth ] in other words it is an integrated duality within an integrative trinity-unity-oneness-fully conscious-process. Also curiously satori, samadhi, atonement, grace are generally momentary experiences and all wisdom traditions speak of the necessity of mental discipline in order to re-attain/maintain such a state and this is best accomplished by actually allowing the mental interaction of opposites to drop away (which is addition by subtraction and so wisdom as well) so that only self awareness/consciousness ITSELF is left and one can cultivate it so that it undergurds (sp) one’s, now, every fully conscious thought and action.

Wisdom is all of the process of fuller mindful understanding, an awakening experience to an even higher level of consciousness and the continuing dynamic of living one’s life in that higher state.

Viz economics one can wisely assert, ruminate over and examine economic critique and heterodox theory and yet unconsciously fail to look everywhere for solutions/applications that your theories suggest would be helpful and so get caught up in the complexity of the economy. Then, when one looks directly at commerce and its moment to moment exchanges and thinks economically about its underlying infrastructure (double entry bookkeeping, the money and pricing systems and their digital debit/credit nature, and the significance of the summing, totaling, ending and terminal inflation expression points of the point of sale and retail sale) …and see that these insights awaken one to the perfect place and times to implement the solutions to the problems one has been ruminating about because they cut through all of the abstraction, complexity and indirectness enforced by solely abstract thinking ABOUT the economy and held in suspension by the current monetary and financial paradigm of Debt Only….and then you have a new and genuine experience and by applying the correct policies the system attains a lasting state of free flowingness.

In other words it’s all of the elements of infinity in its flow including consciousness.

Me:  The German and Japanese management style is superior to the more hierarchical US style because it is more cooperative which is an aspect of the new zeitgeist of grace as in flow. Unfortunately the system cannot ascend to the level of zeitgeist change until it resolves the major paradigm problem of total individual monetary scarcity in ratio to total costs/prices with grace as in Direct and Reciprocal Monetary Gifting.

Systemic evolution reflects and follows the hierarchical pattern of Maslow’s pyramid of self actualization.

KZ:  Craig, Maslow missed, or maybe ignored an important factor affecting the operation of his pyramid. Within identified versions of culture, the pyramid functions as Maslow claims. But these are not the end of possibilities for culture. A culture of psychopaths is possible. We have historical examples (Nazi Germany, American capitalism). In the first, racism prevents the satisfaction of any of the needs in Maslow’s hierarchy. Here, the hierarchy is meaningless. In the second, capitalists assign ever greater portions of physical and monetary benefits to themselves, thereby continually reducing available benefits for the remainder of the population. Then the capitalists work to ensure the security and life satisfaction of other members of society is converted into additional wealth and resources for themselves. Maslow was naïve to believe such deviations from his pyramid weren’t possible.

Me:  Ken, the whole of human life and history is a struggle with oneself, with others and with ideas. The only concept and experience that enables individuals to rise above themselves, others and their ruminations on Life is grace the most basic definition of which is nothing more…and certainly nothing less than love…..in action within oneself and toward others and the world. Rationalism/intellectualism while an excellent and necessary mental tool will never be sufficient to get us to Valhalla because it is all epi-phenomenon. This is not religion it is natural philosophy and a commitment to cultivating the experiences behind dogmas the latter of which are mere intellectualizations of them.

You’re quite correct to point out that broken or diseased people do not/will not follow Maslow’s hierarchy, but creating an economics, a culture and a world view on grace/graciousness would be the mental infrastructure upon which homo sapiens/wise and discerning man could finally begin to fulfill his species designation.

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

It can be with “Chinese characteristics” and respect certain cultural norms with wherever it is implemented so long as it clearly benefits the individual and makes economies more prosperous, stable and self sufficient, and so both makes their economies more robust and reduces the need to be either an export platform or a reserve curreny manipulator. Thus trade barriers and tensions between nations could be reduced.  Regardless, the current financial regime and paradigm must not be allowed to block the new paradigm or foment tensions as the process continues internationally.

Wisdom is the integration of the truths, workabilities, applicabilities and highest ethical considerations of apparently opposing perspectives, and its pinnacle concept is grace in its many definitions and aspects.

Hence, let us have a Wisdomics/Gracenomics and its new paradigm of Direct and Reciprocal Monetary Gifting that not only aligns with, enables and defines the new zeitgeist in economics, but also greatly advances the process of integrating the concept that has historically always been behind every human paradigm change and will usher in the orders of magnitude advancement of a new general zeitgeist, the natural philosophical concept of grace.

I know this will probably not be well received or completely understood, but it’s the time to say it. Social Credit is only a reform/theory like Keynesianism or neo-liberal economics both of which also being only reforms/theories have changed and will be changed. To be sure it is a far superior and more insightful theory than any other mere economic theory and in fact it is as Douglas said, ” “a policy of a philosophy” and if WW II had not intervened I believe it may have won the day economically and the rest of the 20th century would probably have been much less stressful and so likely much less bloody. So it is superior, mostly because the philosophical concept underlying it is absolutely stellar. But it was also much more empirical and scientific than all of the abstract falderal that economic theories usually fall into, mostly because Douglas being an accountant and efficiency expert recognized double entry bookkeeping as the underlying infrastructure for all of commerce and that the pricing, money and accounting systems were all digital, that is equal amounts of payments and prices, debits and credits sum to zero. Hence the compensated retail price.

But Social Credit still did not completely break free from either the current economic theories it arose from or from its current cultural paradigms. It recognized that Debt Only was the current paradigm and that monetary grace as in gifting was the new one and that was huge, but it still fell back into the erroneous idea of general equilibrium which led to most of its adherents clinging to a mere static/statistical filling of “the Gap” instead of making it overflow and hence not only creating a truly free flowing state of the economy but raising the theory to a paradigm changing inversion of the problematic duality of the scarcity ratio of total individual incomes generally available to spend to total costs and so prices.

Abundant Inversion/transformation is probably the primary signature of paradigm changes…in this case individual monetary scarcity to abundance….precisely like the small minded egocentric terra-centrism to the expansive scientific understanding of helio-centrism, the circumstancial uncertainty of nomadism to the more secure individual abundance of agriculture and homesteading, the time consuming and slow process of handwriting to the abundant ability to communicate via mechanical printing and the dominating and indirect monopoly on the sacraments that the Church demanded to a direct and personal relationship with God of The Reformation.

So even though it was a far superior theory as per above it still remained a theory…not the permanently progressive event known as a paradigm change…..and this is mostly by not having as fully fleshed out an understanding the natural philosophical concept underlying Social Credit itself…grace. Grace is abundance, freedom/free flowingness, the ultimate wisdom/integration of the truths in a duality so much so that a thirdness greater oneness arises out of that twoness.

Finally, because Social Credit did not rise to the level of paradigm change it was not able to fulfill its actual philosophical legacy and help to further rise to the level of new ethic/zeitgeist, that is, from the current one of the egocentric will to profit and power via systems and data-knowledge and make the transition to the new zeitgeist of the direct personal/experiential will to freedom via the integrative contemplation of the truths in opposites known as Wisdom, again, whose pinnacle concept is grace.

you have to study Wisdom….until its an integrative conscious part of you. As Grace, or whatever other word you hang on it, is the pinnacle concept and experience of Wisdom according to all of the world’s major wisdom traditions, the place to start and end would logically be the contemplation of its many freeing and empowering aspects.

Data is information. A theory is an aglomeration of related ideas. One’s mind is a pattern, an habitual pattern. A paradigm is consciousness of a new more integrated idea and its pattern. An ethic or zeitgeist is a conscious or unconscious, integrated or fragmentary understanding of the aspects of the concept behind even the paradigm.

The definition of Wisdom and its very process is the thorough integration of only the truths in apparently opposite concepts and/or perspectives.

A paradigm is a peculiar thing in that it is simultaneously a single new concept/thought that policy wise also seamlessly integrates into the area/areas of human endeavor that the paradigm takes place within/changes. In other words it is a new and significantly deep integration of the opposites of thought and policy. Thus it mirrors/fits the definition and process of Wisdom itself.

A study of paradigm changes and of Wisdom/Wisdom traditions not only results in wisdom, but also a much fuller understanding of both the signatures of paradigm changes and the ability to better perceive paradigms both old/current and new. And finally, this is good because paradigm changes are great and permanent progressions, because current paradigms being habitual are hard to think outside of and because knowing the signatures of paradigm changes can help us garner the knowledge to more quickly perceive new paradigms and develope the tremendously valuable integrative mental habit of Wisdom as well.