"Read and Respond"

Anthem

by Ayn Rand

"I look upon the history of men, which I have leaned from the books, and I wonder. It was a long story, and the spirit of which moved it was the spirit of man's freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. This is freedom. This and nothing else."

Respond.

"For the word "We" must never be spoken, save by one's choice and as a second thought. This word must never be placed first within man's soul, else it becomes a monster, the root of all the evils on earth, the root of man's torture by men, and of an unspeakable lie."

Respond.

Reference to Prometheus.

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Goal

I have a new goal: to write everyday about something I'm passionate about. To become passionate. And if there isn't something readily available that I'm feeling passionate about, to turn on the radio or tv, walk outside, read the news, or figure out what I'm feeling and write on the emotion. But unlike my unproductive brooding, write on what's causing the emotion, rather than my reaction.

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SPEW: Second Thought

"Every time you abolish an institution, it is replaced with whatever is surrounding it culturally."

So then, instead of demolishing, we must be consistently creating. Maybe the act of creating the culture serves as demolishing the institution, in that it will become obsolete.

Create a community system of barter, trade, and gift, and the better it is created the more obsolete money becomes.

Create a rehabilitation structure that involves community and society, and proves itself at rehabilitation, and let prisons become obsolete.

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I am watching my grandmother be deeply affected by a man who stole from her and a number of people in her church community. A man she trusted and supported, alongside her community, and who betrayed her trust. This reinforced her ideas about addicts, and brought up a lot of old feelings. I hear it in her generalizations and the conviction in her anger. She wants this man punished for her ex-husband, her parents, god knows who else. She's afraid, angry, sad, and resentful. There are other members of her community that feel similarly. One woman had her engagement ring stolen, and felt deeply wronged. This is a common and ideal situation, because it provides an opportunity to create. This is my idea...

Blatantly reminiscent of Re-evaluation Counseling, Radical Honesty, and Nonviolent Communication, the offender would sit with his victims while they express themselves, reducing their accusations to feelings, and were encouraged to own their feelings. The offender would, in turn, be given space to respond, with the same guidelines of recognizing his feelings and owning them. The group would be counseled, in effort to help them relate to one another, and to recognize the origins of one another's actions and emotions. When everyone feels fully expressed, the victims would be given the chance to communicate needs and make requests of the offender, and the offender would be given then chance to do the same with his victims. The process would not need to follow a specific format, but the end goal stays the same: that a resolution is created that the victims and the offender feel is just. Maybe this resolution involves courts, trials, and the possibility of probation or prison. Maybe it involves dropping all charges.



spontaneity
dave-creating [spontaneously] w/o aim of destruction

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