The Absolute Paradox, and Percolate up Theory
The Existence Absolute
Consider the paradoxical statement, “There are no absolutes”. This reminds me of Russell’s Paradox, namely “The set that contains all sets”. The statement itself is an absolute, and yet it claims that there are no absolutes.
Let us remove the paradox by saying, “There is at least one absolute”. So now the question is whether there are some interesting cases of absoluteness. A simple one is “Every beginning has an end”. One interpretation of this absolute is that, the (fabric of) existence does not have a beginning. Thus, we shall refer to this absolute as The Existence Absolute.
What we perceive as particles, photons and electro-magnetic forces are distortions of existence. Clearly, (the fabric of) existence does not admit gaps, nor it can be made of parts. The question to answer is, how does existence generate distortions, sometimes resulting in the beginning of an entire universe. If we discover the answer to that prior to our extinction, we will probably call it The First Law of Existence.
Let us look for another absolute. What is the first product of self-awareness? A being becoming self-aware must be intelligent, which implies that the being is equipped with imagination. So, when imagination fails to find a way for actual immortality, what will it do? Perhaps think of soul, or waking up from a long sleep in an entirely new body. In other words, imagination will find an answer, which may be false like many of our scientific theories.
Anyway, our interest here is the following absolute, “The first philosophical product of self-awareness is immortality”. This is natural when we observe that any form of intelligent being must have some form of instinct for survival. Furthermore, the self-aware being must have a beginning (birth), and therefore will have an end (death).
In search of one more absolutes, we observe that intelligent beings live in societies. We then observe that, the notion of evil arises from a small percentage of anomalies within such societies. The majority of intelligent beings prefer some social traditions that every member of society observes for the sake of the society as a whole.
As a consequence of The Existence Absolute, anomalies must someday end. So the question is, whether the end of anomalies coincides with the extinction of the intelligent beings. We do not have any examples to work with, but all prophecies say that it is our end that terminates the existence of anomalies. Essentially that is what Armageddon means. But, does it have to be true? Perhaps there is a way to end anomalies for just a moment prior to our own end.
Percolate up Theory
With this introduction, let us take a look at the economic crisis we are in, and the bail out. Obviously, the top management of failing corporations took excessive amount of dollars as salaries and bonuses, essentially looting the capital of their companies. They exaggerated because they knew what was coming, just like we would throw as much as we can in the car when running away from a hurricane. Nonetheless, these are examples of anomolies of a society.
No one was given a loan unless they had a job. But what happens when you lose your job? In fact, what happens to businesses when a little paycheck that you get goes mostly for putting gas in your car, and paying your insurance premiums? For instance, you cut on your food, soap, toothpaste, clothing and vacations, thereby killing all such businesses, and enters the vicious cycle. Oil and insurance companies are another example of anomalies of a society.
How about solving the problem from bottom up for a change. Instead of applying the trickle down theory, let us try a new theory, namely “percolate up”. Taking myself as an example, I had to refinance my home two years in a row just to pay the property tax on it. Since I cannot get a job better than what pays $8 per hour, I have finally reached the point of being foreclosed. Each refinance added thousands of dollars to my loan and raised my interest rate. I would have paid for my house in full by 2012. Instead, after six years of being jobless, I am being foreclosed.
In my case, $20,000 will stop the foreclosure and will pay for one year of my mortgage payments. If this is paid directly to my lender, I can live in my house for one more year and hopefully find a good paying job. Let us take $20,000 as an average, and say there are one million folks like me. That means the government can pay 20 billions to the lenders, save one million people who are at no fault, and the money will percolate up to the failing corporations. It also guarantees one year of stability.
However, people like me are categorized as those who intentionally broke the laws, some kind of criminals. Therefore, even though this will solve the problem the economists will find a way to argue against it. After all why help me with their money as if I never paid taxes for over several decades of decent salaries. Indeed, $20,000 is less than taxes I paid six year ago before I lost my job. Even if it is a golden parachute, it is for one million people, and it also happens to revive the economy.
Consider the paradoxical statement, “There are no absolutes”. This reminds me of Russell’s Paradox, namely “The set that contains all sets”. The statement itself is an absolute, and yet it claims that there are no absolutes.
Let us remove the paradox by saying, “There is at least one absolute”. So now the question is whether there are some interesting cases of absoluteness. A simple one is “Every beginning has an end”. One interpretation of this absolute is that, the (fabric of) existence does not have a beginning. Thus, we shall refer to this absolute as The Existence Absolute.
What we perceive as particles, photons and electro-magnetic forces are distortions of existence. Clearly, (the fabric of) existence does not admit gaps, nor it can be made of parts. The question to answer is, how does existence generate distortions, sometimes resulting in the beginning of an entire universe. If we discover the answer to that prior to our extinction, we will probably call it The First Law of Existence.
Let us look for another absolute. What is the first product of self-awareness? A being becoming self-aware must be intelligent, which implies that the being is equipped with imagination. So, when imagination fails to find a way for actual immortality, what will it do? Perhaps think of soul, or waking up from a long sleep in an entirely new body. In other words, imagination will find an answer, which may be false like many of our scientific theories.
Anyway, our interest here is the following absolute, “The first philosophical product of self-awareness is immortality”. This is natural when we observe that any form of intelligent being must have some form of instinct for survival. Furthermore, the self-aware being must have a beginning (birth), and therefore will have an end (death).
In search of one more absolutes, we observe that intelligent beings live in societies. We then observe that, the notion of evil arises from a small percentage of anomalies within such societies. The majority of intelligent beings prefer some social traditions that every member of society observes for the sake of the society as a whole.
As a consequence of The Existence Absolute, anomalies must someday end. So the question is, whether the end of anomalies coincides with the extinction of the intelligent beings. We do not have any examples to work with, but all prophecies say that it is our end that terminates the existence of anomalies. Essentially that is what Armageddon means. But, does it have to be true? Perhaps there is a way to end anomalies for just a moment prior to our own end.
Percolate up Theory
With this introduction, let us take a look at the economic crisis we are in, and the bail out. Obviously, the top management of failing corporations took excessive amount of dollars as salaries and bonuses, essentially looting the capital of their companies. They exaggerated because they knew what was coming, just like we would throw as much as we can in the car when running away from a hurricane. Nonetheless, these are examples of anomolies of a society.
No one was given a loan unless they had a job. But what happens when you lose your job? In fact, what happens to businesses when a little paycheck that you get goes mostly for putting gas in your car, and paying your insurance premiums? For instance, you cut on your food, soap, toothpaste, clothing and vacations, thereby killing all such businesses, and enters the vicious cycle. Oil and insurance companies are another example of anomalies of a society.
How about solving the problem from bottom up for a change. Instead of applying the trickle down theory, let us try a new theory, namely “percolate up”. Taking myself as an example, I had to refinance my home two years in a row just to pay the property tax on it. Since I cannot get a job better than what pays $8 per hour, I have finally reached the point of being foreclosed. Each refinance added thousands of dollars to my loan and raised my interest rate. I would have paid for my house in full by 2012. Instead, after six years of being jobless, I am being foreclosed.
In my case, $20,000 will stop the foreclosure and will pay for one year of my mortgage payments. If this is paid directly to my lender, I can live in my house for one more year and hopefully find a good paying job. Let us take $20,000 as an average, and say there are one million folks like me. That means the government can pay 20 billions to the lenders, save one million people who are at no fault, and the money will percolate up to the failing corporations. It also guarantees one year of stability.
However, people like me are categorized as those who intentionally broke the laws, some kind of criminals. Therefore, even though this will solve the problem the economists will find a way to argue against it. After all why help me with their money as if I never paid taxes for over several decades of decent salaries. Indeed, $20,000 is less than taxes I paid six year ago before I lost my job. Even if it is a golden parachute, it is for one million people, and it also happens to revive the economy.
Labels: anomalies, existence, paradox, self-aware
posted by Dr.Z. at 12:52 AM
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