News
Stop Talking
reporter: Jonathan, 19.7.06
Our problem in New Zealand is that we're all talk. Whenever something happens there's outrage. People ring the talkback "This shouldn't be happening in our country". People talk to their friends "This is Horrific". Then a week later we've forgotten who Chris and Cru were. - That's on a National Scale.When you look on a more personal level we have a similar problem. Rather than solving problems we would rather talk and joke about them. It's called gossip! When we have a problem with someone what we do is we talk to everyone BUT the person we actually have the problem with.
Here's little story you may have heard!
In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said,
"Socrates, do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
So think about what you're saying. Is it Truthful? is it Encouraging? is it Important to the person to whom you are speaking? I think the triple filter will eliminate a lot of crap that we don't need to say, thus giving us more time to actually act positively to solve problems!
5 Comments:
Once again - easy to say something like this - but a lot harder to do consistently. Always good to remind oneself of these things.
However in regards to wider issues, I think New Zealanders on a whole don't know what to do. Sometimes all it feels we can do is whinge since
a) The government doesn't care what people think (as evidence by crime referrendum a few years back)
b) when you do try to do something, you can get attacked (eg the guy trying to stop people putting cones on the road who got beaten to a pulp, and the guy who got chased when he tried to stop some graffiti kids), or you get in trouble with the authorities.
I think the average New Zealander feels powerless. Wave after wave of bad news hits us, and we feel powerless to change things, and overwhelmed with how much bad stuff happens.
But the point is still valid. Particularly on a smaller personal scale.
reporter - 
Scotty, at 6:58 am, July 20, 2006
We only 'feel' powerless because nothing is being done!
a) The government doesn't care what people think
We choose our government! We can't blame the Government for not caring. If we cared (as a nation) we'd vote them out!
b) when you do try to do something, you can get attacked
Sure there's always risks when taking action and sometimes you need to pick your battles but the reality is that (assuming the element of our population that is prepared to beat you up for moving cones is less than 10% of the total population) 9 out of 10 people are on your side! We do have safety in numbers.
We're not powerless.
reporter - Jonathan, at 7:40 am, July 20, 2006
the problem is people who complain and don't support the ACT party which has been consistently advocating welfare reform since 1996, yet ignorant middle class NZers and dole bludgers continue to vote in Left wing parties that value political power higher than principles and will pull out any bribe in order to hold on to it
http://www.act.org.nz/news-article.aspx/27623
http://www.nzcpd.com/weekly42.htm
reporter - Rebel Heart, at 12:28 pm, August 01, 2006
I agree with you analysis of the current Left Wing Government. However I wouldn't agree that solution to the problem is simply with the Act party. Labour has brought about huge moral decline in its 2 and a bit terms in government and a Political Party alone will not bring the changes needed to restore us to our previous moral climate.
reporter - Jonathan, at 4:17 pm, August 01, 2006
* prints so-crates comment * ;-)
reporter -
Anonymous, at 4:06 pm, July 19, 2006