Recently I have been sent a very interesting link to an article written by Nathaniel Branden, Ph. D. about self-esteem. I have wanted to write about this topic for some time and I think now would be the perfect opportunity to do that. I will attach a link to the article at the bottom of the post for you to read. What is most interesting about his article are the six pillars for self-esteem. The six pillars are:

1. Living Consciously. To live consciously is to be present to what we are doing; to seek to understand whatever bears on our interests, values, and goals; to be aware both of the world external to self and also to the world within.

2. Self-acceptance. To be self-accepting is to own and experience, without denial or disowning, the reality of our thoughts, emotions and actions; to be respectful and compassionate toward ourselves even when we do not admire or enjoy some of our feelings or decisions; to refuse to be in an adversarial or rejecting relationship to ourselves.

3. Self-responsibility. To be self-responsible is to recognize that we are the author of our choices and actions; that we must be the ultimate source of our own fulfillment; that no one is coming to make our life right for us, or make us happy, or give us self-esteem.

4. Self-assertiveness. To be self-assertive is to honor our wants and needs and look for their appropriate forms of expression in reality; to live our values in the world; to be willing to be who we are and allow others to see it; to stand up for our convictions, values, and feelings.

5. Living Purposefully. To live purposefully is to take responsibility for identifying our goals; to perform the actions that allow us to achieve them; to keep on track and moving toward their fulfillment.

6. Personal integrity. To live with integrity is to have principles of behavior to which we remain loyal in action; to keep our promises and honor our commitments; to walk our talk.

You can see that some things I have already written about and there are a few things left to address. These things are essential and the more you think about and execute them the higher your self-esteem will be.

As defined by the Webster-Merriam Online Dictionary self-esteem is “a confidence and satisfaction in oneself.” It is what defines us. Our self-esteem determines what kind of people we are. It is the building block of every emotion and though that we have. It can be changed and in many cases it should be changed. Low self-esteem leads to a complete collapse of ones life whereas having a high self-esteem can lead to a very rewarding and satisfying life. As Abraham Maslow said it is one of our needs. Without self-esteem we do not exist. Ones self-esteem depends on how we view ourselves. Many people in our society today suffer from issues of low self-esteem. It is of paramount importance that we as a whole do something about this and try to solve this issue and get people feeling better. The healthier your self-esteem, the better you do at work or in school and you have a more positive outlook on life.

Reasons for low self-esteem?

Through my research I have found numerous things that people blame low self-esteem on. These reasons are failures in the work place or school, bullying, disability, religion, self-image, excessive criticism, negative experiences and many others. I cannot possibly agree with any of these reasons. The main reason people have low self-esteem is bad parenting. As children we have no sense of what is right or wrong. We do not distinguish between things we need guidance. There is a need for establishing a sense of worth within ones self but since we are not able to do it ourselves yet we need our parents to start that process for us. With proper guidance we can prepare for whatever the future brings. Things that most people list as events that lead to low self-esteem are wrong for one fundamental reason; people who have suffered from being hurt by these issues already have low your self-esteem. All it does is create vicious cycle in your life. By making bad decision and having negative results it will lead to an even lower self-esteem. Until you decide to get out of that cycle it will get worse and worse. Events such as failures and criticism should not bother you but on the contrary as a person of self-esteem you need to learn from those things instead of letting them get to you. Negative experiences and disability are not easy things to deal with, but again especially in today’s world you see many people that overcome such things and move on stronger than before. In circumstances such as these it is imperative that you had proper guidance and support. One main thing that people also blame on self-esteem issues is the way you view yourself. Everyone should realize that no one is perfect it is all about feeling comfortable in your own skin. Do what is it that you think makes you look and feel good. Since there is no proper guidance for a majority of people, they have self-esteem issues and let things get to them. New fads such as what is shown on MTV and other stupid cool crazes should not be the image everyone needs to strive for. This is the case because very few people actually feel comfortable with who they are. Even people that you see on a daily basis that think they are cool on come of as confident are most likely also very insecure and suffer from self-esteem issues and try to be like what they see on TV. It is important for parents to reevaluate how they go about raising their kids and what they do to try to boost their children’s self-esteem. Without that step they are doomed to grow up with low self-esteem. Lack of parental guidance combined with the bombardment of images from TV leads to a catastrophically low self-esteem in an astounding number of people. There is also the factor of genetics as in every case there will be exceptions. Parents can try everything and the kids might still turn out differently than intended and on the other hand with no guidance from the parents some kids will grow up to have no self-esteem issues.

How to solve this issue?

Change is necessary. Rates of depression and related problems are rising and if something doesn’t happen it will continue. Taking pills for these types of issues cannot be a permanent solution. It can be a temporary solution until there is a better long-term solution in effect. The way it is done today is not acceptable. Giving out medals for last place and letting kids know that they are good at something even if they are not. That is not how self-esteem should be addressed. What kind of message is that sending to kids? Each person is not good at everything the key is to find your strengths and talents and exceed at those skills rather than try to push forward in areas of weakness. Kids need to realize that failure is going to happen, but that you can rise up and learn from it and become stronger. Parents are the initial reason for issues with self-esteem and therefore they are a part of the solution. They need to realize how to develop self-esteem in kids using the right methods and foster that self-esteem. What we also have to realize that most parents are the product of being raised in an environment that was not conducive to growth a healthy self-esteem. Since this is the case another important part to helping kids develop a healthy self-esteem lies in the hands of the school system. It is of utmost importance that starting in elementary school and going into the college years that children take classes that teach them to think as individuals, how to learn from failure and not have it destroy you, deal with difficult situations, handle criticism, and most importantly not to look to MTV and other moronic TV stations for how to act and think. Develop a sense of individualism and have it be the “cool” thing to do and not follow images supplied by mass media.

People need to cultivate a healthy self-esteem. It weights on everything that you do in your daily life and how you view yourself. With a higher self-esteem you will see your life change in a more positive direction and you will get more pleasure out of it. You will be a happier person and everyone around you will view you in a positive light. The most important thing to remember it is not how others view you it is how you view yourself and that is only dependant on your thoughts, which only you can change.

Link to article:

http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/articles_essays/our_urgent_need.html

Until next time

Ta ta

“Happier” este genul de carte care ar trebui sa fie facuta lectura obligatorie in scoala, in loc de basina aia de manual de Educatie Civica, fata de care, singurul interes pe care-l manifestam cand eram in clasa a 5-a, consta in a desena pozele din el. “Happier” n-are poze. Are, in schimb, forta de a deslusi ce reprezinta fericirea pentru oameni, care sunt cateva din miturile neadevarate ale societatii despre fericire, si cum putem face ceva pentru a ne schimba fundamental modul de a ne privi viata, de a ne privi pe noi insine si de a aduce schimbarea.

“Happier” nu e o carte de self-help, nu ofera “10 retete complete de a fi fericit azi”, nu ofera pilule magice si schimbari fara efort. Pentru ca schimbarile fara efort, de cele mai multe ori, dau rezultate doar pentru cateva zile, sunt o spoiala a unor probleme profunde sau a unei perspective gresite. Tal Ben-Shahar intelege ca fericirea este un lucru subiectiv, care depinde de la persoana la persoana si de la cultura la cultura. Cu toate astea, insa, oamenii ca specie au o psihologie comuna, moduri de a functiona care sunt descifrabile, identificabile din punct de vedere empiric. Iar Ben-Shahar, profesor de psihologie pozitiva la Universitatea Harvard, are stiinta de partea lui, si, in afara de stiinta, mentori ca Nathaniel Branden, Martin Seligman sau Marva Collins.

Cateva din ideile de baza din cartea asta:
1. Fericirea este un proces infinit nu un stagiu, nu un punct definibil, nu o destinatie la care sa se poata ajunge. Fericirea este o resursa nelimitata.

2. Vi s-a intamplat sa lucrati mult timp la un proiect care sa va aduca doar sictir si nesatisfactie, iar in final, desi v-ati imaginat ca veti fi fericiti, va dati seama ca realizarea nu reprezinta nimic pentru voi, de fapt?

Una din greselile frecvente pe care le fac oamenii este mentalitatea de “rat-racer”, care sacrifica lucruri care le ofera placere si satisfactie in prezent, pentru lucruri neplacute, dar cu o satisfactie imaginata in viitor. Sacrificarea placerii momentului pentru recompensa viitorului duce, in final, la nefericire, iar rasplata din viitor este doar confundata cu fericirea.

3. Vi s-a intamplat sa va dedicati exclusiv placerii prezentului, negand perspectiva viitorului, si, cu toate astea viata sa vi se para goala si lipsita de sens?

O alta greseala frecventa a oamenilor este mentalitate hedonistului, polul opus al “rat-racer”-ului. Hedonistul face greseala de a considera ca viata este un sir neintrerupt de placere, si isi priveaza, astfel, viata de insemnatate, de un scop mai inalt decat satisfacerea dorintei din momentul asta.

4. Asteptarea ca viata sa fie un sir neintrerupt de moment fericite, care sa contina si insemnatate si emotii pozitive este falsa si, pe termen lung, nu duce decat la nefericire.

5. Emotiile, sentimentele noastre sunt cele care stau la baza tututor actiunilor noastre. Sunt atat un scop, cat si un mijloc.

6. A avea scopuri si chiar a le atinge nu garanteaza fericirea sau ducerea unei vietii care sa insemne ceva. Ne putem stabili scopuri de a obtine rezultate materiale sau validare din partea altora, si cu toate astea sa simtim ca ducem o existenta in deriva. Scopurile noastre trebuie sa fie generate de noi, nu de asteptarile si standardele societatii.

7. A fi idealist inseamna, de fapt, a fi realist, intrucat felul in care suntem noi alcatuiti ne cere sa credem in idealuri, ne provoaca sa cautam un sens al propriei noastre vieti pentru a putea duce o existenta fericita.

8. La fel cum a manca felul nostru de mancare favorit in fiecare zi ne face sa-l uram la un moment dat, capacitatea noastra de a ne bucura de o anumita actiune pe care o facem are limitele sale.

9. Nu ne acordam suficient timp pentru a actiona. Doar reactionam la mediu. Ar trebui sa ne cream realitatea, nu doar sa fim marionetele ei.

10. Nu exista dragoste neconditionata.

Multe din ideile cartii par, la prima vedere, de bun simt. Dar, parafrazandu-l pe Voltaire, “Common sense is not so common.” Lucru care se remarca mai ales in capitolul despre intimitate si relatii. Singura problema a carti este ca, pe final, autorul incepe sa repete aceleasi idei sub formulari diferite, ceea ce poate deveni plictisitor. Cu toate astea, acest mic defect poate fi trecut cu vederea, considerand informatia de valoare inestimabila care se afla in cartea asta.

Nota: 10/10 si un foarte proaspat loc I in topul cartilor citite de mine

In final, cateva citate:

“Time is a zero-sum game, a limited resource. Life is too short to do only what we have to do; it is barely long enough to do what we want to do.”

“The rat racer suffers from the “arrival fallacy”—the false belief that reaching a valued destination can sustain happiness. Confusing relief with happiness, he continues to chase after his goals, as though simply attaining them will be enough to make him happy.”

“I define happiness as the overall experience of pleasure and meaning. Pleasure is about the experience of positive emotions in the here and now, about present benefit; meaning comes from having a sense of purpose, from the future benefit of our actions.”

“To be happy, we have to feel that, on the whole, whatever sorrows, trials, and tribulations we may encounter, we still experience the joy of being alive.”

“Goals communicate, to ourselves and to others, the belief that we are capable of overcoming obstacles.”

“Having goals or even reaching them does not guarantee that we are leading a purposeful existence. We could set ourselves the goal of scoring top grades in college or owning a large house, yet still feel empty. To live a meaningful life, we must have a self-generated purpose that possesses personal significance rather than one that is dictated by society’s standards and expectations.”

“It is easy to see why an unhappy person might take drugs if they provide him with a temporary escape from the reality of his joyless life or why someone might turn to a charismatic preacher who offers eternal happiness.”

“Often, however, we are pulled away from the life that would make us happier by internal and external forces that we have some control over—such as our habits, our fears, or other people’s expectations. Repeat this exercise regularly. Change, especially of deeply ingrained habits and patterns, does not happen overnight. Most important, once again, is to ritualize your activities.”

“In other words, I am no altruist. The ultimate reason that I do anything—whether it is spending time with my friends or doing work for charity—is that it makes me happy.”

“What does it mean to be wanted or loved for „who we really are”? To put it another way, what are we talking about when we talk about unconditional love, a phrase we throw around in the bedroom, the children’s room, the classroom? Do we mean that we want someone to love us for no reason? To love us no matter what? Are we saying that love needs no justification?”

“Psychologist Elaine Hatfield, who studies relationships, shows that people do not like being “overpaid” or “underpaid” in a relationship. People feel more content, and relationships are more likely to prosper, when both partners see the relationship as equitable.”

“To cultivate genuine intimacy the focus in a relationship must shift from the desire to be validated—seeking approval and praise—to the desire to be known.”

“The problem is that movies end where love begins. It’s the living happily ever after that poses the greatest challenge; it’s after the sun sets that difficulties often rise.”

“To realize, to make real, life’s potential for the ultimate currency, we must first accept that “this is it”—that all there is to life is the day-to-day, the ordinary, the details of the mosaic. We are living a happy life when we derive pleasure and meaning while spending time with our loved ones, or learning something new, or engaging in a project at work. The more our days are filled with these experiences, the happier we become. This is all there is to it.”

Co to jest pewność siebie?

Wiara w to, że mogę dać sobie radę w życiu? Że znajdę rozwiązania moich problemów? Że jestem wystarczająco dobrze wyposażona przez naturę, bym mogła czuć życiowe spełnienie?

Brak pewności siebie powoduje, że szukamy różnego rodzaju protez.

Niektórzy nadrabiają fasonem. Inni gadżetami. Jeszcze inni mają protezę w postaci prestiżowego partnera. Jeszcze inni po prostu odcinają się od swoich uczuć, nastrojów, zajmują się czym innym lub sztucznie je sobie regulują. To wszystko są protezy pewności siebie. Współuzależnienie pojawia się tam, gdzie dwie osoby zamiast dążyć do dojrzałości stosują sobie protezy. Zwłaszcza wówczas, gdy dla jednej protezą taką jest drugi człowiek, a dla drugiej – substancja chemiczna lub kompulsywne działanie. W zasadzie byłoby to banalne stwierdzenie, gdyby nie ból związany zarówno z uzależnieniem, jak i współuzależnieniem.

W momencie, gdy uświadomimy sobie związek pomiędzy poziomem pewności siebie a uzależnieniem i współuzależnieniem, stajemy przed decyzją – czy wybrać stosowanie protezy, czy też podjąć trud podnoszenia pewności siebie.

Hm, tylko czy podnoszenie pewności siebie jest w ogóle możliwe? Chyba jest. Nie wierzę w to, że jeśli życie ukształtowało mnie do jakiegoś tam średniego poziomu poczucia pewności siebie, to nic już na to nie poradzę. Przecież nieraz wystarczy pogadać z kimś rozsądnym, kto udzieli nam odrobiny wsparcia, by nasze poczucie, że damy sobie radę i ogólnie jesteśmy nieźli – wzrosło. Albo gdy coś się nam uda zrobić. Albo chociaż gdy się porządnie wyśpimy i ładniej wyglądamy. Poczucie pewności siebie nie utrzymuje się zawsze na tym samym poziomie. Mi, na przykład, nieraz się zdarza doświadczać porządnych spadków pewności siebie. A to znaczy, że równie często ono również wzrasta. Poczucie pewności siebie można więc budować. Tylko najpierw potrzebna jest decyzja, że się tego chce. Że warto.

Czytam właśnie książkę Nathaniela Brandena “6 filarów poczucia własnej wartości”. Właśnie tego tematu dotyczy i proponuje indywidualną pracę nad sobą w postaci ćwiczeń.  Nie oferuje prostej recepty, drogi na skróty, kolejnej protezy, tylko rzetelną pracę.  Podoba mi się takie podejście, gdyż im dłużej się zastanawiam nad rozwojem osobistym, tym bliższy jest mi pogląd wyrażony przez M. Scotta Pecka w “Drodze rzadziej wędrowanej” iż nie ma drogi na skróty.

Tylko że… to jest kawał pracy i nie łatwo się samemu przypilnować żeby w niej wytrwać, żeby pracować systematycznie.

Myślę, czy nie byłoby miło stworzyć grupę osób, które chcą pracować na podstawie tej książki. Rozważę ten pomysł i kiedy pojawią się głosy “za”, sądzę, że taką grupę możnaby stworzyć. Na razie możecie zadawać pytania, zgłaszać wątpliwości, obiekcje, itd.

Przypominam, że wszelkie pytania i wątpliwości, jakie chcecie zgłosić mniej lub bardziej anonimowo poza forum, jak również tematy o których chcecie przeczytać w moich publikacjach (i w blogu) możecie mi zadawać również poprzez stronę zapytaj Justynę, dostępnym także na prawym pasku na górze bloga.

Pozdrawiam serdecznie,

Justyna

So long as an individual cannot accept the fact of what he is, cannot permit himself fully to be aware of it, cannot fully admit the truth into his consciousness, he cannot move beyond that point: if he denies the reality of his condition, he cannot proceed to alter it, cannot achieve healthy changes in his personality. This thought is expressed in Gestalt Therapy as the ‘paradoxical law of change,’ which states that a person begins to change only when he accepts what he is.

Nathaniel Branden, (1979)The Disowned Self p. 89

What I really want to be doing right now is eating up some yards at the pool or practicing some crazy tricks on my pole.  Instead, I’m home in my jammies doing nothing.  I am nursing an injured back muscle that makes it painful to engage in my beloved physical activities.  It’s been over two weeks since I’ve moved in a way that satisfies me. Not only that, but I’m feeling really drained and tired.  

Oh bummer! the pelf-pluckers must be crying, as the 300-point relief rally was wiped out today in the American stock market. Seems like the folks who voted to loot their neighbors and the unborn workers of the future are getting looted in their stead. There’s an old saying the Elders of Silverwolf’s wolfpack used to teach us when we were wolfcubs: “To steal from a thief is not theft!” Maybe that’s what’s happening now, as those who voted for their freebies by voting for Obama, instead of voting for the working man, Peace, sound money, and the future of the unborn multitudes to come, by voting for Ron Paul, the Peace Candidate, are now reaping their just reward. Apparently there is a price to be paid for having voted to send 17,000 more  young Americans to Afghanistan, where they will be on tenderhooks for their lives for months to come, in a place that is the responsibility of Moderate Muslims and others in the region to pacify. The idea that someone in the Oregon National Guard should be sent halfway around the world, to bail out Pakistan and India, and the other regional powers, is absurd. If it is a world responsibility, then there should be people from all over the world. But since it is a problem of Islamic extremism, why aren’t the supposedly “moderate” (tell that to the Christians who have been massacred and discriminated against there) Indonesia and supposedly moderate (anti-Tamil, anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist, anti-Semitic) Malaysia, the “mal” of Asia, — why isn’t it their responsibility? Why aren’t the wealthy Arab and Islamic Gulf Emirates funding and fighting the war against the Taliban who are, without a doubt, a despicable bunch of mass murderers, the typical religious Fascists that plagued Europe throughout the centuries, until the post-WWII era (and even then there was Bosnia)? Western Christianity has mellowed to the point that Catholics and Protestant no longer burn each other at the stake, or indulge in their joint pastime of murdering Jews, either through auto de fes, or in communal massacres. Now it is the turn of the world’s Muslims to similarly mellow out. And the only mellowing, levelling process Silverwolf can see that can accomplish this is just plain-old, free-market Capitalism (along with a Jeffersonian Bill of Rights),the separation of church and state,  and self-interest, which paradoxically leads to the greatest prosperity for the greatest number, if left to its own devices. Mankind should trust the anarchy of the Free-Market, because it is the only anarchy that is completely trustworthy. There is much that is interesting and valuable in the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand and her cohorts like Nathaniel Branden: an attempt to impose a strict logic on man’s ethical behaviour, not unlike the logic of Lord Bertrand Russell,  and a no-nonsense attitude toward the religious hypocrisy of so much of Western theology. We may say we are our brother’s keeper, but we don’t act that way, and in the market we are ruthlessly competitive. This is the hypocrisy of all Capitalists who say they don’t care about money, or all Socialists who pick up a government check and say they care about their fellow men.

There is a price to pay for voting in Socialist graft in the form of the Democrats and Obama, and the stock owners of America — and the world — are paying the required price. Oh, bummer!

Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww! — Silverwolf

I simultaneously wish I’d never seen this note going around online, and I am grateful for the opportunity to combine Google with wasting time. Plus it’s way more fun than those stupid Nathaniel Branden sentence completion exercises.

“Karen would rather be”…

…by the sea
…on the jury with her morals and ethics intact
…riding her horse
…in the casino
…giving than receiving
…in an alliance with Will. But she is scared they don’t have the numbers. And Karen has never trusted Adria.

…on her knees as she, well, yeah, one of those
…in a worship environment
…yeah, well, another one. You can look it up in Google. It isn’t hard–yet. TWSS.
…called chickenshit than get in trouble for another fight…

…but she has work to do and Guilder to frame for it.

The auto companies need a bailout. No kidding. Check out how much they pay their line workers:

Wages and Benefits

Chrysler: $75.86 per hour = $151,720 a year

GM: $146,000 a year

Ford: $141,000 a year.

Surprise, surprise. These car companies are out of money. Meanwhile, the foreign car companies, Nissan, Honda and Toyota, who have plants in Tennessee and other right to work states, pay their employees a free market wage of $96,000 a year. And they make a better product at a lower cost because of it. Those companies are doing great! Chrysler sales are down 6.7%, Ford, 6.7%, GM, 9.5%. but Nissan sales are up 5.2%, Honda up 5.2% and Toyota up 7.9%. Why are we punishing the successful companies by bailing out the losers? If we have $50 billion and we absolutely MUST give it away, let’s give it to those who are employing more people and growing the economy. Not those who are a drain on the economy and who should just go out of business (Or move down South!).

Many SlaterRaiders agree:

Bobby from Pinson “…nothin’ more than a battleship chain around the necks of the economy”

Wayne from Union City:

Danny from Martin: 

Randy from Jackson: 

Richard from Jackson:

Jeremy from Jackson:

Todd from Nebraska:

Vince from Jackson:

This is the best editorial on unions I’ve ever read:

(a) With the rise of wage rates to inordinately high levels, production costs are such that cutbacks in production are often necessary, new undertakings become too expensive, and growth is hindered. At the increased costs, marginal producers—those who have been barely able to compete in the market—find themselves unable to remain in business. The overall result: goods and services that would have been produced are not brought into existence.

(b) As a result of the high wage rates, employers can afford to hire fewer workers; as a result of curtailed production, employers need fewer workers. Thus, one group of workers obtains unjustifiably high wages at the expense of other workers who are unable to find jobs at all. This—in conjunction with minimum wage laws—is the cause of our widespread unemployment problem today. Unemployment is the inevitable result of forcing wage rates above their free market level. In a free economy, in which neither employers nor workers are subject to coercion, wage rates always tend toward the level at which all those who seek employment will be able to obtain it. In a frozen, controlled economy, this process is blocked. As a result of allegedly “pro-labor” legislation and of the monopolistic power that labor unions enjoy, unemployed workers are not free to compete in the labor market by offering their services for less than the prevailing wage rates; employers are not free to hire them. In the case of strikes, if unemployed workers attempted to obtain the jobs vacated by union strikers, by offering to work for a lower wage, they often would be subjected to threats and physical violence at the hands of union members. These facts are as notorious as they are evaded in most current discussions of the unemployment problem—particularly by government officials.

(c) When market conditions are such that producers whose labor costs have risen, cannot raise the prices of the goods they sell, a curtailment of production results, as indicated above; and the general population accordingly suffers a loss of potential goods and services. (The notion that producers can “absorb” such wage increases, by taking them out of profits,” without a detriment to future production, is worse than economically naive; it is profits that make future production possible; the amount of profits that go, not into investment, but into the producers personal consumption, is negligible in the overall economic context.) To the extent that market conditions do allow, producers whose labor costs have risen are obliged to raise the prices of their goods. Then, workers are obliged to raise the prices of their goods. Then, workers in other industries find that their living costs have gone up, that they must now pay higher prices for the goods they purchase. Then, they in turn demand a raise in their industries, which leads to new price rises, which leads to new wage increases, etc. (Union leaders typically express indignation whenever prices are raised; the only prices they consider it moral to raise are the prices paid for labor, that is, wages.) Non-unionized workers, and the rest of the population generally, face this same steady rise in their living costs; they are made to subsidize the unjustifiably high wages of union workers—and are the unacknowledged victims of the unions’ “social gains.” And one observes the spectacle of bricklayers receiving two or even three times the salary of office workers and professors.

PLEASE GO TO:

www.eternalu.wordpress.com

Sorry, but you must go to the above link to read the TWO articles

and view the separate Photo File.

Length (7,500 words) of FIRST article is hard for the WordPress site

to handle, so I apologize for fonts, layout, photo mix, etc.

Author: Cheryl D. Thomson, aka C.D. Thomson

Thanks for your understanding; go to www.eternalu.wordpress.com

Wolfgang hat einen Leserbrief zum Artikel “Selfmade Superman” in der Onlineausgabe der Frankfurter Rundschau vom 30. April 2008 geschrieben.

Ob “Iron Man” sehenswert ist oder nicht, kann ich nicht beantworten, nur sollte man eine so große Individualistin wie die amerikanische Philosophin Ayn Rand -nicht “Ayn Rands”-, die Zeit ihres Lebens für die Rechte des Individuums gekämpft hat, niemals mit “Totalitarismus” in Verbindung bringen.

Der Leserbrief ist bisher nicht veröffentlicht worden.

Ich habe mir allerdings ebenso einen kurzen Leserbrief zu diesem Artikel erlaubt:

Herr Kothenschulte sollte sich etwas informieren, bevor er versucht Spitzen zu setzen. Zum einen ist “The Fountainhead” von Ayn Rand (ohne s) keine Romanfigur, sondern tatsächlich ein ganzer Roman. Zum anderen zeugt es nicht nur von Unkenntnis, eine der großen liberalen Philosophinnen des 20. Jhds. als “totalitär” zu betiteln, sondern auch von Mangel an kritischer Prüfung der eigenen Quellen: Der mittlerweile wirklich platte Vorwurf des “Totalitarismus” geht zurück auf eine Biographie über Rand, die durch ihren düpierten Exliebhaber geschrieben wurde, und daher mehr als nur eine Schlagseite hat. Nicht nur widerspricht ihre Darstellung allen anderen Darstellungen; auch hat eine neuere Studie zu diesem Buch gezeigt, dass es als historische Quelle völlig unzuverlässig und untauglich ist.

Der Leserbrief wurde meines Wissens ebenso noch nicht veröffentlicht.

La elección de pensar resulta verdaderamente heroica en algunos casos. Por ejemplo ¿qué sucede si elegimos pensar y nuestras conclusiones nos alejan del curso de las creencias de nuestro prójimo? ¿Qué sucede si como consecuencia de elegir pensar comenzamos a observar rasgos y características de nosotros mismos que no admiramos? ¿Si elegimos pensar y vemos lo que no queremos ver… o lo que otros no desean ver?. (El respeto a uno mismo, autor: Nathaniel Branden, cap. 2. La necesidad de tener autoestima.)

Yo pienso es un hecho que tenemos libertad para tener conciencia sobre los pensamiento emociones y sentimientos, y no menos cierto es el miedo a la libertad que provoca coger el camino fácil, cuando no ser tiene el valor de tener consciencia se recure a cualquier cosa que de una conciencia grupal o genérica, ya sea la Religión, un partido político, una asociación, tribu urbana, coger la opinión de los demás para convencerse de que son nuestras y hasta justificar nuestras acciones tomadas sin consciencia en nombre del amor.

Soy consiente que en muchas ocasiones e eludido mi responsabilidad de ser consiente conmigo mismo, afectando con ello a los que me rodean, ademas de a mi mismo y buscaba miles de escusas para justificarme, por eso quedo la frase que escuche de el psicólogo humanista Carlos Odriozola “Cualquier toma de conciencia por dolorosa que sea en digna de celebración”