reported to the police for eating sausages
Being a popular comedian in Germany has not protected Hape Kerkeling from being reported to the police for eating sausages while driving:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,566998,00.html
Now what can I expect, not being popular and not being – at least consciously – a commedian, next time I am going to drive relaxed and stres-FREE at 200 km/h on the autobahn in lederhosen, eating sausages and drinking bear with the radio playing polkas at 100 dB?
process vs. results?
While puffing our Quintero panetelas in my office (yes, it is still possible in – well, at least some parts of – Germany to smoke cigars in your office!) we discussed today with my friend M. the difference between the process and the results approach to the world.
M. said that the two attitudes/approaches/orientations are diametrically opposed, some people/cultures having a preference for one and others for the other of them. Taoism or Epicureanism for instance were process oriented. For them the Way was the Goal. Modern Western societies are, by contrast, results oriented. This is at the root of their obsession with “success”, “winning”,” competitive”, “top notch”. This is a typically German-American attitude towards the world, she opined, with greed as a motivation at its base.
I countered that within the reference framework of project management e.g. processes and results are not mutually exclusive notions, since the results are usually milestones or deliverables in the course of the project process towards a well defined objective. And even within the framework of Epicurean communal education the students or their educators must have fixed some recognizable milestones on their progress towards ataraxia (stress-FREEDOM). The hierarchical structure of the philosophy schools indicates clearly that some members of these learning communities had made more progress than others and they were accordingly licensed to deliver teachings and give feedback to groups (like modern communication trainers) or to individuals (like modern coaches.) Moreover: even in utterly results-oriented activities, like profit maximization, processes are designed and “re-engineered” to optimize the cost-effectiveness.
M. said that in this case the process was subordinated to the result, whereas e.g. in learning and practicing wisdom the results are subordinated to the process. The process has a higher value in this case.
I wonder what the readers of this blog think about the compatibility of these notions.
making money online
Some of my friends are against making money online, others for it. Some of them are even successfully engaged in it. Now they want to have my point of view on this subject.
I answered them, that first of all, I do NOT have to have a point of view on every single subject in the universe, like politicians and other opinion-mongers.
Money is for Epicureans, like for most people just a means, a resource and therefore, from an ethical point of view the most important aspects about it are: where you get it from and what you do with it.
From this standpoint “ethical” money should comes from activities which are congruent, i.e. in line with your system of values. A friend of mine is developing software that is needed by users and other developers and wants to market it and the marketing activity involves some revenues for him, because e.g. some people make some money every time somebody clicks on a link like
http://revenueblueprint.com/?e=bdpocom
because this product benefits their businesses. I ask myself – and the other group of my friends: what is wrong about this? The transfer of money takes place within the framework of the satisfaction of needs. These needs might not belong to the category of Max-Neef’s “fundamental needs” or Epicurus’s “natural” needs but their satisfaction implies no harm done to anybody.
From an ethical point of view it is just as important to reflect where does the money go: What do you do with the surpluses that remain after having satisfied your “fundamental” or “natural” needs? Do you reinvest it into your business? Do you spend it on self-indulgent luxuries? Or do you channel them into supporting the neediest people on your continent?
Your stress-FREEDOM is best served if both the earning and the spending are congruent with your ethical standards.
shortcuts to FREEDOM?
Entering stress-FREEDOM into Googl I made a mistake: instead of .net I typed: .com.
A whole new world towards FREEDOM opened its gates for Galenios’s wide opened eyes!
First I was offered in English Español Français 中文 Deutsch Português 日本語 Nederlands Italiano 한국어 to Bookmark this page or Make this your homepage and then to make another choice:
Stress/FreedomEas/ReedBusiness/ Opportunity/Money/Work From Home/Work At Home/Home Business
Of course I headed for no less than freedom.
I was assured to get: What you need, when you need it again in English Español Français 中文 Deutsch Português 日本語 Nederlands Italiano 한국어 again asked politely to Bookmark this page Make this your homepage .
And then at final last the paths towards freedom were revealed:
- Hama freedom Günstig/Hama Freedom nur € 99. Technik zum Top-Preis!
- Get Better Bank Rates/Compare Rates on CDs, Interest Checking, Savings, Mortgages, Home Equity Loans, Credit Cards and More!
- Looking For Freedom?/Find all of the best sites for freedom. We have everything you need to know about freedom.
- Das Suchen Freedom?/Finden Sie die Populärsten Webseiten für freedom
- Freedom/Looking for freedom? Find the top sites for freedom today.
- Internetgamebox – 100% Gratis/Die besten Spiele im Netz sicherer Download
- Online-tv 100% Gratis/Mehr als 400 internationale Sender Sport, Nachrichten, Musik
- MS Freedom of the Seas/Das größte Schiff der Welt legt ab Bonus: Bordguthaben bis 70€!
- Freedom/Outdoor-Artikel bestellen beim Versender des Jahres 2006
- Freedom/Im Goorin Caps Shop-Versandkostenfrei – 48h Lieferzeit.
- freedom bei Shopping.com/Vergleichen Sie – und machen Sie Ihr Schnäppchen.
- Weniger zahlen für Freedom/Riesenauswahl zu Niedrigpreisen. Mitbieten oder Sofort-Kaufen.
So the way of Galenios’s defreezing and serving up Epicurus’s teaching-food for stress-FREEDOM seekers seems to be too long and weary compared to the popular shortcut: buy more things.
Epicurus had a totally different stance and the Beatles propagated the Epicurean attitude:
“Buy, buy, says the sign in the shopwindow /Why, why, says the junk in the yard.”
If you are more of a watcher than a reader, take a look at Alain de Botton’s presenting Epicurus’s way to Happiness in youtube:
Part 1 9:59 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20LTTRQcZ8c
Part 2/ 9:51 minutes:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz1ItMUafgY&feature=related
Part 3/ 4:08 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCyIohPjVs8&feature=related
teachings are like food: healthy or fattening, fast or slow
There are more ways than one to keep you from starving to death. You can grab a BigMac in a drive-in or buy a sandwich at a filling station. Or you can drive to your mother or a friend, sit down, have a talk, peel potatoes for her while she is cutting onions, Then talk some more until her goulash is finished. For Epicurus and his friends it was more important with whom they ate than what they ate. The main idea was not to be dependent on complicated, hard to procure, expensive food. They even grew their vegetable in their own garden.
The food you get from me is cooked according the ancient Epicurean recipes. I might use a gas stove or a special casserole but the recipe had been tested for 800 years. You might not feel like grabbing a sandwich at the filling station, but to sit down and eat the food I cooked for you.
There are tens of thousands of quick-fixes of stress “reduction” or “management” etc. out there on the net and some of them might just perfectly suit some of you some of the time. If that’s what you think you need at this moment: go and get it.
If you want to find out about something about the roots of your desires and the consequences of your illusions, you should stop, sit down take your time and engage in some nourishing reflection. If your goal is to eliminate the causes of stress and stay stress-FREE, then you ought to take your time and spoon an adequate teaching, like e.g. Zen Buddhism or Epicureanism - if you are a more rational kind of person, more rooted in the European Enlightenment culture, trusting science and experience. It is available in a raw form, uncooked inside books or cooked and served by Galenios on this site.
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