thoughtshttps://fediverse.blog/~/Thoughts@leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/atom.xml2020-08-27T17:46:49.680046+00:00<![CDATA[A fantasy letter to my current employer]]>https://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/~/Thoughts/a-fantasy-letter-to-my-current-employer/2020-08-27T17:46:49.680046+00:00baumleafhttps://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/@/baumleaf/2020-08-27T17:46:49.680046+00:00<![CDATA[<p>The intention of this post is to create a picture of a not so distant future for me, a path and the goal I want to reach.
To reach a goal it is best that you can describe who you want to be and how you want to live.</p>
<p>A projection of still necessary changes.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The company will be called XXX. Coworker names will be anonymous. Cities I will just call city A B C and so on</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The farewell email to my coworkers</h2>
<p>Hi *</p>
<p>As most of you will know, tomorrow is my last day at XXX. Those who are still in the company from the day I started working here, may have noticed the changes I have been through since then. Those who do not know it and only know me a short while, I will try to summarize and give you an idea of the past me.</p>
<p>I moved from city G to city H just for to work at XXX. The promise to work in the technical field I wanted desperately to create a future for me was given back then by 2 managers who are for some times are no longer part of XXX. I was highly motivated and anxiously looking out to work with my new coworkers. I pictured them to be technical professionals at a progressive IT Service-Provider. Work was my life and over the years I had neglected so much personal relationships because of that. Moving from city A to B to D to E to F to G and finally to H took its toll on my private life.</p>
<p>Working at XXX was a constant process to disillusion me. Years of failed projects lead to loosing fun in working at all. Not in technology, but in working. Some will call the phase I went through mid-life crisis. They may be right, but I will call it the eye-opening period of my life past my 20s.</p>
<p>Working in general over the last 25 years led to selling out my identity and even worse selling out my political and personal beliefs. Sometimes, I was feeling more like a fraud, then the person I was long ago and the person I wanted to be. Those goals in my youth and early adulthood were mere stories anymore to be told and reminisce over. Over the years I manipulated myself in thinking that work because I liked the technical side of it, was enough to lead a happy life, or at least to create a satisfying state for me.</p>
<p>What were the deciding factors, besides losing the fun to work?</p>
<p>A lot of people over the years at XXX made major contributions, but of course I want to thank the general organization for the lack of transparency. I could not have done it without that factor and consequently propagation of it.</p>
<p>Contributors (internal)</p>
<ol>
<li>For me to understand what the root cause of hierarchical problems are, it needed all the management hierarchies at XXX. I want to leave nobody out here because you all contributed so much to my experiences and the resulting acknowledgment and understanding</li>
<li>The one-team FOO who outperformed themselves with showing such strength and endurance in stoicism and ignorance. Thanks for this. Without you, I wouldn't have learned the power of stoicism and how to endure the sheer endlessness of bad management decisions. Props to you guys!</li>
<li>The one coworker, which I will call just Erich here. Looking back at important people in my life, he is definitely in the Top 10. Without Erich, I probably would have lost touch with my politics and social side. The relationship also let me discover certain knowledge which was prior ignored by me and new ways of thinking. He made all this possible here. Thanks so much</li>
</ol>
<p>Of course, I cannot leave out the development in our society and politics.</p>
<p>So, what did really change over the last 1.5 years?</p>
<ul>
<li>Stage 1: The minimalistic consumer approach. Reduced buying consumer goods to an absolute minimum. Also reduced the amount of trash I produce</li>
<li>Stage 1: The minimalistic technical approach. Reduced my online activity. I got out of centralized toxic social media. Reduced the hardware I use and with that reducing my energy and climate footprint. No TV and Hollywood Movies anymore. No news from major newspapers. No pointless online forum discussions</li>
<li>Stage 1: The meaningful pastime approach. Reading more books. Writing more about my thoughts and reflections. Increased knowledge in scientific fields</li>
<li>Stage 2: The more real social life approach. Increased commitment in helping people in the direct neighborhood. Joined political action groups. Increased offline discussions</li>
<li>Stage 2: The reduced costs of living approach. No unnecessary spending, which includes phone, internet, online subscription for anything. Reduced rent for apartment</li>
<li>Stage 3: The fun jobs approach. Found a new job which has a good work-life balance. The company has fewer hierarchies and a non-profit approach. It does not matter that much how much money I earn</li>
</ul>
<p>Now that I am at the end of stage 3 I am happy writing this to you. I could not have done it without any of you. I appreciate every one's effort and wish you all the best for <em>your</em> future.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Children of the revolution (again and again)]]>https://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/~/Thoughts/children-of-the-revolution-again-and-again/2020-07-24T12:47:25.707832+00:00baumleafhttps://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/@/baumleaf/2020-07-24T12:47:25.707832+00:00<![CDATA[<p><strong>It's history baby!</strong></p>
<p>This post in the continuation of my thoughts on 7/22/20 and still have to completely thought through.</p>
<p>The connection between the state and the laws and culture implemented and how new generations are born into this cultural and political system, could be also found in the relationship between children and their parents.</p>
<p>I am myself are not a parent, so I just assume certain developments parents go through. Every parent will be sooner or later be confronted with the Zeitgeist, even if they completely have lost touch on the progress and social development in the world. This will eventually also lead to conflicts concerning their own education and upbringing, once children leave the supervision of their protected homes and enter the world by entering kindergarten or school. I think most of us will know what I am aiming at.</p>
<p>Like in the above relationship, the connection to the state or nation we are born in and the set of rules and laws that the authority (older generations of our parents have implemented) will have to be adapted and accepted. Like parents and children, some people will never get along with the system, the rules and the way things are. The ongoing questioning, challenging the necessity of the way things are old us from those who lead and educate us, is something that is considered a normal process.</p>
<p>How are those developments handled? Very differently. Like education, the form of government will favor variations in some way or another.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>The authoritarian approach</strong></p>
<p><strong>The anti-authoritarian approach</strong></p>
<p><strong>Focus on individuality and personal freedom of choice</strong></p>
<p><strong>The (old) conservative in all of us</strong></p>
<p><strong>Protectionism</strong></p>
<p><strong>Openness vs. Living behind closed doors</strong></p>
<p><strong>Control-freaks</strong></p>
<p><strong>Rule and educate by force</strong></p>
<p><strong>Manipulation</strong></p>
<hr>
<p>Would a world ruled by children look differently? Absolutely</p>
<p>In the relationship with the parents we learned that changes some times or often need to be fought for. They take time and persistence.
Generations born into this world will also try to change the world, for the worse or better, but there will be always the energy to change things, by not accepting current standards of what our laws, education and social norms have told us.</p>
<p>So what now? Accept, that it will take generations until we see a utopia implemented? I guess.</p>
<p>There will be attempts from the states and our leaders to prevent a development that should lead in personal and social independence.</p>
<p>Being free - from your (maybe) conservative controlling parents - from the conservative controlling state authority</p>
]]><![CDATA[Some thoughts on 7/22/2020]]>https://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/~/Thoughts/some-thoughts-on-7-22-2020/2020-07-22T18:00:13.296765+00:00baumleafhttps://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/@/baumleaf/2020-07-22T18:00:13.296765+00:00<![CDATA[<p>After reading a post on a German forum, which was probably written by some far-right troll, I decided not to reply.
To summarize the post. It was an expression of not understanding the "<em>anarchist</em>", "<em>antifa</em>", "<em>leftwing</em>" <strong>mob</strong>.
The writer was convinced that Trump should have crushed all those protests and riots earlier.</p>
<p>Not only that I completely agree with people being fed up with the lies, the physical and psychological violence, the cheating, the injustice and inequality of those people and the system which should be there to govern them, to lead them. They put the trust in people, in a constitution, in laws. Being f*cked over for generations and being witness of all the mess those in power create, is eventually leading to situations like these.</p>
<p>So I asked myself what kind of political systems and forms of government did we have so far. We can look back onto a proud future of exploitation and violence.</p>
<p>The popular ones:</p>
<ul>
<li>Democracy</li>
<li>Socialism</li>
<li>Communism</li>
<li>Autocracy</li>
<li>Dictatorship</li>
<li>Republic</li>
<li>Monarchy</li>
<li>Aristocracy</li>
</ul>
<p>In some systems we could choose our leaders, in some not and were just ruled by power and violence.
So there were revolutions promising change and that those injustices of the last one would be abolished and it became another sh*show, you just have to wait for it. System flaws were either not be thought of or build in from the beginning. The continuing element of all those attempts are clear and well known. They did not abolish class, power structures and with them we will always lead sooner or later at the point in time, when people may rise up and demand changes. Changes that could have been implemented, but sharing power and wealth were never really an option - were they?</p>
<hr>
<p>Ok, I lived long enough to know that people are individuals when you zoom in and try to understand each one of them. Experiences and so on make us somehow, at least in certain perspective, unique. Not only since I understood OOP (object-oriented programming) I realized that you can categorize and group people into classes and objects with attributes.</p>
<p>Asking myself if this is something natural? Hierarchies and class structures? Also in Biology you can find those designs implemented.</p>
<p>Breaking things down. The deeper you go in nature, the more those constructs lose their structure. What does this tell me?</p>
<p>Growing up I learned a couple of things. I always wanted to get to the bottom of things, even though I may be average intelligent. Self-reflection and self-analysis were, since my youth, tools that always have been part of how I approach experiences and me. The deeper I went, the more I could see my ego dissolve. This development also led to dissolving my view on the world and other people, my identity that was for example given to me by upbringing, my environment and the educational and social influences.</p>
<p>Dissolving my identity and ego led to a couple of things. I can see myself in a lot of peoples actions, experiences and desires. This leads to understand and acknowledgment of my environment <em>to a certain degree</em>.</p>
<hr>
<p>Coming back to the <strong>mob</strong> statement. Those people, if not on the top of the pyramid are just tools and the chain of power. Not realizing that they are part of the same group and class is something that must be actively told. Connecting parts by breaking down the understanding that if we go deeper, all those negatives that are coming with our superficial human nature can be overcome and there can be another form of life - if we want to.</p>
<p>The form of government can never be one of those above. History told us already and just making marginal changes will not lead us to a point, where the fundamental problems of hierarchical power distribution will end, and we can enter a time of real equality.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Some thoughts on the female protester in Portland]]>https://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/~/Thoughts/some-thoughts-on-the-female-protester-in-portland/2020-07-20T18:35:32.043825+00:00baumleafhttps://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/@/baumleaf/2020-07-20T18:35:32.043825+00:00<![CDATA[<p>Of course everybody knows the famous picture from the Tiananmen Square Massacre and is considered as one of the most powerful picture of protest.</p>
<p>The picture from Portland has so much symbolism covered.</p>
<p>What I can see is</p>
<p><strong>Vulnerability</strong>
The naked body shows signs of weakness and can easily be wounded. The body may seem exploitable. The contrast is the riot gear of the police. Heavily protected and armed.</p>
<p><strong>Openness</strong>
When you are naked you may not just feel exposed, but also free and open. There is nothing physically to hide anymore. The contrast is the anonymity of the policy. Masks and Helmets and complete protection of the body.</p>
<p><strong>Individuality</strong>
Each human is different. We put cloth on to symbolize that we may belong to a group or have a certain opinion on something. The naked body shows us only the individual. It may show us age and maybe how we treat our bodies through food, fitness and so. Yet it shows us in which group we all belong. We are human. The contrast again is the anonymity of the group military police style clothing. You may still see differences like in height or bodyweight, but the group will always have the picture of power, unity and order.</p>
<p><strong>Motherhood</strong>
The most fascinating facet here for me is the symbol of motherhood. The female body. The source of life. The opposite party can find themselves subconsciously in that picture and where they came from.</p>
<hr>
<p>I have not seen so portray of passive disarming power. At least in the picture there is no really provocation. For me this will be pretty much the Picture of Year at least.</p>
]]><![CDATA[Some thoughts on the situation in Portland]]>https://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/~/Thoughts/some-thoughts-on-the-situation-in-portland/2020-07-19T13:45:27.469835+00:00baumleafhttps://leaf.lost-frequencies.eu/@/baumleaf/2020-07-19T13:45:27.469835+00:00<![CDATA[<p>What we see in Portland is something everybody in our so called democracies should be aware of. We may have our constitutions and our moral values and liberty that should protect us from situation like that. This is a general misconception, that has been theorized for a long time, but the situation in Portland with secret police arresting people from the streets is eye opening. It is not just another police scare tactic in our fake capitalistic world order. It exposes so many lies that are told day in day out.</p>
<p>The speed up in wealth distribution and the continuing exploitation of "third" world countries after the fall of the Soviet Empire exposed what our system core really is made of. At the start of the '90s there was no reason to pretend anymore. The Soviet Empire was always there as a counterpart picture, so that people would not realize the capitalistic exploitation of the western population and of course all those "slave" countries that seem to be just there to provide manpower for low cost products and natural resources.</p>
<p>Since then and until the 2008 economic crisis it was smooth sailing for the political, industrial establishment and banking sector. Greed lead them to abandon domestic markets and production, because cheap labor and price competition was much more important. Even after promising regulations on the financial sector, they did not deliver. Now that the Corona crisis has shown us how weak the system really is, there is still no discussion about how to solve our elementary problems.</p>
<p>The missing discussion should be about our political and economical system, which are the root of our problems.</p>
<p>So amid the Corona crisis the focus also shifted to our government agencies and their structural problems. What has been long known in leftist circles is now in the focus of the mainstream media.</p>
<p>So, if you are living in Germany, you may want to say, that the situation in the US and Portland will never happen here and so and forth. In my opinion we are already on our way to reach the same state of systematic failure. We have secrecy on all government levels and reached already a level of injustice that the rest of a possible development may not so far away as you think. Our European governments are actively working on disposing personal privacy. The law enforcement and military is infiltrated with far-right members. The political system is a puppet for the industry and financial sector. The only solution to solve the crisis is to print money we just do not have. The whole world is broke. The system has already failed, yet there are no discussions about solutions.</p>
<p>A bridge too far</p>
<p>If we would like to reach that bridge, it would need radical changes, which would also lead to transfer power and wealth on a basis that those currently responsible will never give in.</p>
<p>The consequences of how this will develop and also the time before a possible collapse are unclear. The last step, if the level of deniability continues and the neglect to search and discuss alternatives, will much likely also bring us pictures like those in Portland.</p>
]]>