From: ralph@eddlewood.demon.co.uk   
      
   In message <%3I0h.9785$dN4.5031@news-wrt-01.rdc-nyc.rr.com>, Evelyn Ruut   
    writes   
   >   
   >   
   >"i"  wrote in message   
   >news:vmlRsWD8RnPFFwAy@eddlewood.demon.co.uk...   
   >> What value do you place on persistence? It is not often listed amongst the   
   >> virtues, but I suspect that it should be.   
   >>   
   >> During my private sector career, if a supplier did not satisfy me I found   
   >> a new one. If I did not satisfy a client, I knew that he would find a new   
   >> supplier, and I had to look for a new client.   
   >>   
   >> Moving to the public sector, there is often only one supplier (central   
   >> government for many things), and if you don't get on, you suffer. The fact   
   >> that many others are suffering with you may lead you to join, or even   
   >> start, some kind of pressure group in order to change things. If you do,   
   >> you may find that it takes many years to achieve your objectives.   
   >>   
   >> If you do achieve them, it will be due to powerful arguments being found,   
   >> and powerful protagonists to put them forward. But these will be in vain   
   >> without persistence; you need someone who will stay on the job, year after   
   >> year, until the climate changes, your opponents die off, or hell freezes   
   >> over.   
   >>   
   >> My personal experience suggests that real persistence is most commonly   
   >> found amongst trade union leaders (or former ones). A worker can always   
   >> leave a job if it gets unbearable, but a trade union rep has to continue   
   >> to represent his flock however awful the employer may be. It's a good   
   >> training.   
   >>   
   >> Currently humanists need a lot of persistence to get a hearing when both   
   >> politicians and media are obsessed with Muslims vs Christians. So we have   
   >> some feeling for those crying in the wilderness.   
   >>   
   >> --   
   >> ralph   
   >   
   >   
   >I think that certain kinds of knowledge, of understanding, are their own   
   >reward.   The rest of the world may never come to see things as you do, or   
   >if they do it will be at some time and place where you may never know of it.   
   >One simply has to acquiesce to that idea.   
   >   
   >But that doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't be active for causes that   
   >are for the common good, or to roll over and let wrongs go un-answered.   
   >For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, you need to speak what you know   
   >to be the truth, the better way, and hope that it will be heard by those who   
   >will take up the standard behind you.   
   >   
   >Truth has an odd way of striking the heart when minds are open to it.   When   
   >I was young I was heavily indoctrinated in christianity, and saw everything   
   >through that filter.   Fortunately I realized somewhat early on, that this   
   >was impractical, and a contrived philosophy, having no basis in what I   
   >perceived and experienced in real life.   Not everyone has it so easy.   
   >   
   >So I always try to be compassionate about people who are immersed in some   
   >philosophical spiderweb, and will often give them only the gentlest of   
   >nudges to come to their own realizations.   
   >   
   >Brevity and clarity and simple truth are your best weapons against the kind   
   >of ignorance you seem to decry in your post above.   Funny, but sometimes   
   >they are enough.   Even if you don't see the result, you may have sown the   
   >seed of the beginning of some wisdom that will take root at a later date.   
   >   
   >In the meantime, just be at comfort in knowing what you have found to be the   
   >truth, and don't give up on humanity or on humanism..... (not that I am all   
   >that sure what humanism is about, but perhaps what I think it may be about).   
   >   
   Thank you, Evelyn, for a very Buddhist answer. Learn to be satisfied   
   with what I have, rather than make myself unhappy striving for what I   
   may never get.   
      
   But I'm not striving for material things, not even for things for   
   myself. I seek justice and equity for those less well placed than I am   
   to bring them about. Would Buddha still require me to desist?   
      
   Certainly I am an advocate of striving for happiness rather than growth,   
   the politicians' current obsession. But would I be happy if I just sat   
   in the garden watching the flowers grow? I don't think so.   
      
   As for humanism, Robert Ingersoll is my mentor.   
      
   He said: "Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The   
   time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others happy."   
      
   Thank you for your interesting thoughts.   
      
   --   
   ralph   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)