Quotes

I was emailed a quote by Cicero which I wanted to share here, along with my variation.

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
-Cicero- 55 BC

"Your budget should be balanced, your account should be refilled, private debt should be reduced, the arrogance of consumerism should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to others should be curtailed lest you become bankrupt. You must again learn to work, instead of living on others assistance."
-Economist Director- 2009

I really do agree with Cicero, I think he is right on. Yet would people be so quick to share quotes like the first one if it was always paired with one like the second? Just something interesting to think about.

Isn't it interesting how much time people spend pointing out the amount of debt our government is in? You take one look at the word "trillions" and you know that we are hopelessly buried, and it frustrates us citizens to see the ridiculous decisions our elected officials continue to make concerning our country's finances.

And yet, if we look at the overall situation, we would realize that the government is acting exactly the same as the majority of us citizens! We may not have trillions of dollars worth of debt, but our individual thousands seem as impossible for us to pay off as trillions are for the government.

What difference does it make to talk about the country's financial health? Unless you are a politician or talking to one, probably not much.
What difference would it make to actively improve our own financial health? Tons! So despite the fact that it's easy to talk, maybe we can step it up in our actions and actually make a difference. What a concept!

There are loads of places/people who give advice for getting a handle on one's personal economy. "Create a debt reduction plan" "Set aside a percent of your income for long term savings" "Follow a budget"...the list goes on and on. They are things we have all heard before. Learning how to do it doesn't seem so difficult. With so many resources out there, anyone should be able to figure out a way to get out of debt.

It is our responsibility to break out of the mold of our debt based society, and do what it takes to be good stewards of our resources. It requires acting upon the advice that is given though, and therein is the difficulty.I have been trying to budget recently, (it is one of my topics of inquiry) and guess what? It is hard to keep a budget. Good grief, it's hard to even balance a checkbook! It requires new habits and lots of discipline to develop them. Getting out of debt wont be easy, but it is worth it. It will change the economy of our nation if we all take responsibility for our personal resources. So what do I suggest? Pick a plan and follow it. Do what it takes, and actually act to get out of your personal debt.

Medium=Message

The medium determines the message. This is the thesis of one of my favorite books "Amusing Ourselves To Death" by Neil Postman.
It fascinates me how our society is so visual. I find myself falling asleep during a ten minute talk or loosing focus in a forty minute lecture, but I can stay up all hours of the night watching a movie. As I was writing a letter to my grandpa two days ago I discovered how difficult it is to express what I want to say without including a :) or ;) or :P. (And I knew my grandpa would not understand it if I included them, so I was working very hard not to.) It made me step back to take a look at myself though, and I realized I don't only use words to express my thoughts; I use images a lot of the time.

If the medium is the message, what is being said?

Written words take training to understand, they follow a logical flow, and they use only one of our five senses.
Film you understand instantly, is an emotion based medium, and is both seen and heard. (And what you hear is on multiple levels, you hear the lines of the actors, the score, and sound effects.)

So what can be said using film which is unique to its medium, as opposed to what can be said only, or best, by written words? And is there a way to bridge the gap and say something logical and exact in meaning in the storytelling and emotional medium which is film?

Just something I have been wondering about.

A Brief Introduction

What are the economic philosophies that lead to freedom, prosperity, and happiness? As I was studying political philosophy and political economy last year this question became my personal inquiry. The economic structure of a nation or an individual is of great importance, and it is worth looking at to make sure it is good; and any problems are fixed correctly.

Another question that came to mind was: how would a modern philosopher or economist actually share their ideas with the world? No one I know (except for some crazy college students) are actually going to read "Wealth of Nations" or "Human Action" types of books. The mediums of today are film and music, and the one that I have chosen to effectively communicate through is film. It is a powerful mode of communication whose potential is waiting to be tapped. So the question here is, how do you make a philosophical argument using an emotion based medium?