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Voltaire Was Shortsighted

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Posted by Paul R. Martin on March 31, 2002 21:32:50 UTC

Hi Mike,

Yes, I have read "Candide" and a few other things, but I don't know what Voltaire did to/about/with/for/against the civil justice system.

When I mentioned perspectives, I mentioned only the two extremes: One from the very highest level, and the other from the very lowest. That lowest being your personal situation the instant after you read the word "Boo". Boo! If you happened to have a lungful of air at that moment, you probably needed to let it out. If you had just exhaled, you probably needed to draw a breath pretty quick.

Now, in between those two extreme poles falls Voltaire and his perspective on the world. Also between those poles falls your current predicament.

If your stomach is full at the moment, you don't even need to worry about your next meal for a few hours. If your cupboard is full, you probably don't have to worry about it for a few days. If your food budget has money in it, you probably don't have to worry about it for a month. If things are even rosier than that, you may never have to worry about food and you may concentrate on shoes.

As the scope of our perspective gets successively higher in this way, no only does the term of our current worry move out, but the options available to us to do something to change our future situation increase in number.

A good strategy is to imagine how much food, and how many shoes you will need in some fairly long term, and then choose a strategy for living that will provide them in about that quantity and sort of on schedule. Such a strategy will involve some fairly short term choices and some longer term choices along the way. If we are careful to make the right choices as we go, and to adjust our strategy as it proves more or less successful, we can, in most cases here in the good old U.S. keep ourselves in food, shoes, yachts, and whatever else we think is necessary. That's all I was suggesting.

Moving on, "Self" may be confined to the brain-nervous system. But, then again, it may not.

Warm regards,

Paul

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