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The Walden Three Project has developed an engineering model of a super-efficient, car-free, sustainable city that uses extensive recycling, permaculture, and integrated, co-generation, pollution-free factories to manufacture most of what its citizens consume.
Text
 
To Whine or Not To Whine
by
Jimmy Walter
To whine or not to whine: that is the question:
Whether 'tis merely in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of exaggerated misfortune,
Or to take reason against a charade of catastrophes,
And by disputing end them? To see: to awake;
No more; and by awaking to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand imagined shocks
That ego is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To see, to awake;
To awake: perchance to soar: aye there's delight;
For in that dawn of insight what heights may come
when we have shuffled off our moral foil,
must give us hope. There's the respect
That makes equanimity for a long life;
For who would care about the whips and scorns of mistresses,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of disprized lust, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the time
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his own mind quiet
With but a fair appraisal? Who wouldn't old farts bear,
And laugh and play even under a weary life,
Since logic slays the dread of anything here or after death,
That undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns (Hawaii, Tahiti, perhaps Fuji?), frees the will,
And let's us bear rather well those ills we have
Than fly to others that we imagine less?
Thus intellect doth make heroes of us all;
And thus the native hue of disillusion
Is taken o'er by the hale heart of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents surge then fly,
and take the name of action.

Do Metrics IN YOUR HEAD!

It's easy! Click here! No business person or world traveler can afford not to know metrics! and my metric ditty.

My favorite poems are:
My Favorite Album is Simple Things, by Carole King.
My favorite artists and favorite songs are:
  • The Eagles: Take It Easy, One of These Nights, Sad Cafe, Hotel California, Fast Lane;
  • Fleetwood Mac: Dreams; Don't Stop, Gold Dust Woman;
  • Steely Dan: Hey Nineteen, Black Friday; 
  • Rolling Stones: Satisfaction, Mother's Little Helper; 
  • Jefferson Airplane: Revolution, Crown of Creation, Tell Me Sweet Lies
  • Billy Joel: Piano Man, Big Shot 
  • Escape Club: Wild, Wild West;, 
  • INXS: Devil Inside,; 
  • Nu Shooz, 
  • Jackson Browne: The Pretender; 
  • Paul Simon: 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, Slip Sliding Away; Feeling Groovy (59th Street Bridge Song);
  • Pete Townscend: Blood, Face the Face
  • Simon & Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence
  • Talking Heads: Burning Down the House
  • Leonard Skinard: Smell that Smell
  • Ringo Starr: No, No, Song;
  • Julie Brown: Big and Stupid
  • Arlo Guthrie: Alice's  Restaurant, Los Angeles,
  • Grateful Dead: Friend of the Devil
  • ZZ Top: Pressure, Sharp Dressed Man, Legs, 
Favorite Quotes
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste. They hurry past it.
-Soren Kierkegaard
This is caused by trying to do too much. Less is more. Slow gives you control. The person who dies with the most toys was a sucker, a loser. He/she didn't have time to unwrap them, must less enjoy them. But they had to store and otherwise worry about them. The pleasure always comes from inside your head - pleasures and pains are drugs your own body produces. Most are, technically, under your control to a large extent. Technically means that you can, if you know how, do the homework, and practice. practice, practice. Its well worth it.

The dillusion of punishment is that it
changes behavior at the lowest cost.


People Will Avoid Punishment; but They Will Seek Reward!

Happiness is Enjoying the Moderate Life.
Economics is The Conservation of Labor.
Wealth is Happiness and Economics.


Of what we consume, over 90% is spit out by factories so fast it's a blur going by as a few tech's hope something will break the boredom and keep their jobs secure. Even farms are massive automated factories. These factories create the wealth we consume. They are connected together by a network of roads, rails, and air routes where, again, the very few provide the labor needed to transport what the whole human race consumes. Robotics and computers are taking over all labor and paperwork and could do it sooner, if the world willed it. Yet we have a world economy that only sputters along with billions in perpetual poverty, poverty decreed as necessary by the world bank and our nations' banks.

Government is the cause and cure. Lack of planning, energy waste, the automobile, traumatization of the young, and self-destructive economic beliefs are the problems. If we designed cities to minimize travel costs and provide superior service, you would eliminate over 20% of the time you NEED to work, 10% for commuting and 10% for shopping for yourself. If we eliminate office space construction, maintenance, etc., you pick up another 20%. If home offices and home delivery were easy; if you knew you, the spouse, and/ or the kids would get where and when you like and be supervised by you on closed circuit TV if you want , would you even want a car? ... your very own suicide machine, expensive to buy and maintain, that makes you prey to bankers, police, lawyers, insurance agents, mechanics, painters, oil cartels, etc.?

f we fully utilize heat now wasted in the production of electricity or goods for other manufacturing, absorption refrigeration (refrigeration from heat like in an RV), heating water and buildings, etc., we eliminate another 20% of the time you need to work. If we eliminate interest, lawyers, and tax accounting while making the government not waste our time to cut it costs, we eliminate another 10% of what we have to do for a net savings of 70% of our time, probably more!

Walden 3 is a utopian love story on how to turn a prison into a city state where luxury abounds. Four ordinary people and a robot battle reactionary forces, becoming heroes, finding happiness by using Dr. Albert Ellis' scientific stoicism, REBT (see also Rational-Emotive-Behaviorism Theory). The city, New Georgia, LLC.,  for a few thousand dollars a year takes prisoners and rehabilitates him/her. They use voluntary behaviorism supported by total electronic recording of all space and all financial transactions with instant justice, without medieval punishments or 20th century prison/torture cells. They sell the prisoners on the system because the exit strategy is a full life with a job for life. They effectively and economically deter and correct destructive behavior in a secure, happy environment with motivation and plenty for all.

Government run, engineered cities and industries provide a cradle-to-grave social system with luxury for all. Since competition between companies in basic commodities and services is of little value and can cause great dislocations and degradation of service when one competitor collapses or one takes over, the city runs electricity generation, sewer, roads, communications, and mass transportation. These same industries reach great service levels due to the incentives to management based on a composite of labor savings and customer satisfaction -- rather than merely the most money "earned". People rate each service (a type of voting) affecting them, setting part of the pay of that service's personnel; thereby  controlling those who serve them.

Entrepreneurs are encouraged. Free enterprise that does not warp society is welcomed. So are artists. None depend on the whim of the rich nor fear the banker's knock on their door.

We have the technology. We have the resources. The math is easy; most of what the vast majority or people do today has nothing to do with what we actually consume. We can become entrepreneurs, craftsman, arts, entertainers, scientists, whatever......, when we as a society decide it is time!

What kind of future do you want? One of "hard work" and sacrifices that "teach" us to be noble? It hasn't so far. Or would you rather have employers begging for employees and making sacrifices to get you to go to work? Things can always be better - or declared great today.

You really like Complaining,
all that attention and sympathy.
Don't you!?

Give up your addiction to sympathy, to their opinion.
 

Let's make a bet. I'll give you $1000 for each time in your life that you said something was awful and it was at least very bad. You, however, have to give me $1 for each time it was NOT really bad. I hope you have a lot of money. If you tell yourself it is horrible, you will feel horrible. And 99.99% of the time it is not even close to horrible or awful.
Dispute how " horrible" your life is and it will no longer be horrible!
 

Happiness REQUIRES Happy Thoughts.

It's like the movie "The Matrix":
Words, thoughts, and beliefs are emotion "bullets".
They can only hurt you IF you believe they "should". 
You can stop them in mid-air if you concentrate well enough.
 

Pursue Balanced Pleasure!
Plan your life!
Set  realistic goals, including time for fun and family.
 Make daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly schedules for your life.
 

Force Yourself to Start.
 

Never put your self-worth or rewards in someone else's hands.
If you do, then "they" will control you: your life, your happiness!
Their opinion is just their opinion. 
If they see it moves you, they will manipulate you with it.
 

Celebrate the wonder of life and your life will be wonderful.
 

Control Comes From Planning, Practicing, and Rewarding.
Practice, Practice, Practice.

You have to retrain yourself. You only fail if you quit. "There is no finish line." "Life is not a rehearsal." "You don't get your money back"
 

Less Is More
"He who dies with the most toys" LOSES
He or she was addicted to acquisition; did not have time to play with them;
but he or she still had to worry about storing them, maintaining them, insurance, envy, etc.
 

Accept Life
Dispute - Don't Vent!
Dispute how "Horrible" everything is and you will feel better. Venting just makes you feel worse, again. It, you, and "they" are Never going to be perfect. Dispute the need to be perfect. Complaining about things not being perfect won't change anything and summons up bad feelings again, and again. Disputing their horror makes them shrink in importance and eventually go away. It, you, and "they" are Never going to be perfect. You don't NEED perfect. Complaining won't change anything and makes you live through bad things again.
 

Don't Punish yourself!
Don't put yourself down!
Punishment will stop you.
 

Celebrate, Reward yourself for each step!
It's the secret ingredient!
Do a victory dance! I'm serious. Give us a Victory Shout! - you've started!
You dance around and yell over some silly game which you cannot affect and does not have any affect on your life!
This will change your life and your attitude, your happiness! 
Now you've started, It's just a matter of time.
 

Don't quit because this has been proven to work.

YOU WILL BECOME Happy!

 

Remarks on my father's death, January 6, 2000
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