TaraElla's Everyday Life Blog

My Views on Syncretic Religions

2011-07-23T04:29:00.000-07:00

I have been asked about my view on syncretic religions by a friend recently. Here was my response.

I don't believe that syncretic religions should grow to beyond their natural extent - certainly not to absorb all the followers of the religions they took their inspiration from. It is also just natural that they have fewer followers, since they are newer. But if somebody was born into a syncretic religion, then I believe that it is just a valid a tradition to start exploring religion from. (My belief is that people should generally stick to their religion at birth and explore from there unless that religion prevents people from acknowledging the whole truth and keeping an open mind in some way, like fundamentalist Christianity.)

As for studying religions, syncretic religions often offer only one interpretation of the religious traditions they have combined. Therefore they may not provide the whole view. However, they provide one view, which can be helpful, as to know the truth on a matter you often need multiple views of it.

Clarifying my Position Again

2010-11-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

Some people are asking me why I won't endorse the 'sanctity of marriage' given that many other traditionalists do. The answer I give is that I cannot endorse something that is contrary to my beliefs of social justice.

Marriage is still working against social justice in many places around the world, contrary to what marriage-industry funded Hollywood will tell you. Equal marriage is a great example of this in the West, but the concept of arranged, forced marriages elsewhere is equally abhorrent.

We do not need marriage to have a stable family, many couples have done it other ways. Therefore, I won't endorse it until these social injustice issues are fixed everywhere in the world, and I believe it will take a long time. Therefore, I believe it's time to look for alternatives, like my model of an all-inclusive class of Living Partnerships and a specifically defined yet privately adopted concept of Life Partnership.

Here's my bottom line again: I am all for things that are pro-stable family, but I am going to look past doctrine and be open minded to all possibilities. Social justice is always important in family values.

Live the Libertarian Life!

2010-08-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

Libertarian principles are very useful of course in determining what's good social policy. They also ultimately protect all of us, as we are all guaranteed our freedom to do our thing. However, there are many unlibertarian forces out there trying to control every one of us. How can we counter these forces? Here are some ideas:

1) Maintain some separation from mainstream culture - mainstream culture is interesting and good, but it is also where people are assimilated to think alike. Living in and creating your own culture, and sticking mainly to your cultural group is an insurance against that.

2) Resist all attempts at assimilation - keeping your own standpoints and a globalised worldview of everything (hence why multiculturalism works) is the best defense against the local business, politicians and media controlling your mind.

3) Stay away from politically charged institutions in personal life - for example, self-proclaimed permanent domestic partnerships are more secure than government-sanctioned marriage in that they are not based on a contract that is alterable by politicians and public whim, for example with the introduction of no-fault divorce.

Lily Allen Plans to Start Family

2010-05-17T04:51:00.001-07:00

UK Pop singer Lily Allen is taking her hiatus from music to start a family. It has been reported that she wants a baby within a year.

I think it reminds us that, no matter how successful you are, family always comes first.

The Future. Our Futures.

2010-05-15T18:32:00.001-07:00

We do not know what the future holds. Yet we know one thing: our future generations will have to live in it.

Today we still know what is family, what is tolerance and equality, and what is peace. Will future generations know such concepts? Only if we keep them alive.

We can't always control the outside world, but we can always try to create a culture that embodies these concepts, shared amongst families who believe in these concepts.

My Vision for an Ongoing Shared Culture

2010-05-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

Culture makes us strong. Culture made the civil rights movement strong in the 60s, and made the religious right strong in the 90s. If the Inclusive Family Values Movement is to be strong and strong for a long time, it is required that we have a strong shared culture.

The shared culture should be inclusive to all lifestyles compatible with family values, inclusiveness and equality. Therefore, it should emphasize family friendly content, equal rights for all minorities and a equal chance at a good life for everybody, but put behind us other issues of divisiveness.

It will transcend both politics and entertainment. As with any culture, creativity and entertainment is a big part, but it will also necessarily be political as all successful movement cultures have been. It will start as a small subculture but will blossom into a force to be reckoned with. It will start with us building the basic building blocks now, and years down the generation it will be the background culture our children grow up in, as they grow up to be defenders of the cause through the culture.

Everyone reading this now, I am inviting you to participate in building this culture. You can participate by putting your ideas out there, putting your talent to use in spreading the message (for example by music or art), or just simply connecting with other believers out there and start building your own big family of faith in inclusive family values.

Conflict without Violence

2010-01-09T04:38:00.001-08:00

There are many conflicts in this world. It is not reasonable to expect them to go away all at once - nor may it be productive to do so. However, what we can aim for is to make sure conflicts are not solved with violence - ever. To have a human being hurt or kill another is degrading of all of us, indeed. Violence is also the very thing that prevents us as human beings from experiencing freedom.

The foregoing of violence does not mean that there will be no heated arguments, exclusion, us-against-them and the like - for this may indeed be unavoidable. However, violence - the intention to physically harm others - does not have to come into this.

Although I really cannot comment about the fringe elements that have indeed cost lives around the world, by-and-large the 'cultural war' as they call it has been a conflict without violence, at least when it is mainstream conservatives vs mainstream progressives. Therefore, (besides the fringe elements mentioned above) it is one that may indeed serve as a model for future generations to handle conflict.

My Dream as a Journalist

2010-01-09T04:37:00.001-08:00

My dream as a journalist is to bring the truth of the world to people.

Well, this may sound cliche, but it is very important to recognise that many people, especially disadvantaged minorities that the mainstream know very little about, are still suffering immensely. Their suffering could be eased, if only our society wakes up to its misdeeds and mistreatment of people. Therefore, I wish to do my part to make society wake up and do the right thing by everyone.

Word of the Year? I don't think so!

2009-11-21T20:29:00.001-08:00

According to those who work at the Oxford American Dictionary, 'unfriend' is the word of the year for 2009. I really cannot agree.

To unfriend somebody is often a mean act in itself, and a popular bullying tactic used by cyber-bullies. It is something that we do not need to further encourage.

Especially when Netbook, something that I believe is of far greater significance and use, was one of the contenders.

Campaign Against Unwritten Rules Culture

2009-11-21T20:28:00.001-08:00

Many organisations have so-called unwritten rules. These are rules that are not clearly laid out but are obeyed anyway. And I object to their existence.

Why? Because unwritten rules keep things unfair and conservative and stifle creativity. When an organisation only has written, clear and well understood rules, its members know exactly the boundaries on which they can move around clearly - namely, anything that it not prohibited clearly in the rules. However, with unwritten rules people are afraid to tread around in case of violating those rules. Therefore, they tend to keep to the old way of doing things, no matter how unfair, unproductive and crazy it is.

The reason why we have a law-based legal system rather than an arbitrary system of justice decided by whoever is in charge is for the same reason. With clear, laid out rules there can be fairness and freedom. With unwritten rules, there can be none of these things.

Broadband a Legal Right

2009-11-21T20:22:00.001-08:00

Finland has recently become the second country in the world to make access to broadband internet a legal right.

I applaud them for doing this, as the internet has done a lot to level the playing field for people across the world and opened up doors to many more opportunities for many individuals. The internet, I believe, is the second most effective way to combat disadvantage, after social welfare programs.

We must win the disciplining battle

2009-11-21T20:20:00.003-08:00

There is now a war of how to discipline your kids. On one side are those that favour condemning corporal punishment to the wastebasket of history, and on the other side are those who are in favour of keeping it.

Needless to say, I am in favour of banishing corporal punishment. However, just like with any ideological war, we need to win our case. And we can only win our case by providing real results - well adjusted, law abiding teenagers and adults. There is a problem with how teenagers are turning out in the West and we must acknowledge it and work with it. For example, there is a lack of guidance and a too-relaxed stance when it comes to drugs, alcohol, sex, and sometimes even violence. This is not because of smacking or lack thereof in little children, but rather a culture of lose discipline during the formative years of the 'tweens' and the teens, due to a fear from the parents of their children not fitting in with their peers. I, for one, will never give into this fear.

I, for one, when I do become a parent, will not allow violent video games in my house. My children will dress and present modestly and will not be allowed to watch the sex-fuelled content on TV. They will not be allowed to get into fights at school. They will not have a drop of alcohol or one single cigarette touch their mouth before they are 21 (when they will hopefully learn to avoid those things for the rest of their lives too). They will not lose their virginity before 21 - to do so is beyond shocking, and too few Westerners realise it. They will also need to study hard and develop healthy leisure habits. I will make sure they conform to this lifestyle, even if it makes them look uncool in front of their peers. And although I am not going to smack them, I am going to make sure the above happens, using other means.

Obviously, no spanking does not mean no discipline. We should still be able to take away privileges and all that, and enforce them when we need to (for example to achieve the above results), consistently and firmly. Only by doing that, and maybe more often and in a stricter way to the smackers, can we actually produce the results to win the battle.

Support for Limiting the Number of Working Hours

2009-11-21T20:20:00.001-08:00

I support legislating to discourage employers from getting employees to work too many hours. Not a ridiculously low number like 35 (they do that in France) - but we don't want to live in a nation full of people who work 65 hour weeks every week. Not in the 2010s. There are two reasons to this. And it has something to do with the recent advent of female equality too.

The first, obvious one is that it damages a family to have both parents work at that rate. Even with one parent working a 60-70 hour week on a long term basis and another parent working the usual 40 hours, you have got a lot of stress. In the past people (men) were able to work that many hours because they did not have to care for the family. Now that both men and women are working, both need to take enough time to care for their families too.

The other reason is that companies will usually only employ more people if there was a need to. A law limiting the number of working hours means that companies will have to employ more people to complete their work, rather than just paying overtime to a smaller number of employees. This may not cost the company more really, but it does create employment for more people. And this is very important, especially in times of economic downturn.

The Pecking Order Strikes Again

2009-10-07T00:49:00.002-07:00

A Swedish study that has taken more than 40 years to do has shown that kids that were popular at school become healthier adults, both in terms of mental and physical health. The cohort was born in 1953 and questioned in 1966 to determine their popularity at school. Their health has since been tracked up to 2003.

I guess that's why we shouldn't be having a pecking order. It is detrimental for health. Given that there are more people at the bottom than at the top of most such orders, we are doing more harm than good. Also, since we are doing anybody harm at all, it is against the idea of treating everybody fairly. Therefore, as I have always said, abolish hierarchies now!

Car Free Day

2009-10-07T00:49:00.001-07:00

A Car Free Day is being held across Europe and North America.

Good on them for doing this. We really shouldn't need one car for every person to move people around and get them to work every day. However, I think that will need to be accompanied by good public transport. I guess while building new railways will take years, proving quality bus services is a good start, as is turning some major roads into bus-only roads.

Something that I Sometimes Feel Too

2009-10-07T00:48:00.004-07:00

"I'm really insecure about everything. I never think I'm worthy of anything," Megan Fox recently told the press.

I have to admit that in the past I sometimes felt that way too. I have had a long bout of it in a period that I won't specify here. But the point is that, we all feel like that sometimes, and very few are immune to it, I think.

The best thing to have is friends to tell you that isn't true.

The Manifesto of the New Multiculturalism

2009-10-07T00:48:00.003-07:00

I am a total supporter of multiculturalism. And by that, I mean not just support for high levels of migration and the co-existence of different ethnic cultures. Multiculturalism by definition has to include that, but 50 years after the idea's conception, it is now time to add more to it. Besides acknowledging the right of the main ethnicity and religion based cultures to exist and to function in our society (as long as they don't harm individual liberty), may I say that all the other 'cultures' in society that are not based on historical ethnic divides but rather on the attitudes we have and the lifestyle choices we make in the modern world, should be accorded the same recognition and space to function too. This idea will, from now on, form the very basis of my platform, and all other beliefs and causes of mine will have to factor this in too.

The biggest implication of this, I guess, is that every individual should be accorded the maximum amount of freedom available whilst they don't harm or restrict the freedom of a third party. Obviously, you still shouldn't be able to run around the streets naked because that is very offensive to many people, nor should you be able to wander the streets drunken and posing a danger to the people around you, because that is taking the right of people to use the streets without fear. However, we should never persecute individuals for doing what they do privately, no matter what our own personal moral values are.

Multiculturalism demands that every cultural group be bestowed the same recognition, dignity and opportunities, both in law and in the society. Therefore, in this new version of multiculturalism, policies like legalising same-sex marriages become a necessity (if we view the queer community as a distinct cultural group). Similarly, the provision of convenant marriage (to BOTH straight and gay couples) would also be consistent with this view - providing more choices for more people, so that cultural groups with different values and aspirations can all be equally benefitted and dignified by the law.

Abolish Capital Punishment Now

2009-10-07T00:48:00.001-07:00

A Texas death row inmate has broadcasted her message over London, hoping for widespread support for a reprieve. She claims that her trial was unfair and there were a lot of inconsistencies in it. Still, they decided to sentence her to death.

If it is a wrongful death sentence, it surely isn't the first one from Texas.

The main reason why capital punishment has become impractical is that we cannot ever have enough proof to be sure enough to execute the punishment. And our morals teach us that we cannot 'just do it anyway'.

Wouldn't the simpler solution be to abolish capital punishment for most, if not all, crimes?

Adam Lambert gives to Public Schools

2009-10-07T00:40:00.000-07:00

Adam Lambert has asked fans to join him in support of public schools, by going to DonorsChoose.org to donate with him.

Thanks Adam for doing this for America's school children, but it is really sad that public schools are so underfunded.