Wisdom from a Sojourning Martian

How ironic is it that the entropy that causes our physical decline is also responsible for our existence?

When formerly oppressed people gain power, they need to be wary of becoming the new oppressor. Revenge only begets a new cycle of oppression. Everyone has ancestors who were oppressed. It is up to the current generation to break this endless cycle of oppression.

Never criticize your followers. True leadership is helping others to nurture and develop their own innate talents.

People make three general types of statements: ones they believe in, ones they don’t believe in but pretend to, and ones that are a combination of the first two types.

Put your dream out there, whatever it is. The worst that can happen is that you wake up.

Failure is an excuse to give up. But failures are lessons on the road to success.

How we lead determines our success rate: Positive reinforcement is the rabbit. Negative reinforcement is the turtle.

If you want a kinder, gentler world, be kind and gentle in how you achieve it.

If you are tired of other people’s hidden agendas, don’t become involved in hidden agendas yourself.

Building bridges with one’s opponents is the most efficient way to cross the river to successful outcomes.

Positive steps, even imperfect baby ones, are always a good thing and move society in the right direction.

Prayer taps into the thought amplifier hard-wired into the universe.

A weak faith or belief demands adherence and reacts defensively to criticism. A strong faith or belief stands on its own merits; it requires no affirmation nor cares about any criticism.

Creativity is the fine line between sanity and insanity.

What do you do if you have the attention span of a gnat? Buzz around and do what you can for as long as you can.

Claude’s Law of Positive Outcomes for Leaders: The percentage of positive outcomes is proportional to the amount of positive reinforcement used to achieve said outcomes. Therefore, faster results may be achieved using positive reinforcement than by using negative reinforcement. An example of negative reinforcement: animal welfare activists who use shocking pictures of animal cruelty.

Shock tactics may move a few people in the desired direction, but will also close the minds of many more people. People who use shock tactics may feel they are necessary and successful, based on their peers’ favorable responses. However, ego-satisfying choir preaching causes myopia.

All change agents need to consider the mindset of their audience outside of their peer group. The wider audience should be the real target of the change agent’s work, since the peer group has presumably already changed.

At birth, memories of our past lives are wiped away. Upon death the memories are restored. A mystic is someone who retains these past life memories from life to life.

One standard of behavior should be the norm for all. Selective moral outrage is transparent and hypocritical.

Look at tools used for change as guideposts (positive reinforcement), not as weapons (negative reinforcement).

Individual change agents and small groups can have more power than large groups. Big groups tend to become paralyzed by their funding sources’ expectations.

We are all leaders. Some lead from the top and the rest of us Mr. Peanuts lead from the trenches.

If you want to find the truth in a political controversy such as the knee jerk reaction to the latest mass shooting, take the position of the outside observer: weigh the facts in light of self-interests and motives of any participants, and existing laws that might already be in place (but may not be enforced).

The shiny lie outweighs the unvarnished truth to the weak and untrained mind.

The real unemployment rate is 100% to the person who is unemployed and desperate for a job.

The world you create for others, you create for yourself.

When one person or group suffers, we all suffer.

In addition to the problem of corporate controlled and ideological editorial bias, accuracy in news reporting is tenuous due to the bias in the reporter’s heart. Reporters will always circumvent any standards of accuracy one manages to get them to agree to. Reporters will always find a way to skew their reporting to their desired outcomes.

The Fourth Estate has become the outhouse of the White House.

Governance should reflect the values of the governed.

Ignoring corruption that suits your agenda is not sustainable.

“Spin” will no longer affect an outcome of an election once a populace reaches critical mass in its disdain for corrupt governance. People have their own eyes, see and experience reality, and will vote accordingly.

We should demand better discourse from ourselves and others. If our arguments don’t work with words, find better words or a better argument.

Do not demonize ones opponents, or run the risk of becoming the demon oneself.

If you are on a roll and begin to fail, add ketchup and mustard.

You don’t unite people by dividing them.

One can never embrace evil for the greater good and expect a positive outcome.

There are no different species, per se — just distant cousins.

People need to learn to respectfully express their differences, make their case on an issue then let the chips fall where they may. Let the best ideas win!

The fate of a bird, tree or stream harmed by unwise human stewardship is our fate as well…

With freedom of speech and assembly comes responsibility to think before we act.

Life is like a movie with a plot and script where the actors flub their lines. In other words, life is organized chaos — we are born onto this Earth to experience certain things but have some freedom about how it all plays out.

I accept that reality may have created itself out of nothingness, making reality the ultimate “free lunch.” But even a free lunch could have some caviar surprises in store for us.

Is the universe any less marvelous with or without a creator?

The learning curve albeit painful, has a pot of gold at its end.

Science tells us one view of reality and religion another. It is actually possible for both to be partially right and wrong.

Good people can be bad at times. Bad people can be good at times.

The MSM has become a caricature of itself.

The only people that take the MSM seriously are the MSM.

How many MSM reporters does it take to screw in a light bulb? One to hold the ladder, a second to check with the White House for approval and a third to climb the ladder and change the bulb.

The true leader knows the wisest thing to do when they or one of their subordinates fail: take immediate ownership of the failure.

Imperfection on the right trajectory is better than no momentum at all.

Be silent when in doubt what to say.

Being an entrepreneur requires embracing success and disappointment equally. Some days you’ll feel on top of the world. Other days you’ll feel deep in a pit of despair.

When politicians are caught in scandal their moral relativism argument, “So many have done it!” is not wise. Elected officials are public servants and must be held to a higher standard to maintain the public trust.

Social media and social networks can be a giant virtual whiteboard for one’s efforts.

The human animal is much like many animal species. For many wild animals, survival is based on respecting and following the lead animal of the group. This works out well for the wild animals but not so well for the domesticated human.

Human leaders have learned to exploit the instinct to follow for the leader’s own personal material gains/wealth and self-aggrandizement/ego. Human beings are in essence, hard-wired to blindly follow good and bad leaders.

A person who loudly proclaims a strong belief may many times violate their own belief.

Three things that no longer exist in this universe: a private email, private chat and an off-the-record phone call. Always assume all communications can be divulged.

The government and media spin aside, this “extended economic recovery” is a de facto economic depression.

The only way to truly keep a secret is to tell no one else, even someone you trust. The person you trust could tell your secret to someone they trust.

The problem with the leadership in a failed nation is a lack of fundamental respect for the core values of the nation that they lead.

Leading by example always beats leading by hypocrisy.

Dissent is a nation’s immune system. Demonizing dissenters will only further galvanize their resolve.

People of goodwill can come from diverse vantage points on the same issue.

Most leaders are more akin to choir preachers; they fail to lead the larger population.

Regarding how the Tea Party movement is viciously maligned by their opponents:

Unfairly labeling an entire group of people one disagrees with [like the Tea Party] as “racists” is a form of racism unto itself.

Since when does a person’s skin color preclude them from the political process?

The problem with using the race card is soon everyone knows that you are bluffing.

Spoken politically incorrectly on purpose: Have we become a nation of mealy-mouthed politically correct pantywaists?

All interactions, even asking a store clerk for assistance are chances to lead.

At what point have our leaders become manifestations of pure evil? If you are asking the question, they’ve already become so.