Gays in the military, gay marriage, etc.

I really don't understand the problem people have with gays in the military. It is a job just like any other. Gays can be firemen, policemen, or congressmen. Why not soldiers? I have read a few of the arguments but they don't make any sense.

With gay marriage I can see where a church might have a say they won't conduct a gay marriage, but I don't understand the government saying they won't issue a marriage certificate. Marriage is a legal contract. Gender shouldn't play a part in this.

More on trust

I said before that the lack of trust is add overhead to everything. I think this needs a bit more explanation.

If you try to buy something at the store and there is absolutely no level of trust then the checkout person has to check every bill you hand them to see if it is a fake. That adds to the time you spend in line and the extra time the checker spends will eventually be added to the cost of the items you buy. You will need to check every bit of change you receive. The items you buy may be used, mislabeled, or not weigh the amount printed on the package. All of this adds to the amount of time you spend at the store. Overhead.

If you are in a relationship and you have to constantly monitor your spouse to ensure they aren't cheating on you this time spent is overhead. If your boss has to pay somebody to make sure you are putting in a full day and you in turn have to argue with your boss to make sure you are paid what they are supposed to this is overhead. If everybody is cheating everybody else and you have to spend all of your time making sure you aren't cheated this is overhead.

All of this overhead (wasted time and money) takes away from productive time and productive uses of money. It also takes away from the quality of life you experience and adds a lot of stress. This wasted effort and added stress means humanity as a whole isn't going to be making the progress it should. New inventions won't be made, new music won't be written, and new ideas won't be spread. Basically the dark ages.

I don't know how we are going to turn this around. People have to start being less self centered and more trustworthy, but our society is actually heading in the opposite direction right now. Our entire culture seems to be pushing us into being less trustworthy and I don't know how to change that.

Trust

My last post leads to this one. I was reading a book and the author brought up the issue of trust and how lack of trust increases overhead in both business and social situations. Lack of trust actually hinders the forward progress of human development because when you can't trust anybody there is no sharing of ideas so little or no growth in technology. When you can't trust then stress caused by the difficulties of daily living causes breakdowns in social behavior.

The self centered behavior I mentioned yesterday causes lack of trust. If you borrow your neighbors lawn mower and are indifferent about returning it you probably won't be able to borrow it in the future, with good reason. I am seeing a trend towards self centered behavior and with it a break down in general trust. Relationships are failing because of affairs, which of course is a self centered behavior. Sporting events that were intended to aid in the development of children are failing in their intent because every parent wants their child to be the star.

I am rather disappointed that more people (and businesses) don't understand that breaking a trust is self-defeating. When a business gives it's stockholders a bonus instead of it's employees it gains a short term benefit at the cost of trust with it's employees. When a person cheats on their spouse they lose not only that relationship but will be less trusted by others who hear about their infidelity. The people who cause the loss of trust are affected but the people they cheat are less likely to trust others, which creates issues with society. So everyone loses.

Disappointed

I like to help people. I do it a lot. But lately I have started to rethink this because I don't feel that others appreciate what I do. They say thanks and all but nothing else. There are no offers to help me in return. My good friends help and I appreciate that, and I help them in return. But I am feeling under-appreciated by the the lesser friends, acquaintances, and strangers that I help.

Perhaps I should cut back on how much I help people. I like helping people and have always hoped that the people I helped would in turn help others, but lately people are acting very self centered and I am starting to think all of my help is just being wasted on selfish or self centered people. I really don't want to stop helping, but I also don't want to help people who aren't going to help others in return.

I don't have an answer, just disappointment.

Well that didn't work

I was trying a new method for blogging, actually saving my blogs and reviewing them before I posted them. Unfortunately that led to the entries being edited into oblivion. So now I will go back to stream of consciousness. It won't be perfect but at least it will be.