Weekly Link Love #37 – Living an Authentic Life

I read a lot. In this weekly post I present a summary of some of the things which have caught my eye this week, along with a few thoughts about each of them. By doing this I hope to live a more authentic life and improve my level of self-knowledge:

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.

- Isaac Newton

Links

Another week, and a new opinion piece: Jamie Oliver: Does He Live In The Real World

I believe he’s gone from admirably advocating fresh food to becoming a fervent over zealous life-coach.

Other stuff I’ve read:

In this article: “progressive capitalism” seems to be similar to “conscious capitalism” but this has to be an oxymoron. As one commenter says:

The most disheartening aspect of today’s state of affairs, is the lack of any meaningful dialogue that offers a systemic alternative to capitalism. Instead, we are subjected to “reformist drivel” which only espouses the perpetuation of the system which has “bankrupted masses,” and enriched their masters.

And:

Conscious capitalism/conscious consumer is a myth. People want to buy all that useless stuff they don’t need as cheaply as possible. Very few consumers care about how badly the people making the stuff are paid or their working conditions. The same goes for the people selling them the stuff.

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
– John Maynard Keynes

Also, from here: A summary of how we all have a role to play in trying to enforce societies norms and perceived regulations. Quote:

Daily life, from this perspective, is a finely calibrated system of justice, with violators constantly sanctioned by a volunteer police force, to which we all belong.

What is scary is that:

… we feel the social order’s less threatened when the person violating the norm is powerful.

Why should that be? The rich and powerful should be held to account in the same way as everyone else. Although it seems we don’t perceive that to be the case. Years of social conditioning and education have worked.

Agree? Disagree? Read any great articles this week? Leave a comment below.

Inspiring photo(s) of the week

From here and here:

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The aurora from Stonglandseidet, Norway.

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Red Supergiant Star V838 Monocerotis: much larger than the Sun it is short-lived before exploding into a supernova.

Quotes of the week

From here, here and here:

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Those who do not weep, do not see. – Victor Hugo bit.ly/y7GSa6—
Wise Quotes (@wisequotesnet) September 03, 2013

Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears. – John Lennon bit.ly/ya4tx7—
Wise Quotes (@wisequotesnet) September 03, 2013

Video(s) of the week

This four-programme documentary hosted by Michio Kaku from 2005 explores the meaning of time. He discovers our sense of time passing and the clocks that drive our bodies. He reveals the forces of time that make and destroy us in a lifetime. He journeys to some of the Earth’s most spectacular geological sites to look for clues to the extraordinary depths of time at a planetary level. Finally, he takes us on a cosmic journey in search of the beginning (and the end) of time itself.

Daytime: Time seems to drive every moment. It’s the most inescapable force we feel. But do we experience time from within our minds and bodies or from the outside?
Lifetime: The most powerful effect of time on our lives is the way it limits us. Our knowledge of death is so embedded in our lives and spirituality that, were immortality possible, would we lose the sense that makes us human?
Earth Time: We hold a unique knowledge of time, realising that it stretches deep into the past, and will continue into the future. How does this affect our sense of who we are?
Cosmic Time: We’ve always structured our lives based on an unchanging past and a predictable and ordered future. But atomic and cosmic discoveries have changed all that. What is time itself? And will it ever end?