<<
OK, several things...
1) you seem to totally integrated the "Human Relations as Commerce" meme.
By your definition Romantic Love is Business.>>
Yes, I think love can be thought of as a business. I like business and don't
think it is cold and heartless. I think business is one of the more intimate
relationships you can have with a person. Business and love can be done on a
one to one, eye to eye basis. Extropy #3 had an article by Tom W. Bell "Love
as a Contractual Relationship". He states an analogy: ". . . feelings are
to love relations as profits are to business relations". Sometimes you turn
a profit and sometimes not.
I think the point of the "We are all self-employed" is self-responsibility.
When we hurt someone's feelings we are hurting our "business" of living.
<< 2) are you married, in a Relationship, is this a relationship based on
trade ?
Yes, it is based on trade: Married people enter into a contractual
relationship with all the meanings that has.
<< 3) im curious as to how you define success as in "The most successful
people..."
I define it as people who are happy because they have satisfied the four
areas of human happiness: to live well (eat, sleep, shelter, etc.) , to love
(friends, lovers, customers, etc.), to learn (to know things about the
world), and to leave a legacy (to leave their mark on the world.)
<< 4) Re:"We are all responsible for our own lives"
are we also responsible (to some extent) for the lives of our neighbours,
children, aging parents, the mentally ill, intellectually handicapped ???
>>
We are NOT primarily responsible for other people and here is why:
We are responsible for ourselves first, NOT to our neighbors, children,
aging parents, the mentally ill, intellectually handicapped nor anyone else
first. If we can not take care of our selves we can not help anybody else.
"We are all self-employed" meme satisfies the first and basic need, to be
responsible for oneself. That is the basis of all other help we may then
choose to give others.
Without the meme _We are all self-employed_ there can be no help given to
anyone in the other groups you mention (friends, neighbors, children, aging
parents, the mentally ill, intellectually handicapped).
Imagine the alternative meme "We are all NOT self-employed". To me that
means "It's not MY neck (business) if I get in trouble. Lets leach off
someone else. We don't need to be responsible for our own life. I'll let my
parents, government, religion, charity, neighbors, etc. help me and I don't
need to worry about paying them back (altruism)." It's a win-LOSE or
lose-win meme, zero-sum game. "We are all NOT self-employed" could be the
motto for a communist (or any "Big Brother" style) government or a
socialist-libertarian anarchy.
"We are all self-employed" is a win-win idea for capitalist or
libertarian-capitalist anarchy. To get repeat love/business, treat other
people the way you would like to be treated (The Golden Rule).
Dynamically Optimistic,
Davin
November 4, 1996
10:24 am