QUESTIONS and DOUBTS

Under the title „Divine Sparks”, it is expressed in points 17-18., how self-confident one  with little information is. On the other hand, the one who has greater insight into the world, is often uncertain. On this page, I have compiled such questions and doubts, not knowing the answer to them, or there is not only a single right answer to them.

 8. Is Not that the Same Thing We Say Nowadays?

In the book written by Lucio Della Seta I read: "The rumours about the ever-growing number of dangers threatening our health, originate from a legend which is as old as the world itself. It can be concisely summarized as follows: in the olden times, the world used to be better, and nowadays we are living in nasty and difficult times. This stupidity is inconquerably prevailing, it continues to survive in everybody's life, all through the times. This statement of Lucio is quite well supported by the thought of Plato some 2500 years ago. Plato said, "At school, the teacher is afraid of the children, and at home it is the children who give orders not the parents." Is not that the same thing we say nowadays?

 7. It is Easy from above

I have often observed that snails tend to come and go on the roads mainly after a misty dawn or after rain. I always try to avoid them because the speed of the bike allows it, but you cannot notice them out of the car. Today (August 29, 2007) I was cycling home in rain and poor snails were setting off, they made their ways to and fro. I wish I could have communicated with them that it is no use wandering hither and thither as the grass is equally green on both sides of the road and the earth is just as wet so it is pointless to risk their lives. In the next moment it occurred to me, if God is looking at me or at us people, He can be seized with the same feeling. What is the use of this ceaseless coming and going, if only they knew how this bustle is senseless, perhaps they could lead calmer lives. But, of course, the snails did not catch my unspoken thoughts, and likewise, people do not catch the unrevealed thoughts of God either.

 6. Is the Will Free?

 It is often said: where there is a will, there is a way. Is it really as simple as that? In my previous writings I too referred to the free will several times, but, as this is also the column for doubts, let me contradict even myself. Is our will indeed free? May we want happiness, why not? I wonder how many thousandths of mankind is really happy, though there cannot be a man who would not like to be happy deliberately. Well, if the will of ours is so free, then why is happiness only a dream for most of us? Do we have free will over our feelings? Can we love somebody whom we had hated yesterday only because we want to? Not likely. Several philosophers deny that there is free will and they may be right.

 5. What Is the World Like?

 At dawn I awoke in such a pensive mood. I was pondering whether my thoughts about the world are induced merely by the age (namely, my own age), or, whether there is truth in them, and the world is really like this and is more and more becoming like this. I often feel like a fossil, who cut off himself from the world, and does not comprehend anything from what is going on. He grumbles because he thinks he will be beaten in the competition which he had not entered for. What is the world like?

 Complicated: I am under the impression that the world is becoming more and more complicated, more and more bureaucratic, intricate, and we are ruled by an ever-increasing number of regulations and orders. Nevertheless, people and the world have not been made better, safer, nicer or happier by the several intricacies and regulations. Maybe the European Union was first made non-competitive primarily by its own red-tape. There will come the time when it will also be made unoperable by the red-tape. Of course, this is accompanied by a peculiar supporting system. The basis for that is that the funds are withdrawn from the efficient systems and they are allocated between those which had been operated inefficiently  and will continue to operate like this. To be self-consistent, I have to react that this question is also more complicate to answer.

 Accelerating: Everything is speeding up and continues to accelerate. Cars, computers and mobil phones are becoming faster and faster. Can our thoughts and feelings be sped up likewise, are we able to process all the information and feelings we are flooded with? Everything is required immediately, it will not be sufficient tomorrow or perhaps the day after tomorrow. And there arises the question once more whether all these make us happier.

 Materialistic: There exists a smart device for everything, and afterwards smarter and smarter ones are appearing. If we do not buy them, this will mean the end of the world. We are forced to buy them. Religion, science, art, love, everyhing has become a business. If you do not like it any more, just throw it away and purchase a new one. Never try to repair anything, or make efforts, just simply exchange them. Even the cultivation of the soul or the spirit has become a business now, there are courses and trainings in these fields. And did this make the world happier?

 Crowded: Where are now the farms, the large village estates, where there had been space…  they are all gone. Instead of them, we have flats like boxes in housing estates, there are houses very close to one another on mini-lands. Where is the greengrocer’s round the corner who knew everybody and everybody knew him as well? Instead, there are innumerable, impersonal shopping malls. Where is gone the joy of travelling? Instead, agressive madmen are rushing along, hooting and flashing on busy roads. And is the quality of our life better now?

 Trustless: Some 30 years ago, we did not close the houses, at least we put up the bolt. There were not even fences in some places. The churches were open, we could put the money for milk or soda water at the gate. Today, not only the money but milk also would be taken away, perhaps the gate not. An unclosed bicycle did not disappear in the street, today they can also be taken from the garages. Nowadays we close, conceal and keep secret everything, locks, electrical devices and cameras are safeguarding, the safeguarding has become a new profession. It was a long time ago that a given word meant obligation. Today paperwork, lawyers and notaries public are required to certify that me is me, a declaration and witnesses about my making a declaration yesterday. Is this good so?

 Ill: Not long ago, only a few doctors were working, many people did not see a doctor in their lifetime. Herbs were used as medicine and there was always somebody in a community who knew what to use for various illnesses. Nowadays several multinational companies are flooding the market with human, plant and veterinary medicines, there exist some pills, tinctures or ointments for each ailment. There is a specialist for every human organ, now   man is not considered as a whole. Everything is artificial, even the manure. In the households large quantities of various chemicals are used, which were unknown even in the best-equipped pharmacies a few decades ago. Well, and what comes of it? Are there merely healthy people running about, are the plants or animals more resistant and healthier?

 Unhappy: I have read somewhere that several billions of people are starving in the world, but even more feel starved of understanding, a friendly word, and love. Never before had been people suffering from such a wide range of mental illnesses. We are overwhelmed by anxiety, remorse, inferiority complex and stress. Who is responsible for that?

 The enumeration can be continued. But maybe the world is not like this at all. On the other hand, there is no reason for panic as the world is as we have formed and are forming it. God gave us free will, and we could and can always decide to our liking: the complicated things can be simplified, the fast ones can be made slower, the agressive ones can be tamed, what is materialistic, can be made spiritual, the crowded can be changed by spaciousness, what is based upon mistrust we can have confidence, what is ill can be cured, what is unhappy can be made joyful. If this is so simple, then why do not we do it? We refer to the fact it is not in our power to do anything, such is the world, it was the other who had formed it this way, it is no business of ours. We have lost touch with nature, we want to transform everything, nothing is good in its created form, though everything is invented quite well because the earth goes round, the sun rises and sets every day, the seasons alternate regularly. Plants know without any textbook when spring sets in, and the world is so colourful and beautiful without any bungling of mankind. We intervene into the course of the rivers, switch over the time, spy out the sky, the atom, or the cells. We do not allow the plants or animals or even ourselves to follow the programmes originally fed into us, we want to create big, enormous and artificial from everything, nothing should be left natural.

 4. Where Is the Golden Mean?

 The Western civilization has really achieved an incredible maturity, primarily a highly developed technical state. Now we have a smart construction for everything. In a country fair held in Aba, a small town in Hungary, I saw that the soap bubbles are not blown with the help of the hands, mouth and lungs any more. A device is constructed for this purpose, which has a tank and a ventilator. If you press a button, then, at regular paces, soap bubbles of standard sizes are blown out. We already take away this little play, this creativity from the children. This encourages the children not to do anything, not to create anything, just be passive and buy everything, we will find out everything instead of you. Is this the right way leading us somewhere? We are surrounded by things and we believe if we get something we will be closer to happiness. Yes, this is true for about some seconds, because afterwards we must buy something new. Passivity results in the accumulation of profound knowledge by very few people, whereas the majority dare not open the hood of the car as he does not know anything about it. (I have not opened it either for years, though long ago I disassembled my motorcycle into pieces and then assembled it in such a way that it was operable.) The outcome is that the most advanced technologies are at hand day after day, and we use them without having the slightest idea of their operation, such as the mobile phone, computer or car etc. But can the growing material wealth be followed by spiritual and mental improvement? If the material one is so much in advance, should not we take care also of the other side? Physically, the West subjugated and plundered the East but could integrate only very little of the Eastern mentality. But now we witness a phenomenon that the Eastern people rapidly take over the  Western knowledge, which is  „deadlocked”, their way of thinking is more and more focused on things, several gadgets and devices are spreading: brainwash goes on successfully. Alas, it seems we have lost the golden mean which supposes balance between the material and the mental sphere. Is the total victory not a total defeat in fact?

 3. Do We Know the Proper Device?

 About 20-25 years ago, there was a bestseller entitled „Small Is Beautiful”. This book found it out for us for the umpteenth time that our life will not be good only then if everything is enormous and complicated. Now it would be advisable to realize this principle again, and what is more, to apply it. It is shocking to observe the pathological inclination, if something is not working, then we try to handle the presumed or real issue by more and more new regulations. One of the „grave-diggers” of the EU, the states, the multinational companies and others is the over-regulation and red-tape. These, besides being alien to the freeborn people, also lead to uncompetitiveness. We are unable to enforce the old regulations, and we hope, by complicating them and issuing new ones, they will make things better. The application of law may also be on the wrong track when it starts from the principle „what is not forbidden by law, it is permitted”. By and by we are coming to the point if something is not stipulated by law, let me mention one example: if it is not forbidden to steal the battery and the copper cable from the signals of the railway crossings, and what is more, this is not written on the battery and the cables, then the „brave” court will even acquit the innocent thief, and, besides, pass the responsibility on the railway company for not having guarded the equipments with due care. All these are enhanced by pseudo-human and pseudo-rights of personality. Does it not occur to anybody that we all have right to be honest? To make the complicated simple? The tax law is my favourite, but I can select any rule. Since the introduction, every year something is modified and new and new sections are integrated. They are mainly about the fact, based on the principle „what is not forbidden by law, it is permitted”, let us say, one thousandth of the tax-payers or only a single man commits an offence, then the whole society shall be punished for it. Furthermore, by this law we want to realize social policy, employment, investment, saving policy, stimulus of the enterprise and lots of others. All abound in mere exceptions and temporary rules. Everybody knows the Swiss pocket knife. It has a knife, scissors, a screwdriver, a drill, a file, a hammer etc., it is good for everyhing and for nothing. Well, our laws are just the same. If, let us say, this unfortunate tax law has the aim that the public revenues be ensured by general and proportionate sharing in taxation, then it should deal with it. If we want a social net, then that should be another law. To put it plainly, if somebody wants to hammer in a nail, he should use a hammer, and if he wants to pull out a nail, then pincers, but he should not try to use a Swiss pocket knife, at least in case of emergency. Of course, a (tax) law of the Swiss pocket-knife type is also beneficial to the legislators to make an excellent business of software manufacture, book-edition, on-the-job training and of holding the sacrifices in uncertainty. „Simple is great” could be a proper hit. Here are some examples for the tax law in this style: Article 1: Everybody shall pay taxes without exception. Article 2: The extent of the tax shall be one-rate x percent after any type of income, and be payable immediately (it can be calculated after leaving the primary school!). Article 3: Unanimous consent of the legislators is required for increasing the extent of the tax (namely, it shall not be modified upwards). Article 4: The prevailing government is entitled to reduce the extent of the tax, but afterwards, Article 3. should be applied automatically. Article 5: The state shall not levy any due, contribution, tenth, or any other tax under some other shrewd title. Article 6: The one who does not pay tax, shall be deprived of all rights. Article 7: In the tax law, no exceptions, complications, concessions in the interest of some lobbies, no hardships for other groups and no further articles shall be integrated even through a referendum.

Is this law absurd? Maybe yes, maybe not. Let us be careful if somebody wants to convince us, supported by professional arguments, what cannot be realized and why. Behind them, the hairy hooves of power, prestige and  Mammon are always peeping out.

 2. Where Is the Limit of Responsibility?

 There are some fields of our life where the market aspects cannot be prevailing as it is well formulated in point 6. of the „Divine Sparks”. Such are e.g.: education, public health, environmental protection, and transport etc. To a certain extent, of course, everything can be made marketable, however, it is not light to determine the extent. Inevitably there arises the issue of responsibility. Now the individual does not seem to be responsible for anything, and the community (society) is unable to assume and effectively finance the irresponsibility. Now I am giving an example of public health, but there are also several ones in the fields of education, public transport or environmental protection. We can hear everywhere how detrimental to human health are smoking (3-4 millions of persons), alcoholism (0.8-1.2 millions of persons), drug addiction (? persons), unhealthy nutrition (? persons), lifestyle with lack of physical activity (? persons) or stress (? persons). Disregarding the individual exceptions, maybe it is undisputed that there is really a connection between the unhealthy way of life and the illnesses. Everybody has the autonomy to decide between hedonism and asceticism, however, the consequence of the decision will appear on the account of the community. Plainly, the consequence of the individual irresponsibility shall be paid by the community. Well, of course we can say this is social solidarity, which is crucial, nevertheless the extent can be disputed. Should the community bear all individual irresponsibilities? Is there a satisfactory answer to that? Or shall we accept that in several fields we have to live as irresponsible individuals in a society without any consequences? This kind of „irresponsibility model” can be found in crime, vandalism, in scattering rubbish in the environment and forests, in the superfluous trainings or the usage of roads etc. Finally, just to contradict even myself, and to multiply the number of individual irresponsibilities, e.g. would not we come off better if the disposal of any waste would be free of charge provided if collected selectively, and this way the forests might be protected? All in all, which method is more efficient and cheaper, in which case are we able to act more consciously? Or, would not it be advisable to apply in the transport the financing connected to the fuel consumption (traffic), to put it plainly, all costs should be included in the petrol price (insurance, motorway tolls etc.)? Or, the law of value could not be violated if there would be a chance to travel by train instead of car at a fractional price of that of today, and the trains would be accurate, fast and clean, crossing all the country? When I am walking in the evenings, I can always see how empty train carriages are rattling, fortunately there are still engine-drivers and conductors on them, but passengers only scarcely. Or, is it right that several people are trained in superfluous professions at public expense, whereas you cannot find a fairly good plumber or a mechanical engineer? Or, is it useful for the society if, in spite of  the electric data base installed at public expense in the state administration, the documents (such as land register, certificate of registration, personal documents and others, it could be listed endlessly) are required in hard copies over and over again? Are the scissors between the competition sphere and the public sphere opening more and more widely? Where is the limit, where is the limit of responsibility?

 1. What Is the Aim of Efficiency?

 Ever since I was a child I have been dealing with the issue whether people can be given  strategies which enable them to live, if not perfect, but lives to the full. Of course, this has ins and outs. Now I am focusing only on the fact that everybody requires on a certain level to realize his thriving. In  most cases, the prerequisite of it is that one should have a job to maintain himself and family. Another object of doubt is that this job could also be a joyful activity. Well, what is the aim of this frantic hurry in order that a product could be manufactured or a service be rendered faster and faster, in a more and more efficient way and by less and less workforce? It is general that wherever it is possible machines should be installed because there are lots of problems with people, are not there? Maybe people are thinking or they are not thinking, causing several problems to the employers in both cases. All out for efficiency, mechanization and globalization! Yeah, but what good will that do if an ever narrowing minority has jobs, perhaps satisfactory wages but at the same time the number of people having neither work nor income is increasing? Can one be happy if one has no chance to work and to create something? How wide can these scissors still open?