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Scooped by Sakis Koukouvis

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War on Wisdom

From www.psychologicalscience.org - May 27, 2012 11:20 AM

All the most fundamental institutions of a functioning society—healthcare, education, criminal justice, banking, politics– “do not work the way that they should.” Our carrots and sticks seem to miss the point, or make things worse. To resolve the problem one need only return to the ancient Greeks. “We need virtue,” he said. “A virtue that Aristotle referred to as ‘practical wisdom.’” It is very simple, really. Practical wisdom is “the will to do the right thing and the skill to figure out what the right thing is. “

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Scooped by Sakis Koukouvis

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Predicting system crashes in nature and society

From www.physorg.com - February 2, 2012 5:21 PM

The world can deliver sudden and nasty shocks. Economies can crash, fisheries can collapse, and climates can pass tipping points.

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Rescooped by Sakis Koukouvis from Personal Power

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The value of rites of passage

From positivenews.org.uk - December 3, 2011 2:37 PM

“If the young are not initiated into the tribe, they will burn down the village just to feel its warmth” (proverb)

"In mainstream media, rites of passage are more often than not seen as something from another time and place and not relevant to today’s society. As a result, most of the world is, not to put too fine a point on it, in crisis. There is an awful lot of ‘village burning’ going on. Just turn on the TV or open a newspaper."

Via Lesley Rodgers

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Rescooped by Sakis Koukouvis from Tracking the Future

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Privilege Has Its Rewards — How Longevity Will Become The New Class Inequality

From singularityhub.com - March 22, 2012 2:40 AM

Here’s a news flash that isn’t really new: the rich live longer than everyone else. Now, on the surface, this seems like a no-brainer. The ability to afford the best of everything should translate into better health while the inability to pay for even basic care, not to mention preventative medicine, is going to cut a person’s life short. For the threshold of the average human life span to surpass say 100 years, everyone should live like the rich do. The upper class has access to better resources, such as quality food and health care. They are also more informed, have the best education and have access to more opportunities. As a result, all of these factors collectively contribute to an improved quality of life. And if infomercials for juicers have taught us anything it’s that a better quality of life extends longevity.
But the proof is in the pudding…and that pudding better be full of statistics to back up this kind of claim.
Fortunately, studies have been going on for years to investigate the longevity gap.

Via Szabolcs Kósa

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Why are people friendly?

From www.guardian.co.uk - January 27, 2012 1:28 PM

Without selection between competing groups, the advantages of co-operation are not great enough to make it spread, or maintain itself within a population. Our benevolent instincts are the products of our social nature, and to analyse human society as essentially an association of individuals is not just morally but scientifically wrong, since that kind of analysis doesn't predict our behaviour accurately.

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