America And India: Parallels

Image via WikipediaIn India they had Anna Hazare. Well, they still have him. America has had the Occupy movement. Similar stuff. In India they are going after sites like - guess - Facebook and Google. First it was for disrespecting Sonia Gandhi. Now they are saying it is about porn and hate speech. In America you have SOPA.

The oldest and the largest democracies have more than one thing in common. My favorite would be Hollywood and Bollywood.

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• 'Objectionable' Content on Facebook, Google: Is India's Ban Plan Political? [SLIDESHOW] (ibtimes.com)
• The lessons to be learned from India's unsung protests (discussn.wordpress.com)
• Gandhi and Hazare (prophet666.com)
• Prohibition: India's and America's shared lessons in fight against alcohol (csmonitor.com)
• Major websites face prosecution in India (mysanantonio.com)
• Major websites face prosecution in India (seattlepi.com)
• Google, Facebook face charges over content in India (ctv.ca)
• Anna Hazare: A victory of social media (techmediapolitics.wordpress.com)

Tips From Gandhi

Cover via AmazonGandhi’s Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World

Change Yourself

Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns. ...... the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact. ....... if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.

You Are In Control

What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. ...... You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to pretty much everything. ..... as you realize that no-one outside of yourself can actually control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.

Forgive And Let Go

........ spending your time in some negative memory won’t help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You’ll probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from taking action in this present moment. ...... If you don’t forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.

Without Action You Aren't Going Anywhere

...... taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance. ...... And so you may resort to preaching ...... Or reading and studying endlessly. And feeling like you are moving forward. But getting little or no practical results in real life. ...... Books can mostly just bring you knowledge. You have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.

Take Care Of This Moment

..... stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting. ....... when you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment that you can’t control anyway ........ the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences – or reflecting on past failures – of your actions ........ reconnecting with and staying in the now is a mental habit – a sort of muscle – that you grow. Over time it becomes more powerful and makes it easier to slip into the present moment.

Everyone Is Human

When you start to make myths out of people – even though they may have produced extraordinary results – you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. You can start to feel like you could never achieve similar things that they did because they are so very different. So it’s important to keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are. ........ we are all human and prone to make mistakes. Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world and negativity within you. ........ avoid falling into the pretty useless habit of beating yourself up over mistakes that you have made. And instead be able to see with clarity where you went wrong and what you can learn from your mistake. And then try again.

Persist

Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away. And your inner resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies that want to hold you back and keep you like you have always been will grow weaker........ Success or victory will seldom come as quickly as you would have liked it to. I think one of the reasons people don’t get what they want is simply because they give up too soon. The time they think an achievement will require isn’t the same amount of time it usually takes to achieve that goal. ........ keep a sense of humor. It can lighten things up at the toughest of times.

See The Good In People And Help Them

...... leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people ......... if you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive. ......... By being of service to other people, by giving them value you not only make their lives better. Over time you tend to get what you give. And the people you help may feel more inclined to help other people. And so you, together, create an upward spiral of positive change that grows and becomes stronger. ....... By strengthening your social skills you can become a more influential person and make this upward spiral even stronger.

Be Congruent, Be Authentic, Be Your True Self

........ one of the best tips for improving your social skills is to behave in a congruent manner and communicate in an authentic way. People seem to really like authentic communication. And there is much inner enjoyment to be found when your thoughts, words and actions are aligned. You feel powerful and good about yourself. ....... When words and thoughts are aligned then that shows through in your communication. Because now you have your voice tonality and body language – some say they are over 90 percent of communication – in alignment with your words. ........ With these channels in alignment people tend to really listen to what you’re saying. You are communicating without incongruency, mixed messages or perhaps a sort of phoniness.

Continue To Grow And Evolve

You can pretty much always improve your skills, habits or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.

Running A Promotion On W

I am a democracy bigot.