Hello all,

My name is Steve Floyd. This is my first post to morelife Yahoo.

I wanted to comment on a frustration shared by PaulW some time ago.
In a post regarding policosinol PaulW states about his and Kitty's
well-being:

> [Physically we are both very well. However, mentally, I,
> particularly, continue to get depressed from time to time, because I
> am convinced that I have major solutions to most of the clear ills of
> society, which solutions I cannot even get anyone to really consider
> and understand, much less energetically act on. Even with respect to
> many of my health recommendations to people, very few really want to
> hear the truth and few express or demonstrate any acknowledgement or
> appreciation. Still, there are some exceptions (you being one of
> them) and I guess I should be satisfied with the few positives that I
> get rather than dwelling on all the failures - but it is difficult at
> times. --Paul]

I strongly identify with Paul's frustration here. I am quite young,
25, so with my limited wisdom I do not yet feel that I understand
solutions to society's ills as Paul cites. However, I do think
solutions are possible. My frustration is that it seems to me that
action is required to make changes, and motivating people to action
can be such a difficult task. Kitty just yesterday (1/4/2008) made a
post about the book "Taking Responsibility..." by Nathaniel Branden.
Her post was also of interest to me as her description stated:

> [Branden doesn't just write theoretically but provides
> numerous examples of occurrences and methods (including his well-
> known sentence stem technique) for promoting self-responsibility in
> one's self and others, including one's children (of various ages),
> spouses, co-workers, employees, friends, acquaintances and even
> strangers.]

Promoting self-responsibility in oneself and others: this
information sounds most useful. My academic background is in
business; I have earned a master's in business administration (MBA).
So my philosophical analyses tend to see the financial impact of
human behavior and one of the issues I have heavily contemplated is
that of health care and poor eating habits (mentioned in Kitty's post
I referred to above). It does seem that a huge portion of developed
countries' health problems, and therefore health care costs, can be
attributed to poor diet (and tobacco).

I have tried to encourage self-responsibility in my two younger
brothers, both now in their early 20s. I have found them both to be
receptive when I ask: "How do you feel about people who eat too
much, then have health problems that raise the cost of health care?"
They tell me that it is frustrating to them, and that it is unfair
that we (those without weight-related health problems) have to
subsidize the health problems of others who indulge themselves more
frequently. Now that they state that it is frustrating, I then
encourage them to see the connection between that person with
unhealthy eating habits, and their own personal pocketbooks. I then
go on to describe other ways in which an unknown person's behavior
can affect many other people, in ways both small and large. The same
interaction between a smoker and non-smoker, albeit a bit smaller,
because many insurers will ask you to pay a higher premium if you
smoke, helping to subsidize the health-cost of your habit. However,
I have not seen any health insurers that ask how many calories you
eat per day =P "Check this box if you eat donuts...premium goes up
$1.22" LOL.

I then finish the discussion with the question: "Would you want to
be that person that you are frustrated with? Because I sure don't.
This is one reason I try to take care of myself, so others don't have
to pay for it. It is part of being a productive member of society".
This discussion has helped both of my brothers find some value in the
idea of self-responsibility.

Still, I have only had the opportunity to have this discussion with
my brothers, as they are open to listen to me for guidance and
advice. The personal dynamic is often not the same with my other
relationships, so I have not used the same discussion, as I don't
want them to feel that I am proselytizing.

Does anyone know any other strategies to encourage self-
responsibility? I will have to look for the book Kitty mentioned at
the local library. It seems that so few people are instilled with
the value (economic, societal, personal) of self-responsibility.

My experience with people leads me to believe that directly
addressing the topic in conversation is a poor way to encourage the
behavior. Instead, indirectly subjecting someone to the value of
self-reponsibility seems the best way to "get the gears turning" in
their head about self-responsibility. For example, a few
acquaintences of mine frequently drink alcohol to the point of being
irresponsible and even dangerous. I don't drink, but when they ask
my why don't I have a few drinks, I tell them: "I don't want the rest
of society to pay for my reckless behavior - if I drink, I'll drink
at home." I have gotten a few thoughtful reactions from this
statement, and even several follow-up conversations with these
acquaintences. They illustrated to me that they never thought of
their public drinking with that perspective. These few described to
me their resolve to drink less in public, and if they continue to
drink, they'll do it at friends' houses where they can stay the
night.

I first mentioned in this post that change requires action. Many
people are unmotivated to take action. This rampant apathy,
or "blind eye", to society's problems is very frustrating for those
of us who ardently want to encourage improvement. I have found that
humans only take action when they see something 'in it' for
themselves - some sort of self-benefit. This may partly explain the
rampant apathy. People don't see the connection between their eating
habits and the overall effect, or even, between their eating habits
and their quality of life in the future. The anecdotes of others
regarding weight loss and habit change I have experienced almost
always mention a new 'perspective' on what they were doing to
themselves in their habits, followed by an intense desire to not harm
themselves anymore. This is where they find the motivation to "take
action" and "make a change".

This is certainly a topic that needs discussion.

In conclusion, it seems that those of us who are aware of
consequences and motivated to make changes (i.e. morelife) must be
especially assertive, extra patient, and endlessly motivated -
because we can be the source of "awareness and motivation" for a huge
proportion of people. At least for me, it seems that I have gained
the awareness and motivation through sheer randomness- I got lucky.
I accidentally had the right teachers, read the right books and
articles, and spoke to the right people. However, now that we
(morelife and others) have that awareness, human-improvement no
longer has to be subject to randomness - we can deliberately
encourage it with our own action.

*Steve Floyd