Choosing a religion..

Ramblings..

Images that the human memory ‘collect’ through sensory interaction in the ‘awake’ world form the platform of consciousness. We can assume this due to the nature of sleep and the process of ‘dreaming’. Our ‘selves’ are defined by the constant interaction of memory & reality, and the human brains capacity to delineate the two. In the awake state, we are geared towards sensory intake, but can draw on memory at will. We can ‘imagine’ at will. We can ‘think’ at will..
In the various states of sleep, the opposite is the case. Our world, while asleep, can be anything from total blackness (deep sleep) to sensory-heightened lucid dreaming. Basic physical & emotional attachments to images collected in the awake state are governing the course of our ‘dream world’; cooperating with the hormonal chemistry of the body & wether we are in pain or total physical comfort while asleep.
Within ‘dreaming’, there is a component of ‘compensation’ going on – the mind in ‘lets make sense of it all’ mode, which seems to be a self-preservation response. We seem to need sleep for the ’sorting and cataloguing’ process, the removal of the bad & the reinforcement of the pleasurable.
Our physical state of well-being or health is directly connected to how we feel. The ‘whole human package’ has evolved to include the brains capacity for ‘feedback correction’ while asleep. We can assume this easily through observation of what happens to the sleep deprived..
Buddhist monks & many others are able, through meditation, to consciously access their ‘memory’. They can, to some degree, control their ‘conscious levels’, & the contents within. Most disciplines rely on imagery of widely varying kinds, and the repetition of it so as to create emotional ‘nodes’.
And so how does the study of the ‘workings’ of the Human mind connect with religion? Well, when you look closely, they are essentially the same. Most ‘conventional’ religions appeal because they create order, control & meaning out of, what is for most, chaos. They provide the ‘centre of gravity’ that we all need, one way or another. The difference here, and the proposal, is that, given we have satisfied our basic human needs, we can create ‘internally’ what many religions aspire to.
The objectives are essentially the same. ‘Power’ over ones own life, and beyond..
So if I was to consciously choose a mode of study here, what should it be? I’m of the opinion that the closer an image, or group of images is to nature, the more fundamental & all encompassing it is. We can include ‘modern’ images like doorways, buildings & staircases, all fine allegorical images, but do they touch the root of our consciousness? After all, we’ve been around for thousands of years as a collective conscious entity – should we not take it ‘back to basics’?
The reason being that with ‘natural’ imagery, all man made complications are removed, all combinations & permutations are seen as ‘developments’ of natural imagery. The fact is that our ancestors connected what he saw with Light & Dark, High & Low, Evil & Good – all elements fundamental to us all..
Few fundamentally basic religions survive, as do few fundamentally basic societies.
The Australian Aboriginal ‘Dreamtime’ is one of the few truly basic ‘religions’ to survive more or less intact for millennia. We know it is ancient, possibly 50 times older than Christianity. It involves stories of images of creatures & landscapes that all humanity can comprehend. It is that fundamental..
So if I were to choose a religion, it would meditate in the Dreamtime, but with the discipline of Buddhism, probably with the logic & order of Siloism.

Australian Manufacturing- the dilemma..

During my studies in production engineering in the 1980’s, we were shown video recordings of the latest ‘pick & place’ robotics technology from Japan. Fully computer controlled, these robots were quickly replacing the ‘numerically’ controlled (magnetic tape & optical) first generation programmables, as used in the ‘70s for automotive assembly.
This technological jump really heralded the start of modern computer aided manufacturing, and is commonplace now.
At the same time, Governments were removing our international economic barriers across the Western World. Australia came under huge pressure to revise its Manufacturing sector, and proceeded to do so. But of course, nothing stands still, and the Political openings have allowed those Countries with the labour cost advantages (Asia etc) to take control of a huge percentage of world FMCG manufacture.
Today, I believe Australian Manufacturing is entering a new stage of growth, that of full internationalisation, where to survive as a business means taking on the same challenges and resulting advantages as those held by western international competition. Money is being spent by Australian Businesses on technological hardware without reservation, and Multinational corporations are setting up their bases for the Asia-Pacific region here – We're English speaking & our Western lifestyle is to our advantage in this regard.
This industrial progress is great and we're doing well in our acceptance of the challenges, but it is at the cost of Human lifestyle at best, & social welfare at worst..
There is, and has been for a few years now in Australia, a revision of the Australian work/lifestyle ethic forced upon us. Traditionally, we have valued a ‘balanced’ lifestyle – and we have been pretty good at maintaining this – but now all is changing, and fast. People from all sectors, not just manufacturing, are either working their proverbial asses off, working sporadic, demanding casual/shift hours or simply not working at all..
This social problem is sometimes the result of the shift to lean manufacturing methods, and a reluctance, to say the least, for employers to value properly the contribution of the employee. Lean Manufacturing, when implemented correctly, is a good thing for all except those people ‘shed’ in the process. When implemented poorly, it is set to use a reduction of employee numbers to drive efficiency without proper expenditure & investment, and believe me, this doesn’t fucking work..
Management must have a full plan & budget for hardware improvements, be prepared to make difficult decisions & be able to identify valuable people objectively – not simply try to protect their own asses during the disruption which is part of the reorganisation.
We (Australia) tend to follow Britain & the US in a lot of our ‘Human resource’ policies, this often extending into our law enforcement & political policies, an overall social issue. An increasingly common feature of the employment landscape is the ‘full medical’ including drug & alcohol testing – discrimination is not supposed to happen here, but discrimination all-round is on the increase. People are being scrutinised & probed much more than ever before in the workplace. Privacy is almost a thing of the past.. This is all, understandably, in an effort to have the best people on board, but the ‘best’ people must be also making these critical ‘who do we hire’ decisions, and providing the right conditions in the workplace to allow for best performance. This, often, does not apply..
So to summarise this I’ll say that we have the intention, we have the money and we have the technology to create an international Australian manufacturing sector – but we don’t seem to have the understanding of how significant a social change all this is. It is up to both the Government & the Business sector to be much more transparent about their objectives, & ‘humanist’ in their dealings with the average worker. The stress is just that little too much right now..

Motor Racing, the Universe and everything..

As I sit here in my humble abode on this cold winters day, I’m wondering what this city, allegedly one of the ‘best’ in the world to live in, and others like it, will be like in 20 years.
I’m a motor racing fan, a latent petrol head, and I’m watching the V8 Fords clean up at Sandown, burning petrol at something like 30L/100km. This sport is not subject to the same day-to-day commercial pressures of the mainstream auto industry, and so a several-hundred percent increase in the price of said fuel (likely) is not about to wipe out this popular spectacle.
What will confront it, although, is commercial relevance. The motor manufacturers (in this case, GM & Ford) are the main backers & beneficiaries – what’s on the track must have some resemblance to what’s being sold in the showroom, and its highly unlikely, make that not likely at all that we’ll be motoring around in petrol powered large sedans in the year 2020.
‘Hybrid’ powered vehicles will certainly be on the road, as will Hydrogen ‘Fuel Cell’ vehicles. Both essentially are driven by high-tech electric motors, which promise great performance in road & race form with their flat torque curves & good power peak. I can see a series of Ford Foci & Holden Whatevers weaving around Winton & blitzing down Conrod straight, with Craig Lowndes managing a couple of 17yr old ‘born to race’ hotshots. The days of the professional racing driver strutting his stuff well past his fortieth birthday will also be well & truly over. There wont be any ‘Russell Ingalls’ in 2020!
Pitstops for refuelling could be interesting.. either a ‘fast charger’, replaceable battery packs or Hydrogen feed from a fuel rig. Whichever way, it will seem strange compared to the ‘dry break’ systems we now.
I’ll still enjoy a good Ford win. And then I’ll eat, go to bed & rise for work the next day, start(?) my own road-going version of the Focus and head off onto the shitty roads (in unpredictable weather) fully equipped with radar crash avoidance, GPS controlled speed limiter & a host of other electronic fun reducing devices.. in almost complete mechanical silence.
And this last ‘feature’ will be the big issue for the motor racing- no engine noise, no screaming V8’s to get the adrenalin rushing for the punter..