by Lynne Miller
We are advised “do not remove the label.” We see that warning on our new mattress, pillow, or hair dryer. Do we leave the label on forever? What happens if we cut off the label immediately?
My advice, “remove the label”!
We are likely to make big decisions based on labels. Who we vote for is probably impacted by the labels we identify with.
I did an experiment once many many years ago in a class of high school students. We had a presidential debate. The rules were: facts had to be identified, opinions also, and NO labels. Many words become labels, and during this class debate these words could not be used, they were buzzed if used. Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, right, left, progressive. (Today I would add , woke, conspiracy, MAGA.) Pejoratives like Nazi, fascist, and racist were not allowed.
The intention of this debate structure is obvious, I hope. Students ‘see’ how the words they use impact thinking and emotions. Identifying fact from opinion is a critical thinking skill that seems to be hidden inside of agendas. The students would, hopefully, be forced to think about real issues, and learn how to have effective communication when labels were removed.
If we come from a mindset of ‘forever student’ then we can foster communication by learning how to talk to each other. Removing labels is a good place to begin.
Enter the local election, maybe even the national election. Beginning with our own thinking about Mayor Gloria — remove the labels. It is surprising how tricky it is to talk about facts (finding facts is a big challenge), and separating facts from opinions.
The news does an incredible job of hiding the separation of fact, fiction and opinion. If we begin to mimic what media pushes into our psyche, and if we look at the words we use, many of them are labels.
As I look around the city I see the truth about the irresponsible spreading of the building virus. Everywhere I see large buildings, growing higher, spreading across everywhere, removing quaint from our once finest city.
Unless I am living in an alternate reality, (which is possible I suppose), the fact is the city is expanding. In the blink of a Gloria 30 day program, Mission Valley is filled to capacity with tall residential buildings. Affordable? Not likely, unless you count the ridiculous formula that calls any dwelling ‘affordable if a small percentage of the units are low income.
So now, armed with a ban on certain labels, think about Mayor Gloria. Talk to friends about his policies and his impact on San Diego. Ah ah, no labels allowed. Labels are used as emotional nets to capture your thinking and convince you rather than inform you.
As forever students we have the opportunity to stand in new vantage points as we gather information and share it with friends, family, foes.
I choose to remove the labels and fire the Mayor. You may not come to the same conclusion, and that is perfect. It is called freedom of thought and expression.
Are you suggesting we do this at a national level too?
It is a ‘practice’, a way of being open in order to ‘hear’ and ‘think’ outside of the box. It can be used in all arenas of communication.
Bedding Labels are for consumers to know what is inside the pillow. Synthetic, organic or chemicals. The manufacturer is required to list the ingredients, retailers must leave it on to sell. Consumers get to know the content and remove the tag. Matress tags should stay on if you think the warranty is a benefit to you.
Lynne Miller…. well said. People need to think about what Gloria has done FOR the people and not what he’s done TO the people.
Pats, we agreed on many of your points particularly about San Diego electeds, but to another post by Colleen O’Connor, you just gave a full-throated endorsement of Trump and made many incredible statements about Kamala Harris, that you just lost your ability to comment here any further. Trump is a fascist and you just endorsed him and fascism. Incredible. We’re sorry to see you slip into the dark side of America.
Yet, for the past number of weeks and months, you’ve been commenting here and expressing your opinions about Gloria and local development issues like nothing else is happening. But you just endorsed someone who would like to shut down platforms like the Rag and jail us or even have the military shoot us. Trump likes dictators and you are one of his enablers. How can you be that and comment here?
It hit me in the face a few days ago. I was sitting talking to one of the largest and most prolific land developers of the 1980s, who pushed housing out to the County line, and then retired. The only reason we have 9,000 homeless people living in the streets and canyons is the law enabling the State of California and local tax assessors is making land too expensive to provide adequate housing. Property owners who are paying $25,000 a year or more in property tax cannot afford to rent units to people for less than $4,000 a month. The only way to solve the homeless problem in California is to change the law and method for calculating property taxes. That is what Jarvis did in 1978 when he pushed Proposition 13 through a State Initiative. Property Tax is causing homelessness in California.
I love the concept of “forever student,” would that everyone thought that way. Ego is suppressed when you are a student because you have to admit that you do not know as much as another person about a certain subject. But, you can overcome that by learning what that person knows. We can all learn things from another person, if we imagine that, we could get along better.
You got it Geoff. The simple article I wrote is, ‘in practice’, a task that forces death of the ego, a piece at a time! Ram Dass said, “Enlightenment is the biggest disappointment to the ego.” Putting aside our ego’s “knowing” and replacing it with an open mind and heart is a challenge. Willingness to listen to the ‘opposite’ point of view is like throwing down a gauntlet to our ego. I know this teaching, I certainly don’t have it mastered. IMHO it is the key to healing the divide of our current world. Instead, we demonize the ‘other side’, a method of protecting our ego and beliefs so that conversation is too emotional to ‘open’ up. John Denver’s song lyrics from a not well known song: “found a box, bound up with chains and locked with locks and ‘labeled’ kindly do not touch, it’s war!” No one wins if we cannot learn from each other. In order to do that we have to listen, to put our ego at bay, to say to our ‘selves’ “I could be wrong”. Otherwise we open that box labeled war.