Michael Maranda said:

I am guessing your thesis is complete? When did you write it?

This quote is from my Master's which I completed in May of 2004. I wasn't the eldest member of my graduating class by any means, but I did have to sit in the geriatric section.

I actually wrote my Master's thesis over a period of about five years because I got kicked out of my first two grad schools for insisting that I was "going to do it my way." Thank you, Frankie!! My master educators really didn't like it when I told them that the ONLY difference between grade school and grad school was the "E" on the end. "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking."

On the one hand I am told that I live in a liberal capitalist society and that the customer "is always right." On the other, I am told by the people I AM giving the money too, that's how we identify the customer: Who gives the money, that I needed to sit down and shut up.

I'm sorry but I didn't see any difference in that insistence and how I was treated in grade school and I told them so. At first in the most conservative and gentle of respectful terms and tones. Later because I thought they were acting like thieves, I treated them like thieves.

It is dishonest to take someone's money in a contract that both people are party to and claim to understand by changing the contract unilaterally. We have courts for this when the parties are contractor and home owner, but not for student and slave master. In the end, I told the MAN, both of them, the same thing I told him in the eighth grade. Kiss my ass!

This definition of peace above and the language, linguistic, defining type crap that accompianied the creation of MY definition is going to be one chapter in my doctoral thesis which I am working on, but have nowhere to submit. My work kind of falls between the cracks: Not really language and not entirely fitting into ANY specific social science discipline, not specifically psychology, or sociology, or linguistics, etc.

I believe this is some of the dysfunctional result of warrior-over class society; warrior-over class society wants us divided against each other and against OUR own interests, but these petty academic factions are also due to each discipline building a little castle on their own little patch of the pedagogic Rhine.

Michael, I appreciate your questioning a lot: A real lot. You are helping me to see that I might just be on the right Path. Please keep bugging me! You are helping me clarify things for myself that I don't personally see because they live in my psychological blind spot.

Love, RicH

I suspect that you dont view it as bugging you. I find the entire matter very interesting.

The power manifested in the structures of higher ed should bear agreat deal of scrutiny.

In reading and learning how the university system was (is?) structured in Germany, and how students might travel and matriculate at different universities on the way to their degree it made me feel a lot better about my own transfers.

There is a rhetoric surrounding education of student as consumer, but in fact the structure vigourously denies this relationship. In some respects I think it is right to deny this. On the other hand, they are taking the money.

I'm curious as to where/what manner you saw them unilaterally changing the contract?

I'll also suspect that there is not much recourse if they did. Or maybe people just take it and wont litigate. (I'm not pro litigation I'm just against being wronged by a more powerful party.)

Where did you ultimately obtain your masters?

RicH, did you talk with Mark Dilley about grad school unions at all?

Ted Ernst said:

RicH, did you talk with Mark Dilley about grad school unions at all?

Mark Dilley just gave me mad love and thanked me "for what I did for the workers." Although I had to tell him that I didn't do anything for the workers.

My shit was completely selfish. God gives you luck and grace and love from those around you and you do not do your very best to return it, the Universe go South. And I do not use the G-word lightly.

Hajb the Mad Poet says: "War is what happens when I try to force my piece of the peace on someone else."

:) Kim

Kim Edwards said:

Hajb the Mad Poet says: "War is what happens when I try to force my piece of the peace on someone else."

:) Kim

Force does not "permit and/or promote."

I know the rhetoricians, linguists, and other philosophers will give me hell for that statement, but I plan to ignore them, no matter what. So there!

Why would we give you hell (I consider myself a rhetorician when I'm feeling academic)??

Kim Edwards said:

Why would we give you hell (I consider myself a rhetorician when I'm feeling academic)??

Comments like "permit, or promote" make linguists, rhetoricians and philosophers cringe. I am not sufficiently academically inclined to address the sort of work that word-and-meaning makers put into defining.

The science of definition is a huge activity that spills over into lots of other disciplines. I have no intention of doing that much work for a definition that the average working person can both understand and is already living by.

Thanks for the explanation.

:)

Kim Edwards said:

Thanks for the explanation.

:)

Welcome!!

"Peace" is a word that only exists to be the counterpart of"war", it's a shame we don't have a word that just explains the normal "peaceful, quiet, smooth" way of living on this planet earth!

:):):)

Annie Flore said:

"Peace" is a word that only exists to be the counterpart of"war", it's a shame we don't have a word that just explains the normal "peaceful, quiet, smooth" way of living on this planet earth!

:):):)

I actually believe that peace came first. I think that WE were hanging out helping one another because WE had to cooperate to survive. I think that when WE started to build up a surplus and diversify labor, WE began to have difficulties about the distribution of food and goods.

I think there were lots of places on the planet where there were very few predators and human beings lived in tranquility and peace.

I think it is warrior-thought and warrior-speak that wants US to believe that peace is an alternative to war. War is a violation of OUR original peace and since the warrior-priest class has been dominant for so long THEY would have US believe that strife is OUR normal state.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Human beings are for the most part good loving cooperative animals who have been tricked into believing otherwise so that the warrior-priest class could dominate US. WE are slowly coming out of OUR trance.

Ok, I agree

I'm admirative of two contemporary men: Gandhi and Mandela, hopefully the last one is still alive!

Of course most human beings are peaceful and care, but our modern world has invented ways of eradicating humanity in no time.

When I was young, people always talked about the threat of a nuclear war, we knew that B52 were patrolling over our heads, that was weird.

Today, this threat has nearly disappeared but our greed has created new types of weapons.

We all have to look in the neighbour's garden to see that we have to learn all the time. We are prejudiced because we are raised among prejudices and it's very important to be reminded that we are here just for some time and the planet is a legacy and that we must preserve it for our children.

Nameste

You are absolutely right and it looks to me like you are doing your part to save this world. I think that peace, hope, and love are winning out.

I try to do my part, but I would like to do more.

It's not easy to take part in a humanitarian organization.

But I'll find something, quite certain.

(I'm just a litle bit involved in a project sponsored by the Unicef.)

Good morning!

Annie Flore said:

I try to do my part, but I would like to do more.

Never met anyone who didn't want to do more.

It's not easy to take part in a humanitarian organization.

You're right about this. Many times it is a real war to be peaceful. But only by being peaceful can we bring peace.

But I'll find something, quite certain.

(I'm just a litle bit involved in a project sponsored by the Unicef.)

You made my day and that is a form of peacemaking.

We don't have the equivalent of that english expression "make the day", but that is a nice one.

Everytime I have my students happy to share views with someone else in the world, that also "makes my day". You know that I'm convinced that if we forge our youngs'minds into being altruistic, we are preparing a peaceful world to live in, for the next generations.

I'm confident!

Annie Flore said:

We don't have the equivalent of that english expression "make the day", but that is a nice one.

I'm sure that French has some approximation of "made my day."

Everytime I have my students happy to share views with someone else in the world, that also "makes my day".

Students are a constant source of pleasure.

You know that I'm convinced that if we forge our youngs'minds into being altruistic, we are preparing a peaceful world to live in, for the next generations.

Or changing, "forging" OUR own minds. Changing OUR minds to a more positive peaceful view of the world and the things in the world is a very proactive peacemaking stance.

I admire your language skills; I am so jealous.

Good on ya! RicH

I'm confident!

I sense your confidence and it feels like a warm support.

Cookies and cocoa by the woodstove. RicH

I'm french, yes, love the english language and its subtleties. I wish I could say even more, but I can't see any expression in french that corresponds to "make my day", it's less strong, but of course you can always translate it. Every language has its strength and, in that case, your expression is uncomparable.

No cookies and no cocoa for me, I prefer plain food, salad and parsley although I love chocolate, not very healthy but so good!

Another expression I like: "looking at the bright side of things". When somebody is optimistic, I think he can fill the others with it, you can't get angry at someone who transpires niceness(? can you say that?) and goodness. I'm always disarmed when a kid smiles!

Woodstove? Does it mean that you live in an area that is cold at the moment? In France, temperatures have fallen these days, but it's normal, it's "the Saints of Ice", a period in May when it's always freezing, a natural cycle in the climate! Something that puts eveybody on an equal footing, at last something we cannot control!

A.Flore

I never heard anybody say, "Transpires niceness," but it's English: YOU can say anything. Actullay, "transpires niceness" has a certain ring to it. It sounds nice.

I love to hear children laugh from where I cannot see them, especially my own children. I feel their laughter inside.

It is not cold now, but in winter we can get about eight or nine feet of snow: About two and a half meters.

How can you not like cocoa? It is also one of the things France does best. French coffee is so-so; French cocoa is, "Omigod!" We won't talk of bajed goods. America has NO baked goods.

children peacemakers

:: peacemakers;; http://www.peace-kids.org/index.html

That's a site that "makes the day" of anyone who looks at it!

Have a nice week, Mr Makepeace!

Sad about that school.

Richard dear What an interesting definition. Want to use it as a quote in our book - Julie Caldwell-Evans and I - as for now we intent to use the book title "The Power of 5". For practical reason we are using the workign tile of "Peace Centres" and it is in the making. Thanks for randomly stroking me with positive points. May our Creator - the Most Merciful, Most Beneficient adn Most Peaceful".

Lovingly Hamidah

RicHARD Uses Profanity Makepeace said:

This is MY definition of peace:

Peace is any condition, state, or relationship that permits, or promotes the spontaneous development of the human being; any state that fosters the development of human potential.

I created this definition as a positive, concise definition of peace for my Master's thesis. It is this state of being that I refer to when I use the term. R