Your Questions About Save Energy Save Earth Video

Does my argument convince you? (CORRECTED VERSION- last one got cut off!)?

Basic Thesis:

reality is assigned … thus the middle way is the safest bet in life … to walk the middle way means to practice moderation, which incidentally will save the environment.

Below is an excerpt from a paper that I’m currently writing as a student in a college course regarding environmental ethics. This, I believe, supports my thesis in showing that values are assigned and not inherent. That is my question to you: “Have I convinced you that values are assigned and not inherent?”:

“…Bashar, in his video, Life is Meaningless, shares with us a very reasonable and liberating view of the world. Listening to his message one is taken to a terrain of life that appears as it would in space. So, for the next moment of your time please imagine yourself as an agent in space, a mere mortal roaming as you might on earth during your first visit- any thing is possible– “Life is meaningless- what we MEAN by that is this: Nothing, no situation and no circumstance actually has built in meaning- it’s neutral, devoid of meaning- it’s a prop. But the meaning you give it, automatically, unconsciously or consciously, the meaning you assign, the definition you assign to any given neutral situation is exactly what determines the effect you will get out of that situation. All situations are fundamentally neutral and can serve double duty. They can create for you a negative or a positive reflection that is solely determined by what energy vibration and attitude and belief system and definition you assign to that situation. So no matter what anyone else’s intention in any given circumstance might be toward you, if you assign only a positive meaning to that given same circumstance and situation then you will only receive a positive effect out of that circumstance no matter what anyone else experiences.”

And so any given phenomenon can be seen as a center of potential that is initially in a neutral state. Being agents of this world, that is, animals that produce actions which produce effects, it is up to each one of us to decide which way to tip the center of potential, whatever center we may be handling at any given moment; and of course, however we tip it- left, right, a little, a lot- the action will produce an effect. This clearly is no new concept as our whole lives are a series of causes and effects.

Bashar isn’t saying “Life is meaningless”, in the literal everyday sense of the phrase. When he says, “Nothing, no situation and no circumstance actually has built in meaning- it’s neutral, devoid of meaning- it’s a prop.”, he’s referring to that one unique point at which an individual first encounters what is a new phenomenon to them, what is a stranger to them. That’s what is meaningless, the prop, at that point of first encounter, because the new observer has yet to assign it value. That is, because the newly observed phenomenon is just that, new to the observer, the observer hasn’t yet assigned value to it, thus, it is meaningless- a prop that is devoid of meaning, or better put, a prop that has yet to be assigned a value that will, along with other values, provide meaning. That makes for a good everyday example:

The Meeting a Stranger:

* I meet a man (he is the neutral prop)

* By some means of communication (speaking with him, stereotyping him, whatever) I assign value to him (good, bad, responsible, dangerous, fun, attractive, potential business contact, whatever).

* So I’ve now assigned value to the previously neutral prop; I’ve decided to view him as a potential business contact– so to me, that is what he is. (But that’s my view, of course; that’s not what or all that he actually is.)

This methodology can easily be applied to value judgments of all sorts. The way I see it, we all just find ourselves existing in what can be called the Void. We choose to name all that we perceive- to give it value, meaning– so to be able to talk about it… Language of course cannot come without agreement. But ultimately, any phenomenon is whatever we, as individuals and/or collectively, choose to believe it is because life is whatever it appears to be to the observer, whether that is what is objectively there or not.

Those who have encountered the phenomenon before you, have assigned it their own meaning. Perhaps you have caught wind of their conceptions of the object; perhaps others have and have choosen to accept that view. Perhaps many chose to believe the one view just because its all they had to go on… That is your job; when faced with an unknown you have to decide whether to accept or reject the others view, to take a look for yourself, or to simply forget about it altogether. But at any rate, that’s all it is is someone else’s point of view; they have assigned the value, the value is not inherent. That is not to say that any given phenomemnon does not inherantly have value, but rather that it does not (most likely) inherently posess the value that any given perceiver has choosen to

Am I spoiled? Cause I don’t think I am that spoiled. I’m 18 years old?

My parents have two houses but the second one we built is not super super fancy and is not a million dollar home. The reason for two houses is my dad work place was almost 3 hours from our house, I am homeschooled,and when my brother wanted to go to public school we didn’t want to go to our local school cause everyone is rich and are bad influences. Our houses , the first one. Its a 3 bedroom 3.5 bath with garage and its on the golf course, and we don’t play golf. The other house took 3 remodeling to become what it is now. 4 bedroom with 3 bath and my dads home theater which is his hobby. My dad is the only one who brings in the money.

Over the years I have bough
4 refurbished ipods
-nano ( needed more space.)
32 video ipod FIrst Ipod needed more space
8 gig ipod touch ( I needed more space)
160 ipod classic, ( because i am tired of buying a new one and not having enough space.)
Canon 6 megapix digital camera under $200 and I still have it
Canon camera e1 on sale for $100 normally $250 it broke and got the lense error
I bought a electric piano $550 so I can practice when my dad is napping or when my parents are watching movies- I spend well over a year, considering buying one, and researched the best one for the price I wanted
I bought a ice cream maker, and its really highly rated and I got it for $40 dollars on sale
I bough a head lamp for 20 dollars and normally 46 dollar and 7 dollars shipping
$32 dollars worth of art supplies that are on sale at 40% off
$70 dollars worth of oil paints
$60 dollars worth of beads and craft stuff
bought tea on sale from amazon 32 dollars had 18 boxes of tea at .08 cent per tea bag

My parents bought me for birthdays and Christmas
laptop lenovo for high school
and maybe I’m getting a macbook pro for college if I feel I need one, which I don’t right now.
and a netbook lenovo idea pad s10-3 $280 on sale for a trip across the seas for my online classes
Ipod speakers
faber castell color pencils wooden box set 100 pencils I have barely used, I want more experience
more art supplies, water color paints, graphite set, and other art stuff.
Easel that is portable
3.2 freezer fridge for college $240 edge star energy star
mountain bike $500 but its in super good condition and I am saving it for college to use
A car for around $20,000- people are going to mad knowing I was bough a car but let me point out some things, My mom is super scared about safety, and wanted me to have big car against the semi trucks and stuff. She wouldn’t allow me to have small car and she has a prius and she considers it not substantial for long driving trips. She wants a tank, it had to be safe and it had to be a good brand car, Toyota, Subaru , or maybe Hyhundia .
We got a highlander 07 at 41,000 miles.
Let me also point out that when we started out looking I know this wasn’t my dream car, I knew this car has to get me though college and after college it needs to be able to get 200,000 miles
it had to less than 15,000mile per year. My brother was given a car and if he was giving this option he wanted the nicest sleekest design.

Things I have done for others-
donated 50 dollars to Hattie earth quakes
and 25 dollars to tornadoes disasters
and 25 to japan
$20 in chickens
share in a water buffalo, goat, cow- this is to heffier international where then send and train people to use an animal to help improve their lives.
So I might add some more details but I just need to know. I know it sounds like i am spoiled but I don’t act like it. A girls bragged about her house being bigger then our smaller house ,and i just let it go, I don’t like making waves either. So Yes Spoiled No? Slightly?