If you're like most people, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about the various ways you can improve your appearance. Maybe you just want to look better, or maybe you'd like to stand apart from the crowd in a non-traditional way. Whatever your reason for wanting to improve your appearance, there are many ways to accomplish this task, and one of the best is belly rings.

Although they may seem modern, these types of piercings have been in use for decades. In fact, the precursor to belly rings first evolved in the Roaring 20s, a time when people all over the United States were pushing boundaries and striving to be as individual as possible. Movies were something fairly new on the landscape, but even then, there were bodies that governed what couldn't be shown on the big screen, and of those things was a bare navel. The style of the day, at least in some movies, called for a bare midriff. In order to get around the issue of showing a navel, movie producers began covering up women's belly buttons with some sort of decoration.

What started as a way to skirt the rules eventually resulted in what is today belly rings. Interestingly, in between the 20s and the latter part of the 20th century, this type of body piercing went from being acceptable, to being out of bounds, and again back to being accepted by the general population. That is due to the fact that so many people today choose to have this type of piercing. The increased incidence simply makes it more socially acceptable.

Now, let's return to the original discussion of augmenting your appearance. The good news is that because stomach piercing has become so prevalent, you will find lots of options available. When shopping, you can search for belly rings made from a variety of materials including plastic, metal and even wood. There's also a great variety of styles. These choices mean that you'll be able to choose the right piece for you personality.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world" -Mahatma Gandhi

Our culture has moved far away from nature's intended way for us to parent and care for our children. Unfortunately, over many centuries, as the world has become considerably more industrialized, people have lost touch with their natural parenting instincts. Each generation is parented in a way that causes distress, pain, depression and anger. This in turn causes each new generation to pass down harmful ways of parenting that reflect their hurt, distress and resentment.

Alarms in nature

Nature has built alarm signals into every animal to alert parents, companions and predators that the animal is experiencing or sensing a need, a threat or a danger. In nature, animal parents instinctively respond immediately to the alarms of their young. A human infant's alarm signal is crying, which is intended to alert parents to a need. As children grow older, their alarm signals become more sophisticated when their needs aren't met and often include behaviors that parents find disturbing.

Some of the alarms of children:

Directly telling us they have a need

Asking us to help them meet a need

Asking nicely

Asking rudely

Crying

Whining

Yelling

Screaming

Outbursting

Pouting

Tantruming

Swearing

Withdrawing

Clinging

Defensiveness

Sarcasm

Hyperactivity

Depression

Anxiety

Raging

Distractibility

Fidgeting

Squirming

Oppositionality

Harassing

Defiance

Refusing

Disrespect

Threatening

Aggression and violence towards people and animals (verbal, physical, sexual)

Destructiveness (vandalism, breaking things, stealing, etc.)

· Self destructiveness (self mutilation, substance use, sexual promiscuity, bad relationships, suicidal gestures, etc.)

Challenging

Passive compliance

The distress cries and acting-out behaviors of youth, like the cries of an infant and the behavioral cues of animals, are nature-based alarm signals. Their alarm signals warn us that something in the child's body, immediate circumstance, life or environment is distressing to them physically or emotionally and is threatening harm to their optimal development.

When we fully understand that concerning behaviors are the natural alarm signals of children, we will be less likely to, in good conscience, punish, medicate or force children into compliance with distressing, unnatural circumstances. We will begin to realize more and more as we look around our society, that from the hyperactive toddler to the rageful 17 year old, punishment, force, bribes, manipulation and medication do not make distressed children happy, cooperative or compassionate; nor do those reactions fill the voids and satiate the needs children are trying to alert us to with their alarm signals.

The recipe for a happy child: Secure parent-child attachment through meeting our children's needs

Children of all ages require a secure parent-child attachment in order to thrive. A secure-parent child attachment is vital to a child's optimal functioning in all areas of their development. It is the blueprint and foundation of a child's life long physical, emotional, social, intellectual, sexual, spiritual and moral functioning. It is the blueprint and foundation of a child's lifelong happiness and ability to cope with life and relationships.

A secure parent-child attachment develops as the result of parents meeting children's basic physical and emotional needs, and then higher level needs, from infancy until young adulthood. This natural function of parenting is part of the human attachment cycle:

1. The child feels a physical or emotional need;

2. The child expresses the need using a signal such as crying, showing, asking or telling;

3. The parent meets the child's need as soon as possible;

4. Every time the child's needs are met, the child feels calm, satiated, homeostasis, joy and trust in the parent.

As a result of this unbroken cycle, secure attachment builds and develops.

If parents usually do not meet their child's needs or usually delay in doing so, their child will feel distress, rage, grief, anxiety and distrust in the parents. Every unmet need builds and builds and an insecure or disrupted attachment develops. When a child suffers a disrupted attachment, emotional and / or behavioral problems may show up immediately or may slowly begin to surface over a period of years.

Parenting and educating the way nature intended

People in peaceful tribal cultures and non-human mammals are the natural models that can teach us how nature intended us to parent. In tribal cultures where violence is very low and mental illness is reportedly a rarity, people are found to parent in line with the rest of our closest mammal relatives. The most critical features of natural parenting are:

Constant Skin-to-skin contact and non-stop carrying of the infant for the first 12 months of life;

· Breastfeeding for at least two and a half years and optimally, up to four and ½ years;

Co-sleeping with infants and young children;

· Responding to the physical and emotional needs of children all through childhood;

· High levels of physical affection, emotional connection and cuddling through out childhood;

Nonviolent, democratic discipline and guidance;

Strong family and community relationships

· Strong family and community modeling of respectful, compassionate, interdependent (everyone doing their part for the benefit of the whole) behavior;

· Natural education through play, exploration, imitation, self-directed learning, physical activity and being an active part of the community; and

Allowing children the freedom to develop, learn and mature at their own pace.

Many of our mammal relatives show similar ways of parenting, especially mammals that carry their young or have frequent physical contact with them, such as bonobos, gorillas, elephants and dolphins.

Child development

As children grow through life, they face certain developmental tasks at each phase of their life. A secure parent-child attachment and natural education helps them resolve and complete their developmental tasks to an optimal level, without being rushed or forced.

School and day care harms secure parent-child attachment

One of the most life-changing disruptions to the parent-child relationship is when children are placed in day care, preschool and grade school. The conditions of traditional schools are often harmful:

To the parent-child attachment relationship,

To democracy,

To a child's natural development,

To intellectual development and creativity,

To To child's body and health,

To Social development, and

To To emotional and behavioral stability.

Day care and preschool separates children from mothers at the age when it is critical to brain development that young children are with their families. Older children, through late adolescence are often unhappy, bored, frustrated and mentally exhausted in school. They have little time for the high-energy physical activity, exploration, inventiveness and play that they need for optimal brain development. Homework further takes children's time away from their own interests and from family and friends. Additionally, many children are negatively influenced by their school peers and pull away from their parents at younger and younger ages.

But isn't school good for children?

Almost everything about the "one size fits all" environment of traditional school is opposite to what nature intended for a child's development. Some of the reasons why traditional school is harmful to children's natural development are:

· Traditional schools are based on controlling large groups of people so they all do the same thing;

· Traditional school's structure and curriculum are not in line with children's developmental or learning needs at any age;

· Public schools are cutting the very means by which children learn and find joy: Play, recess, art, music, drama, fun events, field trips and hands-on activities.

· Traditional schools do not take into consideration that children's primary way of learning is through play and exploration. Schools primarily focus on forcing children to sit and listen.

· Traditional school does not allow children to direct their own learning based on interests, talents, passions and abilities;

· Traditional school labels children who cannot conform as "learning disabled" or "behavioral problems";

· Traditional school is responsible for thousands of children being prescribed drugs for their exuberance, boredom or a developmentally inappropriate learning environment;

· Traditional school regiments children's basic physical needs (food, water, elimination, physical activity and rest) and fails to allow children to respond to their own needs;

Almost half of the states in the USA still permit teachers to legally assault children with paddles in public school;

· Traditional school isolates children from their families and communities;

Children are forced to do homework after being confined for six or more hours in school;

· Homework further isolates children from family time, play time, social time and time for pursuing one's own interests;

· Standardized exams are designed to measure how well a child tests and how well a child can recall isolated facts. This does not demonstrate a child's knowledge, intellect, experience, creativity or moral development;

Learning is considered to be about "getting the right answer" rather than about the process of how to ask questions and where to find answers;

· Traditional school allows children no power, causing children to isolate themselves into exclusive groups or cliques in order to establish a false sense of power;

· Traditional school's control-based practices offer little opportunity for children's wants, wishes, ideas and needs to be expressed, leading some to rage, rebellion and revenge;

· Traditional school fails to function as a democracy to prepare children to participate in a democratic society;

· Traditional school is an outdated institution based on the factory work ethic of the late 1800's and early 1900's; and

· Traditional school has refused to evolve to meet the creative and intellectual needs of children.

There are many joyful alternatives to traditional school which often inspire children to reach learning potentials and excellence far in excess of most traditionally schooled peers. Alternatives include:

Unschooling (child-led curriculum),

Homeschooling,

Democratic schools (which are run as democracies),

Montessori schools,

Waldorf schools,

· Private schools that respect play, outdoor time, children's natural development and joy in learning,

Public Charter schools (that focus on the arts and play)

Virtual (online) public or private schools,

Independent study or apprenticeships,

Early college

Our everyday life causes emotional and behavioral problems

Constantly, parents are conditioned to accept and live with so many beliefs, trends, habits, routines and practices that seem harmless but are actually harmful to children's natural development. These include:

The way children are seen as property and as less-than-human by our culture compared to how adults are seen;

· The way parents and schools teach and model violence, domination and inequality to children by punishing them, speaking to them disrespectfully, using control tactics with them and dictating what they will do, where they will be, how they must act and what they must think for their entire childhoods;

The self-centered, materialistic, academic-obsessed, work-obsessed, sex-obsessed, money-obsessed, media-obsessed and violence-accepting values ​​parents and the culture model for children about how to live; and

· The way parents substitute themselves with all types of distractions that don't fill children's needs, such as day care, school, school sports teams, TV, video games, cell phones, the Internet, designer clothing and putting peers and material objects ahead of family.

These beliefs, trends and practices also include forcing youth to grow up in ways that are not appropriate to their development and failing to allow youth to develop and grow naturally.

Child trauma and PTSD

Many children in our culture suffer symptoms of trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from distressing and frightening treatment such as physical punishment, and severe abuse and neglect. Trauma affects all areas of a child's development and actually rewires the child's brain, causing emotional problems that may be misdiagnosed. Trauma is believed to be stored in parts of the brain that prevent therapy, maturity, learning and insight from healing it, causing symptoms to last for decades. A special kind of therapy, called EMDR, can help heal trauma.

Examples of trauma:

Difficult birth

· Infant left to scream in incubator after birth

Circumcision

Parents failing to respond to their infant's cries immediately

Crib sleeping

Child left alone at night

Having basic needs ignored or denied

· Physical abuse, including "spanking", "smacking", "paddling" or rough handling of a child

· Sexual abuse

· Emotional abuse

· Neglect of physical and emotional needs

Abandonment

Being left in day care

Being forced to go to school

Lack of support in upsetting situation, injury, illness or other trauma

· Out-of-home placement (foster care, group home, juvenile boot camp or detention center)

· Loss of parent or loved one

Death of parent or loved one

Witnessing domestic violence

Witnessing any type of violence or attack on a person or animal

Peer harassment

Being the victim of racist or derogatory remarks about one's nationality, sex, gender, sexual orientation or appearance

Pain or illness

Born substance addicted

Hospitalization

Homelessness

Seeing frightening, violent or sexualized TV shows, movies, games or websites

Extreme breaks in attachment: Foster care, institutional facilities and adoption

Children who have been adopted or who live in orphanages, foster homes, institutions and programs have suffered extreme attachment disruption and often have severe emotional and behavioral problems as a result. These are the children who our culture has failed the most, as they are some of the most damaged and hurting people in our societies.

Our children do not have brain disorders- Our culture is disordered!

Most children in our culture who act out their distress are misdiagnosed with mental illnesses and brain disorders such as ADHD, learning disabilities, bipolar disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. They are often forced to take powerful, mind-altering drugs once they are diagnosed. However, most of the symptoms that these children are expressing are actually symptoms of a disrupted attachment, a developmentally inappropriate educational environment and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Although our culture views these children as "brain disordered", it is actually our culture that is disordered. Diagnosing and medicating children does not heal the causes of their distress. The symptoms that children show are actually natural responses to an unnatural and intolerable life circumstances !

Repairing attachment and healing trauma

It is possible for parents to repair attachment and heal trauma with children of all ages! Basic principles of healing, such as physical affection, empathizing and showing compassion to our children, plus getting help for ourselves, are necessary parts of repairing attachment and trauma. Other necessities include:

Attachment parenting;

· Instilling family principles, self discipline and responsibility through respectful guidance and strong modeling;

Learning nonviolent forms of emotional expression and communication with children such as Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication (NVC) model or Naomi Aldort's SALVE formula;

· Finding alternatives to traditional schooling such as unschooling, homeschooling, constitutional schools, Montessori schools, Waldorf schools, early college or private schools that respect play, children's development and joy in learning;

EMDR treatment to heal trauma;

Neurofeedback to retrain the brain;

Natural attachment therapy to help repair insecure attachment;

· Holistic and body-centered treatments to heal imbalances (EFT, homeopathy, etc.); and

Learning about the dangers of diagnosing and medicating children's behavior.

Re-parenting children with severe attachment disruption

Even children who have been adopted or children who suffer from severe attachment disruption or Reactive Attachment Disorder can heal and grow to attach strongly to their parents! Parents must make a permanent commitment to their children, secure a support system for themselves and find an attachment specialist , to start this very challenging process.

Parents must be willing to provide their children with re-parenting experiences that meet their children's unmet early developmental needs , including intense physical affection. Parents must have a strong set of family principles in place, and an understanding of how to use consequences and restitution so that they are not punishing their children. In order to help their children develop emotional stability, tools for nonviolent emotional expression can be learned and practiced by every family member. Adoptive parents and parents of children with severe attachment disruption should expect severe testing behaviors and relapse cycles as children grow to deeper and deeper levels of attachment.

Healing our culture now

Our culture is the collective entity of the beliefs and actions of generations of human beings, including ourselves, who have diverged from natural ways of living and parenting. Our culture is truly mentally ill and "brain" disordered! However, a giant bottle of Adderoll, Celexa or Risperdol isn't what our culture needs …

Our culture is saturated by violence and anger, leading to disrespect for other human beings, disrespect for other living creatures and disrespect for our own natural environment. Our culture is consumed with shame about sexuality and the human body, leading to rigid, uptight bans on sexuality on one hand and a relentless obsession and adolescent-like mockery of it on the other hand. Each generation passes this sickness of violence, shame and rage onto the next generation, creating materialism, self-obsession, money obsession, work obsession, academic obsession, substance obsession, media obsession and war obsession. More programs, prisons, schools, rules, medications, laws and punishments will not stop it. We must start by raising human beings to think and feel differently.

In order for our culture to heal itself, parents, professionals and law makers must prioritize healing our children and our young adults rather than labeling, punishing, medicating, confining and incarcerating them. As citizens, we all have a responsibility to take part in demanding that mental health professionals, social workers, doctors, scientists, our state's human service agencies and our state legislators prioritize:

1. Meeting all children's needs now ;

2. Healing the damage already done to children; and

3. Helping and mentoring young adults with trauma histories in order to prevent damage to the next generation.

"You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result" -Mahatma Gandhi

To explore attachment parenting, natural education and the natural ways to heal our children's emotional, behavior and learning challenges in more detail, please visit http://www.LaurieACouture.org to learn more about my book, Instead of Medicating and Punishing .

A couple of weeks back I jumped on the bus home on a Saturday night. As soon as I climbed up the steps and was halfway in, I was greeted by the sight of an elderly woman standing in the aisle by the median pole. She was holding it with one hand and the backrest of the seat with the other. Nobody offered her a seat, not even the young woman who kept typing away on her mobile phone. Standing just within a few meters of the scene, I thought to myself: she ought to have given up her own. Nope, she wouldn't do that. Appallingly, she took no notice of this elderly woman who slowly stepped down the aisle and stood right next to her seat.

The blue-toothed dumbphone user who seemed to me forever inundated by digital messages, simply acted as if she is non-existent and she did much care, and wouldn't even look up from her phone to see, to think, to realize … to live her life or to care.

That selfish act of hers, according to me, was hopeless, odd and sad beyond belief. And of course, the other one beside her in the window seat, a woman, pretended to be seriously checking her prized possession: her mobile phone didn't seem to care much about the goings-on of the world around her either. Her face bowed forward dully aglow with diodic white light emitting from her mobile device placed on her lap. What's more, she too acted up as if her hard-to-ignore phone is her lifeblood and she possibly could die without it if she did check her messages (which she did all the time of her bus ride). Oblivious to the frail elderly woman standing near her, she won't look up from her mobile but moved her head from side to side as if matching the dance steps to the music of some new-age sizzling funk. (She damn well knows how to groove better than Disha Patani or Beyoncé Knowles or Baba Ramdev . She can even respond to that pathetic kiki challenge. It's funny that such dance moves could be excellent for mass bowel movements!) And the elderly woman continued to keep vigil for a seat while I kept thinking to myself that at least she could have breathed easy and rested her legs a bit if she gets a seat to sit, which seemed very unlikely given all the goings-on that one has to put up with in today's public buses. What a tragedy.

The public transport bus was jam-packed with hordes of people as they usually are in our country. But no one relinquished their seat for the elderly woman who was visibly struggling to balance her frail weight in the bone-rattling hell-raising RTC bus. This speaks a rancid lot about our so-called 'modern times' we live in if you ask me.

What this above story of mine illustrates the fact is that the growing public apathy towards our senior citizens in a crowded bus is not only abusive but also ill-mannered that many commuters turn a blind eye towards their basic rights. Seats earmarked for Senior Citizens are not vacated. If you think that such a thing does not happen anymore than it used to be once, perish the thought immediately. Get on to a public transport bus to experience it firsthand. It happens all the time. Elderly persons are treated as second-class citizens. They certainly don't get the kind of respect they merit. The bus drivers yell at them to hustle up their steps and get inside quickly and once inside the bus conductor shouts at them to pay up. Almost no one has patience with the elderly. You obviously don't go around, not on a bus, do you? You may have well-maintained lambi gaadis (big luxury cars!) And ultra-modern do chakkas (two-wheeler bikes!) For your luxury commute, but if you travel in a much-abused local state transport bus chock-full with the awful population, you'd know how people react or don't react for that matter to the proceedings in the public places. Some people manage to look like they smell of three-week-old underpants, sweaty and full up with self-importance, while some others are just helpless, hapless and insensitive to the goings-on in front of them. If you ask me for a free opinion, I don't hesitate one bit to say that humanity is going down the loo. You don't have to even flush it; it will go down the back hole on its own! Make of it what you will, but I am getting angst-ridden about certain things happening around me – like a normal do-gooder person would be in solidarity with other fellow do-gooders who feel just the same as I do. But do-gooders are a rare breed. We can't lay everything at the feet of the common street lingo: "That's how the world works!" and forget about it. At the risk of painting everyone with a single brush, I'd still say that we have slowly descended ourselves into being a morally bankrupt society, even beyond bankrupt sometimes. While cows, goats, and monkeys in our country get reverential treatment, human beings get lynched, tortured, mutilated by the devious socially unfit hate mongers of their own ilk. It's not the taxes or the money that kill civilizations, but communal unwillingness to do good deeds does. Don't miss to add Global Warming or Climate Change to that woeful rundown of mankind's bloody betrayals and his gross infamies.

After all, we all have one life to live, don't we? So much for the kind of modern life we ​​lead, especially the new millennial kind! Looks like modern life is not everyone's cup of tea, mine neither, but we can afford to lower our basic sense of moral standards and harp about "That's how the world works!" and escape? For this reason alone, personally speaking, modern life (not modern society) sucks. BOOYAHH !!!

I have often wondered if people are getting worse in the allegedly 'modern world' we live in. Indeed, I do lament the way we live in the 21st century. It appears as if we live in the Dark Ages – (Jurassic age? Because the term Jurassic is the latest thing these days! But hey! Not the motion picture one wherein those Dinos acceptably figure out to eat everything that moves and dump a huge bombshell of poop and puke that doesn't. Not their fault, it's a call of nature. I was just delineating their evolutionary tantrum, safely keeping out the shimmering exotic fare of petrified dino-droppings and leaving out suggesting how amazingly big a pile was that !) – and not in the supposedly modern world you (not I) millennial Generation Y (mine was thankfully gen X, status: bygone, but those days are still missed) sing fuzzy praises to every day of your glum, apps-controlled paralyzed life.

The World Is In Eclipse

Tell me, why is everyone so pissed off these days? Trump , Kim , Brexit , Isis , Doklam , and Rakhine are just a handful of those deadly affairs that make me wince in peevish sympathy and drop an expletive or two for what is happening around us. You ask why sympathy? Because I am a helpless common man and I pity my own breed which I think is at risk of losing sight of its main purpose, which is to be HUMAN first.

The world is in eclipse. The dangerous Dumbledores of the world and there are, oh God, a whole bunch of these power-hungry hustlers: no wonder, their soul-culling tweets trump up a miasmic front-page spotlight for themselves and continually dictate deadly injunctions for everyone to fall in line with their malevolent designs or else … your way of life as you know it is most certainly doomed. All this don't give me a future to dream about. However, that's a sordid tale I want to write about some other time if I'm alive. Trust me; It's past the point where it is not possible to save the world from going down the drains or going up the exhaust pipe, so to speak. Mankind's folly: global warming is going to claim the whole world anyway. One day or another Nature's fury is going to unleash the conveyor belt of punishment we are so foolishly itching to deserve. If not, we anyway have these Dumbledores up in arms to snuff the Earth out from its orbit. Living in the modern world is akin to humankind's dilemma of getting caught between the cliff and the whirlpool, no easy way out to remedy this curse.

Forget about going to the inhabitable Mars where signs of probable alien life in lakes and valleys are a dime a dozen, or Jupiter or any other vapid dustblown space rock hanging out their dirty linen for us to take the bait, Earth is the one and only game reserve of co-existing animals, marauding humans, and birds we have been granted by the Gods. Thank God, we have no other home and thank God there will not be another. We're all in this together; on our third rock from the Sun. We've to live here and kick the bucket here. Tell me Elon Musk, are you getting visions of interstellar travel and all that aspirational jazz that comes with it? Do you fancy shaking hands with the aliens, the little green-gooed extraterrestrials that might fancy checking out your 'spacex' gigs? Go home stupid. It's never gonna happen. On second thought, the only concession I am willing to give you is for your electric vehicle (EV) your 'Teslaphiles' are going to complete manufacturing. That's going to be something optimistically good in the race to save our planet from the harmful impacts of tons and tons of carbon emissions. Thank you for the "giant cybernetic collective" to produce zero-pollution vehicles. Sounds great for the environment. But interstellar travel? Forget it, man. It's never going to work. Now go on, go home.

Let me get my head around the topic at hand first which I admit is far more complicated than I thought it would be. But allow me this small transgression to write a short reflective account as I have a depressing allegory of modern times to narrate. Please don't blame me crazy; you know how the modern world works: passing double meaning comments masquerading as jokes which are expected to be taken lightly and not seriously even if they seem ridiculously stupid, being critically judgmental (now, this is a disease common among most of us) and ' Like 'it or not the invasion of omnipresent social media are but just a few of the pain vanillas to lament about in this so-called modern life of yours and mine. However, I grant that I know fairly little of the way the world works politically and economically, but I'm glad you are doing just great being a clever know-all monster of sorts, don't you Mr. Trump? How about you Mr. Kim? Besides, Mr. Kim, it seems that the Dumbledores of the Trumpian world can make you and your country rich ( Trump Tower-size if you like), but only if you give up your weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and lose your weight! Get trendy, Mr. Kim. And what is that gelled hairsty …? Oh never mind. Good on you. You did the thing right by pledging to denuclearize. Good riddance of those funny-looking penile rockets of yours, they don't belong to humankind. God bless you, Kim ji . You've fallen in line. You had to, I understand. Your country soil will soon get enriched with Trump Towers and all that deck of matchboxes will scrape the sky of your island nation, as promised by that nasty presidential counterfeiter of America, the hot-headed Don whose official house (not his tower) is white . Meanwhile, Earth is saved again, for now at least. Sigh.

My Last-Ditch Effort at Living a Modern Life

Yet, I have other pebbles to pick from the beach – my last-ditch effort at living life without going through the revolting "start-from-the-scratch" scenarios again, if it really is possible living life without having to correct any mistakes , it will really be of no great help. Correcting one's previously committed mistakes often tantamount to one's, I believe, willingness to do good for oneself and move on; you get to be morally upright, and stuff like that works in the world where you have to sometimes rub shoulders with fundamentally-immoral people. This is one of the reasons why living life king size has been a subject of dislike or anathema to me as I feel I am not intended to live my life the way most middle-class people are aspiring (or perspiring) to – that is to earn money only to lose it at the shopping malls, buying stuff that is really not needed. That's a lot of impulse buying spree there. Have money, will splurge syndrome. And mind you I don't have problems with the kind of life people live because I don't need to be racked with humbug anxiety that could bring my waterloo closer than I want it to. For all I know, of my pickled brain predilections and predicaments, they live their lives better than I can ever hope to.

Most people who have a little bit of money buy big houses, spacious flats in gated communities, flashy phones, big cars they don't really need. I think people suffer from the ill effects of 'rock-bottom' self-esteem and emotional maturity, a kind of personality deficit that needs a high-touch of perpetual glare from their own community members or from the general society at large, massaging their inflated egos in the process. According to me, these are the most obvious reasons why they want to show off how successful they are in life and their newly acquired wealth to buy anything others can't. Roaming around in swishy cars with swishier names and swishiest number plates make them feel that they should be taken seriously and therefore look unabashedly successful while they are at it. This sounds like envy talking above his pay grade. Does it really? I am not envious of anybody's wealth or success, why should I be? All that I ever crave for is my family and gharer bhojon (home-cooked food) with dal bhaat ( lentils soup and rice) with macher jhol (fish curry) on the menu, and visit temples and light incense sticks for the presiding deity's darshon .

Looking at his flashy new phone, I once pried one of our society's self-certified homda chomdas (big shot figures, most likely of the predatory Harvey Weinstein stock) who can be considered nothing short of an inveterate materialistic-consumerist junkie: Is it really required to spend extravagantly on an expensive phone costing upwards of Rs. 80,000? The answer sounded like a lame excuse, "Oh !! I just love gadgets and you know what, this is" flashing his latest mobile acquisition to me "absolute NIRVANA". I pitied him. I just hope our paths never cross again.

I find their mentality to be basically corrupt to not want to have just a small house or an apartment or travel in a public transport whenever required. In today's advertising-driven world, they see others affording material luxuries so they too want to do likewise. They too want to have it all and flaunt it and impress others in their community. That's not normal according to my left-leaning style of living; it's abnormal. People come up with excuses such as, "I love gadgets, you know"; "I want a big house, mansion-like" to justify the 'power' they derive from their amassing of wealth and the misguided feeling of a high societal position they hanker after. Yeah, the king wants to roam great halls and look down from the arched balconies! How bullying is that.

Even their personality traits like newfound accent, their walking style and body language, their spoken language, so on and so forth changes, irrespective of the fact that almost every one of them might have had started off from humble and modest origins. Forgetting their humble past, they hurtle towards a future that can never be sustainable from the standpoint of our planet Earth's lifespan in the day and age of rising temperatures and habitat loss. I am not one of judging people but I find it shameful really. People buy swanky blah, blah, blah, stuff to attract attention as if they want others to consider them more important than they were previously unaccustomed to and respect them for what they have 'achieved'. Nikes on their feet and Rolexx at their wrists – what bloody pride!

Well, what I mean to say is that there are no 'WMDs' in my life to protect. (Poor Mr. Kim used to have a different kind of WMDs but he'd wisely destroyed them or so it seems). My 'WMDs' are carbon emissions kind I need to find ways to put a stop to. However, I try to lead a plain vanilla type of life and yet at the end of the day I happen to contribute to the soaring temperatures of our planet's fragile ecosystems which I don't ever like to. To me, the natural world is more important than enjoying manmade luxuries that come with an expiry date. Modern life is unsustainable. But the fact is there're no immediate 'WMDs' in my life to seriously think about. The empathy towards our global biodiversity and climate stability should be a necessary motivator for making the world a better place to live in. Ignoramuses like Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim should have to know.

The Left-Socialist type of life is also what I mean, not the consumption-heavy globalized Free-Market rape capitalism type that plunders our beautiful blue planet. The latter part of our economic success story sucks for sure. In the man-made made-to-size globalized world, king size modern life is anathema to me. The high, coarse standards of lifestyle that we all have set ourselves to get accustomed to has become the harbinger of global carbon emissions and rising temperatures contribute to greenhouse gases and crumbling ice shelves. These dangerous inconvenient truths are sure to combust our planet to a fiery annihilation. Like a bheegi billi (a cat scared wet with fear) I am frightened of these unforgiving phenomena crippling our way of life on a delicate planet we call home, our only home. Certainly, we'll be really so stupid if we didn't do anything about global warming already.

What I mean to say is we need to figure out a way to radically remake the global economy that'll prevent global temperatures from rising. It is possible to do that. Cutting our lifestyle needs by half and controlling the population of humans are two acts of faith that can be believed in as new beginnings for greater common good. Otherwise, there'd be nothing left for us to do business with. Now I am not fond of lecturing but that's the truth, and the truth is always inconvenient to bear. Global warming is an inconvenient truth for those who think it isn't. So much for the moral high horses-bourses: Wall Street, BSE, Nikkei and other stock market WMDs perpetuating Buy Sell, Buy Sell catcalls of plunder. All of these global stock market fucks are in bed with greenhouse gas-guzzling counterparts of the global warming deniers. Oh, fuck! What did I just say? Oh my god! Oh my god! So you want to lynch me now? Lynch me if you can. But the truth is always stranger than fiction, mind you. Nevertheless, it's my last-ditch effort at living a modern life. Afterward, I may be attending God's good humor party uninvited. I don't know … I give up.

Living king size life directly contributes to an incorrigible global warming that we cannot roll back: not even to the point when, post liberalization of our economy, we gradually started to turn ourselves into a narrow-minded bunch of an addictive reptile-brained consumerist mall -hopping shopping rats, some kind of angry bird-loving misfits, and junk food spendthrifts. (There are always exceptions. Not all of us sane ones have become wide-eyed in-your-face individuals). Today, we buy more than we need; we eat more than we digest. Ultimately, all this sacrilegious practice is going to sound the gong of death knell for our beautiful blue planet as we know it. Earth time's up. (God forbid not). If mankind doesn't mend their often intentional blunders, Gods are bound to act by their Godly codex to send in their WMDs in the form of Global Warming , Climate Change, Sea Rise, Temperature Rise, you name it. Now, man up and deal with it. Let's collectively mend our ways. We should, must, or else we are all dead. Am I yakking too much about a holier-than-thou attitude that I seem to have possessed? I don't think so. But climate change is an obscene reality today. We must have set our Earth's climate to the point of no return but it should not stop us from doing something to turn the tables on climate change. My personal ranting about it here may not seem irrelevant or not noteworthy as to be very important a distress call but still, we need to urgently think to save our mother Earth from becoming just another dead chunk of rock in the solar system. Think about it.

I think PUBLIC APATHY IS AN AILMENT OF THE SO-CALLED MODERN SOCIETY TODAY or why would anyone in his / her healthy mind, body and soul be not able to offer the humble aged passenger a seat to sit on? As I did not get a seat myself, I just stood there guiltily shifting my weight from one foot to another, getting really concerned, unable to move further up the aisle to try and ask someone to get up and let her sit. I was tortured by regret and unable to fathom why no one's conscience is getting pricked. Where have their good morals gone? They've gone with the wind: of fake news, social media trolls, hate speech and an abusive crucifix of hashtags all tossed and lovingly tousled on a self-gratifying tourney to a land of twisted egos and self-important algorithms that changes colors out -performing even a Chameleon.

I know I'd be heckled, rebuked and shouted at for daring to ask someone to get up and let the woman sit, so I did dare. I was stuck in the mute crowd of 'modern' people oblivious to the situation the elderly woman has found herself in, for no fault of hers. How people have shunned their morals for good, and they talk about getting jobs, wanting a nice new girlfriend and bragging about human rights as if it is their baap ka maal (their father's property!). In a conjuring devil's phraseology, these kinds of people run the risk of getting labeled as motherless fuckers but they won't be ashamed. Even if they do fall to that level of culpable human indignity, they don't think they will ever be ashamed of themselves; rather they'll wear it as a batch of honor on their chest – rhino thick-skinned hides they lead their life in, being unmindful and uncaring of the old woman's plight.

Modern Life Is Rubbish. It Sucks.

There are a number of issues in life that in some way compel you to start from scratch all over again to turn them back from worse. That'll be a golden chance for you if such an opportunity comes by. To remedy some mistakes of your life is a different ballgame, probably a task best suited to procrastination. While there are some others you don't get a chance to resurrect your earlier ills, you still feel the none-the-wiser about the ones you are bound to make. They (life's issues) are too far gone into the inaccessible Past for you to be able to make amends. I confess I have had over the years my share of ups and downs (I call them issues), good and bad times, rights and wrongs, as far as 'issues' were concerned. If truth was told frankly, there have been quite a few I had had to tackle but failed miserably. That's why I don't think about them anymore. But they do manage to worry me from time to time.

Modern life sucks if it has to. It will by all means, but whose humanity is it anyway? Yes, ours. We are collectively together in it: in the Earth's primordial soup. Pardon my use of such a language if you will; old habits die hard. Without an iota of doubt, in the 'issues' department modern life definitely sucks, fairly and squarely. It's a Baadurer chosha jibon ! – A Bat's suck life.

They say "post 9/11", life in the supposedly 'changed world' continues to slipshod and promises to keep at it unabated. There's no hope of resurrection. Only the 'start-from-scratch-all-over-again' decree prevails if you fall for it. Modern life is now modern death. On the one hand, to live one's life in an strict shrinking post-truth world of modernity, particularly the terse drivel behind "You're either with us or against us!", "Advanced versus the third world," and "Us versus them "intimidation sucks, and on the other death might be long-drawn but never quick. Dying multiple deaths is the new world order. It's Kali Yuga ; the nemesis of humankind is imminent. You don't have to pack up, you'll be sent packing! If it's the end of morality then it is the end of humanity too.

While I understand that there will always be "issues" but … who cares? Get up and smell coffee. Modern life is such an unforgiving fancy mistress (or in some cases a courtesan! To each his own.). Either you get hitched or get restless without a girlfriend. Either way, you are doomed! What kind of attitude (positive?) Will be adequately OK to deal with this preposterous thing called modern life? If you pay attention you'll know that the basic inquiry still remains as it is: Will you be a game to conform to its intrigues and succumb to it, or agitate against it? Think about it. You might have an answer to that question. I never did. Never will. Unless, Mr. Kim retires from managing his country, Mr. Trump backs off … to his Tower, Islamic State (Isis) expunged from future history books and other such horrible disasters. Not to mention Iran, Iraq, Syria and the list goes on crooning an irredeemable tune of death and destruction.

Modern life is bound to be rubbish and I am acting as if I had never been kissed! Regardless of whether you like it or not, you are still living the so-called modern life and already kissing it goodbye for all you know. As things stand in my life now, I can't be confident feeling that I am faring better than the most. Not by any stretch of the imagination. That's not how I ought to feel about myself? That's not normal for me. Why? Faring better than everyone is not my idea of ​​living my life normally as well as judiciously, wisely even. I can't fare better than others. Not my mug of coffee I hold to take a sip from. I am not a fool to suggest that I cannot fare better at all: I can but in my own sweet egoistical way, on my own terms. That sounds better to me. Yes, Dude, I don't generally know better about modern life, others do, for the most part, I think. What I am mortally scared shit of is having to 'start-from-scratch-all-over-again' or "start-over-once-more" or getting back to square one (add GST to that, amen!); It really gets my goose not cooked but overcooked for my taste. My brain works!

If there's a boon granted to me to live my life over again, I'd dare to make more mistakes, take more chances, take fewer things seriously, ride more merry-go-rounds, fall in love, be sillier than I have been this trip, eat more ice creams and more biryani, pick more daisies … but none that would contribute to global warming or climate change. Thank you very much for this one wild and precious life. Let me not go amiss from the actual topic we are discussing here. Old habits die hard indeed. A little more reading and you are done for good.

End Story

Morally bankrupt people opine that the modern world is a harsh place to live in, so bear with it. Maybe one of my friend's 'retractable claw' theory and his eternal bachelorhood plans is one way to deal with the modern world. With no one to care for my friend, I'm afraid as days turn into months and months into years, his life is bound to get lonelier and lonelier in a world that sounds strict bankrupt of morality these days. But again, one man's theory could be another man's fury, so to each his own way of life. Yet, surviving the modern world is no less than a miracle if you ask me.

The poor old woman in the bus is one such depressing case which, I think, can be termed as an aberration of general moral bankruptcy on the part of some bus passengers who never cared two hoots about offering a seat for her to sit down. Holding the overhead post and leaning wearily against a median shaft, she had to keep standing for nearly 10 kilometers , good three-quarters of an hour all the way to the north of the city.

When the bus reached my stop, I felt a sigh of relief when I suddenly noticed that the young smartphone-wielding lass who all throughout the bus ride kept typing away on her phone vacated her seat, and that's when the poor old woman who had to stand for nearly 10 kilometers took her chance to sit down. I am sure she must have thanked profusely not that carefree, unconcerned and immature lass but her merciful God for the much-needed relief in the form of a seat.

When the government made abortion legal, it took away all the legal and moral ramifications.

As a result, there were more abortions than ever which created an atmosphere of irresponsibility, and it rapidly became a form of birth control, which resulted in a moral breakdown, especially among the young.

Before abortion was legal, people were humiliated and scorned for getting pregnant, as a result, if a teen became pregnant they normally got married or gave the child up for adoption. Many pregnant unmarried teenage girls left town until they gave birth to prevent the humiliation. Pregnant girls were forced to drop out of school.

Because of the social stigma, many thought twice before committing acts that would create an out of wedlock pregnancy. Even though it may have seemed cruel at the time, the positive effects were that it created humans who were able to stand up to life's challenges by accepting responsibility for their actions and taught them to not blame others for what they, themselves had created.

Now teen pregnancy is accepted and often encouraged, but by making it acceptable the number of unwed mothers has skyrocketed and many more children are placed at risk, the number of children living in one parent families has skyrocketed, leaving many of them living in poverty.

As is most often the case, the government attempt to solve a problem by removing personal responsibility has backfired and more people are at risk and personal responsibility has all but been removed from the public scene.

Growing children need boundaries, guidance, and to be taught there are consequences for their actions. When people are coddled and excuses made for their actions, it only creates an atmosphere where ethical standards are relaxed and soon people begin to make unwise choices without even thinking what the consequences may be, this can only lead to one result, and it isn ' The preferred choice.

Then we all sit back and wonder what happened.

Just another example of how liberalism does work, they try to cater to the so-called weak, and by doing so, they just create more weak and needy people. You cannot build people up by making life easy for them. The human soul needs challenge and adversity to evolve.

By interfering with their karma you are taking away their life plan, that's why the more you give someone, the angrier they get and they seem unappreciative and bitter, you are running their life and taking away their purpose. Doing just the opposite of what needs to be done.

The soul does not want to be coddled, it needs to be challenged in order for it to fully evolve into its full potential.

We need to stay out of their lives, let them make their own choices and only guide them on their path through life.

How often do we, as a society need to relearn the same things over and over, sooner or later we will get it.

Art has always been a reflection of the emotions, personal struggle, and the path breaking events of a contemporary society. When a society demands or undergoes a change, art has mostly subtly complied with it. The Oxford Dictionary describes art as “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.” In effect, art definitely is an expressive platform for individuals, groups, as well as society, especially the radical changes or events witnessed thereof. It usually depicts the current or a particular scenario in the purview of the political situation, economic, social, geographical, the emotions spun therein, the undertones of revolutions, and uprising, to name just some.

If we go periodical about discussing art as a reflection of society, then we begin from the most ancient. The ‘Prehistoric Art’ consisted of paintings on the rocks and caves, which symbolized their routine lifestyles and rituals. The paintings were therefore, an evidence of their culture, which helped historians derive information about the life, culture, and the civilization of this era. The famous ‘Indus Valley’ or ‘Harappa,’ ‘Greek,’ and ‘Egyptian’ civilizations, especially had prolific artistry, including sculpture, architecture, paintings, engravings, and metal art.

In fact, the most we know about these amazingly rich civilizations, is credited to their narrative artifacts and buildings only. For instance, the ‘Egyptian Civilization’ believed in life after death. The society therefore, had a strong spiritual framework, concentrating more on the human journey after death. They believed in immortality and worshipped many deities, a fact distilled from the paintings adorning the walls of the great Pyramids. The Greek Civilization however, was more emphatic about the human form, its poise, and beauty, reflecting mostly on the attires, body languages, hairstyles, and cultures prevailing over different periods.

Creativity adopted the sects of ‘Art Movement’ to depict the realities of a contemporary society, vis-à-vis, its stable fabric, regularly changing aspects, and even revolutions. The impact of the contemporary socio-political scenario has also always been portrayed. For instance, before the First World War, Paris used to bustle with great political activity. This restlessness somewhere influenced the development of ‘Cubism’ by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. ‘Cubism’ involved the depiction of a particular subject from multiple angles, a practically prevalent situation then. The artistry turned mysterious in essence, to manifest the hatching of diverse political conspiracies in Paris at that time.

Expressionism’ was another art form developed, when the society was undergoing transitions at different levels, including creative. There was a revolt against the traditional outlook towards art. A modern approach was adopted. The ‘Modern Art’ was a blend of ‘Abstract Realism,’ in which the subject was distorted to depict its reality and emotional upheaval. The colors in the paintings have nearly always portrayed the true emotions of the subject, the event, or the mood of the artists.

To conclude, we can say that art may always not be beautiful aesthetically or comprehensible to all. It however, should be powerful enough to portray the current emotions of the society, including exposing harsh and subtle truths, while also encouraging the betterments. The only constant in the world is change. In tune, societies metamorphose through different annals of time and art helps capture the resulting twists and turns in the contemporary culture and lifestyle.

If lying is bad and deception is wrong, then how come we work so hard to ensure that people lie and deceive – you know the little white lies? One example of this is how we force others to be humble, but why, is it so we can feel good about ourselves? Shouldn’t we really want to know when someone is confident, capable and achieved – why all the pretense, why is that considered a virtue?

In many cases humility is a lie, it is purposely downplaying one’s abilities, since when is lying honorable? Pretending to be nothing when you are something is holding your cards very close to the vest. Why? Going through life at a super-humility level may give someone the edge in a cunning sort of Machaivellian way, but it is still living a lie, the lie of political correctness.

Indeed, I am not the first to mention this, many dead-white men, hardly humble, academic arrogance by today’s standards, have noted the same. I would submit to you that most 80% of the people out there demand humility mostly because it is society’s norm, status quo, no need to think beyond that request, or because they haven’t done anything and don’t want anyone to realize they wear an empty suit.

Humility is not natural behavior, rather, it is a learned behavior, a societal construct. Interestingly enough, today, with all the talk of “equality” it is even more so. Is that actually a good thing? We are not all born equally, we all have a different predisposed gene set, nature, and during our life-experience we develop skills sets apart from one-another merely through varied experiences, again, those skill sets, set us apart. If we know the skill sets of others, that is a good thing, it will help society collaborate and move faster, but if we run around hiding what we are good at, how can we help each other with our skills to accomplish goals.

On most social media everyone is seeking self-validation, but never trying to push it too far, as they don’t want to cross the line too much, just a little to get noticed, otherwise fear of appearing less-than-humble. I think LinkedIn is a good system, as you can see everyone’s resume. If people were really humble, they wouldn’t ever prepare resumes, they would never give acceptance speeches, never accept a prize, or even a promotion for a job well done. Lastly ego, well, there is nothing wrong with it, as long as you know who you are, what you are capable of and where to improve. An earned ego is a positive trait, but I fail to see how deception and white lies are in the same category.

The era of mobile technology has helped speed up communication between individuals. This is the general notion nowadays. Everyone talks about how it is much easier to communicate with loved ones who live miles apart than it was to do so in the old days. Technology has enabled man to communicate with someone from the opposite end of the globe within minutes. Business growth has taken place because the world is now a global village thanks to technological advancements. One can call his children who are in a university abroad; one can make a video call to friends and family who live in other cities, countries and continents! How easy it has become for an individual to get in touch with another individual. It seems as if everybody is merely a phone call away! However, all that glitters is definitely not gold. Everything comes with its price and the process of development in communication technology surely comes with a heavy price; the distortion of language, the murder of manners and the loss of close bonds between individuals.

There is no language on planet earth that has emerged overnight. Languages evolve over long periods of time. They are continuously improved as language is the primary factor which makes human beings superior to all other creatures. Yet, within what seemed like the blink of an eye, communication technology has distorted languages, particularly the English language, in a ghastly manner.

Since we live in the world where nobody has enough time, we look for short cuts in everything including expression. A very small example is the use of abbreviations to show joy and happiness; LOL is part of most internet and cell phone users’ daily vocabulary! In our attempts to ‘save time’, we have no respect for manners which were once a big part of language. A few years back, if one was busy, he or she would apologize to the other person and promise to get back shortly. Nobody has time for that now. TTYL is the new way of telling people how busy you are. Where are the manners of speech? Where is the respect for others?

‘U’ is the new ‘You’ simply because it takes less time to type. Students often make the mistake of using this form of writing in their formal assignments and exams, leaving the poor old English teachers shocked and speechless!

The linguistic impacts that communication technology has had are countless. However, these are not the only impacts that this technology has had. I once read something on Facebook (oh the irony!) which said, ‘you won’t have any wifi in the forest but I promise you’ll have a better connection’. The words struck me immediately because of the meaning they held. Despite the fact that the internet has made communication so easy, it seems like the connection between people has deteriorated. One sits for hours in front of a screen, using fingers instead of one’s tongue to type words instead of saying them and using emoticons to express feelings instead of using his or her own features to do so. The mini heart attack that one gets if he or she misplaces her phone even for a small while is not because of the fact that the person won’t be able to communicate with friends. It’s because of the fear of being ‘disconnected’ from the lives of hundreds of people one has added as friends on their Facebook account. Communication as a process has sped up, yet the process of communicating has deteriorated. It feels like the human race no longer knows how to communicate.

Communication technology has definitely helped the human race. However, the damage that it has caused and continues causing with each passing day cannot be ignored. If only the world did become a forest with no wifi, there probably would be a better connection after all.

Definitions

Marketing is generally thought of as the process of promoting goods and services to the end user. We can think of this as McDonald’s advertising its Big Mac in such a way that we feel that we really need one for lunch. This demonstrates the advertising piece of the marketing mix, and is the element that most people identify with marketing.

Society is generally defined as the condition in which members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. Societies are more than just the individual members that make up the group, but the sum of the collective. We are all members of a society, and interact with the other members in that community. So what is the impact of marketing in the society?

Negative Connotations of Marketing – They Made Me Do It

Ever since society passed from a Subsistence economy (I grow my own food, make my own clothes, and don’t need anyone else to help me) to a Trade economy (I’ll grow some food to sell to you, if you will make some clothes to sell to me) we have had the challenge of marketing our products and services to others (Uh-oh, now that there are two people making clothes in my town I’d better let people know why they should buy mine). And ever since that first sales pitch there have been criticisms of marketing; like deceptive practices, high prices, unsafe products, and high-pressure sales – to name a few.

But many critics go further and claim that marketing has created false wants, promoted materialism, produced cultural pollution, and allowed big companies to gain significant political power. And there is an element of truth to all of these claims. Companies that have not performed ethically have had a damaging effect in society that the ethical businesses must now work through.

And the Good?

But it is hard to deny the positives that marketing has brought upon society as well. The wealth of technology at our fingertips today is directly related to the sales of these items and the continued downward pricing caused by the promotion of computers, cell phones, GPS navigation systems, digital cameras, MP3 players, etc. Dozens and dozens of these types of products are commonplace today, but seemed like luxuries for the rich just a few years ago. In fact, most of the people below the poverty line in the US today live better than royalty did 200 years ago — with cars, heating and air conditioning, microwave ovens, cell phones, televisions, and other amenities now considered necessities.

More importantly, most medium to large companies now have significant charitable giving and service programs that donate large sums of money and time to needy organizations that make a difference in the lives of millions of people every year. Whether companies do this out of a pure heart or a need for positive publicity, the result is the same — and many of the neediest in society are better for it.

Doing the Right Thing

As the public grows more knowledgeable and educated, they hold businesses to a higher standard than was once the case. The abuses of workers that were common a century ago are not tolerated by society today. Now corporate ethics policies drive decisions in the boardroom and the marketing department so that the end user (that’s us) benefits in many ways. Doing the right thing is a good policy because people want to do business with someone they trust and respect. And the companies that are exposed as cheaters, liars, or abusers are generally shunned in the marketplace (Enron, anyone?).

The bottom line is that though there is a negative impact of marketing in the society, there is a positive to balance it out; and it is our job as society to reward the good guys with our purchases and punish the unethical companies by neglecting them in the marketplace. As we continue to do this over and over, we make Big Business aware that they will make money only if they honor their ethics policies and do the right thing on a consistent basis. In this way we can make a difference in the marketing tactics employed to sway our decisions. And that is a positive that we as a society can live with.

Have you ever wondered what the 4 most important resources in any given economy are?

They go as follows:

1. Land – which includes all the natural resources that go along with it.

2. Labor- people have to work to get anything done, right?

3. Capital- probably not what you’re thinking; this category isn’t money! It includes tools and machinery, and any other productive item.

4. Entrepreneurial Ability- something unique and specific to people! Not everybody has this! Do you?

Isn’t interesting that any given economy must have entrepreneurs! All the resources in the world, including land, lumber, minerals, food, labor, and tools will create nothing without the entrepreneur. Those innovative minds create many of the luxuries that we enjoy today; without them, we’d be without everything!

So what exactly does an entrepreneur do?

An entrepreneur, by simple definition, takes the initiative in combining resources like land, labor, tools, and other items to produce some sort of service or product. They are the ones that start everything! If you don’t have an entrepreneur, no advances in society take place; thus, making it difficult for an economy to grow and improve.

An entrepreneur is also an innovator; or, in other words, somebody who creates from given resources. They collect what is available, and put it together to form something useful for all. If you have no creativity, you may not be fit for entrepreneurial tasks.

Also, one of the reasons why the entrepreneurial ability is such a scare resource is because the entrepreneur assumes ALL of the risk. What happens if the idea flops? What then? Does his or her family end up without means to survive? The greater the risk, the greater the reward! Look at people like Bill Gates, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford- these are some of the greatest entrepreneurs and in order to bring us so many great things, these men had to risk everything!

It’s clear that society could not have an effective economy unless the entrepreneurial ability existed within its people.

If you have those qualities and have some ideas, don’t hesitate to create! Your contributions will promote change and improvement in an ever growing economy!

Golf Societies – The Early days…

There are many claims to the date in which the game was invented with some claiming that the game was first recorded in China and other claiming the game of invented by the Dutch. However, whatever the truth, it is now widely accepted that the game really to took off in Scotland following the reign of James I, King of Scots (1406 – 1437).

Some important dates (courtesy of Wikipedia)…

1421 – A Scottish regiment aiding the French (against the English) is introduced to the game of ‘Chole’

1457 – Golf banned by Scots Parliament to preserve the art of archery and prohibited it on Sundays

1502 – The ‘Treaty of Perpetual Peace’ between England and Scotland, the ban on golf is lifted

1513 – Queen Catherine, queen consort of England refers to the growing popularity of golf in England

1552 – The first recorded evidence of golf at St. Andrews

1553 – The Archbishop of St Andrews allow the local population to play on the links at St. Andrews

1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, seen playing and is the first known female golfer

1618 – King James VI of Scotland and I of England confirms the right to play golf on Sundays

1735 – The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh is formed

Golf Societies – The First Golf Society…

It was in 1735 that The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh was formed, with the date of it’s inauguration was recorded in the ‘Edinburgh Almanac’ from 1834 on wards. Whilst open to discussion, Burgess is now universally accepted as the oldest organized golf society in the UK (not the Oldest Golf Club!). The newly formed society played for over 100 years at Bakersfield Links, close to Edinburgh Castle.

In 1876 the society later moved to Mussel burgh. The course had only 9 holes and with the popularity of golf on the rise, the Society sought a new course on the ‘Cramond-Regis’ estate in 1898, only 3 miles west of the City of Edinburgh.

The mature parkland style course was originally designed by Willie Park Jnr with later modifications by world renowned architects Dr Alister Mackenzie and James Braid.

The Society is still alive and well today, the superb clubhouse, constructed in 1899, has been elegantly and tastefully designed and extended.

Its members’ lounge has a glorious oriel window and, with a large dining room on the first floor, overlooks the course and provides amazing views of the Fife Hills and the Firth of Forth.

As a testament to the quality of the course, The R&A since 2011 have selected Bakersfield Links as a Qualifying Venue for the Open Championship.

Golf Societies – Today…

The last few centuries have seen many changes to the way golf is played and whilst the early golfers were the original ‘Nomads’, actually ‘belonging’ to a golf club, seems to be going out of fashion again!

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, golf saw a massive expansion with golf clubs and course being built at a rapid rate. Meanwhile, modern living has now put time constraints on the average golfer and coupled with the overall cost of belonging to a golf club, it is now becoming increasingly hard to justify an annual club membership anymore.

In addition, golf has seen a sharp fall in the number of ‘local’ golf societies as pubs close, workplace become less ‘social’ and the out-dated and old fashioned image of golf continues to put the new generation off the game.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The growth of the internet has allowed many to form connections and friendships to be made via online platforms, thus cutting out the middle man – The Golf Club.

These platforms are more akin to the traditional ‘golf society’ whereby they will decide where and when they play, depending on the deals being offered to them.

As such, it is predicted that as more and more golf societies move online, set up bespoke and template based websites, Facebook pages and Whats App Groups, that the golf society as we know is alive and well and have a good future.

Over the next decade it is highly likely that club will rely less and less of the ‘Annual Club membership’ model and more on the ‘Flexible Memberships’, ‘Pay & Players’ or ‘Play & Stayers’. Thus meaning the power will be given back to the ‘Nomad’.

As such, if Golf Clubs want to survive this change, they will need focus more on ‘Value’ and ‘Service’ rather than the old school tie!