What Is Your Personal Directive as a Jedi?

Manu wrote: Why are they mutually exclusive?

Because one is not derivative of or dependent on the other. One can be both or one can be neither or one can be either one. It is when they are conflated that the issue arises.

Manu wrote: I have no issue with brutal honesty. But in my experience as a father, customer service rep, sales manager, forum admin, etc. people are not all alike. Different people and different situations require different communication styles. This has nothing to do with "behavior unbecoming" crap people tend to throw around... it is simply a matter of maximizing effectiveness.

As to the ranking system, what do you suggest as a yardstick for determining who is ready?

Yes I agree to a certain extent. But the other side of that is also that we all need to be more accepting of different communication styles. This is a process of being responsible for ourselves and responding to others instead of reacting to them. Different cultures have different styles and it becomes a matter of expanding our own horizons to encompass those different points of view. The young girl from the Midwest who takes her first trip to New York might be totally offended by their course communications style but if she realizes it’s just the way they talk, she can adjust her thinking. The same goes for us being responsible for our own communication styles. A customer service rep who is not cut out to carry that communication style is in the wrong job and she needs to realize that and find something she can excel in. It’s all a matter of recognizing our own limits and expanding our horizons beyond being offended by every little thing. Control of ourselves, ya know, not trying to control everyone else!

As for the ranking thing, I say get rid of it and replace it with a Board of Directors. The hierarchy would be as a guest or a member. Members get to vote and the BOD would be subordinate to the membership. Create VPs of various divisions like library etc. BOD get voted into office by the membership. These are those recognized by the entire community as being worthy of the office. The chair assembly could replace the council with a small number of BOD members with voting rights of their own for admin decisions internally. This structure would not only put the officers of this temple in true service to the membership instead of being self appointed but it would also facilitate a natural means by which the entire community can recognize individuals for their contributions and reward them that "rank".

Manu wrote: I am interested. Tell me more about the focus on working on selfishness. What kind of work are you thinking about?

These would be deep dives into the real issues of our world as well as into our psyche. I see so many useless lessons floating around here. Build a utility belt or watch this cartoon and evaluate it or what is your workout routine. None of these things are providing any sort of meaning to a Jedi lifestyle. We need to be exploring concepts like the nature of consciousness, critical thinking, what is the self and issues like rape, ptsd, mental illness. Deep and intense subjects. And yes I know that the argument against this is that some are not ready for these sorts of deep dives. My counter to that is that if they are not ready for these deep dives then they are damn well not ready for knighthood!!

Manu wrote: I guess they'll have to learn to survive without your respect.

I am not responsible for their survival. My respect notwithstanding, that is on them alone.

Proteus wrote: So I am curious, what kind of Jedi do you consider yourself and why? What is you personal directive as a Jedi?

What kind of Jedi am I?
Well. I’m not really 100% sure, but I’d like to think I walk a sort of line between passion and control, between radicalism and moderation. I don’t see the Force as light and dark but as a spectrum, a beautiful spectrum full of every possible color. I don’t see in shades of gray but in a rainbow of colors.

My personal directive as a Jedi? That’s a completely different and altogether more complex question for me. I haven’t really thought of it in such terms before. I suppose my directive might be to seek that delicate balance between extremes that I mentioned above...as well as to better the world around me to the best of my abilities. To serve others and help them better themselves and the world around them.

Proteus wrote: Perhaps talking about this can help us better understand each other when we interact?

It certainly might!

ren wrote: Can you imagine if the people here who like to see and fight persecution where there is none did the same thing in similar situations offline? Complained to the police as they do here to the mods? 'hello officer this person is talking about things I don't like can you kick them out of the country please?'

I found this interesting, because while one can't kick someone out of the country for "fighting persecution" here in the united states, you can have someone removed from your home, business, etc....Not that I support blind removals but the whole fight persecution where there is none is a bit of a reach...

Tellahane wrote:
I found this interesting, because while one can't kick someone out of the country for "fighting persecution" here in the united states, you can have someone removed from your home, business, etc....Not that I support blind removals but the whole fight persecution where there is none is a bit of a reach...

What I find funny is how those labeled as persecuters are the ones the most persecuted on these boards. There seems to be a heavy “pull” towards “keeping the peace”, which sometimes reeks of herd mentality.

Correlation does not imply causation. Which is why these things are looked at within frameworks and those frameworks adjusted to better engineer outcomes.

And within any type of group these are usually called rules. Platforms of interaction can be defined by the tools created but often the tools are insufficient to define the intended activity and so rules exist to shape activity in that free space afforded by shortcomings in the platform.

Manu wrote: What I find funny is how those labeled as persecuters are the ones the most persecuted on these boards. There seems to be a heavy “pull” towards “keeping the peace”, which sometimes reeks of herd mentality.

Youre defending rape culture you victim blaming nazi. Youre literally hitler and i hope you die in a fire. KYS cis gendered chauvinist scum.

Manu wrote:
What I find funny is how those labeled as persecuters are the ones the most persecuted on these boards. There seems to be a heavy “pull” towards “keeping the peace”, which sometimes reeks of herd mentality.

Ah yes, the herd is alive and well! Fat and happily grazing. And the posse rides, the names and faces change but the mentality remains constant. They stand tall in the saddle and ride hard to defeat evil. And one by one they are shot from those saddles. Or they succumb to the madness of the incessant heat of the dessert sun and wander aimlessly over the horizon, having been driven batty by their own convictions and need for control. And the masters of evil remain. Fore they know the true secret of longevity, to never allow themselves to be tied down by false moral convictions but instead flow with the whims of the spirit in the wind and the rain. Damn it's good to be a gansta!

https://youtu.be/eEneQFEFgMQ

Well there is the Jedi code

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaRae8UNj7s

Well, apparently you got to click on the title and watch it on youtube.

Try this one, instead
If you aint cheatin, you aint tryin

Anyway, the pinnacle of Robert Duval westerns is Gus in Lonesome Dove. This movie will change your bum life

FollowerOfDeimos wrote: Well there is the Jedi code

Yes, but we'd love to hear how it drives you. What is your directive as a Jedi, not what code do you follow? Or how does this code push you, drive you towards something?

I'm presently working towards keeping my own proverbial house in order, and only asking that others stay off my proverbial lawn. I'm still working out what that really means to me, but I'll settle for personal differences and clashes resulting in myself and other involved parties simply ignoring each other peacefully.

More than once I've attempted what amounts to giving people a "dose of their own medicine ", and I can say it works about as well as one might expect; i.e., it doesn't. It demands too much of the other party, like the ability to ask oneself "Am I, in fact, wrong?" Without immediately assuring oneself, "no, they're just mean ".

I'll let you all know as soon as I figure out precisely what I'm doing, for now I'm amusing myself by occasionally looking around, spying something and saying, "Well, let's definitely not do THAT".

I live with passion and authenticity, having found a path worth the effort of walking. I've left a career and trade behind in pursuit of a way of life more in line with the path, and my own passion.
I guess if I had to make it snappy, I'd go for something like;

Do good and look good doing it.
Do no harm but take no crap.

But it simply comes down to good vibes, and victory.

Well, I haven't been here for very long, but my "mission" if you will has always been to be the voice of reason, to always see both sides of an argument before making a decision, to be the outsider looking in if you will. Because to me, I see the Jedi as peacekeepers, as they normally are, but how can one keep the peace without seeing all angles?

How does that translate into your real world practice, Deimos? What do your efforts look like in the real world?

Typically it's whenever I'm debating someone, or watching two people debate where I usually try to defuse the situation and present both sides to make both sides realize that fighting won't solve anything.

Fighting and debating are two entirely different things.

My personal directive is to do good always. The way this looks in my day to day is that I (try) to always pick what’s right and just. I do community service, I humble myself in conversations (not letting people walk over me but refusing to engage in name calling or being rude; I simply state my opinion and leave it alone), I practice patience, honesty, kindness as best I can. I give all I can when asked. Occasionally I punch but not often lol

I shouldn't have used the term fighting. I merely meant it in the sense of both sides getting too defensive and not even acknowledging the other. That is just unhelpful and illogical and so i try to be the peace keeper and show both sides that the other side may have valid input, even if one doesn't agree with the other.

Williamkaede wrote: I guess if I had to make it snappy, I'd go for something like;

Do good and look good doing it.
Do no harm but take no crap.

Honestly when I read this I found it lacking. The first sentence seems an ego trip and the second sentence seems a contradiction. How do you do no harm? Especially if you take no crap?