In reference to Ayn Rand and her statements about Mankind's Highest Value being that of Survival, I am, I guess, quite cynical in that I believe that Mankind is on its way to non-survival: that is, that Mankind [currently
Homo sapiens] will soon die out, like the dinosaurs and the species
Homo erectus that preceded us. The growing ozone hole; square miles of Alaskan tundra thawing each day; the poisons in our oceans and rivers and bodies; the poisons in our society; the burning of the 'lungs of the Earth', the Amazon rain-forest; the death of coral reefs around the planet; the freaky weather all are demonstrations that the current path of Mankind is leading to an unconscious self-destruction. The Culture Structure that is supposed to ensure our survival is instead pointed directly to species suicide.
I say that the very survival of this species that you and I belong to requires of us all an extraordinary effort that is not now being generated, at least not inside the Culture Structure. This species must bring into use the 90% of the human brain that lies fallow in unconsciousness; the species must direct major effort toward overcoming the existing mess ecologically, economically, ontologically; increasing numbers of members of Mankind must develop new personal skills to prevent our predictable future, which is non-survival.
There is Something inherent in the unused and unfulfilled potential of this species, possibly to take shape as a new species [which I designate
Homo cogitus: Reasoning Man], and we
must bring forth that Something or else the cetaceans will be left as rulers of the planet.
The intention of my book "Working Minds: A Philosophy of Empowerment" is to reach and enroll one reader at a time into individual and active concern for the terrible urgency of the modern situation, so that eventually folks with developing and mature Working Minds will find themselves working in concert, working together as individuals to generate Empowerment, to fulfill each individual's potential, so that Mankind can fulfill its dormant potential without which Mankind will not indeed survive.
Said another way, Mankind will not survive by complacency, by half-heartedly attempting the survival of our present institutions; Mankind must fulfill its potential great numbers of individuals must do so, in many and various forms or Mankind will simply die out.
And you the reader and you members of We The Living and other Objectivist groups must take this on, and pass the urgency on to others, or Mankind has no future.
[copyright 1999 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
The preceding is an excerpt from Chapter One of my forthcoming book, "Working Minds: A Philosophy of Empowerment", which
excerpt is also posted on the Working Minds website.
1) Bookmark the Working Minds website:
http://www.working-minds.com/index.htm
2) Forward this e-mail to anyone with a philosophical bent.
3) Participate URGENTLY in a philosophical webring:
http://www.working-minds.com/ringpage.htm
4) Recycle.
5) Sell your television set/s.
6) Vote in every election.
7) Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.
8) Buckle up!
WMail #2: "The Culture Structure vs. Granola"
(from WM Chapter 22)
[August/September 2000]
"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself."
Albert Camus [1913-60]
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" G R A N O L A "
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Another observed Distinction is the way that the Culture-Structure is designed to keep the citizenry 'fat and happy'. I think the latest statistic is that half of the population in America is ten or more pounds [five kilograms] overweight.
Is this intentional? Maybe: All those pudgy people have to buy gym clothes and gym memberships and home exercise machines that don't get used, and also buy book after book on diets that never work because they don't address the actual problem, which is Values. The three most popular non-fiction genres are: 1) general self-improvement; 2) cookbooks; and 3) diet books. Weight Watchers and Overeaters Anonymous certainly depend on there being lots of chubby folk.
But I do not think that there is some unholy conspiracy here either. There was no meeting on a yacht in some obscure corner of the Caribbean where 'They' decided that armies of obese people were a benefit to the Culture-Structure. Didn't happen.
Not a conspiracy: Just a bunch of individual corporate executives making dis-empowering decisions under the advice of their personal False Minds, as designed and implemented over time by the Culture-Structure.
Case in point: Back in the 1960's, hippies and health freaks and fellow travelers discovered the [supposed] benefits of wheat germ and unsalted nuts and soy anything, so that the use and availability of 'trail mix' varying mixtures of oats and nuts and dried fruit for the use of back-packers; also called 'gorp' became all the rage.
Then corporate America saw a new product that they could take control of. The health food industry produced and packaged 'power bars' made of granola, which are still available. But what was noticeable to the objective observation of the itinerant Working Mind was the following progression: simple granola bars had more options added almonds, walnuts, coconut; then chocolate chips were added; then caramel, then marshmallows; then chocolate and carob or strawberry candy on the outside. Still called granola bars. But with three times the calories and lots of added fat. And the latest 'improvement' is Butterfinger and Snickers branded granola 'health' bars.
The Culture-Structure blurs the Distinction between health food and candy, pandering to the fat and sweet-tooth fixations of America and of developing countries influenced by us and our media. The intention is that healthy citizens are of no benefit, you can't charge people for being healthy, only for being unhealthy by providing some worthless solution, and if that doesn't work you should try another.
Sugar-blissed and overweight couch potatoes present no threat to the Culture-Structure. The same kind of process occurs in education and in entertainment and in politics: sugar-coated material displaces the fitness mental, physical, medical, organizational, societal that is absolutely necessary for the fulfillment of Mankind's potential, and without which Mankind will revert to its worst: uneducated, uncommitted, self-destructive, complacent sheep tippy-toeing to the slaughter.
Mankind will ascend the proverbial mountain and fulfill Higher Values, or hedonism, greed, gratification, sloth, and violence will triumph.
* * * * You owe it to yourself, to your children and grandchildren, and to future generations to Will into existence the Values that counteract the Culture-Structure-led slide into the abyss.
The Distinction that is here presented is 'Direction'. There is a Here and a There; there is movement from Here to There [the future] or from There to Here [the past]. Part of your job as a Working Mind is to detect the Direction of things that occur in the Objective World. The movement from health food into candy is visible,
if you are looking; the movement from actual learning to status quo education to dubious child care (as the official purpose of our school systems) is visible,
if you are looking; the movement from heroes in our culture to celebrities is visible, again,
only if you are looking. And yet so very few of us see these Directions, and even less do anything about it.
When the Working Mind Distinguishes the Direction of cultural movement, the aware individual the individual with a Working Mind can then determine whether his/her participation in such activity will Empower or dis-empower. This never-ending existential and objective Choice is necessary for the fulfillment of Mankind's Highest Value.
[copyright 1999 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
The preceding is an excerpt from Chapter 22 of the forthcoming "Working Minds: A Philosophy of Empowerment", which
excerpt is also posted on the Working Minds website.
1) Bookmark the Working Minds website:
http://www.working-minds.com/index.htm
2) Forward this e-mail to anyone with a philosophical bent.
3) Participate URGENTLY in philosophical webrings:
http://www.working-minds.com/ringpage
4) Spend an afternoon at a museum with a friend.
5) Write a letter to a Congress-person or State official, and really let'em have it as long as you empower.
6) Start a practice of hugging people.
7) Recycle some more.
WMail #3: "John Galt vs. George Dubya"
[October 2000]
"Nothing is required for the triumph of evil but that good men do nothing."
quoted by John F. Kennedy [1917-63], often attributed to
Edmund Burke, but actual origin unknown
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" M E E T T H E N E W J O H N G A L T "
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I am John Galt!
Some of you are John Galt.
Whosoever leads their life, to whatever extent, after the principles espoused by Ayn Rand thru the fictional character John Galt [in
for more details on the novel and the 3-part movie, see
'Atlas Shrugged'], that person embodies the qualities that John Galt represents.
We are John Galt!
JOHN GALT'S OATH:
The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath: I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.
[copyright 2000 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
The preceding is posted on the "Working Minds" website.
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M O R E E D I T O R I A L C O N T E N T
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Until some Objectivist political party arises in America [the Libertarians do not qualify], we are stuck with the Republicrats. While the Green Party is worthy, and may reach Third Party status over time, that does little for the 2000 Presidential Election. ('Tis a shame that Al Gore did not pick Ralph Nader for Veep: maybe in 2004.)
In any case, the predictable consequences of a Republican Party win in November 2000 are indeed most dire. Anyone who votes for George Dubya in November must bear the shame of that act, though all U.S. citizens and residents will bear the consequences. Those predictable consequences include:
1) Multifold increase in the U.S. National Debt: the Reagan-Bush administration QUADRUPLED the National Debt, such that the individual share of that debt owed by each American citizen today is $20,000. That is for each and every man, woman and child in America. Reagan-Bush spent it; you owe it. You STILL owe it.
2) Bill Clinton slowed the increase of the National Debt from 400% during Reagan-Bush to 25% in his first term; his second term produced a Balanced Budget and a Surplus to be used to pay off the Reagan-Bush piracy.
But the Republicans feel entitled to give away another TWO TRILLION DOLLARS in the form of a bogus 'Marriage Penalty Rebate', to couples earning over $100,000 per year, as if they actually need it. Folks earning less than $100,000 per year were never intended to see a dime of that vote-buying rebate, and luckily President Clinton vetoed it.
A Republican President in combination with a Republican Congress will be free to slice off more pieces of the pie for themselves at the expense of average taxpayers and the economy [see #3].
3) One or more recessions, such as occured in 1984 and 1992.
4) Union busting: Reagan's first major act in office was to bust the air traffic controller's union; George Dubya has already broken his promise to film campaign commercials under S.A.G. union rules, so expect any pending union strike to fall apart soon after the new President is elected, unless that President is a Democrat.
5) Deregulation of the petroleum cartel: They bought George Dubya and he will do them immense favors, with no qualms.
6) George Dubya now holds the all-time record for the most corporate donations received in a Presidential campaign: see #5.
7) The G.O.P. Presidential Campaign has been blatently infringing the copyrights of at least three rock'n'roll songs, using them without permission or payment even after complaints from the artists and-or their managers: Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", Sting's "Brand New Day", and John Mellancamp's "Rock in the U.S.A.". George Dubya is an arrogant Texan, and his wants override even Constitutional law.
* * * *
And every eligible voter who DOES NOT vote will also bear a burden of shame,
whoever wins in November 2000.
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana [1863-1952]
[copyright 2000 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
1) Visit and-or bookmark the Working Minds website:
http://www.working-minds.com/index.htm
2) Forward this e-mail to anyone with a philosophical bent.
3) Participate URGENTLY in the Existentialism & Objectivism & Philosophy webrings:
http://www.working-minds.com/ringpage
4) Take a look at previous issues at http://www.working-minds.com/WM2000.htm
5) There may still be time to REGISTER TO VOTE [different by state], so do so
and then VOTE come November 7th!!
click here for National Registration info or here for FAQs
[TOO LATE?: register anyway for next time around...]
6) Teach someone to read, young or old, and-or donate books or "Sesame Street" videos to a local school or library.
7) Take a course in Landmark Education's revolutionary 'Curriculum For Living':
http://www.LandmarkWorldwide.com
WMail #4: "The Distinction Bachelor"
(from WM Chapter 22)
[November 2000]
"Question everything."
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg [1742-99]
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T h e D i s t i n c t i o n 'B A C H E L O R'
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NOTE: This essay was later published in the Cal State Fullerton Sociology Department's
online ezine "Journal of Mundane Behavior" (edited by Scott Schaffer) in the 'Outburst'
opinion column. I am honored to be published in their September 2001 issue!
This is an example of the inherent Power of a simple, everyday Distinction that you have never considered to be a key means for the Culture-Structure's enforcement of the status quo.
The forms that you fill out for anything and everything usually have a section labeled 'Marital Status' or some such, with a Distinction Set for you to choose from: check or X the appropriate box. The standard choices given are always 'Single', Married', 'Divorced, and 'Separated'.
Those are all the choices that the Culture-Structure allows: no box for 'Other', no write-in category. If you do not fit readily into the four given categories of this Distinction Set, then you are a problem to the Culture-Structure: You won't get the job or credit or loan that you are applying for, because you are strange, you do not conform to the acceptable givens.
Now, my present lifestyle is that of 'Bachelor'. I was Married; the divorce happened; but I do not live inside of Divorced no grudges, no kids to swap around on weekends so that that Culture-Structure-approved category does not reflect who I am or what I do. So I chortle and write-in 'Bachelor' on the form, and put an X next to it, and the form-shufflers can have an anxiety attack because I chose something outside their sacred routine.
Your False Mind is nattering at most of you this very moment because I say that I am a presently a Bachelor. "Oh, this author couldn't..." or any other such denial is par for the course from every False Mind. C'mon, what do you really care if Bachelors exist, except as a reaction to an imaginary threat to the Culture-Structure, which wants everyone to conform to A and B and C only.
You will get no defense of Bachelorhood from me. I don't even have to cite the grand tradition of the Norwegian Bachelor Farmers as popularized by Garrison Keillor on the Prairie Home Companion radio show. As Popeye the Sailor Man always said: "I yam what I yam." [Thanks, Popeye. Very Zen of you.] That is all that need be said on the subject.
When your False Mind gets all excited about any such issue, there is only one powerful response: To laugh out loud. When you can laugh at the blatherings of your False Mind, then you will have reached the Seventh Step on the Path to establishing your Working Mind. Ignore your False Mind, on this and other matters.
* * * * The given pseudo-choices of the 'Marriage Status' Distinction Set ignores and thus dis-empowers Widows and Widowers too; while that is an accepted lifestyle category within the Culture-Structure, it is usually sidestepped. Nor is the category 'Single Parent' given to you on such forms: Best hide the shameful fact and check a box that is not true. And the Culture-Structure certainly doesn't want to deal with 'Life Partners', such as applies to committed relationships in the homosexual community.
Jack Smith, the late columnist for the
Los Angeles Times, played around with the term 'POSSLQ' over many columns. He discovered the abbreviation for 'Persons of the Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters' in use by the Census Bureau, and tried to use it to introduce people at parties and such. But he ended up having to explain what the damn term meant each time, and got all embarrassed because of the common reaction to the fact that the couple in question was living together and not married for shame, for shame!
There is no other term for such a lifestyle arrangement in English lovers? paramours? shacked up together? and Jack's columns on the subject, though syndicated and widely read, never got the term 'posslq' [pronounced 'possel-cue'] into popular usage, try as he might.
Where the Culture-Structure is, if there is no little box, no acceptable or in-use term, then any exception to the given choices becomes an Outright Problem. There are four [only!] approved forms of Marital Status in this Western Culture-Structure, and don't you dare be part of any exceptional category, or the Culture-Structure will make it very clear to everyone that You Do Not Belong.
And the boxes for Professional Status Self-Employed, Retired, Student, Employed Part-Time, etc very seldom include Housewife, and never, never will you see the option House-Husband.
* * * *
If you happen to be a conscientious objector in the Relationship Wars, you are made to feel an outcast. There is constant pressure by the Culture-Structure to conform, to pair up unless you are homosexual or bisexual and then to stand before the magistrate or the clergy-person and sanctify your marriage.
Lots of birds and mammals and even crustaceans mate for life, no ceremony or license required. But Mankind, thru the Culture-Structure and the False Mind, insist that you find an official partner with little Free Choice on who your partner might be and then you must get a license and have the Culture-Structure approve and certify the existence of your Relationship. The Power to make this important Choice is taken from you, because those before you gave that Power away, and your 'education' does not include any options outside the officially-sanctioned.
I liked being married; right now I am a Bachelor; when I locate an empowering Relationship, I will participate in that Relationship with every skill and ability that I possess {see Chapter 28}.
The little boxes on the sacred forms of the Culture-Structure will not limit the options that are available to me; likewise your mature Working Mind will operate inside the Distinctions that are real and present in Life, and ignore the limitations enforced by the Culture-Structure that are designed to dis-empower you.
* * * *
You that are human resources professionals, or who are executives that oversee h/r professionals, or the departments that deisgn forms, can step out there and alter this aspect of society, as part of the actions you take to demonstrate the existence of your developing Working Mind. The next time that you order new application forms for your company, add 'Bachelor' and 'Widow/er' and 'Single parent' and even 'Housewife/Househusband' to the appropriate block.
This will likely start a minor fight, from the brain-dead defenders of the status quo. But that is perfect: You can take this minor Stand and practice not giving an inch to the opposition. You don't need to give a reason, just exercise your Power in the matter. This will keep the Forces of Endarkenment occupied trying to deny Empowerment, which will divert their energies to the suppression of chickensh**.
You other growing Working Minds can devise a similar project, related to your field, wherein you add dis-approved categories to the mix, the doing of which empowers the disenfranchised: Make sure that the mail is delivered or sent on time; get the turn signals on the company vehicles working properly; make sure that the french-fries are warm and fresh at all times; write your Congressperson or somebody and tell them something empowering; donate a magazine subscription to your local library, in your name or that of your company; bring sushi to a potluck affair; institute No Tie Day at your company...
The essence of Empowerment is Action; the Culture-Structure wants ignorance and incompetence and delay. Stand in Silence and think of an empowering Action and employ that Action, then stand back and watch the shark-like frenzy of the knee-jerk opposition. Where there is not opposition but support for your Action, then you will quickly accomplish your Action, and can move on to another. You may also find a source of support, one person among the more common opposition, in which case you may have found a fellow Working Mind, however that person may have reached that state.
[copyright 2000 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
The preceding is an excerpt from Chapter 22 of the forthcoming "Working Minds: A Philosophy of Empowerment", which excerpt is also posted on the Working Minds website.
1) Visit and-or bookmark the Working Minds website:
http://www.working-minds.com/index.htm
2) Forward this e-mail to anyone with a philosophical bent.
3) Participate in the Existentialism & Objectivism & Philosophy webrings:
http://www.working-minds.com/ringpage
4) Take a look at previous issues at http://www.working-minds.com/WM2000.htm
5) Since the Western U.S. has had SIX MILLION ACRES of forest burn away this
Summer, this ought to be a good time to invest in tree farms.
6) However the U.S. Presidential Election turned out, if you DID NOT VOTE
then YOU are a jerk [non-U.S.-citizens and convicted felons are excepted].
But even jerks should vote, so register for next time around anyway...
click here for National Registration info or here for FAQs
WMail #5: Mini-version of the John Galt Speech
[December 2000]
"Religion is a primitive form of philosophy,
[the] attempt to offer a comprehensive view of reality."
Ayn Rand [1905-82] ["The Objectivist" February 1966,
reprinted in "The Romantic Manifesto"]
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w e b s i t e a n n o u n c e m e n t
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The new and PERMANENT Working Minds WEBSITE is up and running now
at
http://www.working-minds.com [note the dash!]
Improvements include the removal of ads, leaving only
reciprocal links and other philosophical content.
[Many thanks to Isaac at website host www.ICCAS.com {website dead since 2004} for his help.]
And just when the above work was finished, philosophers.net put a
notice on their homepage that they are closing the site!
(No reason given.)
So all the WM email addresses had to be changed, to
WorkingMinds [at] email.com =OR= GENordell [at] working-minds.com
with notification to webrings & ezine directories & Listserv groups
& such still to be done. [At least I have the draft version of the
"EARL: the addURL expert" website to re-notify search engines.]
BE SURE TO modify your bookmarks
and address book
and-or links to the WM site.
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J O H N G A L T ' S S P E E C H [mini-version]
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For twelve years you've been asking "Who is John Galt?" This is John Galt speaking. I'm the man who's taken away your victims and thus destroyed your world. You've heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis and that Man's sins are destroying the world. But your chief virtue has been sacrifice, and you've demanded more sacrifices at every disaster. You've sacrificed justice to mercy and happiness to duty. So why should you be afraid of the world around you?
Your world is only the product of your sacrifices. While you were dragging the men who made your happiness possible to your sacrificial altars, I beat you to it. I reached them first and told them about the game you were playing and where it would take them. I explained the consequences of your 'brother-love' morality, which they had been too innocently generous to understand. You won't find them now, when you need them more than ever.
We're on strike against your creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. If you want to know how I made them quit, I told them exactly what I'm telling you tonight. I taught them the morality of Reason that it was right to pursue one's own happiness as one's principal goal in life. I don't consider the pleasure of others my goal in life, nor do I consider my pleasure the goal of anyone else's life.
I am a trader. I earn what I get in trade for what I produce. I ask for nothing more or nothing less than what I earn. That is justice. I don't force anyone to trade with me; I only trade for mutual benefit. Force is the great evil that has no place in a rational world. One may never force another human to act against his/her judgment. If you deny a man's right to Reason, you must also deny your right to your own judgment. Yet you have allowed your world to be run by means of force, by men who claim that fear and joy are equal incentives, but that fear and force are more practical.
You've allowed such men to occupy positions of power in your world by preaching that all men are evil from the moment they're born. When men believe this, they see nothing wrong in acting in any way they please. The name of this absurdity is 'original sin'. That's impossible. That which is outside the possibility of choice is also outside the province of morality. To call sin that which is outside man's choice is a mockery of justice. To say that men are born with a free will but with a tendency toward evil is ridiculous. If the tendency is one of choice, it doesn't come at birth. If it is not a tendency of choice, then man's will is not free.
And then there's your 'brother-love' morality. Why is it moral to serve others, but not yourself? If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but not by you? Why is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself, when it is moral for others who haven't earned it to accept it? If it's virtuous to give, isn't it then selfish to take?
Your acceptance of the code of selflessness has made you fear the man who has a dollar less than you because it makes you feel that that dollar is rightfully his. You hate the man with a dollar more than you because the dollar he's keeping is rightfully yours. Your code has made it impossible to know when to give and when to grab.
You know that you can't give away everything and starve yourself. You've forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it's your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn't built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.
Then it began apologizing for its greatness and began giving away its wealth, feeling guilty for having produced more than its neighbors. Twelve years ago, I saw what was wrong with the world and where the battle for Life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality and that my acceptance of that morality was its only power. I was the first of the men who refused to give up the pursuit of his own happiness in order to serve others.
To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.
If you've understood what I've said, stop supporting your destroyers. Don't accept their philosophy. Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance, your generosity, your innocence, and your love. Don't exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around you now. In the name of the best within you, don't sacrifice the world to those who will take away your happiness for it.
The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath: I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.
Text courtesy of Daryl J. Sroufe at http://members.aol.com/djsroufe/
[Feel free to thank him for a big job, well done at djsroufe [at] aol.com. {{last verified 11/2003}} ]
The preceding is posted on the Working Minds website
at http://www.working-minds.com/galtmini.htm.
==> Visit and-or bookmark the N E W Working Minds website:
http://www.working-minds.com/index.htm [note the dash!]
==> Forward this e-mail to anyone with a philosophical bent.
==> Participate in the Existentialism & Objectivism & Philosophy webrings:
http://www.working-minds.com/ringpage
==> Take a look at previous issues at http://www.working-minds.com/WM2000.htm
==> At Midnight on December 31st, toast "To the beginning of the Third Millennium!",
and also speak a toast "To the Fulfillment of Mankind's Potential!"
N E X T M O N T H : "How We Learn" from Chapter 14
==> CONTACT: G.E. Nordell at WorkingMinds [at] email.com
