Values by Hofstede

"Values are among the first things children learn–not consciously, but implicitly [...] by the age of 10, most children have their basic value system firmly in place, and after that age, changes are difficult to make. Because they were acquired so early in our lives, many values remain unconscious to those who hold them. Therefore they cannot be discussed, nor can they be directly observed by outsiders. They can only be inferred from the way people act under various circumstances."

Spiritual Capital: wealth we can live by

Another great book that inspired my view of the world, is a book written by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall "Spiritual Capital: wealth we can live by"

A few quotes from there while I am reading this book:

"If things go wrong in the world, this is because something is wrong with the individual, because something is wrong with me. Therefore, if I am sensible, I shall put myself right first...In the last analysis, the essential thing is the life of the individual. This alone makes history, here alone do the great transformations just take place, and the whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately spring as a gigantic summation from these hidden sources in individuals. In our most private and most subjective lives we are not only the passive witnesses of our age, its sufferers, but also its makers/ We make our own epoch". Last words by Carl Jung that Zanah quotes at the beginning of the book, inspired her to write this book.

She says "They underpin its central theme, that if enough of us change ourselves, we can thereby change the world. I began the task on myself by putting aside my gloomy inactivity and its associated avoidance mechanisms and getting myself back into in a state to write."

Consequently, these words of hers inspired me to write in due course. I believe that through writing we can bring the message across the world. This is a century that is the beginning of something good, we have a help of new technology that helps us to target millions of people to bring awareness of global issues. I see a lot of potential in uniting our strengths and making a change for our world to be a better place.

Politics and Communication: Majid Tehranian

Book Title: Global Communication and World Politics
Author: Majid Tehranian

Majid Tehranian starts her book with a quote by Lao-tzu from Tao Te Ching (Chapter 29):

Those who would take over the earth
And shape it to their will
Never, I notice, succeed. The earth is like a vessel so sacred
That at the mere approach of the profane
It is marred
And when they reach out their fingers it is gone.

This book have great intentions and I share a lot of values and ideas with the author. A few quotes from this book will follow.

"Communication can act as a process of free and equal exchange of meaning, development of epistemic communities, and advancement of social solidarity, and hence of peace and harmony among individuals and nations [...] communication can also systematically distort perceptions by creating phantom enemies, manufacturing consent for wars of aggression while stereotyping and targeting particular ethnic groups or nations into subhuman categories. Communication empowers, but it empowers more those with greater competence and access to the means of communication. The ethical choice in communication is therefore focused on whether the communicator is aiming towards power-free understanding or systematic distortions and powerful manipulations (Habermas 1983)