"Universal truths"?

[independentchristian]

Are there any "universal truths" that a majority of people from all walks of life, all ethnic groups, and all religious beliefs, share that the Democrats can put at the core of their plaform/rhetoric?

I'm saying things like, for example, "loving your children and wanting to provide for them"?

I'm asking.

Are there any "values", I call them, "universal truths," that you all think most people believe in no matter their religious beliefs or the culture they live in?

Topics are, but not limited to, work, family, children, love, security, etc.

List some.

[Bluebear]

1. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal

I would love to see Democrats stress that important idea. :)

[heidler1]

2. Wouldn't it be great if that was true.

The sentence needs a qualifier like In the eyes of the law or if you believe in God in the eyes of God. There is no way that the Democrats can say even that the criminally insane have a right to vote for instance. The song of the NCLB is based on the false notion that everyone can learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic if they have good parents, good teachers, good schools, small class sizes, good nutrition and etc. This is a lie.
Questioning this desired view is a lot like what happened to the recent trouble the Harvard Prof. got into for suggesting women's brains might be a tad different.

[CindyDale]

4. Not sure what you mean by some of this, but

actually, everyone except a very tiny fraction of the population (way less than one percent) should be able to learn at least basic academic skills.

[heidler1]

14. Acording to MHO and this link there are 8.9% with an IQ below 80.

The link shows that they are generally unemployable, this is sad, but to deal with problems we must face facts.

http://iq-test.learninginfo.org/iq04.htm

IQ stands for intelligence quotient. Supposedly, it is a score that tells one how “bright” a person is compared to other people. The average IQ is by definition 100; scores above 100 indicate a higher than average IQ and scores below 100 indicate a lower that average IQ. Theoretically, scores can range any amount below or above 100, but in practice they do not meaningfully go much below 50 or above 150.

Half of the population have IQ’s of between 90 and 110, while 25% have higher IQ’s and 25% have lower IQ’s:

Descriptive Classifications of Intelligence Quotients

IQ Description % of Population
130+ Very superior 2.2%
120-129 Superior 6.7%
110-119 High average 16.1%
90-109 Average 50%
80-89 Low average 16.1%
70-79 Borderline 6.7%
Below 70 Extremely low 2.2%

Apparently, the IQ gives a good indication of the occupational group that a person will end up in, though not of course the specific occupation. In their book, Know Your Child’s IQ, Glen Wilson and Diana Grylls outline occupations typical of various IQ levels:

140 Top Civil Servants; Professors and Research Scientists.
130 Physicians and Surgeons; Lawyers; Engineers (Civil and Mechanical)
120 School Teachers; Pharmacists; Accountants; Nurses; Stenographers; Managers.
110 Foremen; Clerks; Telephone Operators; Salesmen; Policemen; Electricians.
100+ Machine Operators; Shopkeepers; Butchers; Welders; Sheet Metal Workers.
100- Warehousemen; Carpenters; Cooks and Bakers; Small Farmers; Truck and Van Drivers.
90 Laborers; Gardeners; Upholsterers; Farmhands; Miners; Factory Packers and Sorters.

[CindyDale]

18. Students between 50 and 70 can learn basic skills

up to the upper elementary level and even below 50 many can learn lower elementary level skills. That's how I came up with my less than one percent.

In fact, it's not completely unheard of for students between 50 and 70 to pass the required standardized tests for high school graduation. Some people can function higher than their IQ results would lead you to expect.

[heidler1]

19. What is your definition of basic academic skills?

I hope many of them can learn how to live independently. As to being of value in a work environment, it would take a very patient employer. I tried hiring one and I couldn't handle it.

[CindyDale]

21. The upper elementary level would be 4th to 5th grade levels

Most of these kids can get jobs by the time they are in high school, and many of them do work by that age. They work in hospitality and grocery industries, for example, around here. Those with mild mental retardation (developmental disability with IQ between 50 and 70) can generally live independently and are taught life skills as well as academic skills. For example, here in Florida, a career and independent living course is required at the high school level. You can't really even tell that most of these people have a disability; the ones we perceive as having a disability usually have IQs below 50.

I think a lot depends on how much is put into the person in terms of education and training. Learning slowly doesn't mean one can't learn.

I once knew someone who worked in a jewelry factory (doing rather difficult skilled work). She actually completed a college program, but depreciated this, saying she had to have tutoring the whole way through. Personally, I think it was an amazing accomplishment--what's wrong with tutoring? Fortunately, her family was able to pay for all of this. She had studied jewelry design and made and sold jewelry besides her factory job. Jewelry design was what she actually wanted to do, but she felt she wasn't hired for those positions because her disability was obvious during interviews. She had some difficulty with speech. She did live independently, though, and I thought she did great. It's an example of what someone can do when the resources are there.

[CindyDale]

3. Here is a page with a couple of tables that list some universal values

http://www.teachingvalues.com/quotes.html

[leftofthedial]

5. truth and reality have become irrelevant

people believe whatever is convenient for them to believe and insist that the world conform to these beliefs

then, when folks like us say, yeah, but look at reality, or look at the truth

it just pisses them off, they blame us and they vote for ever more ridiculous and destructive pukes.

we can only win by telling them the LIES they want to hear, not the TRUTH they don't respect

[Nimrod]

6. Sadly, I don't think there are any

At least not anymore. Any universal truths that might have existed have been corrupted and twisted until they are pretty much unusable.

Loving your children and wanting to provide for them... Only if they're not gay.

All men are created equal... Only if they're not gay, brown, female, or poor.

Peace on earth... Well, we've seen how well THAT one works. Peace is bad for TV ratings.

[deutsey]

7. George Lakoff's take on moral values

SNIP

We came together because of our moral values: care and responsibility, fairness and equality, freedom and courage, fulfillment in life, opportunity and community, cooperation and trust, honesty and openness. We united behind political principles: equality, equity (if you work for a living, you should earn a living) and government for the people--all the people.

These are traditional American values and principles, what we are proudest of in this country.

More...

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041206&s=lakoff

[kk897]

13. that's a little problem I have with Lakoff...

...while I admire most of his work, he seems to want to frame things extremely *vaguely*. I mean, really, what does "freedom" mean? It seems to mean very different things to, say, you and me and to Bush and Cheney (and another thing still to Janis Joplin/Kris Kristofferson).

Courage? Responsibility? Fairness? each one is such a nebulous term that can be twisted to suit any twisted mind. Give me something specific.

"Don't lie." That's a good start.

I dunno, though--maybe I'm overthinking it.

[deutsey]

17. Valid criticism

Although trying to put specificity to vague values has challenged human beings for centuries.

"What is truth?" Pilate supposedly asks Jesus, and Jesus does not answer.

"What is the good life?" Socrates asks, and Plato spends the rest of his life exploring what it is.

And so on.

I like that Lakoff is at least identifying the values that have always been associated with the Left in America. Now the challenge for us on the Left, the challenge that confronts each generation, is to answer: What do these values really mean to us today?

We have to question what these values, these words, really mean to us individually AND collectively. We have to work together to find common-ground answers to these questions, and then we have act together to translate these answers into reality.

That's more difficult than having Rush Limbaugh spew out a bunch a moralistic platitudes, but then again saying "Ditto", while easy too, ultimately accomplishes nothing.

[SCDem]

8. Sermon at my Unitarian Universalist church was about this this week

Commonality in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Native American Heritage was passages about our feelings of self doubt. And when we're at that place that we think others have it all together.

The difference lies in the fact that all of these religions or whatever then offer a magic bullet... but believe in Jesus and you will be saved from this or buy this self help book and never again. There is no vaccination against self doubt and no drug... we are carriers and we are all infected at some time.

Maybe the answer is to struggle through and be stronger when it happens down the line next time.

[KittyWampus]

9. The Importance Of Vision- Looking & Planning Ahead.Seeing Big Picture

[PaganPreacher]

10. Here are a few Universal Truths:

1. Gravity is a harsh mistress.

2. The only alternative to getting older is dying; sometimes getting older isn't so bad.

3. The speed of light is not an ultimate: checks written before payday clear the bank at a speed faster than light.

4. Your car windows are not opaque: if you pick your nose while you drive, someone will see you.

5. Interdimensional wormholes are real. The beings on the other side use them to take money from our wallets and purses.

6. Dogs are selectively deaf, and selectively stupid. Cats just ignore us, because they can.

7. The harder we try to avoid embarassment, the more likely we are to do something embarassing.

8. There is no "I" in wisdom...... OK,there is an "I" in wisdom, but there is no "u." That tells us something.

The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

[SpaceBuddy008]

11. i believe this document is a 'gateWAY'

History and anthropology teach us that a human society cannot long survive unless its members are psychologically contained within a central living myth. Such a myth provides the individual with a reason for being.
--Edward Edinger, The Creation of Consciousness,
Jung's Myth for Modern Man, 1984, p.9

This is a timely and exciting book. Using religious and alchemical texts, mythology, modern dreams, and the concepts of depth psychology, the author proposes nothing less than a new world-view -- a creative collaboration between the scientific pursuit of knowledge and the religious search for meaning.
"Religion is based on Eros, science on Logos. Religion sought linkage with God, science sought knowledge. The age now dawning seeks linked knowledge.
The first chapter traces the outlines of a "new myth" emerging from the life and work of the Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung -- not another religion in competition with all the others, but rather a psychological standpoint from which to understand and verify the essential meaning of every religion.



Such a new myth can serve to resurrect our human family from the apparent ashes and darkness that, on the manifest level, we appear to be evermore attracted to. Instances of human activities are listed in the latter half that signify experiences lived in awareness that augments the sum total of consciousness in the uni verse. Such a fact of the creation of more consciousness provides, as Edinger explains, a tangible "meaning for every experience and gives each individual a role in the on-going world-drama of creation."

The New Myth For Our Species:
The Creation of Consciousness

http://www.ratical.org/ratitorsCorner/09.22.01.html

peace! OUT....grasshopper

[HootieMcBoob]

12. Lou Reed claims one universal truth in "street hassle"

But when someone turns that blue
Well, it’s a universal truth
And then you just know ...

you can check out the lyrics yourself to find out what the real universal truth is: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/lou-reed/85288.html

[heidler1]

15. Mankind is in capable of dreaming up even one good lie.

Sure I lie anyway, but it never turns out for the better, even if I'm the only one who knows it's a lie.

[ieoeja]

16. No

I seriously doubt if you could find any one thing on which every person would agree.

[BeFree]

20. Rapture ?

Leave the world in a better shape than the shape you found it.

[markus]

22. Roosevelt in 1941

The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding straight of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.



* * *
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.