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A wild web of competing interests
When babies are born, they breathe. They cry for their mothers. They sleep.
They don't do this for no reason - it's in their interests.
If no one was interested in doing anything, then nothing would ever happen. No one would ever even move.
If Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb, then we would be all asleep at 7pm. If Karl Benz didn’t make the first car, we would be still using horses to get everywhere, and more importantly, Mercedes-Benz wouldn’t exist. If Tim-Burner’s Lee didn’t invent the web, then you wouldn’t be reading what you are right now.
Interests can bring marvels, but they can also bring horror.
Many wars have been powered by interests - much great suffering to humanity.
Interests are a fact. They are observable. Interests range in type. Good, Bad and the Ugly.
Meeting with many organisations, companies and people since my Filter-Saga in August, I have experienced interests in their wildest of contexts. I have learnt some fundamental principles we must all apply to some certain scenarios.
In many cases, people's interests are far different than from what people say they are.
But why is this relevant to us? Well, interests really do affect us all. Politics and business are where they stand out the most.
To ensure we are an informed and measured society, we need to apply a little more thought to some matters.
Most situations are completely transparent and we unconsciously recognise motivation for actions. But sometimes things are fishy. Sometimes things are different.
What we need to do is:
1) Never take material coming out of politics or big business at face-value;
2) Try to understand what's behind what anyone says, what the real interests of parties are; and
3) Apply what their interests are to actions that take place, in order to decipher what these actions are really meant to achieve;
In politics, everything is aimed at achieving something. As long as we know what it is meant to achieve, then we can interpret it in an informed and measured form.
Tom Wood is the 16 year old who bypassed the Federal Government supplied $84 Million Internet Porn Filter. He watches ABC's Lateline religiously, and loves watching politicians fight like schoolboy's and twist scenario's into whatever they like. He blogs at http://thewoodverdict.blogspot.com
