Arms in flags / Another island principle
A flag is like a building block: Each person sees the flag and identifies oneself with it – in a friendly way if it is one's own nation and with some distance and maybe also maliciousness if it isn't. One tries to see the ideals and ideas, the building blocks in the flag, in everything in the nation in question and partly for comparison and for trying the ideas in other nations too. Different people see different possibilities of application but in any case there are many of them. The flag has so become a part of the vocabulary with which we perceive the world. It has become a part of the structures into which we force our environment. What there is in the flag, we will find in the solutions which we use in the world. So it is not good to have arms in flags. Arms lead to conflicts and war. They are not the solutions but just tools to be used with great care. Instead I would suggest the following: a model of what a healthy end result would be like, so that people would learn to see solutions instead of creating problems to be "solved" by the force of arms. A good end result would be something like a peaceful strong happy animal on a flourishing meadow island where it can live in peace, harmony and happiness and be strong enough to protect its life and the island if needed.
Compared to the arms in flags, the animal on an island formed by its living space, as a symbol would give: an increased will to defend the country since the reasons for war would be more obvious and understandable (the protection of one's living requirements), more peaceful relations to other countries, since it would be easier to understand their needs too and not needed to look aggressive outside the things to defend, an understanding of the dynamics of war (what people defend and why and what not) and peace time (the ground for each thing and the society agreement) easily for all, an optimised use of forces for the good of the nation, its citizens and even the world at large, and a holistic picture of things.
These thoughts were rised by the civil war in the buddhist Sri Lanka, but they apply to also other countries with arms on their flags, like to the war flag of my homecountry Finland. I would also be for rounder starts in flags: not so army like but instead like the happy healthy animal, like a small sun.
Hannele Tervola, Finland, EU
Some more thoughts about the animal on an island:
* It can be used to problem solving: build on the fruitful islands so you will get the quickest result and use all options to the most.
* It can be used to moral and to the optimisation of the forces: see the society agreement as an optimisation method. You have at the same time gained easily understandable grounds for moral for all.
* It can be used to increase intelligence: things in the reality come in islands of natural shapes and not in theoretical blocks, so you could perhaps learn to refer to the experienced reality in your thoughts. This could be good for buddhist understanding too and make your thoughts more exact. You could also think of the island as a nature landscape and so train your perception ability which is in my opinion a ground for the ability to think complex thoughts. The animal on the island is a healthy natural whole and it forms a healthy natural whole with its living environment, so you could also refer to some of the ideas in my thoughts a´here on my intrenetpages about happiness, moral, health and working ability etc!
* One might think that the island can refer to a written word and the animal to the meaning of the word, to the piece of the reality that the word refers to. - Or the other way around: after all, the reality is primary and it having some constant features allows us to refer to those by words and thoughts which are fed and supported by the reality's strong ground.
* You can put conflicting parties to different islands and let them be in harmony as far as they cooperate, otherwise independent. Very well cooperating ones form a healthy natural unified whole where the arrangements are such that each one would at their own choose likewise. This should mean justice while respecting human values - see my pages here for the value of that rule for all parties.
The best thing here is that these are all positive things for those having the symbol and OK for others too and that it is quite difficult to build unconstructive solutions from these healthy building parts and/or end results as a healthy strong happy peaceful (female?) animal on an island of its living environment which it is capable of defending.
Links
The society agreement
Thinking ability and flags
My two rabbits and problem solving with the island principle
My Favorite Things About Angelfire
Email: KaisaHanneleTervola@webinfo.fi
