Welcome to Gaia! ::

Perhaps this belongs in Novos Nonsense, but maybe it doesn't. Any student of philosophy, religion, psychology or sociology knows the importance of incoming world view - the set of assumptions made by a person, community, or culture in determining morals and ethics. They constitute a basis set of values upon which the rest of the overarching cultural atmosphere can be built; the world-view is the foundation upon which all of a society is built.

In light of this notion, I ask several questions:
What is the prevailing world view in the West? In the East? In the first-world? The third-world?
What is your personal world-view? How does it set your values apart from the rest of society?
What world-view (minimalistic, of course) would you propose for Novos, keeping in mind that we must embrace all cultures and societies while trying to reform them?

While I reserve judgement on several of the questions, I will share my own world-view. My mother is native-American and holds nature and compassion above all other things. My father had a deep and profound interest in science and education in general, holding knowledge to be the key to eternity. I grew up trying to fit these two world views together; after my dad died, I realised his profound interest in education as my own. I was also very poor, and started to witness firsthand the social injustice and lack of compassion my mother was seemingly trying single-handedly to reverse. It was about this time I started becoming faithful, and found the correct Path in Buddhism.

These two realms - compassion and understanding - also explain my deep love of environmental science. Empathy and reverance for Nature tell me that Nature is the root of all souls, unrivaled in beauty or power; scientific understanding tells me how I can take care of nature, so that my children and their children and so on can enjoy such spiritual renewal and revere the earth.

As such, my worldview has become one in which understanding and compassion prevail. The scientific, logical understanding imparted from my father allows me to objectively analyse the surrounding issues - the social environment - to understand the underlying problems. The compassion of my mother allows me to make decisions that (I hope) right the wrongs but do so with the utmost sense of togetherness and righteousness. I believe Buddhism to be the Path that lights my way and reconciles logical analysis with empathy and compassion. With these two abilities within my grasp - along with an overwhelming sense of urgency and social injustice - there is no problem I am not willing to face.

(Sorry for the life story, but again I believe the world-view to be of utmost importance in understanding real social issues).

World view sounds like an interesting concept, but one I do not fully understand, especially on an individual level.

It seems to be one's outlook on the rest of the world, but is it what you want the world to be, or what you see it as?

I do not have the slightest idea of why I act a certain way, or think a certain way, or feel a certain way, because it changes rapidly. Mostly, I think of myself as a support. If one of my friends is in trouble, I will do everything I can to support that person, even if it is not their wish for me to do so.

More to come as I think of it.

I belive that I killed this thread.

I know Third-World countries know practically nothing about the world around them, as the only thing they can focus on is survival. Though in the Middle East, people are obviously upset with Americans and possibly other first-world countries because of how much we consume and how much we take for granted. There's more there, but I'm on a brainfart apparently.

I hope that's somewhat what you looked for in worldview. sweatdrop

In studying history it's hard to overlook that many of the groups separated by ethnicity now, where all evolving towards similar ends. For many reasons, such as culture and environment, groups of people created their societies with different priorities and grew at different rates.
Since nothing can grow in complete isolation, many of the cultures, from the East to the West, to the West to the Americas, brought knowledge to each other, and with that the creativity that comes with seeing your world a little differently than you once did.

We are still in the modest line of homo sapiens that once left Africa 70,000 years ago, traveled the world and adapted to the many landscapes they found. That the reunions have seldom gone over well is a tragedy we are constantly striving to make up for every day.
There is also the tendency for people to feel threatened when their ideology comes into contact with others and mixes, or disappears. They don't understand that this has always been the case, but they need that sense of control. And it doesn't help when people making the changes are intolerant of those that are slow to change. We all know that pushing people too hard makes them recoil and defensive.... so that really does take patience and real kindness.

With that in mind, the most notable differences in the East and Western traditions is the focus on the collective interest and the individual interest, respectively. Not that they don't have a little of both, but they've come to value them in different ways. I would also tend to put the indigenous Americas and much of the Third World into the collective framework of the East.

For my world view.... I'm mixed European-American, and though was raised Catholic, I've never really felt much of a connection in my culture to the way I really thought about things. I'm highly introverted... so naturally more observant and reflective. Though passive like that, the things that do get me upset is when people are exploited by others. And I extend this to animals when it's done with no greater purpose. So I guess I was always a Buddhist, even before I knew anything about it.
I'm also a great enthusiast for science and history... but I'm also an artists, so its natural for me to try to connect things together philosophically if I can.

I would like to believe that as barriers come down, as travel and communication becomes easier, that it will be possible for people to link together their personal insight on the world, without being threatened by new knowledge and new people. A sane world needs to find a way to be collective while protecting and tolerating individuals whom can only help us to grow in the long run.

Anyway... that turned out kind of rambly... sweatdrop