This-essay is   a7704013.htm   which is available  at the
web-site   www.essayz.com.   See more notes at the bottom.
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
By-Months                By-Years                 By-Words
Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One
==========================================================
                               %VIABLE ALTERNATIVES 770401

    Decisions  and actions flow from viable  alternatives.
Thus  one of the most important aspects of real living  is
discerning what are the viable alternatives.  Often viable
alternatives  are repressed out of fear of their  novelty,
ambiguity, risk, apparent cost, or apparent impossibility.
Constricting world views may mislead us into thinking that
our  choices are more constrained than they really are. On
the other hand,  we often focus our attention  on  visions
which are not viable alternatives---visions which serve to
divert our attention from real alternatives which we fear.

    A common pattern of behavior is to discuss the  merits
and faults of a single alternative, as if the question was
whether or not to affirm it, or affirm nothing. That is to
say, only one possible course of action is considered at a
time---and  the  question asked is,  "Is  this  course  of
action 'good'?"  This behavior flows from  the notion that
behavior can be judged in absolute terms  as being  either
good or evil.  So long as there is the presumption of some
absolute  standards  in  terms of which  behavior  may  be
judged,   so long will it appear to make sense to judge in
absolute  terms  the goodness of  a  suggested  course  of
action. The attempt is then to apply absolute standards of
judgement to  individually  considered  suggestions,  then
affirm  or  denying each suggestion  individually  on  its
merits relative to the absolute standards.

    Real  life  does  not  consist  of  applying  absolute
standards  to suggested possible courses of action.   Real
life  consists of comparing various possible  alternatives
in wholistic ways --- all at one time --- and deciding and
acting  upon the alternative which is in a  wholistic  way
the    most   attractive   and   integrative.    Wholistic
considerations  involve broad perspectives regarding costs
&  benefits,  who pays & who benefits,  when payments  are
made  &  when benefits  are realized,  who decides  &  who
executes,  primary & reciprocal effects,  humane  aspects,
technical aspects, etc.   Choices are made in terms of the
whole picture by whole  communities  to promote integrity.
Such  choices lead to communal pleasure and fulfillment on
the part of many servants.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
  www.essayz.com       Search for Integrity and Honesty        
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
==========================================================

Lines beginning with a percent sign are  KEYWORDS  for use
in ESSAY-System Searches.  Their terminal digits are dates
of writing in the format @yymmdd#, where @ =  a  means 99,
@ =  b  means 20, and # = is a within-date essay-count.

Links to date-adjacent essays are near  page top & bottom.

   
Find the following links by clicking on CENTER when CENTER
near  the top or bottom  of a web page of essayz.com
 
                    
               1. Go to HOME PAGE of essayz.com
            2. Find brief-essays via keywords
           3. Find brief-essay about ADDICTION
          4. Search-Helps related to ABOVE-LINK
 
            5. GoTo Action & Information Center
           6. Find Regular-Essays via Year/Month
          7. Find Regular-Essays via Word-Starts
              8. Find Regular-Essay about LOVE

This-essay is   a7704013.htm   which is available  at the
web-site   www.essayz.com.  These 5 lines echo top lines.
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
By-Months                By-Years                 By-Words
Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One