Why are we are always pointing a finger at someone else?

Sometimes, when trying to make the point that we need to start with ourselves. A famous Hasidic rebbe once proclaimed that when he was a young rabbi: his idealistic and romantic goal was to change the world. There is a common human tendency to view all wrongs in the world as the fault of everyone but yourself. Read the latest TOV Center Lives 1^st Blog by clicking here.

Are we becoming like the rats pulling levers?

That’s what came to mind when I read How Facebook Programmed Our Relatives by Brett Frischmann & Katherine Haenschen on the Scientific American website.

Social media platforms encode a range of social behaviors: Facebook notifies us when it is time to wish our friends a happy birthday; LinkedIn prompts us to congratulate contacts on their work anniversaries; Twitter breaks its own chronology to show us tweets that many of our friends have liked. As a result, social interactions are often reduced to the click of a button.

Now more than ever, society needs ethical social science at the intersection of technology and humanity. Digital platforms are shaping what it means to be human, and we can't rely on the platforms to police or research themselves. In the meantime, when your birthday rolls around, enjoy the warm feelings from friends sending their regards— but remember that they don't know when your birthday really is any more than you do theirs.

Always keep in mind that we are the products social media corporations are selling, not serving. Think of those “prompts” that keep popping up on your screen as “levers” that are being used to encode a range of social behaviors in your brain. The more you pull them, the more valuable you become to whoever is selling your information. Empower yourself by learning how to explore your reality at the TOV Center’s Lives 1^st Realities Transformations.

You Are Not Generation Z (Pat Sajak, Host, Wheel of Fortune)

The following excerpt is adapted from an address given by Pat Sajak (Host, Wheel of Fortune) to the first graduating class of Founders Classical Academy in Leander, Texas, on May 27, 2017; one of 16 classical K-12 charter schools currently operating under the auspices of Hillsdale College’s Barney Charter School Initiative. Pat Sajak gives unique insights about a special class of what we call a specific class of “weaponized memes” at the TOV Center Realities Transformations Initiative -- identity politics.

“So let me instead suggest a pitfall to avoid going forward, a pitfall not only for this year’s graduates, but for everyone in every corner of American society today. It has altered the way we talk to one another and perceive one another. It has perverted the notion of free speech and poisoned the academic environment. It has turned the American political system on its head, creating a situation where opposing views are not only unwelcome, they are deemed to be signs of evil intent. It has pitted friend against friend and has caused rifts within families.

I’m talking about identity politics, the attempt to divide Americans and set us against each other. The attempt to classify and categorize us by all sorts of measurements and standards. To a great degree, those who are making these attempts are succeeding. And their efforts are changing our country in fundamental ways. . .

The problem with identity politics is that it reduces us. We are no longer human beings with individual hopes and dreams. We are commodities. We are groups to be labeled and courted and pandered to. We have no shared values as Americans, because we are a series of interest groups. We’re told what it’s thought we want to hear, and we divide ourselves into pockets of groupthink. We begin to speak only with others in our group, and we begin to believe that the only valid and true way to think is the way we think. . . .”

Thank you Hillsdale College for sharing this with the world. Read the entire excerpt at -- https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/not-generation-z/

Follow Lives 1^st Realities Transformations

by “Liking” our Facebook Page by clicking here

or by visiting our website by clicking here.

Are the rich more likely to be untrustworthy?

A sense that one needs or depends on others is what drives trustworthiness, but the more power or money one has the less one needs or depends on others. Click Here to read the complete blog. 

Feds crack down on e-liquid packaging that looks like candy, juice boxes

Federal regulators warned more than a dozen manufacturers, distributors and retailers Tuesday that they are endangering children by marketing e-cigarette liquids to resemble kid-friendly products such as juice boxes, candy and whipped cream.

Acting FTC chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen warned, “Nicotine is highly toxic, and these letters make clear that marketing methods that put kids at risk of nicotine poisoning are unacceptable.”

FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, in a telephone briefing with reporters, said . . . “they are deliberately being packaged and marketed in a way that is designed to not only be appealing to kids” but also to confuse them by mimicking items they frequently consume.

(What makes people do things like this? Is it just money, or something else? Trying to addict people to products isn’t anything new, but when the targets are kids that’s even worse!)

Read the complete article and see packages at – https://wapo.st/2jx9l2v

See list of warning letters sent at --

https://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/default.htm#recent

Factors that drive and threaten economies.

Factors that drive and threaten economies -- corruption, cronyism, inequality, religious fundamentalism and nostalgic pride in the past. Read more at --

https://lives1st.blogspot.com/2018/04/factors-that-drive-and-threaten.html

Passover 2018: We are Still Slaves

Growing up, I always loved Passover. In our house it was a family affair preparing -- changing dishes, making the food for the seders, setting the table, sitting around our large room sized table with everyone whom I loved, grandparents, aunts and uncles, family friends and some strays and first timers. It was magical!!! Especially singing with my dad as he lead the seder! 

I was very familiar with the entire story of the Exodus, Moses, Pharaoh and the 10 plagues, but the idea of “slavery” of the Israelites was kind of lost on a young child from South Orange, New Jersey in the 50’s and 60’s. Later study provided me with more facts, archaeological, historical, etc.

Over the last few decades, new evidence about the Exodus has emerged in the form of Egyptian scrolls and architectural discoveries that talk about a Semitic Expulsion by the native Egyptians, who were a North African people. Invading Semitic groups conquered Egypt and ruled for over 200 years and were driven out. In the Torah story, it says that a “mixed multitude” went out. As my professor from Rutgers stated: “All Israelites were Hebrews (Semites, speaking a Semitic language), but not all Hebrews were Israelites.” 

Either way, Passover is called the Holiday of Freedom among other names. Standing at Mt. Sinai 50 days later, tradition says the Torah or Instruction was given -- a Guideline for Human Behavior and Values to create a Society -- Tzeddek, Mishpat and Hesed (Righteousness, Justice and Lovingkindness).

● Yes, we are our brother's and sister’s keepers (guardians)!

● Yes, we are the shepherds and managers of life on this planet!

The Israelites escaped forced labor, no right to choose, no chance to be different or go against authority, no opportunity to be free to develop their uniqueness as a nation.

We Are Still Slaves!!! The New Slavery serves Empty Valueless Constant Consumption in pursuit of Personal Pleasure disguised and marketed to us as Happiness. This New Slavery connects the entire world together in seconds, but divides us into individuals seeking their individual rights rather than acting together as a community for the Common Good. The New Slavery uses 21st Century Brain Science to Hack our brains, mines us for information for manipulation of adults and our Children to be good little consumers, Slaves to Corporations, Politicians and Authoritarian Religious Beliefs and Vacuous Trends! They are our New Pharaohs and our New Plagues!

For this reason, Jim and I have been working together in our 25 year journey, establishing the TOV Center and providing the information and defenses against this assault on our humanity and society, our need for one another, to guide more people in the emergence of Our Power as a Community -- the power of We The People, with Common Values who Demand Transparency from our institutions, Political, Religious and Corporate.

Another professor of mine from Rabbinical School once said; “Freedom, without the Discipline of Torah, is Chaos.” Let us work this coming year to throw off the bonds of the New Slavery of Mental Manipulation and the feds addictions of Self-Gratification. Let us leave our safe comfortable Egypts and stand together to create a world where Righteousness, Justice and Kindness abounds.

Shalom My Friends,

Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor

http://tovcenter.org