The Way We Are

By Newt Hagar

The Way We Are is in reality an encyclopedia dealing with what is going on around you during each stage of your life, from early childhood until retirement.

At each step of the way, it will describe the basic truths of the situation and, where applicable, will show how these facts may be distorted as they are presented to you. It will guide you through the labyrinth of choices that you must make, asking such questions as where did the idea come from? What is its goal? Does it make sense? Are there any other sides to the issue? Are there any negative side effects? And finally, is it right for me? Think!

Separate chapters deal with such issues as why the first five years of a childs life are so important and what teenagers need to know about peer pressure as they break away from family ties. There are some words of wisdom on love, marriage, and sex; on smoking, alcohol, and drugs; on how to get the best job; what to expect as you climb the ladder to success; how to avoid retirement shock; and more!

Read this book now and then put it aside to be read again as you reach each new crossroad. Follow it and you can gain the happiness that you so desire! Think!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781503515567

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Newt Hagar.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014920015

ISBN:      Hardcover                  978-1-5035-1555-0

                Softcover                    978-1-5035-1557-4

                eBook                         978-1-5035-1556-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 11/17/2014

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter One The Brain: The Ultimate Computer

Chapter Two The Nature Of Man

Chapter Three Equal But Unequal

Chapter Four Law And Order

Chapter Five Young Parenting

Chapter Six Growing Up: Teen Talk

Chapter Seven Education

Chapter Eight Peer Pressure

Chapter Nine Tobacco, Alcohol, And Drugs

Chapter Ten Crime And Violence

Chapter Eleven Love, Marriage, And Sex

Chapter Twelve Religion

Chapter Thirteen Causes

Chapter Fourteen Leadership: Good And Bad

Chapter Fifteen Government, Politics, And War

Chapter Sixteen Business And Careers

Chapter Seventeen Salesmanship, Manipulation, And Propaganda

Chapter Eighteen Man And His Environment

Chapter Nineteen One World

Chapter Twenty Wrap-Up

Appendices

Appendix A The Ten Commandments

Appendix B Coping With Retirement

About the Author

Dedicated to my grandchildren and all

others who seek to understand

Introduction

This is a book about you and me—and most, if not all, the people around us. It is a book about why and how people do things. It is a book to help you understand better what is going on around you and, by doing so, lead happier, more satisfying lives. It is a book that will have something for all generations—from preteens to senior citizens. It will not be a long book. Most chapters are short, trying to get at simple basics. If you want to know more about any subject, you can find innumerable authors who have devoted entire volumes to discussing these things in great depth. It is a book intended to make you think. If, as you get into it, you find yourself not thinking—really thinking—about what I have said, then you might as well put the book down; it is not for you. For those of you who do read on, there will be many things with which you will agree, and there will be others about which you will not agree. That will be the point at which, before you put the book aside, you should sit back and THINK about what was said.

How did I get into this? Well, I guess it has come about because, in my threescore and ten, I have always been interested in people. As the saying goes, We get too soon old and too late smart, and in my earlier years, I was typically letting life just go on pretty well, believing most of what I was being told, and not really thinking about where it was leading. But as the years have gone by, I have gradually come to understand better just what has been happening—in my own life—with people versus people, nations versus nations, and I have come to realize that most people are too involved during their busy years to stop and take time to THINK about these things. And that lack of thinking leads most of us to just go with the crowd, to let others do the thinking for us, and to not become involved. The problem with not thinking about why things are being said and done is that we can be led in directions that are not best for ourselves, individually and collectively. I am convinced that most of us, most of the time, want what is best. This is good in itself. But to make this happen, it is vital that we know the truths of the situations—not just what someone else would like us to believe. To gain this insight, we have to THINK (you are going to see a lot of this word) about what we see and hear. Why is something said? By whom? What is his or her part in it? Is there another side to the question? Which side really makes sense? There is a great tendency, especially with emotional issues, for everything to be either black or white, while a compromise may be a better answer, or perhaps the issue should be broken down into better-defined elements. Television news, with its time restrictions, will generally report straight facts that have a single source (all too frequently anonymous), and therefore they are likely to be one-sided and sometimes untrue. The major stories in newspapers tend to be a bit better; newspaper columns and editorials will consider a story in greater depth, as will magazines, but again there may be bias. Another problem is that we tend to believe what we are told by people with authority, and we are surprised and disappointed on those occasions when we find that we were misled. People who intend to mislead us know from long experience that they can get away with it to a large degree because we won’t take time to THINK. With all this in mind, this book is a collection of thoughts as to how mankind thinks and acts, and how you can improve your life, as well as that of the world, by understanding better what is really going on around you. You will read about specific and often controversial subjects, with my thoughts as to what may really make sense. You will be challenged to THINK about what you have read and how it relates to your own experience. By this process, you can make better things happen—things that will improve your life and that of those around you. Above all, remember to think!

Chapter One

The Brain: The Ultimate Computer

As a starting point in understanding the way we are, let’s think of our brains as computers—supercomputers. For in fact, that’s exactly what they are. The commercial computers on the market, from the very simplest to the unbelievably complex, operate on the same principle. You feed in information (program), sort that information into a variety of categories, and then call upon them to perform a variety of tasks. Over a period of time, you may decide that you want your computer to do more than has then been possible, so you add on new programs, and you keep expanding on its capabilities to the fullest extent possible.

The human brain operates in much the same way. At birth, it comes preprogrammed to handle the most fundamental bodily functions but little else. Then from the first day, it begins to absorb new knowledge and to use that knowledge in the best way it knows how. Over the years, that supercomputer brain will tuck away more and more facts as to what has been going on in your personal life, your family, friends, in your community, country, and around the world. It will sort these facts into neat little niches, waiting for you to use them to make decisions of the moment, and it will group them into bundles of concepts that become your lifestyle.

The amazing thing about the brain, unlike even the most sophisticated computer yet developed, is the fact that it deals not just with bare facts. There are beliefs, moral judgments of right from wrong. And there are emotions, many of which have somehow come with the program when we were born, which may have to be controlled if we are to get the greatest enjoyment out of life. If we play the game right, it is these features that enable us to sort out the facts that come our way and only to program those that are the best for us. There is a saying in the field of computers, Garbage in, garbage out, and it is why, in this sense, that the main theme of this book is to THINK! Think about the facts that come your way and about your emotions that are affected before the facts are programmed in and are later fed out. Interpret these facts, be skeptical, curious, ask why the fact is given as it is, by whom, and for what personal reason. Recognize that when you don’t quite know how to handle a given situation, it is mostly due to the lack of enough input. Try to gain more information.

Finally, this brain of ours has enormous capacity for facts (bytes in computer language), and it has become evident that, barring illness, new facts can be fed into the system and used, literally until the