NET ON THE BRAIN

BLOOMBERG-BUSINESSWEEK (2010) 6/13

PETER BURROWS/90-91

The Net, tweet, cable and numerous distractions are driving us to think more conventionally than innovating.

However others suggests the opposite. What appears to

be salient is that the above technology is correlated with

short attention span and increased obesity. This new information is that group technology is driving us toward

group think.

page 12

The natural unemployment rate is now thought to be 7%.

That is the official rate. The unofficial rate is probably higher. It is chosen because at that level inflation and deflation are not encouraged. In the 70's, it was 4% but inflation was considerable.

SILLY BANDZ

TIME (2010) 6/14

PAGE 99/ROCHMAN

The latest among pre-teens is SILLY BANDZ. They are glorified rubber bands that come in many colors. Both sexes wear them. Whatever the color, they can be traded and shaped and played with during class lesson. It appears some schools are now banning them. They cost about 5 dollars for 24 big huge bandz of different colors.

The bands follow in the footsteps of CABBAGE PATCH KIDS, BEANIE BABIES, and POKEMON CARDS. All of this comes from a company in Ohio and without advertisement, the fad spread.

UNITARIAN-UNIVERSALIST WORLD (2010)

30-31/KUBAL/KOMOTO

U-U CULTURE

The Unitarian-Universalist Church is one of the smallest

Protestant-multireligious denominations in the United States. Church membership was the highest when the Unitarian and Universalist Churches were combined roughly in the early 60's. It is the same size today even though the population of the USA has doubled.

The church wants to grow and become more inclusive. However, the church is so unique in many ways that most of the population is not interested. Here may be some of the reasons. They include: 1) Most of the members are richer than the average family. Along with

Presbyterians and Anglicans, Unitarians rank toward the top. Clearly, U-U's are a distant third because they come from the public sector and not for profit private sector.

2. By education, most have a Master's degree or something in the area including a lot of BA's. By denomination Unitarians have the highest level of education.3. Most are professional. 4. By ethnic background, members are old line North Europeans. 5. Most are middle age and center left. 6. There are more females than males. 7. U-U's are clearly gay friendly with a number of the clergy that are gay.

Churches all across the country range from small homes to large cathedrals. However, most are small and there is probably one church per medium size city.

Members appear to be elitist. That is really probably

deceiving. Most are shy and cerebral. They may or may not have been popular in high school or college, but they graduated with honors of high grades. In other words,

the kind of person who goes to a Unitarian church is more likely to be one who does not attend a church out of principle. They had large doses of modernism to post modernism in college and look with skepticism at pre-modernism.

U-U's are God's frozen people and when they sing from the hymnal, it is constrained because they are analyzing what they are singing so what comes out is muted a bit.

However some churches have warmed up a bit and have become tri-modern. There really are a few Christian Churches that are predominantly Trinitarian in essence.

However, the referral to Rabbi Jesus or lay Rabbi Jesus is

more apparent. Further, both the Christian wing and the larger church have a sermon and related mailed to individuals who live away from a Unitarian church or are not of the same persuasion as the local church. A number of younger member have allegiances to more than one church and the Unitarian may be one of them.

What do U-U's believe? Briefly, each has a different definition in terms of God. There are other mission statements and caveats, but that is the key one.

Further, they all believe that if there is a hell it is not eternal. That sooner or later, an individual works their way to heaven. Some believe that all go to heaven right away because life on earth is hellish. Others believe that one goes into the big sleep and dwells at peace like a good afternoon nap. In other words, if God is in a person form, she or he are kind and loving.

As you can see the Unitarian church is not likely to grow. It could grow, but there are doubts. However, the denomination may find their way toward aligning itself with other Christian groups. If each church does not

try to actually merge, it is real possible that a number of

liberal Christian churches and perhaps a breakaway American Catholic Church could unite under a symbolic

umbrella. Let's do a thought experiment as utilized in philosophy. We call the overall organization, THE CHURCHES OF THE UNITED FRONT made up of individual churches of varying creeds, but share the social gospel. The group may include AMERICAN ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, THE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, AND ON THE LEFT END THE UNITARIAN-UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. Beyond the name and the symbolic interconnection, that is it. It may be that one church building has the 10 o'clock Catholics and the 11 o'clock Unitarians. Or three churches have one building.

They all agree to disagree on doctrine. Each respects the others' boundaries. They may come together for special holidays or a picnic or another social event. They will also defend each other within reason.

They may also come together to honor another holiday

of another world religion. As an example an abbreviated version of Yom Kippur (it is a time when you lay out all your misdeeds or sins) once a year. It is also possible

that it could be run partially by a Reformed Jewish Rabbi.

However, all the above may be too much. It may be a paper alliance and shared logo of which the Unitarian Church is the left wing.

In that way, the church may gain a larger place in religious arena of American Society. The CURCHES OF THE UNITED FRONT if only symbolic connected is still a big step for such a little church.