Online Resource

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Online Resource

Mathew, Bincy, 1979- author

York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium (2015 : Toronto, Ont.),

Chilton, Hugh, author

Spinks, Bryan D., author

The following is an interesting extract from Straw Dogs by John Gray (pp. 109–116) discussing some of the differences between Western and Taoist philosophical traditions.

The fetish of choice

For us, nothing is more important than to live as we choose. This is not because we value freedom more than people did in earlier times. It is because we have identified the good life with the chosen life.

For the pre-Socratic Greeks, the fact that our lives are framed by limits was what makes us human. Being born a mortal, in a given place and time, strong or weak, swift or slow, brave or cowardly, beautiful or ugly, suffering tragedy or being spared it – these features of our lives are given to us, they cannot be chosen. If the Greeks could have imagined a life without them, they could not have recognised it as that of a human being.

The ancient Greeks were right. The ideal of the chosen life does not square with how we live. We are not authors of our lives; we are not even part-authors of the events that mark us most deeply. Nearly everything that is most important in our lives is unchosen. The time and place we are born, our parents, the first language we speak – these are chance, not choice. It is the casual drift of things that shapes our most fateful relationships. The life of each of us is a chapter of accidents.

Personal autonomy is the work of our imagination, not the way we live. Yet we have been thrown into a time in which everything is provisional. New technologies alter our lives daily. The traditions of the past cannot be retrieved. At the same time we have little idea of what the future will bring. We are forced to live as if we were free.

The cult of choice reflects the fact that we must improvise our lives. That we cannot do otherwise is a mark of our unfreedom. Choice has become a fetish; but the mark of a fetish is that it is unchosen.

Animal virtues

The dominant Western view…teaches that humans are unlike other animals, which simply respond to the situations in which they find themselves. We can scrutinise our motives and impulses; we can know why we act as we do. By becoming ever more self-aware, we can approach a point at which our actions are the results of our choices. When we are fully conscious, everything we do will be done for reasons we can know. At that point, we will be authors of our lives.

This may seem fantastical, and so it is. Yet it is what we are taught by Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, Descartes, Spinoza and Marx. For all of them, consciousness is our very essence, and the good life means living as a fully conscious individual.

…

Western thought is fixated on the gap between what is and what ought to be. But in everyday life we do not scan our options beforehand, then enact the one that is best. We simply deal with whatever is at hand. …Different people follow different customs; but in acting without intention, we are not simply following habit. Intentionless acts occur in all sorts of situations, including those we have never come across before.

Outside the Western tradition, the Taoists of ancient China saw no gap between is and ought. Right action was whatever comes from a clear view of the situation. They did not follow moralists – in their day, Confucians – in wanting to fetter human beings with rules or principles. For Taoists, the good life is only the natural life lived skillfully. It has no particular purpose. It has nothing to do with the will, and it does not consist in trying to realise any ideal. Everything we do can be done more or less well; but if we act well it is not because we translate our intentions into deeds. It is because we deal skillfully with whatever needs to be done. The good life means living according to our natures and circumstances. There is nothing that says that it is bound to be the same for everybody, or that it must conform with ‘morality’.

In Taoist thought, the good life comes spontaneously; but spontaneity is far from simply acting on the impulses that occur to us. In Western traditions such as Romanticism, spontaneity is linked with subjectively. In Taoism it means acting dispassionately, on the basis of an objective view of the situation at hand. The common man cannot see things objectively, because his mind is clouded by anxiety about achieving his goals. Seeing clearly means not projecting our goals into the world; acting spontaneously means acting according to the needs of the situation. Western moralists will ask what is the purpose of such action, but for Taoists the good life has no purpose. It is like swimming in a whirlpool, responding to the currents as they come and go. ‘I enter with the inflow, and emerge with the outflow, follow the Way of the water, and do not impose my selfishness upon it. This is how I stay afloat in it,’ says the Chuang-Tzu.

In this view, ethics is simply a practical skill, like fishing or swimming. The core of ethics is not choice or conscious awareness, but the knack of knowing what to do. It is a skill that comes with practice and an empty mind. A.C. Graham explains:

The Taoist relaxes the body, calms the mind, loosens the grip of categories made habitual by naming, frees the current of thought for more fluid differentiations and assimilations, and instead of pondering choices lets the problems solve themselves as inclination spontaneously finds its own direction. …He does not have to make decisions based on standards of good and bad because, granted only that enlightenment is better than ignorance, it is self-evident that among spontaneous inclinations the one prevailing in the greatest clarity of mind, other things being equal, will be best, the one in accord with the Way.

Few humans beings have the knack of living well. Observing this, the Taoists looked to other animals as their guides to the good life. Animals in the wild know how to live, they do not need to think or choose. It is only when they are fettered by humans that they cease to live naturally.

As the Chuang-Tzu puts it, horses, when they live wild, eat grass and drink water; when they are content, they entwine their necks and rub each other. When angry, they turn their backs on each other and kick out. This is what horses know. But if harnessed together and lined up under constraints, they know how to look sideways and to arch their necks, to career around and try to spit out the bit and rid themselves of the reins.

For people in thrall to ‘morality’ , the good life means perpetual striving. For Taoists it means living effortlessly, according to our natures. The freest human being is not the one who acts on reasons he has chosen for himself, but one who never has to choose. Rather than agonising over alternatives, he responds effortlessly to situations as they arise. He lives not as he chooses but as he must. Such a human has the perfect freedom of a wild animal – or a machine. As the Lieh-Tzu says: ‘The highest man at rest is as though dead, in movement is like a machine. He knows neither why he is at rest nor why he is not, why he is in movement nor why he is not.’

The idea that freedom means becoming like a wild animal or machine is offensive to Western religious and humanist prejudices, but it is consistent with the most advanced scientific knowledge. A.C. Graham explains:

Taoism coincides with the scientific worldview at just those points where the latter most disturbs westerners rooted in the Christian tradition – the littleness of man in a vast universe; the inhuman Tao which all things follow, without purpose and indifferent to human needs; the transience of life, the impossibility of knowing what comes after death; unending change in which the possibility of progress is not even conceived; the relativity of values; a fatalism very close to determinism; even a suggestion that the human organism operates like a machine.

Autonomy means acting on reasons I have chosen; but the lesson of cognitive science is that there is no self to do the choosing. We are far more like machines and wild animals than we imagine. But we cannot attain the amoral selflessness of wild animals, or the choiceless automatism of machines. Perhaps we can learn to live more lightly, less burdened by morality. We cannot return to a purely spontaneous existence.

I recently moved from London to San Francisco to work at Twitter, as a Software Engineer. This is a rough guide – in the spirit of @chanian’s tutorial for Canadians – based on my experience of relocating, the mistakes I made along the way, and some information I wish I’d had. Use it at your own risk – don’t assume any legal truths; research things for yourself before making decisions!

I’m not going to cover anything about the US visa process. The company that has offered you employment in the US is likely to work with immigration lawyers who will handle (or guide you through) the visa application and processing. I’m also going to assume that your employer is providing temporary accommodation or that you are organising your own (e.g., via Airbnb) while you search for an apartment. Most of this article relates to things you will need to do once you arrive in San Francisco and soon after, but that you should spend some time thinking about beforehand.

Get a phone

You’ll need a US mobile/cell number pretty quickly, especially if you’re apartment-hunting.

The US telecom market isn’t great and will leave you nostalgic for the halcyon days of the EU-regulated, pro-consumer market you’ve left behind. For example, it’s now illegal to unlock a phone from a carrier unless you have that carrier’s permission to do so. Furthermore, if you do get a phone from a carrier (as part of your contract deal), you should be aware of whether or not you will be locked into a proprietary network, like Verison’s CDMA. Without a US credit history, you should expect to pay a sizable deposit when entering into a contract.

One way to reduce the cost of a phone contract is to bring your own phone to the party. If you bring a phone from the UK, make sure to check that your charger will work on US voltage. With an unlocked, GSM-supporting phone you can look to carriers like T-Mobile who offer various “value” and no-annual-contract plans. These prices are significantly cheaper because they don’t subsidise the purchase of a new phone. You’re likely to find “unlimited” data plans easier to come by than they are in the UK.

You’re shit-out-of-luck if you’re thinking you’d prefer a European-style pay-as-you-go (PAYG) approach. The options are thin on the ground. Any airtime you buy means just that – any time you spend talking or texting – so you pay to send and receive calls or SMS’s. My experience suggests that some networks recycle phone numbers or sell on your details. I still receive random texts addressed to previous owners of my phone number, and get messages from marketing companies who have miraculously acquired my personal details, an irritation that is compounded by the fact that it costs you money to be harassed.

If you’re determined to go the PAYG route, the nearest US equivalent is probably AT&T’s GoPhone SIM or Net10. You’ll have to purchase a phone and credit up front; top ups can be purchased in store, at some supermarkets, or done over the phone. This may also be the first time you encounter the US concept of a “restocking fee” – a method of dissuading you from returning items by charging you to do so. The restocking fee for the burner phone I first purchased was almost as much as the phone itself.

Open a bank account, transfer money

Make this a top priority. You should open a bank account as soon as you arrive in the US, especially as some banks will initially let you do so without a Social Security Number or permanent address.

Until you open a US bank account, you’ll be haemorrhaging money on fees levied by your UK bank for dollar transactions, and subject to poor exchange rates.

Choose a bank

San Francisco has a large range of different bank brands to choose from, but you’re probably best sticking to the big name banks that have branches and ATMs throughout the city, such as Bank of America, Chase, or Wells Fargo. There are co-ops and niche services if that’s your thing. Be sure to do some preparatory research on which bank is best suited to your needs. It’s also worth checking if your bank in the UK has a reciprocal agreement with any bank operating in San Francisco; it may cut down the cost of moving your money. Friends recommended going with either Bank of America or Chase. I went with Bank of America, where the customer service was personal and friendly.

Banking fees are a matter of course in the US. In contrast to the UK, you’ll almost certainly be charged for withdrawing money from any ATMs that aren’t owned by your bank. You have to buy cheque books (“check” in American English) and pay a fee to transfer your money to accounts outside your bank. Accounts usually involve a monthly fee, although this is waived in certain situations, such as setting up your salary to be directly deposited. Expect to set up a current (“checking”) and savings account, and to be asked to make a minimum cash deposit to complete the process (at Bank of America it was $100).

Once you’re all set up, your debit card will be sent in the post – so make sure you’ll be at that address for at least another week. In the meantime you may get a temporary cash card to get at what you’ve already deposited. Even if you transfer more money in, your bank can limit the amount you can withdraw within the first 30 days of the account being open – presumably to combat fraud/laundering.

Transfer money

It’s essential that you transfer money from your UK bank as soon as possible. There are many factors to consider when calculating how much money you want to transfer.

• You may enter the US up to 10 days before your visa is valid and you can start work.
• You need money for food, transport, going out, a phone (and deposit), apartment applications, an apartment deposit, buying furniture, etc.
• You might not be able to get paid until you have a Social Security Number.
• You’re unlikely to get paid until the middle or end of the month you start working.
• You’re very likely to get your first pay cheque given to you as a real cheque; your bank is then likely to withhold the vast majority of the cheque’s value for up to 28 days.
• It will cost you several thousand dollars – a deposit and at least one month of rent – to secure an apartment. In general, landlords will not accept a UK banking cheque.
• You’ll have to buy furniture and general household items if you aren’t shipping any from the UK.

All in all, this means you may end up without any significant US-earned money in your account for 30-45 days while making some of the biggest expenses you’re likely to have made for a while.

Transferring money to a US bank account can be done online via wire transfer between banks. Unfortunately, my bank in the UK – Santander – didn’t allow online wire transfers so I had to look for alternatives. You may want to research this prior to leaving the UK!

The Post Office provide a simple, secure, and fee-free service, but a poorer exchange rate. Looking around, I came across Currencyfair – a peer-to-peer currency exchange service. They provide online quotes without the need to sign up, they were very prompt and helpful in their replies to questions I had, and the exchange rate was very good. Overall, I saved quite a bit of money and I’d rely on them in the future.

Get a Clipper card

The Clipper card is San Francisco’s equivalent of London’s Oyster card. Getting one will take some of the pain out of using the various modes of public transport in San Francisco. You can get a Clipper card online and I’d suggest setting up “Autoload” (you’ll need a bank account) to get the card for free and never worry about remembering to top up your credit. Alternatively, you can buy them on the high street from shops like Walgreens.

Get a Social Security Number

Social Security recommend that you only apply for a Social Security Number once you’ve been in the US over 10 days.

My experience was that the process is quick and simple. You complete a short SSN application form ahead of time and take it to the nearest Social Security office along with the documentation they advise you to bring. Arrive first thing in the morning to avoid any wait. It can take a few weeks for your Social Security card to arrive so you may want to have it sent to your employer’s address if you don’t have a permanent address yet.

Once you have your Social Security Card, you should keep it safe and be judicious in giving your SSN out. However, you should provide it to your bank and employer as soon as possible.

Find somewhere to live

Living in the city of San Francisco is just one of the (more expensive) options available to you. I chose to live in the city but many of my friends and colleagues live in other areas, like the East Bay. Have a look around before making up your mind.

Rent is very expensive in San Francisco, even compared to prices in London, especially since it’s very rare to find furnished accommodation. It also appears to be rising at a staggering rate. However, buildings constructed before June 1979 are covered by San Francisco Rent Control which heavily constrains the rate at which your rent can increase once you become a tenant. Therefore, it’s worth taking the time to find somewhere that you could imagine living for a few years.

The rental market is extremely competitive. Many places rely on one-off, brief, herd-style viewings where you’re in the apartment with half a dozen other desperate people at the same time, and more arriving every minute. People hand over all their paperwork and a cash application fee (if applicable) there and then.

Things are made slightly harder because you’re unlikely to have any US credit history, which is something quite important over here. But an offer letter and salary details from a tech company seems to put you in good shape. It’s in your best interest to put together a dossier of papers to provide alongside any application you make. You should include scans of your employer’s offer letter, your visa, and ideally character references from a previous landlord, etc. Print out several copies to take with you to viewings. You might have to pay $30-$40 to make an application (which is meant to cover credit history checks), but I never did.

I found that using Craigslist or a listing aggregator like Lovely was the best way to find apartments for rent in the city. They will also help you to narrow your focus to the neighbourhoods that you’re most interested in (spend some time learning about the city). Before moving to San Francisco, I heard a lot of stories about how it was essential – if you are to have any hope – to be “first” to make contact with the poster of a listing, but my experience was that you’re generally given the date and time of a mass-viewing to attend. This means that making a good impression in person, and having a bit of a chat with your potential landlord or building-manager, is likely to improve your chances and help you make a decision. Be prepared for it to take a while to find an apartment – it took me over a month of searching.

Once you’ve found a place to rent and signed all the paperwork, call PG&E to create an account to pay for your heat and electricity. You can set up e-bills and automatic payments online once your account has been processed. It’s a good idea to sort out an ISP before you move in – I went with Sonic.net. Again, the monthly cost (which I was told includes 17 different taxes and “renting” of the router) is a little higher than you’d expect in the UK, and you can expect to pay an installation fee. Other things to do: get Renters Insurance and have your bank automatically mail out your monthly-rent check to your landlord or building manager. All these things are quick and easy to do.

If you’re interested in your renters rights, you can search the California Department of Consumer Affairs for information.

Buying stuff for your place

You’re going to need furniture and basic household items. There’s always Ikea, which is located in Emeryville across the bay. If you have any previous Ikea experience, you’ll know that it’s one of the most stressful shopping experiences imaginable. The Ikea in Emeryville is even worse but the prices are pretty good. You can get there by bus from San Francisco and have large items delivered, or sort out your own transport.

Other stores to look at include West Elm and Crate & Barrel; they sell nicer things but are significantly more expensive. Alternatively, there are a lot of independent and second-hand furniture shops in San Francisco, particularly in the Mission district and a few along Van Ness. They’re well worth checking out. Van Ness also has 3 or 4 stores that sell mattresses – Sleep Train came particularly well recommended. I’d suggest that you leverage the lower costs of similar mattresses online in order to significantly reduce the price of your purchase, while benefiting from the great service, free delivery, and returns policy of the high-street stores. And if you have no idea what you’re doing: home decor tips, infographics, and cheat sheets

Get a California I.D.

Once you have your SSN and have found a permanent address, you should apply for a California I.D. at the DMV. This is handy if you don’t want to carry your passport (with visa) around and don’t have alternative I.D., such as a driver’s licence. You should register for an appointment to avoid a long wait in line. It can take up to 60 days for your California I.D. to arrive.

Get a credit card

The U.S. revolves around consumer credit. You need to start building up a credit history as soon as possible if you want to avoid paying large deposits or higher prices. Ask your bank about the soonest that you can apply for a credit card and then start using it – buying on credit even if you don’t need to.

Inform HMRC and the Student Loans Company

Once you’re settled, you should make time to inform HMRC that you’ve left the UK. They’ll be able to assess your tax status. If you are repaying student loans, after 3 months in the US you’re expected to contact the Student Loans Company by completing an overseas income assessment form. They will then work out your repayments.

Welcome to the United States of America

Hopefully you settle in within a couple of months and get to know San Francisco. There are many faces to this city, but the social scene is pretty diverse and there are many restaurants, bars, cafes, parks, and attractions – plenty of places to explore and things to do while you find your feet.

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