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Welcome To The Insane Asylum – Our Collective Psychosis - Chapter 2
Welcome To The Insane Asylum - Our Collective Psychosis
Chapter 2
For those who missed chapter 1 in this series of 5, may I suggest you click the link below and read from the beginning before moving forward to this chapter? As I said in chapter 1, this isn’t 5 individual articles but rather 1 article broken into 5 chapters for easier consumption. While I did make an effort to ensure some continuity between the sections, it’s minimal and inadequate. Your reading pleasure would be best served if you read the chapters in the order presented. Thank you.
Suicide by Cognitive Dissonance
I’m always fascinated how I’m able to maintain two (or more) contrary views or beliefs in my mind, often without being aware they represent opposite positions. This of course makes them illogical and unsustainable. Inevitably, when I find myself troubled or irritable, a careful inward search usually finds a cognitive dissonance creating havoc in my mind which is often deliberately hidden from me by my ego. The sign of this dissonance is invariably the emotional pain or trauma I’m feeling at the moment. Sometimes I experience it as a fight or flight sense of panic that suddenly takes hold. Wow! Where’d that come from?
Why is it that every time I find some hidden cognitive contradiction or discord, it’s nearly always being promoted or obscured by my ego? There seems to be constant conflict between my unconscious, which is all seeing and knowing, my ego, where much of our daily business of living is conducted, and my conscious awareness, which now-a-days isn’t all that aware.
Why is my ego constantly shielding me from perceived dangers that may or may not really be harmful? Don’t I want to know the truth, to be aware of my world? Often when I explore these conflicts I find that some of these dissonances are trivial, almost like little white lies. But the ego doesn’t hide each conflict as a self contained unit, intact and in one place. They’re scattered all over the place because each piece is often used in multiple distortions and deceits, almost like an intelligent operating system conserving scarce resources and hard drive space. Only in this case, the intelligent operating system, aka the ego, intends to self deceive by way of subterfuge or outright lies.
It seems so contrary to common sense for the ego, which is clearly not well suited to managing our affairs on a daily basis, to be front and center 24/7. This conundrum led me to research the subject and much has been written on this by many authors to date. An interesting theory is that some catastrophic event or trauma experienced by our ancestors thousands of years ago catapulted our ego forward from its former reserve status as emergency manager in waiting. Julian Jaynes published some ideas on this subject back in 1976, ideas that are finally receiving the attention they deserve, principally because the science of imaging our brain while performing tasks has substantiated many of Jaynes suppositions.
The many suspected reasons for this egoic change are beyond the scope of this article. But it does seem clear that earth’s biological system has suffered severe damage because we (our ego) aren’t cooperating with nature. As I said earlier, our insanity doesn’t appear to serve our ultimate evolutionary purposes, though there are plenty of people who will argue that human activity is quite natural and normal. Ironically, insanely, we’ve convinced ourselves we’re normal when our actions might best be described as self will run riot. Many have inferred that our materialism is directly related to our egoic mind.
I’ve often wondered if the sequence isn’t the other way around, that as certain human cultures became more materialistic over the past three or four thousand years, they became increasingly toxic and ill from their growing self centered materialistic way of life. For the sake of this discussion, assume that materialism is ultimately unhealthy for humans for a whole host of reasons, a view I feel is unquestionably correct. If so, then the ego would see this materialistic “condition” as a continuous emergency, requiring the ego to remain front and center in order to “save” our consciousness and body from ourselves by shielding us from our most destructive tendencies.
This would be similar to our immune system rallying to protect our body from toxins that enter the body, even if we accidentally or intentionally ingested the toxins. The immune system (ego) protects itself by protecting the host, meaning us. Without the host body, the immune system (ego) has no function or ability to exist, thus it defends us from all attacks, even suicidal attacks by us against ourselves, either individually or collectively. The ego would be acting in much the same way the computers on those Mars rovers do, where various failsafe modes kick in when things start to go wrong. If nothing else, live to fight another day, even if the one we’re fighting is ourselves.
Our immune system doesn’t make value or moral judgments of the crisis or the host and neither does our ego. Nor would we want our emergency back-up system, the ego, to make value judgments in order to determine if it should step in or not because it might just make the wrong one. When its only purpose is to keep the system (us) alive, nothing else matters if the system is under attack. Maybe the ego is shielding us from our madness in order to protect us for as long as possible from our insanity?
Egoic Moral Suasion
Interestingly, from another point of view, this could all be a positive feedback loop gone terribly wrong. Maybe it was some ancient trauma that brought forward our formerly waiting-in-the-wings emergency manger to full time duty. But by being up front all the time rather than in the background, the ego is causing terrible long term destruction and distortions within us primarily because of the extremely blunt and unbalanced tools (mostly fear) it uses to control/influence us. We must remember that our ego sees itself as a separate entity and not necessarily “us”.
As the ego tries to clean up or control the mess caused by its constant presence, maybe it turned our natural tendency to store supplies for lean times into a materialistic obsession as some sort of a diversion from the chaos. The captain always makes sure there’s plenty of work to keep the crew busy, particularly during unsettled times. Remember that the ego is not bound by logic or rational reasoning, only by the desire for both the ego and the host to survive using the equivalent of moral suasion. Mostly this means fear, which can manifest as greed, lust, gluttony and other not so obvious fear based emotions. I’m basically talking about the 7 deadly sins.
The result might explain our current mad dash into materialism, which is promoted by our ego in order to distract us from the damage caused by the ego being in constant control and doing a poor job of it. In my view, our insanity is caused in part by our out-of-control ever present ego and partly because we have so completely separated from our center, our core being that for yens of thousands of years lived in harmony with nature. These two causes are not mutually exclusive and actually fit quite well together.
An example of this distraction would be the way we attempt to distract a crying baby with sounds, music or moving objects to divert their attention from their discomfort or trauma. Consider all the brightly colored toys you dangle in front of your son or daughter to quiet them down when they’re loudly letting you know they’re unhappy. The impulse to do this is definitely present in all of us, even if we don’t have children. Sit behind a crying baby on a plane and you’ll do anything to calm the infant short of jumping off the plane or physically hurting the child. This includes silly faces for the baby and angry faces for the mother.
Regardless we need to explain, or at least to understand, man’s suicidal obsession and addiction to materialism if we’re going to cope with our present condition. While there are many people on both sides of this argument, from my point of view man clearly does not co-exist with nature. This is contrary to the actions and behavior of nearly every single plant and animal species on earth, at least those who have not passed into extinction, a path we seem to be following.
I’ve always had a great distaste for the popularly held concept of evolution as “survival of the fittest”. If we look closely we see that in nature, it’s “survival of those who fit best within the whole” that best describes how Mother Nature works. And also our best chance for long term survival. Our delusion that technology alone will save us from ourselves is the best example I can use to illustrate our insanity. Nature in my opinion is the ultimate cooperative effort for the betterment of the whole, an egalitarian state if ever there was one. Passages in the Bible instructing us to hold dominion over the earth, including everything on it, seems to be a rationalization for breaking the sacred contract all inhabitants of Earth are bound by.
Let me step back to the original thought of our ego protecting us from our materialism. Since the ego is the emergency manager of the consciousness and the host body, it would make sense for the ego to see this unnatural materialism as a threat, both to itself and to the host body/consciousness. Because the ego is currently untethered, the ego would handle this situation the best way it could, using the only tools at its disposal, that of fear, self deception and self deceit. Humans (as we currently are) have existed for tens of thousands of years. So from the ego’s point of view, this short period of insanity (the past couple thousand years) must simply be suffered through until our collective sanity returns. Maybe our ego really is protecting us from ourselves until we get better. I went insane and all I got was this lousy T-shirt and a megalomaniac ego.
The native cultures of nearly all the continents were rarely as materialistic as the Europeans and Americans, despite possessing equal if not greater intelligence. And, at least for the North and South American native cultures, equal access to natural resources. So what happened? Why did the Europeans tribes diverge from hundreds of similar cultures scattered throughout the world thousands of years ago, forsaking a more natural and homeopathic relationship with the earth for the naval gazing narcissistic materialistic approach that eventually destroyed (and is still destroying) all those cultures unlucky enough to be blessed with our presence?
Since every other culture had the same opportunity to break off, and for the most part did not, what came over the Europeans? Why were they afflicted with this insanity? From this point of view, our “Material Girl” culture might truly be a mental/spiritual sickness or illness as I’ve been suggesting when I call us insane. The native American Indians (to name just one indigenous culture) express exactly this opinion, calling it the white man’s disease. Consider that the duties of the shaman were to teach his people how to keep the ego under control and in the back seat of the canoe. How and why did it all go wrong in Europe? It appears that this materialism truly began to fester as Europe came out of the Dark Ages.
While the entire world was also immersed in this Dark Age, the other cultures did not seem to be as afflicted as the Europeans. Look at the Muslim Middle East, the Far East of China and Japan; even Africa and the Americas didn’t suffer as Europe did. These regions exited the dark ages more or less intact. Was this where the ego virus finally took control and infiltrated the human mind, in Europe during the dark ages? If only we could call upon Sherman and Mr. Peabody and their WABAC (“wayback”) machine for a trip back in time. I suspect we would find that our (winners) history books would need to be revised.
It’s Not Me, It’s You.
Regardless of the reasons for our insanity, the biggest and most destructive lie of all is the one about those/they/them being the evil perpetrators and me/us/we being the innocent victims. We cannot see, let alone conceive, that living among and within our secret lies, self deceptions and illusions is what’s driving us mad and thus how false the perception of “us” and “them” are. We’re all part of a living breathing economic and social system and while on the surface there are definite distinctions, we’re all co-dependent.
Since nearly all of the intellectual, cultural and religious reference points that supposedly show us we’re sane were constructed by our insanity to feed and reinforce our insanity, how can we trust them? I suspect this alone would drive us all quickly mad if not for the inner resource we all posses, the capability to recognize and understand “truth” at our very core.
I’m talking about our sixth sense, our gut, our instinct, that natural or innate impulse, inclination or tendency inherent in all of us to one degree or another. And which we’ve been conditioned to ignore, even reject, in favor of a “higher” influence, that of technology by way of cruise ships and cruise missiles, of central air conditioning and central government. This isn’t an anti technology statement, this is a pro human statement.
Technology itself is neither good nor bad; it’s how it’s applied and the people applying it and using it that I have a problem with. When discussing technology, advocates fail to recognize that humans have used technology for tens of thousands of years. The problem has always been bad cell phone reception. :>) All kidding aside, any tool is technology. Reed baskets to carry food or possessions, fire to cook and heat, carefully crafted stones used to cut, grind or pound, beasts of burden used to haul or plow the fields or as transportation, nets to catch fish or animals, fur or treated animal skins used as clothing, spears and arrows with stone points and so on. So the argument that technology is killing us is wrong and missing the point.
I’ve often felt that technology helps hide our growing distance from both each other and ourselves. One need only witness two people texting each other while ten feet apart to understand that statement. Consider how many of us are desperate for human contact yet will phone, text, chat and blog rather than walk outside and meet the neighbor we’ve been living next to for the past 4 years and don’t even know by name. Is this not the definition of insanity, of our collective madness? I relocated 12 years ago to the region I now live in. After moving in, I walked around to my nearest neighbors, knocking on doors and introducing myself. You would have thought I was a rapist asking for willing victims the way I was treated.
Worse, I’ve related this story to easily a few hundred people over the past 12 years, including friends, family and clients. And every single person shakes their head in agreement that it’s crazy I was treated this way, as if they never ignored their unknown and unnamed neighbors. It’s always someone else who’s showing signs of insanity, not me. This is sheer and utter madness; self centered narcissistic naval gazing taken to the suicidal level. It’s the cumulative concentration I’m talking about, not the individual incidents, which can always be easily explained away, thus maintaining our own denial.
Welcome to the Insane Asylum
The only way we can sustain our existence while surrounded by this self deception is to lie even more about it, which only serves to drive us deeper into our madness in an endless positive feedback loop of insanity. We’re all on an exponential curve to hell of our own making, nurtured by our insanity and perpetuated by our denial. First we deny, then we deny our denial, then we forget we denied our denial. Welcome to the insane asylum, where all are welcome and no one may leave, where everyone is both medical staff and suffering patient.
While in theory attendance in the asylum is voluntary, in practice it must be mandatory. However, in order to feed our delusion of freedom, our presence is seductively promoted as optional and cleverly disguised as choice. Attendance must be mandatory because any sanity within the madness acts as an antibiotic, eating into all the intertwined self deceptions and delusions that form the basis for the madness virus. Sanity quickly disperses the madness by cutting away the illogical and irrational threads that loosely bind our insanity together. Thus the reason why we never step back for a big picture point of view and why so much is left unsaid and unasked.
Sanity is a mortal danger to the collective insanity and must be cut out and removed if at all possible. Or at the very least, any sanity must be repressed at all costs. Aberrant thought or acts, defined as anything outside the range of 45 to 55 on a 1 to 100 scale, is quickly cauterized and rushed off the American Idol stage of life. Welcome to the machine we all claim to hate but from which we derive our subsistence and support. We have become psychotic cannibals eating away at our own sanity in order to remain comfortably insane. Oh the inhumanity of it all.
Just a few people living and acting sanely function as a “sane” super antibiotic powerful enough to kill off a much larger number of the insane faster than a wooden stake to a vampire’s heart. Insanity simply can’t tolerate reason, logic or compassion in precisely the same way truth becomes extremely dangerous to those whose intent is to deceive or to thieve. The leverage gained from a small number of sane people acting to counteract the insanity will be discussed in an upcoming chapter of this essay because it’s one of the keys to our Escape from New York.
I’m Certified Sane. What About You?
To deny that this cultural insanity is a part of us, to deny that it must be recognized and then treated collectively by us is equivalent to claiming that the open cut on our arm isn’t our problem because we didn’t ask for it, didn’t cause it and don’t want it; thus we most certainly aren’t responsible for it. So we ignore it as it progresses from open cut to festering wound to stinking puss filled gash to gangrenous mass to agonizing death. Since everyone else acts the same way, the herd reinforces our individual and collective behavior as the one and only proper conduct allowed and acceptable.
We’ll ride our righteous indignation, which we concoct to rationalize and justify our inaction, all the way to our grave, screaming at the top of our lungs as we reach for the white light at the end of the crazy train tunnel “See, I told you I wasn’t responsible for it”. Madness! This is madness masquerading as normalcy. And perfectly understandable when you consider that the madmen with the butterfly nets, meaning you and I, are making the rules and running the show. Why would we possibly endeavor to stick our heads out of our protective shells long enough to be decapitated. The genius of our insanity is breath taking, both figuratively and literally.
When considering our (human) behavior, I often apply what I’ve coined the “space alien observer test”. Animal behaviorists study their subjects over long periods of time in an effort to discern not only what’s going on but often the hidden reasons why. If we attempt to apply these same techniques to the study of ourselves, how does one study humans (us) if we’re all insane? If we accept that much of our behavior is natural and thus reasonable and logical, how can we see anything wrong with what we don’t recognize as abnormal? If you don’t expect to find abnormal behavior and all you do see is “normal” behavior, I suspect most everyone is going to get a passing grade.
The “experts” are particularly susceptible to falling into this trap, having been conditioned and indoctrinated by the very same system they’re now expected to critically examine. I’m a so-called expert, having earned the full gauntlet of personal financial planning and security analyst certifications. All that this extensive training and testing succeeded in doing was to teach me how to recognize what’s considered “normal” by the consensus and how to remain hidden in plain sight. Additionally I’m accepted by the other financial experts as one of the chosen. Until recently I was regularly invited to the club for drinks and dinner until I exposed myself (by dropping trousers) as a heretic and non believer. Damn, I’ll miss those Cuban cigars.
But all those calculations and charts are extremely convincing and unless I can regurgitate them come test time (and for continuing education) I won’t receive my accreditation as a “sane” expert financial planner/analyst. I occasionally make fun of my officially sanctioned and accredited sanity by saying “Hi, my name is [CD] and I’m a recovering financial planner. It’s been 12 years since I last planned.” Life’s good since I got clean and sober and interestingly my clients are better off as well, at least financially.
All experts have an inherent conflict of interest. Since experts are officially considered by the hive elders as “sane” they must be the best judge of insanity, right? “Yup, that looks fine to me. Where do I send the bill?” Brings to mind a few Outer Limits programs where the poor sap is left to prove he’s sane after being diagnosed insane by insane people. The only logical (sane?) way to examine humans is to use non humans as observers, thus the reasoning behind my “space alien observer test”. Of course, this is (for now) simply an intellectual exercise unless any aliens passing as human among us want to volunteer for duty. :>)
Watch yourself carefully for a day or two. You’ll be shocked how nonsensical most of your behavior is and how difficult it would be to explain and rationalize our behavior to non humans, let alone your spouse. While we believe we spend the day actively engaged, thinking, weighting and considering, it’s surprising how much of our waking moments are spent on auto pilot and disengaged. This is when we’re vulnerable, when we’re distracted and dazed, when any remaining sanity slips and our programming takes over. I suspect the average person will quickly abandon our little experiment after he or she comes face to face with all the little dissonances and incongruities of daily living. It really is more comfortable back in the ignorant bliss of the collective insanity.
The Sliding Scale of Our Insanity
Many of us saw the 2008 crash coming well before the general population and we should acknowledge our insight and awareness. But this doesn’t mean we’re significantly smarter, more aware or better able to see other “truths”. And it doesn’t excuse us from our responsibility to fix our collective problems. In fact, our awareness instills in us the responsibility of the first responder. Just because we were the first to spot the burning house doesn’t excuse us from volunteer firefighting duties when the paid firefighters don’t show up. We don’t get to brandish this honor like a multiyear long insane asylum hall pass or a get-out-of-the-insane-asylum free card.
How many other lies can we truly be aware of if we won’t examine the primary lies within? For many, it’s too frightening to closely examine what we “know” because then we might be required to act. I know this not just from speaking to others but first hand after deep reflection and some soul searching. For a number of years I cooked up one excuse after another to justify doing nothing, including becoming a self appointed Paul Revere and riding from person to person spreading alarm and panic and doing absolutely nothing constructive.
But what a show I put on and it certainly was a soothing balm for my dishonesty. Waking people from their slumber without offering constructive and actionable pathways out of the train crash is cruel and unusual punishment after the fact, something I’ve been guilty of in the past. My actions were equivalent to performing surgery and removing the anesthesia half way through the operation. In many respects, waking the slumbering without offering a way out can’t be justified morally.
I’m about to experience a car crash and my spouse is sleeping in the passenger seat. Do I wake my spouse to witness the crash or do I ask her to help me navigate around the disaster? If all I have to offer is awareness to the impending disaster, I might as well let her sleep. Or I can grow up and accept my responsibility and lead the way out since I’m already awake.
BTW the slumbering mass instinctively understands the inherent danger of waking in the middle of major surgery. They also seem to understand that the vast majority of us really don’t understand the problem and have no viable solution to offer. Thus it appears to them we simply want someone else to enjoy the show with us as we view our collective suicide. This is why we’re regularly rejected by those we’re trying to awaken. I don’t blame them because given the choice; I’d remain asleep as well. We must be the solution and they will naturally awaken without any prodding by us. More on how this can be done in the later chapters.
So, are we simply a sub herd of the insane, tightly packed together for warmth in a corner of the insane asylum, our territory carefully marked out in gold to identify the Zero Hedge tribe? Speaking only of myself, I have a tendency to create mountains out of mole hills to justify my inaction, to prove to myself and anyone else who asks that I’ve considered all the variables and I’ve concluded that to do nothing is the best course of action. This is truly a self serving conclusion if ever there was one and I’m proud to say I worked hard to achieve it.
I suspect we’re convinced of our sanity simply because we can see more than those who wear hoods instead of blinders. I think, therefore I’m sane. I hate to break the news to everyone, but some of our leaders are certifiably insane by any standard. And yet many of them are extremely good thinkers, brilliant as a matter of fact. We’d better find a new test for (in)sanity because the one we’re using has a few flaws.
Satan Lives Next Door
The ultimate and most seductive form of hubris is that which is exhibited by the insane as we revel in the supreme confidence of our sanity. Anyone who has truly visited the depths of severe emotional instability will tell you that the climb back to sanity must be continuous with no pauses of any significance. It’s during those dangerous lulls that the backsliding begins and the vicious undertow of insanity pulls us back into the abyss. Simply stated, for those returning from the depths of hell, it’s either surface or drown. I seriously doubt we would recognize this process if it were reversed and we were sinking, as we currently are.
I’d say we’re already in the bowels of hell, which I describe as our madness, and our eternal punishment is no knowledge of our own insanity. Satan is my neighbor and I’m Satan to my neighbor. I’m certain that given the choice, I’d convince myself I’m in heaven to relieve the awareness of the pain of hell. Are we sane if we know at times we can be insane or are we insane if we know at times we can be insane? Maybe I have too much time on my hands, but these are questions I often ask. A life unexamined just might be an insane life disguised as sanity.
On that sliding scale of 1 to 100, where 1 is stark raving sane and 100 is stark raving mad, what’s the real difference between 29 and 39 or between 51 and 74? I submit that just because we saw the economic insanity in 2007 (or whatever date we use to label our awakening) doesn’t mean we’re now firmly planted at 1 or 5 or even 10 on the sane/insane scale. To think this is the case is to substantiate my thesis that we’re insane. The definition of sanity is not that we saw the insanity of the economic collapse coming. It was always obvious to the sane, considering the creation of the Fed in 1913 was this countries third stab at a central bank. This is an extremely low hurdle to overcome.
Isn’t saying we awoke to the insanity implying that we were insane at one point? Are we so sure we’re fully sane now? How can we tell? The first step is to ask the question and answer it honestly, since personal dishonesty leads to public dishonesty. There’s plenty more to see and learn. Now that we can clearly see some of what the insane cannot, maybe we should consider that the bar is set suspiciously low. While it’s personally satisfying to clear those hurdles, we’re only fooling ourselves if they’re only 12 inches off the ground. When an insane society selects the parameters to differentiate between sane and insane, it will select those parameters that include the greatest number of insane within the group declared and sanctified as sane.
I contend that the only qualifying parameter of sanity in our culture is simply membership in the majority, with the lowest uncommon denominator the line where we set the border fences. As far as I can tell, given the problems outlined above in determining our own sanity, maybe the best we can hope for is to say that out of all the insane asylum inmates, the measure of insanity is to identify those who have adjusted well enough to their insanity that they can’t tell they’re insane. It sounds to me like ignorance is bliss and madness is nirvana. I sure as hell hope they’re serving pina coladas there because I’m ready to party.
I’m also fairly certain that 90% of the world’s population would read those last few paragraphs and be confident of a few things. One, that I’m the one who’s insane and two, what does it matter if there’s nothing we can do about it? Leaving aside the first item for my therapist and me to work out (he’s certified sane so he won’t kick me out of the hive as long as my insurance pays the bill) if the second item were correct I would agree. What does it matter? But since quite a few of earth’s inhabitants (including the plants and the other animals) don’t seem very happy living under present conditions and this seems to be a cycle that endlessly repeats itself, then it does matter and it can change. Or at least that’s my delusion.
We create our world on a daily basis based upon the image we collectively hold of what we believe it should be. Since our perception is the only reality we know, it isn’t surprising that our reality matches our perception. Thus a perfectly formed circle of circular logic is created along with our reality. Conditions in the insane asylum are the way they are either because this is the way we want them to be or this is the way we think they should be or this is the only way they can be.
I would suggest we can change anything we wish as long as we can perceive and conceive it, for perception is reality. Saying we can’t change anything is just another symptom of our collective insanity. Let’s explore this further before you dismiss me as a madman. Which, based upon my own argument, I am.
Toxic Waste Dumps
We all have toxic waste dumps in our back yards which we individually and collectively allowed to accumulate for decades. We even have some of our own toxic waste buried there. But we won’t discuss it because if we don’t talk about it, it’s not real. Those whom we claim should be responsible for this mess are doing nothing about it. And I promise you they’ll continue to do nothing about it, regardless of the lies we tell ourselves concerning all those indictments, law suits and subpoenas suddenly cropping up all over the place, because we’re doing nothing about it. It’s all coal smoke blown up our collective butts because we’re doing the blowing.
“They” (meaning us) are stalling, acting out our insanity in real time. They won’t stop until we stop because they’re following our script and our lead. It hurts to admit that we’re the architects of this madness, that we have anything to do with this mess. So we deny, then we deny our denial, then we forget we denied our denial. I love circular logic because it’s so logical and to the insane (us) our insanity is wonderfully logical and reasonable. Madness is always pure in form and function. Any loose ends are quickly cut adrift because insanity makes it up on the fly. Insanity is not a slave to rigid logic, which makes it deliciously attractive and extremely well attended.
The Ponzi amusement park ride won’t dismantle itself simply because we ask it to do so for the hundredth time. BTW, don’t forget to ask nicely because we can’t have social unrest. Which if we think about it would be us acting out against us because we’re angry with us. (That was fun to write.) Nor will it stop even if we hang a few patsy leaders. There are always more swine ready to belly up to the trough after one is dragged off to the butcher’s for taking more than its share. The spectacle of the slaughter satisfies our sense that something needs to be done with the troublesome swine (not me though) while at the same time not derailing the consumption machine that feeds our own comfortable insanity. We just wanted to blow off some steam, really, and the ham and bacon are welcome by-products.
It appears there’s a colossal struggle going on right now. The powers that be are attempting to maintain their denial (our denial) of a deflationary debt collapse and escalating political and social conflicts. They (we) attempt to do this with their endless printing of fiat currency, bailout and bailout, public debt creation and private debt assumption. Their (our) efforts fly in the face of the inevitable collapse of all social, economic and political systems dependent upon the false realty the powers (we) are attempting to maintain. This battle has ebbed and flowed back and forth for centuries, but now appears to be headed for the largest global explosion mankind has ever created. An explosion many will not survive, though there’s still time to turn the ship to prevent total catastrophe.
Mirroring this state of affairs (or if you accept my argument, the source of this state of affairs) is the human race itself. We’re engaged in a titanic struggle with ourselves. As we’ve drifted further from our inner natural spiritual consciousness and authentic life, we’ve repudiated our responsibility to live in peace and harmony with all of earth’s living inhabitants in a sustainable and equitable manner. We’ve driven ourselves insane and we face imminent murder/suicide by our own economic and social creations. In effect we’ve been taking more from one side of the equation than nature and we are adding to the other side and balance is beginning to assert itself.
This is more than an oil or technology issue or event. This is a tale about our effort to reject everything we were, are and could be in a mad dash to extract more and more material pleasure from a physical and spiritual universe that has only so much elasticity. It’s not about finding new worldwide energy sources in order to continue our materialistic life style. We are in denial of our true inner source of strength and power. We have allowed ourselves to be seduced by the illusion of receiving something for nothing for quite some time now. We’re a willing participant in our own madness and while we know this, we signal our denial by claiming it’s someone else who’s the guilty party.
Man is addicted to far more than just cheap energy and technology. We’re hooked on the superficial power of Gods at the expense of everything else around us, including ourselves. Like an addict who no longer scores to get high but simply to stave off the pain of withdrawal, the thrill is gone and the old glorious highs of yesteryear are just a fuzzy pain filled memory. Our deal with the devil, with ourselves really, is coming due and we’re rapidly slipping into total madness to avoid the recognition that we’ve met the demon and the demon is us.
Even if the reader doesn’t agree with the thesis I’ve offered, there’s little doubt the big picture I’ve sketched is accurate. The fecal matter is clearly on an accelerating trajectory towards the fan. So what am I going to do about this? What are you going to do about this? What are we going to do about this? If not us, who? If not now, when? These are legitimate questions that must be asked and answered regardless of our righteous indignation over the unfairness of the burden. We are the one and only solution to “we” the problem.
Do we really think we can step aside and watch the insanity work itself out to some unknown conclusion and not be splattered with stray brains and fecal matter? Worse, do we think this is someone else’s problem? When it really gets bad, we can’t escape to some off world safe house as intergalactic tourists, where we mingle with the friendly natives until the fat lady sings it’s time to return. This is not sane thinking. If it is, then beam me up Scotty because I’m sure as hell ready. Maybe while I’m visiting I can sell those aliens some iPhones. Wait; doesn’t that make me the alien?
Up to now we’ve been working diligently to avoid responsibility. And the principal method we employ is our intellect, which is used to identify the surface problems and point to the culprits. We helpfully use labels like “they” or “them” to avoid acknowledging each of our small but critical parts in this ongoing charade. It appears that we’re just sitting around waiting for the end rather than rising to the challenge and meeting this crisis head on.
Incredibly, we seem to think our collective insanity will see the futility of its insanity and simply quit acting out its insanity. That the bull won’t break anything important to us while lose in the china shop. We really are expecting someone to step forward that we can quickly embrace as the savior. Whom do we suppose will pull us back from the brink? Is this not the ultimate in false hope seeking and wishful thinking? I’m pretty certain that sanity will be the last thing we demonstrate without first recognizing our own insanity. And without immediate intervention, the patient will die; only the death won’t be mercifully quick. Where’s our moment of clarity, that point of no return where one sees without a doubt that death is coming if everything doesn’t change?
Dis-Ease
Please don’t mistake my critical questions as blanket criticism. Nor that I’m above the fray and that I’ve had nothing to do with this. I’m fairly certain I’m contributing my fair share to this insanity. However, we must begin to ask the tough questions of ourselves as well as each other. We’re not innocent victims here and we need to recognize this. We shouldn’t feel terribly uneasy simply because tough questions are being asked unless we’re unable to answer them honestly. A healthy mind and body can always withstand a thorough self examination and often grows as a result.
Our modern society considers the definition of health to be the absence of disease. While I strongly disagree with this simplistic definition, for now let’s stick with it. The word disease breaks into “dis” and “ease”. A healthy mind and body is in a state of “ease” with itself and the world while an unhealthy mind and body is in a state of “dis-ease”. We express this condition by saying the mind or body has a disease or is diseased. If we’re going to point fingers at the lies of the Ponzi as proof of its “dis-ease”, we’d better be able to withstand the same assault or crumble in the face of our own hypocrisy and insanity.
It seems to me we’re reverting further and further into infantile behavior in order to avoid accepting any blame, however insignificant that might be. And damn if we’ll accept any responsibility for cleaning up a disaster we sure as hell didn’t cause. “Who’s responsible for this mess” we bellow in righteous indignation? “Not me” we reply. “I was in the bathroom when it happened. See the urine stain on the front of my pants. That’s proof I wasn’t there.” Well, that worked for me in second grade so why not now? “It’s not fair.” And on and on in an endless cycle of hide and go seek.
I agree! It’s not fair. It sucks. It bites the big one. We’ve been screwed, royally and repeatedly and without a reach around and a kiss on the cheek. The game’s rigged and the deck’s stacked. What can I say; we’ve been screwed, as in past tense. This is of course assuming we’re all victims with no personal involvement whatsoever. Exactly who is the abuser and who is the abused since many of us have from time to time benefited from the screwing of others, either directly or indirectly? Need I explain how we benefited? But for the sake of this sub-argument, let’s say we’re the victims and we now stand victimized. Now, what are we going to do about it?
What exactly are we waiting for? Or maybe I should say who exactly are we waiting for? I suspect the vast majority of people would laugh if I said I was waiting for the Green Lantern or Superman to save the day. So who do we really expect to step into this mess and pull our asses out of the meat grinder? At this point it doesn’t appear it’s going to be us. But that’s exactly who has to step up because there’s no one else.
How Do We Begin?
So let’s begin to turn this corner. How does one begin to talk about our collective insanity, about the things that are better left unsaid? Well to start, we begin by cleaning and disinfecting our wound, even if we don’t believe it’s our responsibility. It’s our wound and we’ll die if we don’t clean it. It doesn’t get any clearer than that. We must look for the exit and disembark from the crazy train. We must begin to discuss our crazy Aunt Alice, who’s been locked in the attic for decades. We must begin to acknowledge her existence with more than just whispered words of conspiracy. “Psst, it’s your turn to change the sheets for you know who.” We must begin to push through the pain of our collective cognitive dissonance, releasing all the emotional pain we’ve been desperately avoiding by denying poor Aunt Alice is alive and breathing.
Like a Jenga game gone mad, we stack lies upon lies in the insane belief that by applying more to the stack, we’ll lessen the burden and increase the stability. Each of us takes our turn preparing and serving Aunt Alice her meals, cleaning her clothes and brushing her hair. Yet we don’t discuss Aunt Alice among ourselves. How does one even recognize what truth is when we’re living a lie, when we welcome additional lies in order to be shielded from our earlier lies? Our insanity is that we believe we know what truth is when we’ve rarely seen it and have actively rejected it most of our lives.
In a society and a world as dysfunctional as ours, the only way to begin to seek the truth is to tell the truth, first to ourselves and then to others. But how can we do this when we can’t trust our own lying eyes or each other? We do so by rejecting what the external and internal control systems are telling us (lie, lie, lie and lie some more) while seeking a higher truth within. And by demanding those we deal with not lie, either to us or to anyone else around us. While doing so might cull a few friends from our calling circle, we need to start somewhere. And I understand this requires courage because we’ll be swimming upstream and against the current.
It’s of the utmost importance to understand that what is sustaining the lie, including the “Big Lies” our government perpetuates, is the unwillingness to question the lie. Unquestioned or unchallenged statements (aka lies) made by known or suspected liars (beginning with ourselves) become truth by default in the eyes of those who don’t wish to be honest. This starts with us.
If we aren’t rigorously honest with ourselves and those immediately around us, we’ll always succumb to the seductive call of lies that are more comforting than truth. “Daddy, tell me another lie so that I may pretend it’s the truth.” Additional lies have one purpose and one purpose only, to directly or indirectly support previous and/or future lies. What do we do when we find ourselves in a hole of lies? We stop the cycle of lies supporting lies by applying a novel solution. Demand the truth, both from ourselves and from those around us.
This is precisely the purpose of Zero Hedge. Tyler, Marla and company stand on the soap box in the middle of our cultural town square and repeatedly cry foul regarding every lying utterance of the control system. This includes lies perpetuated by the keepers of the myth, our so called main stream media and their talking head “experts”, along with various other sycophant hanger-on’s and enablers. But it’s not enough for Zero Hedge to fight this battle single handedly.
We’re deluding ourselves if we think that reading and commenting on Zero Hedge is fighting the good fight. And we’re also deluding ourselves if we think we can just sit back and watch it all burn. That cut on our arm is starting to smell a bit putrid. We might want to consider some self treatment. We must do more and it must begin within. If we’re only willing to accept the truths that we’re comfortable with or those that neatly fit our worldview and ignore anything that creates a cognitive dissonance, we’re in effect enabling the continuation of the public lies and myth making and are no better than “they” or “them”.
In Chapter 3 of this continuing examination of our collective insanity, we’ll begin to unfold the dynamics of the public lie, our often unconscious defense of the public lie, setting up our personal psychic firewalls, the Stockholm syndrome and the dynamics of the family when dealing with the addicted/abuser, Mother Nature’s nose candy, how we can break the conditioning and then reinforce the changed behavior. Please join me for the third lap of the pool.
Cognitive Dissonance 06/04/2010
- advertisements -


"And the time will come when you see we're all one,
and life flows on within you and without you."
George Harrison
merehuman
I'm missing something here. Why would you realize you are quite alone?
so many fields, so few workers.
Any given day the folks i meet dont want to know how bad the economy is.
They arent willing to let go of their routine, the reruns.
With who can i share the higher aspects of what/who iam?
I can be Harry the drywall guy and be accepted at that level. But there is only 2 folks i can be at my highest vibration with and one of them is in California the other the lady i am with.
Its lonely because i cannot share that of myself.
Even on a more human level . For example i see you as family. I acknowledge all of us as family. Even the jews and muslims and the animals
We are all god individualized and our ability is dictated by our form.
Most folks are to human, too lost in the dream to see the real me. Thats why its alone. Dont misunderstand i am not lonely, just aware of my place in the sheme of things.
OH and CD thanks for responding. Sometimes my ego wants to respond much more than i do. Have a bright and shiny day.
just so no one misunderstands on a human level i carry some antipathy toward jews and muslims at the moment cause they are such a pain in the ass. I wont carry it too far! Lol
CD no need to defend what is not yours. it is ours like an oft told folklore. it's just your particular way of telling it. whenever you feel threatened pay attention to your mind and act. don't re-act.
juangrande
I've been conversing with merehuman for many months. I have grown to "know" him based upon dozens and dozens of interactions and I was asking him a question. What are you talking about?
sorry if I misunderstood. seemed like a heated discourse to me. Also I was referring to the talk with the guy before, nhsadika.
Sir,
I am not writing about materialism. However, the first sub-heading (since changed) had the word "materialism" in it, leading some to assume that materialism was the content of the article.
I see you didn't actually take the time to read the article before commenting on something that had very little to do with the article. Since it appears on average you leave comments in one article once a week here on ZH, I suspect you aren't here to understand or learn but rather to disparage.
Thank you for stopping by. See you next week.
Yes I read your article. If I'm reading you right, you're upset by my comments - since you say they were disparaging. I assure you they were not. I'm following you very closely. Your entire article, almost every line, can be seen as a materialistic struggle (I don't mean the consumption inflection of materialism) - I mean an attempt to elude itself and also cure itself by the very world view and process which gave rise to the disease.
Your article is not talking about credit default swaps or financial happenings, it's talking about the nature of ourselves and reality so what I said was 100% relevant, somewhat abstract, but relevant.
edit: The very first line about intellect is not disparaging but true about every intelligent person - genius is blindness. The intellect must be brought under control and in service of the human and not the other way. I assure you there that in other spheres among enlightened people (enlightened in the spiritual/religious domain) this is well understood part of reality - as much as getting rid of the Fed is truth for a financially enlightened person who wants a sound society (poor analogy but you get my point).
I welcome different views. That's how I learn. But when someone says "These are essential human questions and you won't be satisfied till you have answers." your presumption is staggering. How do you know what will or will not satisfy me? How do you know what I know or don't know? I wrote the essay to elicit questions in the reader, not because I'm asking questions to get the answers.
Your entire comment drips of superiority, such as "I have no idea how to unfold this for you on an Internet forum but your quest includes these questions.." This tells me that you are the enlightened one and I'm not capable of understanding you or what you're saying in this forum. If you're that enlightened, this forum would hardly be an impediment.
So give it a try. I'm willing to listen, but not to someone who says that I don't know and they won't try to tell me. That's the height of arrogance.
nhsadika obviously touched a nerve with CD, and I think CD is indeed missing something, as are most of the posters in response to CD's piece. The nerve touched is CD's lack of spiritual vision.
There is much more to the human mind than psychology; in fact, devotees of the study of psychology are themselves at the heights of intellectual arrogance when they purport to define how "we" are all this (insane) or that (and materialistic).
I'll be glad to post more later, but for now my prediction is that after all CD's articles are written and read, nothing much will have changed.
when someone tells you how to search, without you asking for suggestions, bad sign....agree with you CD
This feels like you are voting for a contestant on American Idol. If I had the path to enlightenment in my pocket, do you really think the sign of me having it would be that I am nice and don't speak about it until asked.
for me it just rings truer that way... of course, someone that has wisdom that can help people must announce it in some way if it to be of help...but it seems more appropriate to put it out there, such as CD is doing or others do in books, speeches, and let those who are interested come to it, listen read, rather than criticize others products...unless of course, they are first criticizing your positions...guess it is a point with me as I have been often guilty of trying to impose my beliefs on others when they are not interested...surely happy to argue with people, but unless they are asking for my advice, any advice from me is not received well, whether it is good or not
"When I find enlightenment, I will let you know -- if letting you know is still important!"
-- Ashleigh Brilliant
Don't you know the words "I have no idea how to..on an internet forum..." was exactly my own ramblings in there to talk about how the lack of human context means that people are apt to project all sorts of things into what you write, and the conversations become emotional miscommunication and slinging of words at each other.
It is obviously happening between us since I'm now a) dripping with superiority and have an ego out the wazoo b) saying I'm the enlightened one c) saying you're not capable d) telling you that I know something about you ..."won't be satisfied" and so am presumptive and holier than thow (btw I was referring to the collective you, more than you you)
and now I've pissed you off and have your defenses up. I don't blame either of us for this, it is the state of the medium before we could use our other faculties to see the person's inner state and if they were of good manners. I'm sorry.
Hopefully we'll have better conversations as time passes.
LOL
"Hopefully we'll have better conversations as time passes."
There is no hope. :>)
That pretty much says it all right there, doesn't it? I must admit that when something as stark as your list, which represents the actual insanity of it all, hits me between the eyes, even though it shouldn't surprise me it always does.
Insanity knows no bounds and is always pure in form and function.
The fact that you can still be surprised is to your credit CD. I must confess that I have reached a point where literally nothing surprises me. I do not consider that a positive development for me. Your series is very well written out and well-reasoned, thank you for producing it and posting it here.
Talking strictly about myself and not projecting to you I find my surprise level would raise and lower. After contemplating on this a few times I realized that for me, it had everything to do with my hope that "change could happen".
I need to point out the terminology I use. That "change could happen" as in it happens and I can then be a part of it or sample it or ride it into the sun set. To the point, as long as I saw myself as the victim and powerless to make changes, my hope that change could some how happen despite the insanity was entirely dependant upon what was going on in the world and my mind from moment to moment. I was powerless to make the change, thus I was victimizing myself.
However, when I decided I no longer wanted to be the victim, that I was only the victim by my own choosing, then I realized I could make changes. Then the phrase would morph into "I will change" and then to "I will make change" and then to "change will happen".
Previously my emotional quotient was entirely dependent upon outside events that I (with the help of the control system) concluded were out of my control, thus my fate was out of my control, thus I was dependant upon change coming from somewhere else, thus I was doomed thus I became apathetic and thus I would no longer be surprised.
Once I took responsibility for the change, once I decided to be the change, once I removed the plug in the line (me) each day held immense possibility because I was the change. So now I was able to be surprised by the terrible conditions but also confident they will change because now I believed change will happen.
We use apathy as a pain killer, to deaden and dull the pain, which we feel is the only choice we have since we can't change a thing. While the new perspective does open myself back up to fresh applications of pain, it also means that I'm once again alive and the pain can be permanently removed because I am the change.
This is the first step to walking ourselves out of this insanity one mind at a time. This is why I talk about the slave mentality and why in the next Chapter I'll talk about Stockholm syndrome and addiction.
As always CD, a thought provoking read.
The “experts” are particularly susceptible to falling into this trap, having been conditioned and indoctrinated by the very same system they’re now expected to critically examine.
Since "expert status" is conferred by the hive how well will the current crop of experts react when their power evaporates along with the trust placed in them by the hive? Probably not as well as the political leadership that pretends to have expert status, but appreciates what loss of power really is while these other "real" experts have most likely never even considered the potential that the underpinnings to their social and ego status could actually evaporate. Hence their collective urge to ridicule any threat to their status in ways that would make a sociopath blush.
You are building a wonder article thread there, CD. Very nice. I had read the article below a while ago. After reading your missive, am sharing this with you. I am sure you will find the observation below very interesting. Pardon me if you have read this already. Thanks.
How have individuals been affected by the technological advances of recent years?
Here is the answer to this question given by a philosopher-psychiatrist, Dr. Erich Fromm:
Our contemporary Western society, in spite of its material, intellectual and political progress, is increasingly less conducive to mental health, and tends to undermine the inner security, happiness, reason and the capacity for love in the individual; it tends to turn him into an automaton who pays for his human failure with increasing mental sickness, and with despair hidden under a frantic drive for work and so-called pleasure.
Our “increasing mental sickness” may find expression in neurotic symptoms. These symptoms are conspicuous and extremely distressing. But “let us beware,” says Dr. Fromm, “of defining mental hygiene as the prevention of symptoms. Symptoms as such are not our enemy, but our friend; where there are symptoms there is conflict, and conflict always indicates that the forces of life which strive for integration and happiness are still fighting.” The really hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. “Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does.” They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted, still cherish “the illusion of individuality,” but in fact they have been to a great extent deindividualized. Their conformity is developing into something like uniformity. But “uniformity and freedom are incompatible. Uniformity and mental health are incompatible too. . . . Man is not made to be an automaton, and if he becomes one, the basis for mental health is destroyed.”
In the course of evolution nature has gone to endless trouble to see that every individual is unlike every other individual. We reproduce our kind by bringing the father’s genes into contact with the mother’s. These hereditary factors may be combined in an almost infinite number of ways. Physically and mentally, each one of us is unique. Any culture which, in the interests of efficiency or in the name of some political or religious dogma, seeks to standardize the human individual, commits an outrage against man’s biological nature.’
dig the fromm sisyphus.
what i found so perplexing is that here in the land of the freedom of the individual, most everyone has become conformist to a certain cultural paradigm. fashion for example. take a ride on the subway during rush hours and you'll notice that everyone is wearing the same exact thing. fashion houses go out of the way to discover the latest styles of the top of their class and copy them as soon as they can.
why is that do you think? does the collective side of our nature desperately seek balance & connection and we are suckered in by advertising to find the quickest and most unobtrusive way to satisfy the lack? or are we intimidated by the overwhelming diversity of this country that we subconsciously need to embrace similarity? or is personal freedom too much responsibilty for the individual?
don't know the answer, i just miss the wild colored pimp coats up in harlem. those cats had mad style.
Mad style. It's been a long time since I heard that phrase. Thanks for the memory.
"Freedom" is an illusioniary concept that is wonderful to think about and occasionally claim we practice. But the last thing most of us actually want is (total) freedom, including freedom to express our thoughts and feelings. I think it has gone past the point of lazy into psychosis.
Freedom is not what we want to experience. Choice is a better description of what's going on today. Control is so much easier when you tell people they are free and give them a few choices. It makes it easy for them to stay confined within the pen without getting too restless because they can delude themselves into believing they can leave at any time.
But people are beginning to see the fences and recognized they are not free. Now we will see who really wants to be free and who is frightened of being free.
Wow. Very nice.
I often say that being well adjusted to an insane and severely dysfunctional society is NOT a good thing. And the overwhelming majority of mental health professionals today are trained to help people adjust and adapt to their (and their societies) insanity.
They see the outward stress not as a manifestation of the person/soul/being trying to shake off their illness but as an illness itself, with the goal being to re-assimilate them back into the madness in order to quiet the stress and hide the outward symptoms.
Thank you for sharing that piece.
CD, this work in progress that you have laid out before us all has really given words to a feeling that has been eating away at me since I was 16. That was when I first watched The Matrix and believed that films like that (Fight Club(?)) were not just films, but messages or warnings trying to tell people something. I'm now 27 and that feeling continues to eat at me, but not in such a way like a shark that devours its prey. It's a feeling of urgency that we need to slow the car down and veer off the highway because we're about to drive into a massive pileup. I continually am inspired and empowered to say what is true, and act with integrity even though it means certain ostracization in this world that is almost too far gone. Thanks again CD for writing this, and I look forward to the upcoming 3 parts to conclude this essay.
PS. I've posted links to these essays on my FB page, and I have emailed them to everyone I can think of.
Your feeling was correct. I had an art teacher who said, good art is not just making pretty pictures. It's about conveying a message or lesson.
Khalil Gibran, lebanese poet comes to mind. Reading his work again and again new and more meaning and depth emerges. Yet his writing was an easy read . Truly classic. Once upon a time americans spoke with more eloquence. It seems a falling down on all fronts. Sad for the country.
"...but messages or warnings trying to tell people something."
"I know exaclty what you mean, it's like a splinter in your mind..."
-- Morpheus
your post put me in mind of the film "Koyaanisqati". . .
there are three in the series, and another I'd recommend is "Baraka" - all of them are visuals with music scores that appeal to the right brain (as opposed to linear, "thought provoking" films - of which I'm a great fan too, hehe). . .
sometimes giving the thought process a rest, some space, allows truths to arise.
pretty much all of the time.
The Matrix was so much more than "just" some "woo woo" science fiction movie as many describe it. It was an intense exploration of our consciousness and our current insanity while bringing together many different disciplines of study.
You'll be pleased to know I specifically refer to a scene from The Matrix in Chapter 3. I will say no more so that you may enjoy the fun of discovery while reading it in a few days.
why did I start humming "Hotel California" in the midst of reading that?
"...you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...".da, daaa dat.
CD, I live on 50 acres and gave away probably two large truck loads of shit moving out to a very modest house. We grow a good bit of our own food, and live a simpler life....
...and I have a lot of the same thoughts that you are developing in your essay, yet the burden of carrying that knowledge doesn't go away with the simpler life either. I am still searching...maybe this damned computer is the materialism to chuck next?
Hmm. Depends on how and why you have collected the material... Unless the stuff is just more hamster wheels in drag. I suppose that may be an acid test in determining if a tool really is yours or vis a vis.
the collective consciousness just got raised a notch with that comment MK...thx! (and I do mean that, love the "hamster wheel in drag" part, cracks me up).
I like certainty. In LA one nite a gorgeous hawayan looking gal bartender took me home. I walked out and away short after getting there. Beyond the makeup, the wig, padded bra and hung like a pony. Shit! It was a long walk. Gave me time about the follies of youth and inexperience.
What do i wanna be when i grow up...old
an all too brief moment of pure illumination
Oh C'mon!!! 16 pages!!!
(grumble grumble grumble)
At my read-speed this is gonna completely kill my train ride home. No IPOD tonight.
all the best,
MA-RH
Something went wrong because I posted 20 pages. :>)
I promise you they won't be wasted pages. We begin to get into the meat of the matter with this and the following Chapter. My favorite part in this Chapter is Mother Nature's nose candy. Chapter 4 turns the corner and we really begin to discuss change and healing. But we gotta scrub the wound before we can begin to heal.
And if we are a burn patient that process can be quite a challenge at first... Until a point is reached where we cannot wait for our next scrubbing. This is the best visualization to the way this process has worked for many, including myself. I am sure CD that after part 5 there may well be calls from Miss America and others for another 20.... :) Cheers !
Thank you CD
CD:
I very much appreciate your efforts in posting on this subject that is very hard to "get a handle on". Your open discussion of difficult ideas contributes to making this board a must read each day.
But! While I know that all models are just models; some are better than others. Freud is famous because his worked so well for a lot that goes on psychologically that his teachings were very highly recommended. Still today, a lot of people pay attention to "Freudian Theory"
In his model, ego is actually a good guy. The superego is the thing that is represented by our conscience and general behavior as we get older. If the Id, repositor of our childish urges that don't relate to other people has too much control over the superego that is a source of problems.
This link explains it much better than I can:
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego.html
IMO, you give your good intentioned ego a break. It is a hero obviously doing its best.
I'm not sure what you mean by "models" because I do not follow any model. I have come to my own conclusion based upon deep inner journeys with very little reading of the "experts". From what little I have read, I find I have some in common with many but I am an independent thinker.
The problem I see with many "experts" is that they should have taken a few "trips" or inner journey's before talking about things they haven't experienced. I'll take magic mushrooms (Psilocybin), Ayahuasca, DMT, AMT, DPT etc over Phd's any day. That's not to say "they" are wrong, only that there is a difference between thought experiments and experimental thought.
Very impressive CD. Reminds me of a book from many years back . Ernest Becker won a Pulitzer prize for THE DENIAL OF DEATH. Sadly he died soon after at 50. He surely knew a thing or two about ego. One thought I recall from 40 years ago: " beyond a certain point, man is not helped by more knowing, but by living in a partly self- forgetful way." Your efforts are deeply appreciated , but you already know that.
Good article, but throughout my read I was confused by this point. I thought you meant "ego" as it's defined by psych models. Now I see you meant ego, as in status symbols or bragging rights.
CD
Kind of like Robin Williams having his students tear the first page out of the book of poetry they used for class?
Anyway, though I agree with you, this line of thought has always led me to a huge paradox. My modest home is furnished mostly with decent garage sale or Craigslist furniture and I have always driven used cars. I have never been remotely rich, but I prefer to live in this manner because it suits my needs just fine. But without the materialism of our culture at large, without the military state that it necessitates, I fear I would be living in a much poorer condition dictated to me by the governance of a more evil force. At least as it is I choose to live in the manner I wish to - I am not forced to by dire circumstance or at gunpoint.
Maybe our alpha dog has a kinder and gentler bite than any alternative??? Does this make it OK?
In the end, it is an individual quest. Obviously after reading your post and the many fine comments here, I have a lot of catching up to do in many areas. Is it my ego getting in the way and causing me this roadblock or just my general stupidity? I don't know. Stalemate.
P.S. your T-shirt is very similar to my "I spent 18 months at Bellevue and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" shirt.