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Welcome To The Insane Asylum – Our Collective Psychosis - Chapter One
Welcome To The Insane Asylum – Our Collective Psychosis
Chapter One
All Aboard the Crazy Train.
All amusement park rides have one characteristic in common. Regardless of the twists and turns of the experience, the exit is always at the end. This examination of our collective and individual dysfunction, our insanity, follows a similar path. We start with the identification of a few of the bigger picture issues, then move closer for a critical inspection of several of the individual and cultural dynamics and end with some guidance towards the lighted exit sign and one possible way out.
I’ve never been more confident in humanity’s ability to finally throw off the chains that bind. But (and there’s always a “but”) this can only be accomplished using the powerfully disinfecting sunlight of awareness and understanding. This is usually achieved through self reflection, self actualization and eventually enlightenment. A common misperception among many is that the general population is not intelligent enough to become aware and enlightened. The awakening process has nothing to do with our IQ and everything to do with our EQ or Emotional Quotient.
If we can be conditioned by fear and narcissistic naval gazing to be self destructive, we can be encouraged to be emotionally and spiritually healthy as long as we don’t look to our leaders for guidance. In fact, we must not transfer the responsibility for our own well being to others for this is simply an invitation to manipulate and extort us. There’s no single solution, no magic button to be pushed that makes everything better, allowing us to go back to our comfortable insanity. Ultimately our own unique journey is a deeply personal and individual experience and while the direction is clear, the path is customized by each journey.
There is no softer easier way, no short cut through the maze and no one to walk the path for us. I know this because of my long and at times difficult personal experience overcoming self erected obstacles as well as those placed there by my culture and country. I’ve tried every path I could possibly imagine before eventually settling on the only one I could find with an exit. That alone should be encouraging to many because until a few years ago I didn’t think there was a way out.
And I’m not alone because many people I talk to still feel it’s hopeless. The question (in my mind at least) is no longer can we save ourselves but what’s the process that must be followed in order to make the lasting changes needed to not only survive but grow and prosper. Make no mistake about what I’m saying; there will be pain no matter what we do or don’t do. But there is pain during healing as well as pain during destruction and we have a choice.
Swimming in the Shipping Channel of Life
The answers are deceptively simple, which makes it difficult for most people to accept when we’ve been conditioned to believe that complexity requires complex solutions. Nothing could be further from the truth. When one finds they’ve dug themselves into a hole, the first rule to follow is to stop digging. Since we’ve been trained all our lives that digging’s what we do, it’s almost heretical to ponder anything else. Considering how our narrow view benefits certain select “others” we should question everything we believe once we’ve stopped digging and are looking for a way out.
As with all my work, I ask the reader to consume it in it’s entirely, in the order presented and to leave all sections in context. I’ve broken this essay into multiple parts (5 at this point) for easier consumption. But it really doesn’t work unless it’s read as a continuous thought process. So I suggest you read each section in order because this isn’t 5 independent articles, but rather one article broken into 5 separate pieces.
Each section won’t necessarily make sense on its own unless you’ve read the preceding sections. Even then it might not make any sense, but I’m only responsible for my insanity. You’re on your own. This silliness started out as a one or two page blurb but quickly morphed into Godzilla like proportions. Consider it the insane leading the insane and have some fun while expanding your mind.
May I also suggest that you read each section twice, something I usually do when reading anything new? Reading it the first time trips all the objections my ego comes up with, which exposes my deep conditioning and indoctrination. My ego always defends my consciousness from the inevitable cognitive dissonance I experience when I read something that contradicts what I think I believe.
Basically my ego lies to me and then defends those lies using the pain of cognitive dissonance. The first reading clears out all those trip wires and leads the way for the second reading, which talks directly to the reasoning, common sense and empathy centers of my consciousness. If I really enjoyed what I’ve read, it gets a third reading for the pure joy of it. And of course to make sure the new conditioning has been properly assimilated.
Have you ever noticed how upon reading something a second time, you’ll often find words, sentences, even entire paragraphs you somehow missed the first time around? It’s amazing how blind we are when our ego gets in the way. Since this essay discusses subjects that are not exactly consensus opinion, expect to experience a few ego elevator drops.
I also swim pretty far from the pier of the commonly accepted understanding of “reality” in the later sections of this essay so expect some disorientation and wrinkled fingers and toes. The good news is that I’m beginning to find physicists and various other scientists swimming in the “what is reality” discussion philosophers have had to themselves for centuries. So at least we won’t be alone as we tread water near the shipping channel buoys. I do hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it. I’m sure you’ll let me know in the comments section.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
In an alternative universe such as Disney’s Magic Kingdom or Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it’s always easy to distinguish the good guys from the bad, the truth from the lie. It usually has something to do with horned red devils and fire breathing dragons, with cotton tail bunnies and bizarre flying monkeys. We were weaned from mother’s breast with mythical tales of gallant white knights and long haired princesses, ancient stories originally intended to inform us of life’s wisdoms, pitfalls and hazards.
But our modern myths and fairy tales only serve to obscure, propagandize and pacify. Rarely do we question the content of anything we consume that’s entering through our five (six) senses. If a new offering appears to be reasonably consistent with what was recently consumed, access is granted with little or no critical assessment. Just go with the flow dude because it’s coming straight at you in torrents. After all what harm could a few TV sitcoms and dramas do to us, let alone the news? I certainly know when someone’s pulling my strings don’t you?
Most of us rarely consider the possibility that much of what we “know” isn’t actually based in reality, but is in effect a shared illusion, an unspoken and shared understanding between the natives. Our modern world is readily accepted and acted upon simply because there’s no serious consideration given to alternatives. After all, someone’s watching the store, right? We’re placed on an endless tread mill beginning around age 5 (some would say even earlier) and we’re assured this is normal and natural and everything that can be expected.
I know what I know because my parents and teachers taught me, my government and corporate approved propaganda reinforced it and now my TV and Internet are reinforcing the reinforcement. So it must be true simply because it all adds up to a staggering preponderance of evidence. We’re assured it’s all as real as an eighteen wheeler hard on our ass and trying to pass. Besides, everyone else pretty much believes the same thing we do with only minor variations. They can’t all be wrong! So don’t fight it, just go with the flow.
However, upon closer examination, much of this evidence is validated through circular logic, with Alpha supporting Beta which supports Alpha which supports Beta. On those rare occasions when contrary information enters the system and startles our consciousness, it’s quickly washed out as an outlier or fat finger. Madness and insanity, or dysfunction for those faint of heart who object to strong terms, is always self reinforcing, self perpetuating, self replicating and tolerates no contradictions. It is pure in form and function.
Unfortunately the world we live in isn’t quite as black and white as our story books, moving media and authority figures would have us believe. Instead, like some choking coal smoke that settles into every crack and crevice, we see nothing but endless permutations of gray wherever we gaze. It’s not very satisfying, is it? Where are the clear cut boundaries, where good begins and evil decays? Where are the brightly colored super heroes to contrast the dark evil villains? We can’t always tell them apart when they’re all covered in shades of gray.
I Can See Clearly Now, the Gray is Gone.
But wait, I think I know how to see through the haze. All it takes is an adjustment to my perception, a new set of spectacles for my senses. Like an old black and white TV, our most important sensory control knobs are brightness and contrast located between the ears. Between the two, everything can be brought into sharper focus. I’ll just be the good guy and everyone else can be bad. I can see clearly now, the gray is gone. It’s gonna be a bright bright sun-shiny day.
A consistent theme in various articles and comments are the angry denunciations of those (never ours, always they or them or those) evil bankers and corporations, the complicit mass media, a compliant regulatory authority and droves of corrupt government officials at the highest levels. And don’t forget the dead-to-the-world great unwashed masses. We complain they’re all engaged in an unprecedented (at least for modern times) take no prisoners thieving and feeding frenzy of those very same masses. And somehow we’re different, separated from the masses and the evil doers by our understanding and awareness of the fix that’s in.
Of course (we tell ourselves) this is being orchestrated by the powers that be, which can usually be found cowering behind the heavy curtains of the control system. They’re the ones pushing the levers and pulling the puppet strings, enslaving us with their fiat currency pushed by the black banking cabal without our consent and against our will. Here’s the proof, in black and white. Can’t you see it, there’s Professor Plum in the parlor with the candlestick?
And all of this may very well be entirely true. In fact, I believe much of it is. But it’s also mostly irrelevant to the one thing many of us are searching for in this filthy stinking mess. While it’s not voiced very often in the articles and comments, the great unanswered questions of this epic disaster are basic. Why is this happening? How are “they” able to get away with it? What is it about man that permits this cycle of greed and corruption to build to a climax and then recede, endlessly repeating the same cycle since well before Christ the Son of God or Ra the Sun God?
When will we accept that “they/them/those” won’t fix anything and it’s up to us to lead so that our leaders can follow? In the biggest paradox of them all, the underlying presumption is always that the machine itself works reasonably well if only the madmen were removed from the controls. But who put them there in the first place and won’t they just be replaced with more? We don’t question the basic systems, only the perceived faults of individual parts and mechanisms. We fiddle with the wires, connections and duct tape while the bomb is still ticking, collectively oblivious to the obvious.
I assure you with absolute certainty that I don’t have all the answers. But I can also assure you with equal certainty that we’ll never find the answers unless and until the questions that really matter are not only asked and examined, but that it’s done honestly and openly. In a world gone mad, sanity won’t be embraced or embodied until we examine our own insanity. Otherwise all we’re doing is soothing the savage beast within until this cycle ends and the next cycle of madness begins, bringing with it the next turning of humanity upon itself. While the reader may complain that I ask too much of us, that the problems are too big and the powers too strong; consider that it may only appear that way because we see the issue as one huge problem. This is an illusion.
Icons of Insanity
I’m using the words insane and madness in this essay not only to grab your attention but because I believe those are the proper words to use. But the inherent problem in using them is that the popular perception of insanity has been shaped by novels and TV. When one sees or hears the words insanity or madness, most people instantly visualize a serial killer randomly stalking victims before slashing them to pieces. Or maybe one thinks of a totally dysfunctional asylum inmate zonked out on Thorazine, specks of spittle clinging to his lower lip while drool drips down the side of his mouth. Our popular culture is chock full of these images, from A Clockwork Orange to a Freddy Krueger. For the purposes of this essay, wash those images from your mind because our collective insanity is much more presentable and socially acceptable.
Despite these image problems, I’m still going to use the words repeatedly because the reader needs to understand that I do mean deranged, not fully aware, acting strangely or at cross purposes to one’s own long term survival. Some of the words used in the definition of mad or insane help to explain my meaning further, such as mentally disturbed, extremely foolish or unwise, imprudent, irrational, confused, extreme impulsiveness, unsafe, wildly impractical or foolish, ill-advised, dangerous, senseless, reckless, unsound, maniacal, angry or ill-tempered. You get the picture.
I expect the reader’s ego response to being accused of insanity might be immediate and visceral and quite possibly insulting. I ask that you push past that initial impulse and understand that there are various levels of insanity, including high functioning and socially adapted. If you’ve come this far in the essay, let’s go the rest of the way. It’ll only hurt until the Thorazine kicks in.
Our Cultural Insane Asylum– Welcome to the Machine
The economic, social and political atrocity we’re not only witnessing but living isn’t their insanity, it’s our insanity; individually, collectively and culturally. This insanity, our insanity, is being outwardly manifested in individuals and groups, effectively in all of us to some degree or another. We our engulfed by our insanity in the same manner some wretched character in a Greek or Shakespearian tragedy is consumed by an angry God, the devil or some other ill-tempered spirit. Today’s modern calamity is the compiled manifestation, expression, reflection and symptom of all the ugly lies, half truths, spin and self deceptions our society leaves unsaid, does not discus, hushes up, hides from view and buries in the back yard of our minds.
Our inner dysfunction, while most certainly affecting us personally, is also expressed outwardly through us individually and collectively and in varying degrees and manner. And sometimes it’s focused within certain people and/or groups of people. Or more accurately, our collective insanity is acted out by or within certain people or groups of people. Does this concept sound farfetched or even crazy? Why is it so easy for us to recognize someone else’s insanity or to see that a group of people are acting crazy or insanely and yet not see it within ourselves or in our own culture? Why can’t we recognize that we might very well have the same insane or unstable tendencies as those we’re pointing towards? Are we pointing our fingers away from us so that we may deny the source?
Why do we so easily accept the concept of herd mentality, that people, either physically grouped into crowds or scattered throughout the world, can act as one (think of the markets) yet we reject this concept when it comes to madness, insanity or dysfunction? Why do we readily accept the phrase “The world went mad during WW 2” yet not think it was our own individual madness that we and the world were acting out? Why do we always exclude ourselves in part or whole from those or them?
Maybe we do accept the statement but don’t see how it relates to us. I know a few people who easily accept the idea that the world can/could/did go mad but not him or her. So are we saying it was everyone else that was insane but not us? If so, does this not illustrate our own dysfunction, to think we would be immune and not affected by what’s tormenting the entire world? We seem to have this serious mental and emotional block that prevents us from seeing the obvious. Of course, it’s our ego that’s blocking our vision and awareness, a subject I’ve examined in more depth in a prior article.
Precisely because of our intellectual and emotional inconsistency, helped along by our self deception, we can delude ourselves into thinking we’re OK. Often we’re encouraged in this self deception by outside forces that fan the flames of self delusion for control and manipulation purposes. One of the many ways is through the display of individuals who are obviously and intentionally different from us. They’re usually close enough to us for easy comparison thanks to TV and the Internet. But don’t dwell too long on the comparison because that might ignite self reflection. So the control system relies on quick glimpses that satisfy our need to feel superior, and thus separate, before the next manipulative image is presented.
Cultural Insanity Reinforcement - American Idol Style
Consider that a key component of the American Idol talent “competition” is the initial programs, where fool after fool is paraded before us. The canned laugh track encourages us to laugh and mock their inferiority and non conformity, thus enabling us to feel comfortable with our homogenization and normality. This concept is ripped from the pages of 1984, where the carrot and stick approach is used to corral us into the hamster pens to work another day.
The carrot is acceptance by the welcoming and nurturing hive, where group think is rewarded and uniformity and conformity is applauded. The stick is to publically ridicule anything that the hive considers abnormal and thus subhuman, which of course can’t be a part of the hive. It’s unthinkable to suffer this, a fate worse than death that of banishment from the hive. See how abnormal those dancing and singing fools are? Only a crazy person would allow themselves to sing that poorly or act that stupidly on TV.
Carefully mixed in with the fools are the soon to be “discovered” hidden gems, which look just like you and I. Our mediocrity is validated because those gems look just like everyday people who escaped from the streets. “Oh look honey, another slave has escaped. I could as well if I practiced harder on my clarinet and got that boob job. If I work some overtime for the next few months at the hamster wheel factory ………”
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the more talented contestants aren’t seeded into the show by the producers. There are many ways to do so. Regardless, the result has the intended effect; wonderfully talented but tragically and unfairly ignored men and women (invisible nobody’s like you and I) are finally discovered, their hidden talents recognized and validated by the world. They’ve hit the big time and they fulfill every person’s fantasy through emotional transference, thanks to perseverance and our 50” HD surround sound LCD TV.
And the fools, after being stripped naked and displayed for the crowd to jeer and stone, are thrown out of the hive as unwanted trash, not even worth the nickel deposit, their part of the charade now complete. Later, as some of the formerly hidden gems rise up the ranks (watch carefully how they’re steadily transformed with coaching, makeup and costumes) we allow ourselves to follow along, nurturing our fantasy that this too could be us. Thus we ascend God like into the glow of the adoring public, enabling us to feel superior while we wallow in our mediocrity.
And don’t forget the text voting, that wonderfully democratic principal that allows us all to participate in the crowning of our next plastic Idol on the dashboard of life. It must be true that I’m a singing fool because my fellow slaves elected me to the throne. The genius of American Idol is not in the music, costumes and coaching, it’s the magic that happens in the editing room and the manipulated voting.
Would Goebbels Like Reality TV?
There’s an extremely good reason why “reality” television shows are so popular. While we’re encouraged to suspend reality while watching regular TV dramas in order to enjoy the program, we consciously know it isn’t real, though unconsciously we make no such distinction. But with “reality” television it’s real, right? It not only could happen but it is happening. Isn’t that the entire concept of “reality” TV, that it’s real?
Leaving aside the understanding that “reality” TV is highly choreographed and elaborately staged; the illusion is that it’s real. This allows the viewer to be swept up along with the contestants as they morph from cocoon to butterfly, taking fictional character empathy and self identification by the viewer to much higher levels than previously thought possible. Goebbels, who until now had been the anointed master of the “Big Lie”, must be screaming in a jealous rage as he rots in his grave. And you thought this was just a talent show or a competition of “survival” on a tropical island.
This method of cultural conditioning is highly effective even when the viewer is aware of the dynamic, just as long as that person is somewhat dissatisfied with their life and is searching for meaning and understanding outside of themselves rather than within. And the higher the IQ and financial earning power of an individual, the higher the likelihood they’ll be searching, particularly among those who are growing weary of our consumer culture.
Some are beginning to recognize that we’ve been conditioned to believe happiness can only be found in an automobile or an iPhone. But where do we look when the hive actively discourages exploring anywhere but on the TV. After all, isn’t that the purpose of American Idol, to inform you of what’s acceptable and what’s not?
Look at the viewer demographics of American Idol for the proof. The average Idol (Idle?) viewer is anything but run of the mill in nearly all the demographics, with higher than average IQ and better than average income. This is you and I folks, not simply the average blue collar beer swilling Joe we like to point to as the problem cattle in the mindless herd. I’ve seen the cattle and the cattle are us.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
We as individuals, as a culture and a society, are only as sick as our deepest darkest secrets and lies. And all those buried and unspoken falsehoods surround us like an endless unmarked and unexplored mine field. On top of that, the lies we tell ourselves and each other in order to ignore this mine field add to the dishonesty that we live with and within. They fester inside our psyche, like swarms of virus bots consuming resources and destroying perceptions and pathways.
Have you ever wondered why confession, the purging of the “soul” of past transgressions, is so therapeutic and cleansing? How could this be unless lies and self deception truly are harmful to the mind/body harmony? I’m not talking religion here, I’m talking inner balance. If one is to believe in personal evolution, isn’t rigorous honesty beneficial to a long and healthy life? When navigating the jungle of life, you won’t last long if you’re in denial of your situation and are intentionally oblivious to that saber toothed tiger or that inner city bus. Though I guess that’s two ways to ineffectively scatter your seed.
So does it really matter whether the dangers are physical or spiritual if the damage is ultimately as severe? I’ve spent some time studying indigenous cultures and very few (if any) developed such a dishonest and deceptive culture as ours is today. These indigenous cultures flourished for hundreds if not thousands of years and many would still thrive today if they hadn’t come into contact with us. We came in peace, my childhood textbook claimed, written by the “winner” if that matters. All we wanted was everything we wanted. What so bad about that?
Ours is a culture that honors the glory and sanctity of God and humanity. And we constantly remind ourselves of this as we hack our way through one culture after another in a desperate attempt to rid the world of the cancer their sanity and harmony with self and nature represent to our own world. Our culture mocked their medicine men and shamans as primitive witch doctors at the same time we were bleeding people of evil spirits and burning witches. Oops, did I say that with my out loud voice? That’s sacrilege after all, with the penalty now my choice, that of being burned at the stake or excommunication from the hive.
The indigenous shaman was by far the most important member of their culture, healing sickness they believed could be traced back to a soul/body/spiritual imbalance. But they also guided the individual and the tribe’s consciousness forward, teaching their fellow man of the dangers and pitfalls inherent in any culture that worshiped self above all else. They warned their members of the hazard of endless accumulation and ego domination rather than harmony with a world in which they must co-exist or perish.
Their spiritual and cultural histories often reached back thousands of years and taped into an ancient wisdom and understanding that withstood the test of time, evident in both their healthy existence as well as the environment they lived within, not on or in spite of. Sounds like deep and valuable wisdom from where I stand and precisely why they were killed as quickly as they were discovered. They were heretics and would act as strong antibiotics if they were introduced into the European and American cultural virus. We couldn’t even take the chance of trying assimilation, instead relying on the tried and true extermination.
Kill Baby Kill
We as individuals and as a culture simply cannot destroy living beings, be they human, animal or plant, in such large quantities and with such speed without imbibing a daily dose of lies and self deception to kill the pain of our own sickness and insanity. To actually comprehend the death and destruction by our own hand with even a minimal level of empathy or compassion would assure its immediate cessation. I wonder if that’s why our soldier’s bodies come home at midnight and the wholesale killing is either sanitized or completely missing from our TV and other mass media.
I certainly don’t have the stomach for this business and I suspect neither do you. While I understand I cannot covet my neighbor’s wife and daughter, I feel no discomfort if I covet his oil and other natural resources. So as a society we ensure the resulting blood doesn’t splatter us and that death remains at a safe distance when we forward position our home grown madmen to oversee our neighbor’s destruction. Kill baby kill.
And so slowly but surely, helped along with generous portions of self serving propaganda, the dehumanization of those “savage and primitive races” (today aka as terrorists) is complete and our population is infected with blood lust and material infatuation. And the rest, as they say, is bloody history; though you won’t find this version in any acceptably sanitized school text book.
Our culture is plagued with school shootings, serial killers (government sponsored or otherwise) conducting mass murder, state sponsored genocide, fast food obesity and pill popping to kill our emotional and spiritual pain. And of course don’t forget the constant mindless consumption to placate an emotional and spiritual emptiness that can never be soothed by material balms. But we can die trying, can’t we? And we call ourselves sane.
The shaman was a healer in the broadest since of the word and the spiritual center and source of wisdom and guidance for the tribe. The indigenous cultures were dependent upon their shaman to remain spiritually centered and physically healthy. Once they were gone, any surviving tribesmen quickly succumbed to the insanity of the Europeans once their spiritual anchors were uprooted and destroyed.
Have you ever wondered why there are hundreds of stories of early European and American settlers in North America that willingly lived among and within these “primitive” cultures? Once the non natives (the white man) had been thoroughly assimilated into these cultures, why did so many of them want to stay and even fought against their old countrymen in order to remain within their adopted cultural families? These cultural adoptees talked about being the happiest and most fulfilled they’d ever been and how for the first time in their lives they felt at peace, both with themselves and with those around them.
How could this occur in a culture that supposedly had nothing to offer the modern world? What could these “backward” cultures possibly offer the so-called “civilized” Europeans and Americans that would be more attractive than what they already possessed? Is it possible that our culture has lied to us about these things and potentially much more? Could it be that our culture isn’t healthy for us, is in fact killing us? Might it be we’re being used and abused by our own culture for the benefit of others, that this isn’t a natural state for humanity and that this disturbance we feel is the source of our insanity?
I find it very revealing that the North American Indian has the highest rate of alcoholism and drug dependency in this country. It makes sense when you consider that once stripped of their cultural support and defensive systems, their shamans and nurturing culture, the original source of their strength and spiritual health, that they would seek a substitute elsewhere. Consider how you would feel if you visited heaven and felt the warm embrace of peace and happiness, only to be ripped from its breast kicking and screaming and deposited into hell. Maybe we should have their descendants consult our technology Gods to find a solution to their spiritual unhappiness and mental illness. You know what; I bet there’s an app for that.
In Chapter Two, we will continue our exploration of our individual and collective insanity, where we spend some time examining that lovable megalomaniac ego inside each of us, why and where it all went wrong, the sliding scale of insanity with lots of finger pointing, how we certify our madness for comfort and support, our mental toxic waste dumps and the first sighting of light at the end of the tunnel. Or is that just the crazy train express to DC? Here’s one car wreck we can all safely examine as we drive by in our economic suicide machines.
Cognitive Dissonance - 06/02/2010
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Thank you.
You have once again proved yourself to be a thoughtful and generous person.
You might call it 'regifting' but, in the end, isn't it all about the essence?
You are hot on it's trail, and so many of us are trying to follow as well.
The time is ripe.
Once more DollarMenu you strike it. Pleasure.
CD, just want to say I love your post, but it makes me very very sad.
It brings forth a sense of sorrow and loss that... is beyond words.
This is what your piece makes me feel...
Seminole Wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdqBCdjU5XI
It's perfectly normal and natural to first be deeply saddened to discover the broken vase on the floor, knowing it took so much of your time to craft.
But then to your delight you realize that you can apply all you've learned in crafting not only a replacement but one that more accurately represents what you are today, not what you were yesterday.
Have fun with your clay my friend.
Best article I've read on here. I'd definitely encourage you to write a book about it because it could change a lot of people's lives for the better. I've often considered delving into Buddhism, meditation and yoga just to deal with the stress of worrying about what is going on in the world. It seems this article is quite complimentary to that path.
fwiw, and this is just my ponzi 2 pennies
around about 1992 emerged in America a yearning for PHILOSOPHY, and thus let's just say 3% of all adults started to investigate this knowledge, what you are seeing know, this article an example, is the result...................................
if you think about it, we are a young country, 3-400 years, eastern philosophies are 5,000, and middle eastern religiouns same amount
one aspect of an industrialzed europe was a mind change from religion to science
in essence as animals that are adaptive, we've gone thru huge time cycles of first religion, second science, and now, and i say this on a global standard some philosophy
i mean, gosh in america do we ever talk about philosophy or it's meanings etc. in anything more than cliched terms, yeah, i'm sure on a thousand campus's they talk about it, yet, what's the point
we are searching for some meaning from some philosophies, thus, buddha is good, taoism, and a few others
what we know is it shouldn't hurt
here's the primer on buddhism, ALL, AND I DO MEAN ALL, LIKE EVERYONE YOU SEE AND HEAR.......STRUGGLES
in essence we are all in pain all the time, so we should not fight the pain, yet, realize it ain't gonna kill us and have a bit of joy along the way
the zen of it, is, don't worry be happy.........................which does not mean you won't feel pain, just quit worrying about it, it's normal here on duh earh
Thanks for telling me that I am not OK. Did it make you feel better?
I'm not OK either. Did that make you feel better? :>)
As they say in California (USA):
"I'm not OK, and you're not OK, but that's OK!"
(Although they probably hang a "dude" on the end of that sentence structure!)
If you two are not OK, then I'm a $#%^-ing basketcase.
Now it becomes clear why I like you so much !!
Okay, okay, enough already!!! Gofer it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=U4xuZMpmXtc&feature=related
ROFL! My good Scottish laddie from clan McCreant! ;)
"We have a golfer problem? Why would you want me to kill all the golfers?"
Just remember not to accept a cigarette from a stranger while visiting Sin City fellow hard case...
- Marv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08TKqcJ1XE4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_357FKCATA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtiMeNy1THA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1b0sOzgqGs
I don't own many movies but I own this one.
I shoulda known the cigarette you have hangin' is your own. Did you offer one before you went pressing for answers?
Recognizing this is the first step. ;-)
As usual CD, great post. Have you ever read Ernest Becker's "The Denial of Death"? http://www.amazon.com/Denial-Death-Ernest-Becker/dp/0684832402
It's a powerful book with some powerful ideas. He describes the various personas we use to deny our own mortatility. I found myself in there, and so would probably everyone else.
Based upon your recommendation I just clicked three times with my magic mouse, assuring receipt by 2-day UPS brown pony express on Friday. Looks interesting. Thank you.
I hope you enjoy it. It was the spark that began my own self-awareness journey almost a decade ago, on which I am still on and hope to always be on.
It may seem odd or funny to others but when someone already on the path recommends something to me that touched them, I always treat it as a cherished tome. I do so becuase that person found great value in it's pages, making the pages themselves priceless.
I know that might sound silly but in a throw away society with prices always dropping for the throw away stuff, I'm sometimes desperate for something that retains its value or even grows in value. Thank you again for sharing not only a book, but that it touched you deeply. I will keep that in mind when reading it.
It is not odd. I have found many gems on these pages in the same manner; contributors whom I respect who make recommendations about the tomes that influenced them and their thinking. I am not a Kindle/e-book fan... it goes to your "throw away society" comment. Books and the knowledge contained in them used to be treated by society with the same reverence many on ZH have for gold. I will pass my books on to my children, along with the valuable lessons that they've thought me along the way.
fwiw, imho, alot of the issue of zen is remaining focused , because if you like knowledge, well, you're always getting more and more of it, and with media now an unlimited commodity with zero costs, you gotta go thru so much shyte to find a poney or two, u just end up stinking like pooh all the time, now, of course, most likely my issue and problem
i must say, after helping and coaching folks for ten years, i must say change, even the word is so deceptive, every second, hour, day, the world is changing, yet, it's the biggest baddest mutha fucker there is in existence to wrastle with, both others and your own
I enjoyed the first chapter. It certainly echos much of what I've been thinking about the World since oh...1997 when my friends thought that "I" was mad for claiming that the "Future was Deadly" (which was my response to a cellphone company's slogan "The Future is Friendly." I also speculated at the time that when oil would hit $50 the ocean would catch fire.. I was off a bit on the exact dollar figure but not on the the hunch that the ocean would in fact be set aflame.
I am curious to see if CD is going to include what is going on with cloud computing, biotech, life extension and the dumping of so much of humanity's "soul" into the Interent. For like it or not we have all become part of the Borg Mind that are Google and the ever morphing world of social media. This seems to me like a logical step towards what transhumanists call "The Singularity" a point in time where our collective madness gives way to a new form of life that is as distinct from us as a we are to a slug, made of the same stardust but not forwardly cognizable. We have as much a chance of understanding the singularity as the slug has of understanding us.
Many have joked on ZH about the Flash Crash being the work of Skynet. To this day there is an eery vaccuum surrounding our understanding of that event. Could the Singularity already be in control and using it's "resources" to deal with the human menace (think Stock market manipulation and BP oil spill here)? Perhaps GS is simply the human interface through which the Singularity dispatches its agents to wreak havoc in our puny human world.
And then there is the Large Hadron Collider. Despite getting confirmation from a science fiction writer that there is nothing to worry about concerning the LHC I just cannot get comfortable with the fact that mad scientists with supersized egos that even the Warlords of Finance must find impressive, are presently toying with the fabric of SPACE TIME. Note that they turned on the most complex machine every built on September 10th, 2008. On September 15th Lehman's Collapsed and the World as We Knew It ceased to be. On September 19th a "quench" caused 100 tons of liquid helium to flow into the LHC tunnel forcing them to shut it down for repairs. Perhaps it tried a little too hard on its first outing? On November 20th, 2009 they start it up again. On the 25th, Dubai World asks for a moratorium on its debt and most shockingly on the 27th, Tiger Woods' career implodes... With its #1 sponsor besmirched and the virtues of golf, the offical game of the Corporatist Oligarchy, diminished,the World becomes a much darker and sinister place.
Look, there is so much crazy shit going on these days that is all too easy to correlate it all to the LHC. But I want to believe. I would have no problem accepting that Earth has become one gigantic improbability drive. For all we know Douglas Adams was the New Messiah and the answer to all our problems lies within the pages of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for all to see: Forty Two. So we just have to work a little harder on drafting the question. For I think that much of our modern malaise is that we have been trying to solve the wrong problems. Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness? How about Life, Sanity and the Pursuit of Meaning?
I look forward to the next installment.
Wyndtunnel
like your spin on windtunnel
w i n d t u n n e ls are ridiculously powerful†
inside joke, spin = cyclists train in windtunnels. MIT has one. super scientific.
Wyndtunnel
Thank you for your contribution to the discussion. There was so much I wanted to talk about in this series, including your suggestions above, which was exactly why it exploded from 2 pages to nearly 90. Each paragraph can be expanded into 5 more with little effort.
But I also needed to recognize the audience. Unfortunately when trying to talk to people, one must always be aware of the "credibility" issue. When discussing subjects 1 to 20 with someone who you really don't know, you can quickly be deemed crazy and with zero credibility if you try to expand their envelope of awareness too quickly. And the ultimate goal with my writing is to help. I'm not talking to a narrow group but to a wide open universe. If you go back and read my earlier work, you will find stabs in this direction.
I don't wish what I just said to appear condescending for it wasn't intended to be. But since I began writing on ZH I've found that those who leave comments are not always the same as those who just read. So I've decided to take baby steps and try to feed out the fishing line slowly. I think you'll be surprised where I do take this series. It's not evident from the starting point where I end up.
One final thought. I refuse to simply talk about theory and philosophy without talking about concrete solutions and implementations. Action, even the written kind, is always louder than words. So I decided that I needed to lay out an argument for action by ZH readers with this series and that required that some things be left for another time. But keep on reading because I think you will enjoy the series.
Unfortunately when trying to talk to people, one must always be aware of the "credibility" issue
I get it. The credibitly issue is a tough one in this day and age. Especially when a return to a more mystical world might be exactly what is called for. As the implications of biotech, life extension science and cybernetics become more widely known one of my conjectures is that conflict shear zones will develop between those with a penchant for a transhumanist future and those who will be pushing for a return to more sustainable and "back to the Earth" forms of social organization.
The curtain rod is under so much strain. What people will have to deal with when the curtain falls will be so confusing and unpleasant for so many. And we hope that the unpleasantness will be unfairly distributed in jurisdiction other than our own. To claim otherwise would be dishonest.
Bring on your arguments for action for I am long on conjecture and quite short on suggestions of my own.
Richard Henry Dana (Two Years Before the Mast) spent many months living on the beach in SanFrancisco when the bay area was very nearly empty, just a few shacks along the shore and a tiny population of beached sailors along with a few Spanish and I think maybe a Russian homestead. Among the sailors were a group of Hawaiian Islanders whom he befriended and spent much of his time with. He was most impressed with their culture of sharing which, as a white Bostonian, was quite alien to him. Although they had personal posessions they were very apt to give them away to others. What most impressed him though was that no one of them would ever go hungry if another had food. Where the white sailors lived within a rigid heirarchy and would hoard food or sell it to each other, the islanders were deeply embarrassed to be in possession of excess. Though this time was a dreamlike idyll for Dana there was never any question that it was somehow sustainable. The reality of Boston and NewYork and London and all of the overwhelming force of the European expansion was always there and he would of course return to Boston to take his part as a gentleman of law and business in the European order.
De Toqueville, also, talks about the early trappers of the Northeast and upper Midwest integrating quite thoroughly with the native cultures in the area and of their dismay as the trickle of Europeans which they represented became a flood of ruthless, desperate and nearly lawless colonizers.
Anyhow, thank you very much for taking the time and making the effort to produce this contribution to the ZH cogitation and free association collective. :~) I have been looking forward to it.
P.S. I just love the bit about Goebbels and AmIdol. Maybe their should be a Golden Goebbels award for most psychically manipulative mass media...
"De Toqueville, also, talks..." gotta love gentrification. question is: how do you stop it? is it time for the trappers to choose a side & take a stand?
Thank you, CD, for your enlightening words. I have often told family and friends that the sicknesses one sees in society reflect the sicknesses of the system as a whole. Response? A quizzical look.
It is amazing the actions we humans will do to maintain a system that offers the illusion of safety and sustenance. By knuckling under, little pieces of our souls die every day...and I am as guilty of this as everyone else.
Anyone enjoying CD's essay would probably enjoy reading Butler Schaffer's book "Calcualted Chaos", which is an examination of how ego boundaries are based on our institutions...and result in most of our problems and conflicts.
Looking forward to chapter 2, CD. Nicely done.
I find it very revealing that the North American Indian has the highest rate of alcoholism and drug dependency in this country.
CD, you might like the work of Marshall McLuhan, if you don't already know it. He talked about how psychedelics reinforced traditional society, but alchohol de-stabilized it, while with modern Western society the opposite is true.
To actually comprehend the death and destruction by our own hand with even a minimal level of empathy or compassion would assure its immediate cessation. I wonder if that’s why our soldier’s bodies come home at midnight and the wholesale killing is either sanitized or completely missing from our TV and other mass media.
I'm old enough to remember the Vietnam footage, which helped to end the war. We now know that said war was totally useless and changed nothing for the better. 'No media' seems to be the one lesson the US military learned from that war.
Although I hate the oil spill, I see a kind of justice in its happening to the U.S. coastline, where it can't be ignored. (Imagine if Exxon caused such a spill off the coast of, say, Angola or Indonesia; how much air time do you think it would get?)
Interesting comment, Goldbricker. I too remember as a child watching TV in the evening, the nightly albiet brief scenes of the fighting in Viet Nam. I remember they used to post the day's body count---ours, and theirs. The "domino theory" was a pretty shady reason to be over there, and the public knew that. Flash forward to our present situation. Despite the fact that there is no way we can prevail, and that the cost may break us, ala the Soviet Union, I believe that the American public today tolerates imperialism and destruction to insure oil supplies.
Imagine being a Native American. Imagine invaders taking your land, slaughtering your bretheren, imposing a belief system 180 degrees from your own, then relegating you to the worst land in your Nation and imposing poverty upon you while gutting your culture.
CD...You are a luminary.
Over 500 years ago, a man named Petrov climbed a mountain just to see the view. It was a new way of thinking---that became the beggining of the Rennaisance. That period occured after a time referred to as the Dark Ages.
Six billion people on an exhausted, crippled planet--and "Nature will take care of it?" The Holy Bible says otherwise. Selah.
(Imagine if Exxon caused such a spill off the coast of, say, Angola or Indonesia; how much air time do you think it would get?)
None, actually. The Niger River delta is a toxic wasteland courtesy of Royal Dutch Shell.
goldbricker, regarding your comment on how much air time would Exxon get on a spill somewhere other than off the US Coastline....google something like "Exxon nigeria spill" and you'll get...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-del...
Let them have their spills elsewhere I want to bask in the warm glow of the Gulf Coast and eat fresh GOM seafood. Bah.
whos insane ,, them or us
who allows the fed
signed the fed
CD, insightful and thoughtful.
I hope you address in future pieces the concept of the consumer driven economy. It seems that far too often no one questions what they consume as good or bad, only that it's paid for and can be measured as a part of the GDP.
It wouldn't be good for the "economy" but maybe throwing shit out should be illegal. We would all be forced to start a dump in our own backyards...Consumption would drop pretty fast as people would be forced to be more creative with what they have. I know it's totally unfeasible but I just get so depressed by all the PACKAGING... My wife and I have been setting up a new house and I just can't believe the amount of useless packaging that seems to be required to ship things from China (of course nearly EVERYTHING that is available, from ceiling fans to kitchen sinks comes from the Middle Kindgom. Try furnishing a house affordibly on a no-China policy). Boxes aren't so bad as they can easily be returned to the Earth but Christ there is so much plastic and styrofoam... it drives me insane.
The only things that can truly be wasted are: 1) Energy; 2) Time.
In the case of shipping stuff from China, it's clear that it's an energy issue.
It's most certainly coming your way.
I really did have a ball writing this and it was extremely therapeutic for me as well. We spend our days receiving input but rarely do we sit down and digest and compile it.
Writing this did exactly that, helping me to throw out some junk that I had previously thought important, but that turned out to be just more blinking lights and comforting myths. Just as important to me, it illuminated other paths I would like to follow.
Consider how you would feel if you visited heaven and felt the warm embrace of peace and happiness, only to be ripped from its breast kicking and screaming and deposited into hell.
Ahso. Precisely what most American mothers do to their children from the day they are born. One would think that this (along with the topless cages in the room down the hall) would inflict grievous psychic pain on such new, helpless souls. Sadly, this excercise does not include a mother's breast, but a plastic bottle containing reconstituted "formula" heated up in a microwave oven.
Not only, but the poor mother is usually shipped back to her cubicle within a week or so of bringing a life into the world, a life that needs her warmth and love.
Baby is brought up by a "sitter" or a "nanny" in most cases, while mother struggles to help the family put food on the table (or in many cases, service the car, house, credit card, and store debt family has accumulated).
A sorry state of affairs, starting to show serious signs of fraying.
yep, again. on my block i see this. three woman “off to work”,
i say raising your children is your work.
i was a single mother, but had my husbands parents help me raise my daughter.
the old fashion way, really unconditional love. the best by far. i wasn't really the mother “type” but knew grandma was.
I adore your effort, so will your child.
As a red-blooded male, I also adore your avatar..... :)
or they can suck on one of Leos pornographic babes..
if he would move his hands lol
Thanks again CD for stimulating the deeply buried neurons that control our perception of the world through our egos. Much of the joy for me in reading a blog like ZH is the daily challenge to yesterday's conclusions. The cast of characters contributing and commenting on ZH present a constant attack on the reader's sense of comfort with who he is or what he believes is true. Ironically, for me at least, actively seeking the "trip wires" (nice way of putting it) instead of avoiding them has helped me to welcome and deal with cognitive dissonances in a much more satisfying way than when I shunned them entirely.
Looking forward to reading the remaining sections of this essay. BTW you may have seen this very useful list of cognitive biases. I find this list to offer very good insight into the human thinking process and that it serves as a great source of discussion in the the business classes I teach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
Outstanding link, thank you, absolutely fascinating.
Great stuff as usual CD. Looking forward to the next chapter. I even have the better half reading it. Hopefully we can both take something away from it. No, I know we can. Thanks for taking the time and effort.
Indian make small fire, sit way up close.
Cowboy make big fire, sit way back.
Indian make fire, cook him meat.
White man make fire, cook himself.