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What If “It” Doesn’t End With a Bang But With a Whimper? Mind Games - Chapter Two of Two
What If “It” Doesn’t End With a Bang But With a Whimper?
Mind Games - Chapter Two of Two
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain
May I suggest the reader begin with Chapter One (link below) before progressing further in order to fully understand my meaning when I use various terms or phrases in this essay.
I started Chapter One with a simple declaration. The more certain I am that I’m right, the greater the probability I’m wrong. I shall continue that discussion in this final chapter, but with particular emphasis placed on questioning the majority held opinion that The Crash, defined as a relatively quick decline of the economic and social systems, is coming.
Rather than try and define the hundreds of variations of how “It” might play out, let’s just say that for the purpose of this essay, the opposite of The Crash is a much longer and slower decline peppered with a few rapid plunges along the way.
Could the Zero Hedge consensus view be wrong? Is everyone keying off the collective bias and missing signs that the crash might play out as a slow exhalation of air and bubbles as The Empire sinks slowly beneath the waves? It’s quite possible this is what’s going on despite occasional rapid drops. Rather than look at the mechanics, it’s far more intstructive to examine our own psychology. After all, it’s the human psyche that’s the ultimate source of the instability that drives the decline and fall.
Layers of Self Deception
It makes it so much easier to deal with life’s ugly inconsistencies when we can sweep them under the intellectual rug. And it all happens in seconds with barely a blip in our blood pressure. The really tough dissonances might take a little longer, but never underestimate our capacity for self deception. And this cognitive tango is always running in the back ground with very little conscious awareness. Unless, of course, we train ourselves to see what’s going on. But who’d want to do that?
Since recognizing these cognitive gymnastics and then compensating for them requires self examination and personal courage, is it any wonder the average Joe’s worldview is distorted? It may come as a shock to learn that for all of us, our worldview isn’t affected so much by a lack of information as our lack of desire to (re)examine, update and accept it. The only information vacuum we live in is the one we create between our ears.
Maybe it’s time to question our fundamental beliefs in the face of a relentless Ponzi. We claim private and governmental interests are pulling a confidence game on the public and that we’re not fooled by it anymore because we clearly see the deception. But is this really the case? How deep down the rabbit hole have we gone and how many holes are there anyway?
For many of us we’ve gone just far enough to confirm our basic suspicions, but not so far as to face some really ugly realities. Or to be fair let’s call them ugly probabilities. We’re willing to think outside the conventional wisdom box, but not too far out. I mean, let’s be reasonable here, some things are just crazy right? But when we offer that excuse, are we respecting society’s reasonable boundaries or our own emotional limits? In most cases I’d say it’s the latter.
We construct and maintain our belief system and worldview not in order to understand reality, but to protect us from the emotional trauma inflicted upon us by reality. We’re taught a fairy tale from birth of how the world and our country functions, including a propagandized and mythical history. For many of us, we spend our lives defending that fairy tale as best we can with the only tools at our disposal, primarily denial and the quasi fantasy world we’ve constructed that we call our belief system.
Don’t get hung up on the word “fantasy” because we’re not talking about absolutes with regard to denial, but rather shape shifting and blurred lines. Since we all see the world differently, it can be argued that while there are many agreed upon “facts” we all share within the consensus reality, there’s plenty of wiggle room for deviation and denial, particularly if we’re the judge, jury and executioner of our own specially constructed inner world.
After all what is denial, but simply an altered perceived reality, our version of what’s real and what’s not as seen through our own infinitely variable cognitive filters? We all own a pair of rose colored glasses that are completely customizable and personalized. One might say that denial is self inflicted propaganda for it serves the same purpose as corporate and governmental propaganda, that of spinning the (ugly) truth into something more palatable.
As we grow, and as needed to survive and thrive, we modify and alter our beliefs to accommodate “the real world”. But we do this begrudgingly and only when we’re left with little or no choice. Most importantly, rarely do we apply logic and consistency to the process nor is there an annual review or a ritual spring cleaning.
Like a partially formed gaseous monster straight out of Star Trek, denial has few clear boundaries or sharp edges. It expands and contracts to fill the emotional needs of its user and it rarely can be positively identified or quantified as this or that fact based truth. However, the key ingredient to denial is convincing ourselves that truth is all we deal with. This nebulous quality is what gives denial its enormous power to leap tall dissonances in a single bound. We may power it, but for the most part denial controls us.
In a positive defense of denial, it can be used as part of a suite of cognitive tools to help absorb new or different perceptions into our belief system. Think of using denial as a holding pattern while we attempt to land new information for assimilation. The problem begins when we become trapped in the holding pattern and are unwilling to accept the differences or reject incorrect beliefs. We then become mired in the muck of our rigid belief system and denial is no longer used as a bridge but as a dam.
Bending in the Wind
When we read or leave comments on ZH that contain the words “I’ll never believe” or “You’ll never convince me” or “That’s impossible” or the classic “I just can’t believe” we know there’s further to go down the rabbit hole and it’s not information that’s holding the person back so much as denial. Terms such as those above are not learning phrases used by an open mind to expand the inner universe, but full stop rejections used to protect a closed mind under attack.
An extremely important concept to understand about denial is that it’s not an all or nothing proposition. There are multiple levels, degrees and side channels to denial. So when conflicts are overwhelming, we’ll concede select points in order to keep others hidden. We’re more than willing to lose a cognitive battle to win the denial war. And denial isn’t black and white, but a hundred shades of gray. So to say someone’s in denial doesn’t mean they refuse to deal with everything, just certain select parts and subtle variations.
The enabling power of the denial process is convincing ourselves we’re not in denial. Thus it’s imperative that we accept certain facts while others are colored or phase shifted to blur the lines in order to introduce a key ingredient of self deception, that of plausible deniability. In addition, we have a remarkable capacity to compartmentalize contrary pieces of information from each other and ourselves. This allows us to hold incompatible and contrary views or beliefs on the same subject at the same time and literally think nothing of it.
For Example
A widely held and glaring example of inconsistent or contrary views is that after decades of abuse, many people now firmly believe their government (along with people in and out of the government) has repeatedly lied to them. They know their government will harm them, even going so far as to silence people by destroying them professionally or by reputation. Or even kill them if they present too much of a threat to power. Many now believe their government has repeatedly deceived them, fabricating “evidence” in order to drive the country into war or prolong and/or escalate war.
They realize that the government manipulates statistics about the economy, including allowing companies to cook their books to show (better) profits through national security directives. That they now overtly and covertly manipulate domestic and foreign stock, currency, commodities and precious metals markets to further their goals. And that they do so under cover of national security, saying in effect that the more they meddle, the more they must continue to meddle.
The government lies about the condition of the environment, the BP oil spill, national health issues, spying on its own citizens, torture and rendition, weapons of mass destruction, the list is endless. More and more people are beginning to comprehend that the government will rob the many to benefit the few and will hurt or kill those in its way.
People not only don’t trust the government, but they’re down right frightened of the government and for good reason. They’ve come to believe that the government is lethal to them, a remarkable admission considering it’s such a deviation from the public myth they’ve been indoctrinated into since grade school. This is a very sobering realization and one you’d think would have fully shaken them awake.
The (Cognitive) Border is Closed
But in many cases, people will only acknowledge emotionally difficult insights contingent upon rejecting others they consider far worse. This internal negotiation is carried out in a back room bargaining session with themselves, often with little awareness to guide the horse swapping other than a primal fear that’s driving the urge to hide or get away. But ultimately where do we go when we live within, and depend upon, that which we fear?
Most likely as a form of emotional self defense, many of these very same people desperately wish to believe their government (along with people in and out of the government) would never willingly ignore, encourage, support, promote or execute (false flag) attacks against its own citizens in order to further various goals or objectives, either private and/or governmental.
In other words, they chose to believe there are moral, legal, and physical boundaries that those in government, as well as their political allies and (corporate) enablers, just won’t cross. They in effect wish to believe that the sociopaths running the show will respect certain select moral and legal lines drawn in the sand by society and the governed. That the powerful in and out of government can and will kill a few, but not more than a few, that they will defend their hold on power, but only up to a certain point.
These people admit the government may have crossed these lines in other countries in the past and may still cross them today. And that they might have crossed these lines here in America deep in the distant past. However, distant is usually measured as being longer than they’ve been alive, thus making these transgressions emotionally safer.
Remember again that the perception of personal risk or safety is a function of proximity to the risk. So the further away in time they can pretend the government has violated “the rules”, the lower the personal risk appears to the denier that the government might again violate “the rules”. This allows us to believe that our present administration is the softer kinder sociopathic version (44.0) and really doesn’t have its citizens by the throat.
Or maybe they need to be further from the fact that they were asleep at the wheel, ignoring the obvious or inevitable while it occurred and thus potentially responsible, even if only morally. After all, a popular public sport is to claim we didn’t vote for so and so after the shit’s hit the fan. People in denial are very keen to avoid personal responsibility that might lead them back to their own denial.
Even after admitting all of the above, they still insist the government would never engage in this type of behavior today nor did it ever do so in the recent past, meaning within their adult lifetime. It would be too close for comfort otherwise and to seriously entertain this idea would overload and crash their cognitive process as well as their sense of personal safety. Thus the reason we read the “I can’t believe” and “You’ll never convince me” statements declaring a cognitive dissonant impasse and emotional safety. We all desire our comfort stories.
This “belief” is glaringly inconsistent, logically suspect and strikingly narrow. And not surprising at all considering most of us still wish to believe we live in the America of our history books and public myth and not in a South American banana republic with nuclear weapons and a reserve currency. Perception is reality, thus I control what I believe and what I perceive.
Which begs the obvious question? Whose line in the sand and what forbidden boundaries are we really talking about here? The ones we believe the government won’t cross, the ones we don’t wish to admit have recently been crossed or our own emotional boundaries, the ultimate do not enter stop sign?
This is a reasonable question because a brief look at history offers up dozens of publicly disclosed examples of major lines in the sand repeatedly crossed by so called democratic or representative governments, including the USA on multiple occasions. I say this not to define who’s right or wrong, but to declare under no uncertain terms that if we’re not being consistent in our thinking, if we’re unwilling to honesty assess all information at our disposal, if we’re being selective in when we apply logic, that this is a major signal that there’s denial blocking the way forward.
You Can’t Make Me, You Can’t Make Me
For those who (understandably) can’t accept such a horrifying thought and all its ugly implications, it’s rejected outright as impossible or crazy. We can always come up with a thousand reasons or explanations to reject something in order to place as much emotional distance as we can between the frightening reality we’re denying and ourselves. Again, one sees this all the time with posts that begin with “You’ll never make me believe” or “Nothing you show me will ever prove” or “I just can’t believe”.
The person making these statements is declaring that any information contrary to their emotionally safer worldview will be promptly rejected without an unbiased assessment. This is not an open mind on display, but rather a mind whose steel trap is firmly welded shut. The information is too frightening to even be fairly considered, so it’s rejected outright before it ever crosses the cognitive threshold.
“You’ll never convince me” is the sign that the mental deck is stacked. Yet after these people have finished the initial denial process and have regained their emotional composure, they consider themselves to be fair and open minded and willing to discuss anything, just as long as it’s “reasonable”. They declare that any information that opens the emotionally uncomfortable box they just closed as crazy or unreasonable or unconfirmed or whatever it takes to keep the monster at bay.
They make their own cognitive rules, which they then use to judge the quality and acceptability of the information. And the rules will always say this information isn’t going to be allowed. It helps immensely if others in their social peer group as well as their leaders affirm their decision that some information’s off limits. Thus we understand the critical need for leadership and its enablers to establish the public myth and to lie in public and on the record.
This is done both in the run up to and after the limits have been violated and the lines crossed. Leadership declares for all who wish to believe the lie what’s socially acceptable to believe and what’s not. This is also the purpose of “blue ribbon” fact finding commissions, the so-called independent experts and authorities. Their primary job is to explore, modify and, after a few shocking “mistakes” have been revealed to allow us the fantasy they did a thorough job, ultimately bless the overall official public myth and lies.
The person in denial is looking for permission or affirmation from an outside (of their own mind) authority that his or her denial is emotionally, socially and morally OK. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to the sociopaths. When we’re in emotional distress or acting in a morally or socially suspect manner, we seek comfort and affirmation from authority figures that we’re in the clear and any guilt is unwarranted. This is why I often write “Daddy, tell me another lie so I can believe it’s the truth.”
Think back to when your own children were very young and they were emotionally insecure or afraid. They were especially eager for you to (re)affirm them in their own denial or to reassure them they were OK, particularly if it was about their own self image, stature or safety. Children aren’t the only emotionally insecure people who wish to be reassured, particularly when they’re in denial.
At one time or another, we’ve all been in a shaky relationship where we made the choice to accept a lie rather than face the truth. Since we all wish to believe we’re strong and mature it’s difficult to accept that we often act infantile and needy. Thus we’ll even repress the understanding of that basic emotional need if awareness leaves us vulnerable.
For those who don’t engage in this level of denial, or more realistically don’t admit they engage in this level of denial, my explanation sounds suspect and “unreasonable”. After all, well educated adults don’t act this way. But this cognitive process is well understood, particularly by the psychological warfare and social control experts who use the knowledge of our inner disorder against us to manipulate and control. This is why I talk about knowing yourself. One can only be violated when one doesn’t understand how and why it’s occurring.
These layers of subtle self bargaining and authority approval seeking are an example of the seductive and insidious nature of denial. And to the person employing it, it all sounds perfectly reasonable. How often do we see directly after the post “I’ll never be convinced” the statement that “It’s not me that’s the problem here because I’m opened minded. It’s you and your crazy information that’s the issue.”
Our worldview is constrained and maintained by ourselves, not by outside forces, regardless of the grand tales we tell ourselves about how fair and honest we are when viewing the world. A sympathetic soul might say “We tell ourselves little white lies occasionally so what’s the big deal? Everybody does it.”
This is precisely where denial begins, with little subtle deceptions that are “harmless” or “inconsequential”. We allow ourselves the comforting self deception that small lies don’t lead to big ones and we can stop lying to ourselves any time we want.
Self Psyops and Propagandizing Oneself
We have met the enemy and the enemy is us. This is why there’s a never ending supply of fall guys and patsies pushed to the front of the public perception as foils and enablers for our own self deception. Why beat ourselves up when we can hate someone else.
We’re all desperate to some extent or another to deny a very basic reality. Psychological warfare is used against us by our government and private interests to manipulate and control, by our social control systems to pacify, maintain order and control, and by ourselves to deny and self deceive in order to live within the insanity and with ourselves.
It’s all about our individual and collective ego and our addiction to the natural dopamine high that supports and enables our denial. It feels so good to convincingly deny something that’s emotionally painful. And that good feeling comes from our endless natural supply of emotional pain killers. The crazier it gets in our real world, the more we’ll reach for the pain reliever that’s just a small denial away. Psychological warfare leverages our own failings by exploiting the age old adage that you can con a dishonest man.
An important part of individual denial is how it coordinates with society’s collective denial. Again, this is what I mean when I talk about the public myth and the keepers of the public myth. We as a society maintain half truths and outright lies about our history and ourselves in order to brush aside uncomfortable dissonances and unpalatable facts.
Our leaders lie to set the public myth in stone as well as to support prior or future lies. And once a lie is released by “reputable authorities”, the very fact that it exists and that it was recorded as “truth” because an “authority” spoke it, defies anyone to say otherwise. Are you calling the great and exalted authority a liar? Daddy doesn’t lie, at least not to the kids.
The public myth is always rigid and easily understood and many are deeply woven into our own personal worldview and belief system. “They hate us for our freedom” is one of the more egregious and nonsensical phrases that warms the cockles of our patriotic mythology. I wrote about this extensively in my “Welcome to the Insane Asylum” series as well as other articles.
Even those who feel a sense of social responsibility and wish to do something to stop this are beginning to pull in their horns and hide from the coming storm. When they begin to understand that the government is no longer just a roadblock, but a potentially lethal enemy, they discover within themselves a bone rattling fear of their government, their presumed protector.
This primal fear is something many people alive today have never experienced before. Sort of like waking one morning to discover that a mass murderer is sleeping next to you or down the hallway and across from the kids.
These realizations about our government’s motives and methods fly in the face of everything we’ve been told. It contradicts our social conditioning and mythology about a somewhat benevolent but bumbling government that eventually gets it right. Infinitely worse, and thus ever more frightening, it places upon us total responsibility for our own life, happiness and wellbeing. No more playing the victim and no more excuses since Daddy isn’t here to save us, but maybe even to kill us.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
But does this creeping realization that we can’t trust our government anymore actually serve to feed our bias when it comes to The Crash? Since our instinct is to reject all official pronouncements and information coming from the government, is this tendency backfiring when it comes to our assessment of what’s coming and how it will play out?
In many respects, it doesn’t make any difference whether the governments lies or not with regard to longevity and stability when every other government is doing likewise. Remember that while we might not trust the government, many still do. Even those who don’t trust the government continue to act as if they do simply because it’s in their own self interest. Combine this with the natural inertia of continuing on the same path and there’s still plenty of momentum to keep this Ponzi churning for a long time.
The obvious question here is, are we thinking clearly and unbiased when considering the economic and social disaster we expect is just around the corner. Personally I doubt it. As I pointed out in chapter one, it’s easy to become biased and hard to recognize when we’re emotionally involved. Often we’re attracted to information that confirms our beliefs and regardless of how accurate it is, Zero Hedge and other contrary websites help us do this.
Even if we’re ultimately correct about the crash, it might make sense once in a while to check our assumptions. But do we really want to prove ourselves wrong? Naturally, we tell people (and ourselves) that we’re willing to admit when we’re wrong in order to maintain public (and internal) credibility. But often we engage in the illusion that we’re double checking, just like we did during grade school to fool the teacher.
If we’re serious and really do check, we might find something we don’t like which certainly won’t please us. No one likes to contradict themselves, especially when we’re emotionally involved. It’s so much easier to say we checked and that everything’s fine, then leave well enough alone.
That might also be why we hang around Zero Hedge so much, to allow us the illusion that someone else is on the case. And why some get nervous when it goes off line for any extended period of time. Where’s my ZH fix? Left alone without our constant spin and reassurance, doubt may seep in or we might start to drift from the message. Would we still be so resolute if Zero Hedge wasn’t here?
After all, on Zero Hedge we receive constant assurance that we’re right and they’re wrong. Plus we get to mingle with other like minded individuals, which lends us moral support and positive feedback. It’s all right there and everything we need, delivered up in 10 to 15 articles a day and a dynamite comment section. We’re in Nirvana, also known as our own little contrary universe.
Zero Hedge has just as much bias as CNBC, just in a different direction. Remember that the term bias doesn’t measure accuracy, just direction, momentum or magnitude. That’s just a statement of fact and not a condemnation of ZH or any other contrary website. One must always understand and compensate for the basis and bias of any information we consume. Just read the Zero Hedge disclosure.
Are we willing to subject our view of the coming crash to as rigid an examination as we do the Ponzi view? Or do we just assume the Ponzi is lying and declare anything opposite the lie must be the truth and the “real” reality? Is the real reality what we believe it “should” be or what it really “is” day to day?
Why do we think the “truth” will prevail? That’s not a foregone conclusion by any stretch of the imagination. Nor that exposing the “truth” will sink the lie that’s supposedly supporting the economy when it’s clearly in nearly everyone’s short term best interest to lie and live another day. Does “truth” always prevail or is that just another part of our individual and collective myth by way of our grade school conditioning and indoctrination? Here comes Mighty Mouse to save the day.
Why would we possibly think people are motivated not only to learn the “truth” but then live the truth? My personal life experience doesn’t support this supposition though I will admit it’s one of my comfort stories.
More to the point, the “truth” will not force the government to stop promoting a lie when to do so will put people in physical, emotional and financial peril, not to mention the leadership. We all understand that at times it’s so much easier to maintain the lie than to finally begin to speak the truth. So much needs to be undone and explained so why even try?
The government creates crisis after crisis to frighten the herd. And based upon every cowboy movie I’ve ever seen, stampeding herds just want the fear to go away. To think that at some point there will be such an overwhelming outcry from the public that the sociopaths will cease and desist and perp walk themselves to jail is beyond childish. Frogs in the bottom of a pot brought slowly to a boil don’t do much of anything other than complain about the weather.
Now that we know the “truth” and are some of the early adopters, are we acting to support the truth and stop the lies or are we just cueing up for another ZH exposé? Why do we expect others to act differently than we have acted once they learn the “truth”?
I’ve asked this question a few times before here on ZH as well as other places and I’m mostly ignored. It appears I’m cutting too close to the bone because while most won’t admit it, we seem to be waiting around for someone else to do what we don’t wish to do.
We claim to have truth and justice on our side, but just knowing the truth doesn’t stop the lies. There seems to be this belief that once the “truth” becomes widely known, reinforcements will swell the ranks and then we can strike at the belly of the beast. I suspect this is just another comfort story we tell ourselves in order to sleep better at night. And that this dissonance between what we say and what we do feeds into our collective denial.
Even better (worse?), do we claim the moral high ground where all is sacred and self questioning is blasphemy? I fully understand the importance of declaring the emperor to be naked, but the sociopaths deduct points for truth and they have control of the reins and the game. Righteous indignation, something we love to revel in, has throughout the ages covered up a lot of bad thinking by the so called good guys.
Inconsistent Inconsistencies
An example of an inconsistency in our thinking might be that the Ponzi has lasted much longer than many predicted it would. Very few on ZH considered the possibility in March of 09 that the stock market would be much higher a year and a half later. It was obvious systemic death was just around the corner, right?
Even fewer believed the US, British and EU governments and central banks could have repeatedly issued multiple trillions of dollars in sovereign debt and Treasury paper in multiple currencies at ever decreasing interest rates without a currency crisis and collapse. And yet that’s precisely what they’ve successfully done if success is measured as paper issuance and no collapse.
Or maybe the dissonance can be found within the precious metals arena. While there were some who felt otherwise, many people were convinced that once the public was told of the Federal Reserve’s Gold price suppression techniques that the Gold paper trade would collapse. And yet it continues to this day, even if it’s hobbled to some extent. How can that be?
Lately I’ve heard the explanation that there wasn’t enough public exposure of Gold manipulation to cause collapse. While that sounds reasonable, won’t the public ignore what they don’t want to hear no matter the quantity or quality of evidence? You can bring the horse to water but….
I agree that it defies common sense that a market as manipulated and undercapitalized with actual physical Gold wouldn’t disintegrate the moment the news of manipulation hit Bloomberg. And yet it didn’t disintegrate and still functions today. Is this not an aberration that must be carefully examined? It seems we’re incrementally increasing our denial as the Ponzi marches on.
All I see people doing is pushing back the expected date of collapse, saying next time there’s a run on Comex or the Chinese want more physical or more tungsten is found inside 400 ounce bars, then it will collapse. Even if it does collapse, what comes next? When only Gold has perceived value, it would be foolish to think the sociopaths will allow us to keep ours. Think about that and then read some history. The insanity isn’t extinguished; it ebbs and flows or just morphs into new bodies and forms.
We continue to brush aside multiple contradictions to the quick collapse scenario without seriously considering this could continue on for many more years. Some may not wish to recognize this, but those who understand what’s going on, meaning the principal supporters and benefactors of the Ponzi (both on Wall and Main Street) will cling to the devil they know rather than face the black abyss of the unknown. This alone assures a much longer unraveling than we’re acknowledging.
I’m not taking “sides” in this argument as much as I’m asking a more fundamental question. Are we taking a side and then ignoring evidence that might prove us incorrect? The more our argument for the crash or a collapse can withstand critical scrutiny and the more we probe and dissect its weaknesses, the stronger it becomes unless it’s weak or baseless.
However, the more we shield our argument from scrutiny, either by overt or covert denial, obstruction or obscuration, the weaker it becomes. This method of interrogation is how we pummel the Ponzi, by relentlessly questioning its suppositions and evidence. Shouldn’t we apply the same acid test to our own arguments or is our only claim to fame simply that since we proved them wrong, we must be right?
Shoot the Messenger, Ignore the Message
What’s obvious to you and me is rarely obvious to others, not because it can’t be seen, but because it can be ignored and rejected. The same can be said in reverse. Many people, including this author, are at times irritated with certain contributors and commentators and their barrage of articles and comments on Zero Hedge that seem to defy the laws of common sense.
“You live in a fantasy world” or “Sooner or later you’ll be crushed” are all common refrains left to refute these people. I’m not saying the comments are or aren’t valid. But we must ask ourselves some questions if we’re to face our own emotional outbursts. Are we angry with the authors because they’re delusional or because they represent everything and everyone that’s holding this Ponzi together and precisely the reason it’s lasted longer than we expected? Maybe we’re holding it together ourselves?
These authors are an emotional and intellectual trigger for many here on Zero Hedge. Rather than rant at them, we should step back and examine why we’re being triggered. Often we yell and scream in order to hide from self examination. Is that what’s going on here? I suspect that for many it’s not the money that’s upsetting, but instead a sense of bloody outrage over the magnitude of the thieving and the colossal gall exhibited by the principal sorcerers that’s clouding our vision.
Once we look within and understand the trigger, we can discover the underlying dissonance that’s obscuring our worldview and beliefs. I know that when I experience an emotional outburst, particularly when I’m feeling righteous indignation, this is a clear indication I’ve been triggered and that something’s unsettled within.
It could be seen as a huge blow to our ego to admit that it might be time to hunt within for some inner truth when the streets are filled with the thieves and the complicit. But I know if we continue to be triggered, we’ll be easily manipulated and seriously out of balance. Only when we’re at peace with ourselves can we be effective in all other aspects of our life.
When we’re triggered, rather than get caught up in the details of the information being argued, we should be looking closely at what we fear or what we’re avoiding that’s causing such an outburst. We’re angry that the Ponzi uses diversionary tactics to distract and bluff the public from the “truth”. Yet we use the very same tactics on ourselves rather than take a long hard look within. Maybe some personal housekeeping is in order?
Admittedly this is a difficult task and it requires self confidence and discipline to pull back and pause when our ego is screaming for us to “do something” to defend our ego honor or ego self respect. When we’ve been emotionally triggered and we’re upset over something that was written or said, what’s really going on here, what’s really been triggered is our sense that our worldview is under assault. This is precisely when we must calm down and reach within to find the courage to look deeper into what’s going on.
The Abuser/Abused Paradigm
The reason I always talk about our ego not being “us”, but rather a separate and distinct entity, is because we’re constantly led to believe by our ego that our ego is our friend and can be fully trusted. Our ego accomplishes this by convincing us that our ego is “us” and that “we” are one and the same as our ego. Thus we believe that when our ego is talking, in fact it’s “us” that’s talking.
As I said in Chapter One, this is hardly the case. The ego considers itself to be a separate and sovereign entity, not a part of “us”. Thus the ego is not bound by any moral, emotional or social boundaries nor does “it” feel constrained from lying, cheating or using subterfuge to get what it wants. Since our ego doesn’t physically control our bodies, it must use manipulative methods (essentially self psyops or self propaganda) to achieve its goals.
In a remarkable example of how the fabric and structure of our society and social order mimics our internal disorder, the control system (the Ponzi, the banking cabal aka the Federal Reserve and other central/commercial banks, the political and justice systems, the so called free press aka main stream media, religions, corporations, academia and the education system etc) does exactly the same thing to us externally as our ego does internally. And for the most part we fully participate in this.
Using subterfuge and illusion as well as encouraging our own self deception, the control system convinces us that it’s “our” control system. We’re told that the decision to send “our” troops (I didn’t know I had an army) into foreign wars is “our” decision and in “our” best interest. That it’s “our” government despite the fact that “our” government doesn’t act in “our” best interest. We’re repeatedly told that “we” must save “our” too-big-to-fail banks in order to save “ourselves” from those very same too-big-to-fail banks.
The main stream media, an integral part of the control system, assures “us” that “we” must protect and enable “our” financial elites and “our” government so that they may employ and protect “us”. If the financial elites are treated poorly by “us” taxpayers, they’ll take their ball and go home and “we” shall starve.
Yet for decades we’ve been assured they’ll trickle down some of what we give them so I guess it’s all good folks. Yet the income and wealth disparity continues to grow to new records each year. Without judging the validity of my statements, understand what’s really going on here.
We the (self) abused have been and are being conditioned to love and cherish our abuser. Or at least tolerate it. Whack! “Thank you very much sir. May I have another?” Whack! To tolerate such a disparity without revolt takes a great deal of emotional and intellectual bargaining and denial.
Of course, this doesn’t apply to you and me because we understand what’s going on, right? I hear this all the time on ZH, that we’re the informed and thus immune. Is this another comfort story we tell ourselves or are we just caught in the emotional headlights and frozen in our tracks?
The Big Bang or the Little Whimper
So, what if “it” doesn’t end with a bang but with a whimper? I believe this unraveling can and will go on much longer than we expect and we should plan accordingly. Since no one really wants our way of life to end, many will subtly and covertly maintain it even if it means they must maintain the lie. And that’s the key to a slow and painful death of the Ponzi rather than a collapse.
As was so wonderfully illustrated in “The Matrix”, nearly all of the population will fight to remain within the lie for as long as they can simply because the alternative is too horrible to accept. For them, to lie is to live. So they’ll bargain away anything they can’t maintain and deny the pain for as long as they can.
Like walking down a staircase, only when forced will they accept another step down into the abyss. Once there, they’ll acclimate all over again using the only coping tools they have, those of denial and bargaining. Then they’ll take the next step and the next step and the next step in a slow walk to hell.
For those who have forgotten, history’s littered with failed Empires, some as recently as 65 years ago. The one constant throughout history is that the citizens of those failed empires lived in great denial of their current condition and they slowly bargained away their souls for another day in misery. This doesn’t need to be, but it usually is anyway.
While we as a society and a collective are slowly relinquishing our sovereignty to the powers that be, the one area that is under our complete control is our own mind. Let’s not cede that as well by blindly following our own contrarian herd.
We should not adopt positions or beliefs that oppose the Ponzi simply because it’s contrary to the Ponzi. Doing so just shifts the illusion of control to us, but still leaves us dancing to the Ponzi beat. Our views should be adopted only after rigorous examination and vetting. This is the only way to a truly peaceful, free and sovereign life.
09/05/2010
Cognitive Dissonance
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@ Cognitive Dissonance
“In other words, even those who did "wake up to" reality weren't actually in a "real" reality. This is why I say in my essay”
“I don't hold out much hope unless there is some kind of an awakening.”
Kudos on shining some light on the enemy within, who is certainly more lethal than the one without.
'Our views should be adopted only after rigorous examination and vetting. This is the only way to a truly peaceful, free and sovereign life.'
Soooo many commentators missed the point.
"KNOW THYSELF!"
You might not be able to change your response but at least you will know WHY.
I'm doing a constant internal search for the ARCHITECT. :-)
JAL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDMOjdtx3Sk
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ok.
so not only is this perhaps my favorite song ever written but
the introduction includes observations concerning the small mammal,
the rat, and the large mammal, the elephant and everything in between.
a reference to his father, the indian continent and even australia!
the gnawing needs and adaptive intelligence
required for self sustenance in the face of applied self inhibiting and defeating
expression. there is even a reference to sheep, ghosts and "justice" if you do
a little research. christ, what more could anyone ask for in 7:42 seconds.
please. it is all about the metaphors and pricing, still free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgs-zgz9MQw
we/ i are/ am symbolically oriented creatures which is why we can
be doing this here that we are doing. it is a metaphoric and symbolic
exchange taking place. it is a market of ideas unspoiled by the contamination
of influential and powerful special interests.
.
we have the history and anatomy for it and those systems will determine
our future: the brain/ heart / cns negotiating the relations and relationships
of inside and outside, self and other, technology and its uses. our proper
functioning and restraint, our success and failure, our reward feedback loops
and breakdowns, crashes. consciousness.
.
so we have this anatomy and central nervous system and it is our body
and basis and vehicle. as richard p pointed out it is physical and must be
stimulated or it dies. stress and stimulation bring it about, make it strong,
illuminate it to develop to its potential, encoded historically and genetically.
and beyond. same with the mind. and here is a critical point i think that
he alluded to. the neurological development of the physical in its entirety
is the foundation of the symbolic neurological development at least in pattern
and analogy. so we have a "map", out of time, of our own organism, in time,
and its place in space. and we have the potential linguistic map that "should"
correlate with this physical neurological map. but.... the organism is not born with
any language, only the structure to map it on. here is where nurture, linguistic,
makes us human. or not.
.
a child can make sounds with its voice and make words but it may have no
idea what it is saying, its meaning or symbolic impact. it may have
awareness but no consciousness of it's self/itself. and this is determined by
"others". those who have consciousness of the symbolic impact of
the metaphors being pronounced. feedback loops then refine these
neurological correlations between symbolic pronouncement and
tactile developed anatomical circuits and energetic centers.
as above so below. etc..
.
no one can do this alone. no one can do this without feedback loops,
positive and negative. and so..
relationship, time, becomes an actual living organism, symbolic reality.
metaphor becomes reality, and this is the essence of the mind.
constantly learning concerning entities and their relationship from the
micro to macro scale and in between. recognition based on correlation
to our neurological patterns and our capacity to integrate the new data
to our existing structure symbolically and communicate this linguistically.
new technology demands new vocabulary based on previous or prior
concepts and functionality.
.
ignorance and intelligence are both universal and unavoidable, as is denial.
all metaphors are selective in that they focus the attention to the exclusion
of other possibilities. denial mani-fest / fest. once a condition or incident or
event are de scribed, metaphor accomplished, ignorance and deflection follow.
consciousness avoided and one can move on with their more pressing and
immediate concerns, among them observing their immediate environment
and negotiating their ongoing socially integrated motif.
as technology progresses this becomes a demand on the individual and
groups to learn new symbolic means of communication and representation.
.
and time, where does it go? where does it come from? and so what?
.
will It end in a crash or whimper? will there be an awakening?
it seems it depends on the integrity of the metaphors, the world,
as it were, or is, or will be?
or does anything make any sense anymore and does it have to make
sense anymore? is the population even interested in what goes on
outside their field of view. few are and that has a logic to it that is
hard to refute without violating the right of the individual to be left
alone.
bread and circuses made sense, until they didn't.
so there are unrecognized collective organic symbolically based life
forms sloshing around in the minds of humans controlling their
behaviours and thought processes. ? yes! how can one intervene
with regard to potential catastrophic conflict that may result from
the wrong intersection of these entities that possess billions of people,
and many with duplicitous affiliation and shadowy indebtedness?
.
pain clarifies the mature mind. the biochemical feed back loop is
not restricted to rewarding for correlation of symbolic and anatomic
neurostimulation so here we have the power of plasticity and mutation,
life is always ready to try an experiment.
i made that last part up myself.
.
apologies where needed.
ps. nice piece c.d. wonderful thread.
feedback loop
i want to come and play with you guyz.
feedback loop. i'm going out on a limb here but
i think the feedback loop accomplishes a bridge,
i would guess corpus callosum related?, between the
right and left hemisphere of the brain bringing about
consciousness. not to say consciousness cannot exist
in a person with only one hemisphere. it just isn't
the norm with two being typical of the organism that
operate at different frequencies and at different "rates".?
something to play with but one should be careful.
injury may result. noise.
something to think about.
makes me think of harmonics. those frequencies that
spontaneously appear when the feedback loop is supported
by the power of some structure or source, say metaphor or
other foundational energy, heart beat?, and then out of
seemingly now here, there it is. and you say "what was that?"
and there you go. amygdala.
http://www.google.com/images?rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7RNTN_en&q=amygdala&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=FaeFTJKxKcK78gaA8JW_AQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDsQsAQwAw&biw=1291&bih=533
touchmeman your nice and everything, but way tooooo
¿
c e r e b r a l .
†
do you every think about having fun?
¢
your stuff is w a a a a a y serious brain functioning content.
!
liked the rat and elephant story though.
,
carry on good sir.
Aaah, The awakening! Zero point energy. Economic models based on abundance instead of scarcity. The healing of forgiveness.
What am I doing this for? This market thing, this grasping for the timing, the promise of gain to what ultimate end. This awakening within me. My hunger for, and intensity about it seems almost spiritual drives replacing hormonal drives.
Maybe I've been looking for love in all the wrong places.
Hey C.D Head still hurting from this, will read 2nd/3rd time as suggested b4. Some initial thoughts:
When reading, I kept thinking about this:
http://catagenesis.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/noah-raford-collapse-dynamic...
The studies of complex systems and their cycles, panarchy I think it was called, go through several stages. You have the establishment and consolidation phases that initially aid the system, but eventually it is this consolidation that leads to the eventual collapse, followed by the fragmentation, and reintroduction stages.
The presenter used various examples for the natural world, finance, history etc to illustrate this point. The image for panarchy was the sideways figure of eight, which is also the sign for infinity I believe ( ∞) . He explained that when one includes scale; moving from the electrics of a computer, to the organization of an empire, it is layers and layers of ∞ , one onto of another.
If we consider factors such as the interconnectedness of our WW world, the finite resources we have; whether it be fisheries or oil, and sheer doggedness with which we stick to our old ways of behaving, I don't see how if we all constantly say ‘there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home ‘ we can avoid a head on collision between reality and fantasy. Now, whether or not it’s full-blown Armageddon, or slowly bleeding out, is probably difficult to say, but something has to give, right?
Having said ‘has to give’ is a little bit scary after reading your article , but for me it seems like you have the physical reality of the situation, and the various interpretations by humans. Whether or not people are able to deal with it seems secondary to how the world around us reacts. Possible our greatest error is believing everything revolves around us?
When one considers things like climate change, peak oil, the way are societies are structured, the way in which other countries aspire to obtain the luxuries we take for granted, what the ‘cost’ of this entails, and the host of other issues, something has to give IMHO. If we can deal with it fine, if we want to pretend its all good fine, burry our head in the sand, also fine, but I don't think the change cares.
Cheers for the insight into biases. I am blatantly guiltily of reinforcing my own world view, and secretly sniggering at those who tend to tow the line with a little more vigor than me. I can’t escape thinking about how we all tend to focus on ‘our’ problems, whether on a personal, local, national, or international level, but there is a whole other world that doesn’t really care about our problems.
Thanks for spending the time on putting this together,
Would be interested in hearing your thoughts
Tenma13
We certainly are in a fine mess aren't we? Now what do we do assuming "we" really wish to move the ball forward rather than kick the can down the road.
It seems to me that while there will always be the nurter/nature argument, much of what we are on a day to day basis is determined by how we are trained and conditioned. And we are not conditioned to think unselfishly and for the greater good but to take what we want by saying we "need" it.
One must start somewhere to break the conditioning. I've started here. What else can we do but try? But there are tremendous head winds and plenty of people with ulterior motives. I don't hold out much hope unless there is some kind of an awakening.
CD, thanx so much for you contributing energies. I was given a defination and explanation of the ego and it's role in our physical persona by spirit through a very stable medium, it was as follows; the development of the human soul over centuries dealing with the complexities of density required development of survival mechanisms, the ego being primary. The ego also developed it's own sense of self that is inextricably linked, but seperate from the conscous whole self. It's sub-role, after protecting the whole, is to protect it's self and it does this by leading the whole self into patterns of "seek, but never find". Because if you find the happiness that is the purpose of this physical existance, there will be no need for the ego and it's existance is thereby threatened.
This is condensed and I hope comprehensible as this is my initial post. You were the one who inspired me to get off the sidelines and into the fray. Thank you, I think.
me likey, mr bagel
nice seek and find analogy. well I am trying to find my mojo right now, and if I do my EGO will be the first to know then ZH.
Wow, that was long! Yet I read all of it, so it had to have been good.
The ultimate compliment. Thank you.
"Now that we know the “truth” and are some of the early adopters, are we acting to support the truth and stop the lies or are we just cueing up for another ZH exposé? Why do we expect others to act differently than we have acted once they learn the “truth”?
I’ve asked this question a few times before here on ZH as well as other places and I’m mostly ignored. It appears I’m cutting too close to the bone because while most won’t admit it, we seem to be waiting around for someone else to do what we don’t wish to do."
Thanks for two excellent reads, Cognitive Dissonance, and you will be pleased to know that there are those who are doing things that others are not able to do, rather than not wishing to do, which is invariably as in not having the necessary cojones, and they would be doing things differently and stealthily on planes which are well beyond the normal ken, for they be free-thinkers who have cracked enough of the System's code to be able to destroy it from within, with its own tools as they succumb to an alien virus?
And only posed here as a question because quite exactly has been done is TS/SCI classified and beyond. And proving that it is different, is all freely available for viewing and comment on the Internet and World Wide Web sites, despite the classification, and all you need to exercise is a little intelligence and common sense to find a leading source following novel trails and Virtual Application of MkUltraSensitive ProgramMING.
http://www.qfora.com/ot/images/ot/161825.JPG
http://www.qfora.com/ot/images/ot/161822.jpg
http://www.qfora.com/ot/images/ot/161826.JPG
The birth fantasy cannot be stopped, halted or aborted.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/manifesto-of-discovery-channel-gunman-environmentalisteugenicist-who-demanded-halt-to-birth-of-parasitic-human-infants.html
The poison and fetal rage will continue to build before being displaced [Bomb Iran].
http://sbthomas55.blogspot.com/2010/08/fetal-ragehate-in-todays-tokens.html
Thank You.
Another nomer comes to mind.
"Scientific Arrogance"
The weight of conformance required to walk the charted path.
The ability to print money - good or bad? Let's take the most important member class of society - the FARMERS [who I thank at least three times a day]. Let us suppose that we take away their tractors and give them a printing press to print currency - will they "bite"? Of course they will. Rather than farming they will just print away and buy whatever they want when they want. Is that good for us? Probably not, unless you feel comfortable being part of a hunter/gatherer group. So, if the ability to print money will not work favorably in that instance, it should be considered insidious and ruinous to some extent in any other instance [such as what is happening today]. The question is, what will work favorably for all of us and what would it take to implement it? To any FARMERS out there a Big and Continuous THANK YOU!
No shame as you as an individual did not face oppression in your pursuit to benefit. Human beings do things for one of two reasons:
1) The opportunity to benefit
2) The fear of loss
The population is operating out of a fear of loss, fear of the status quo being altered. ZH and other economic blogs focus on the fear of loss also and how to mitigate losses (gold bitchez). But ZH does promote the truth which forces the continued status quo to alter.
What is the point of humans attempting and succeeding in altering the status quo (even though it hurts short and medium-term)?
It is in our evolution to return to a place where the opportunity to benefit can be pursued. Terrorism and rebellions are not solved through violence which is a further fear of loss mentality. America knew this after WWII by rebuilding Japan and Europe. America, by refocusing on the opportunity to benefit prevented domestic terrorism for decades. But now it is a target. Hmmm. What has changed? A continued fear of loss strategy.
Fear will only propel people for a time. The U.S. has operated in a fear of loss environment since Nixon. And once a fear of loss environement has been firmly establised, our design forces such a status quo to change to an opportunity to benefit phase, no different than the Soviet Union, China or the U.S. right now.
The solutions to altering the status quo that will compel the largest amount of followers will focus on the opportunity to benefit. An example would be abundant energy which creates jobs, rising income and lowers costs of basics, freeing up cash for a resumption in growth and paying down debt. See how that works? That is an opportunity to benefit idea.
ZH problem is the foundation is based around furthering the fear of loss mentality.
The theme of the reporters at ZH are based around the movie Fight Club which goal is "Operation Mayhem" and synthetic and violent planned collapse of the system in the movie.
I don't agree with this outcome. How many followed Joe Stack to his fiery grave toward the IRS?
What should be considered is providing an opportunity to benefit solutions for Central Banking to evolve into Peer-to-Peer lending and increase the global supply chain, by making the process transparent and multiplying the number of bankers into the millions providing free market choice. The CB's then decentralize themselves while providing an even bigger growth opportunity for the entire world. The existing capital held in a Golden Calf formation should be encouraged to grow into innovative solutions. It is the retail investors that made the easier money these last few decades that are becoming frustrated by the lack of growth opportunities.
Now what I thought would happen is happening, China is not complying with the West as anticipated now that the means of production are located there.
I salute ZH for it's truth telling. I also have read a lot of Cognative Dissonance commentary and like the deep though. Engage TPTB and sell them into a new growth paradigm, or at least attempt it.
The people will follow a renewed growth paradigm solution set even if TPTB decide to ignore it. Operation mayhem is not a solution set, it might be ultimately one of several realities that emerge but at least attempt the opportunity to benefit solutions first.
"Central Banking -> Peer-to-Peer lending..."
Grameen Bank vs. PayDay Loans (mafia loan-sharking).
A very interesting and positve direction that is do-able at the grassroots level.
...................................................................................
ps
Jim Quinn continues with racist rants @ TBP... very sad!
'Our views should be adopted only after rigorous examination and vetting. This is the only way to a truly peaceful, free and sovereign life.'
Roger that.
Our views should be adopted only after rigorous examination and vetting.
As measured against what standard? How do you know all the standards there are to choose from? Who chooses the standard? How do you know that the chosen standard is the best one to vett your views against?
Psychobabble is easy. Actually answering the questions I asked is near impossible. It is easy to talk about all of this. It is near impossible to actually do it. If you can't prove that you have a good standard to vett your views against, why bother with the process? Activity should not be mistaken for progress. Exchanging one set of unworkable views for a different set of unworkable views is not progress.
Which is why a classical education in Western thought has been valued for so long. It equips one to answer the questions I asked. Without such an education, you'd best follow a leader of some sort. Which explains why so many people so easily follow those who put themselves up as leaders.
This is meant as a generic comment. It is not directed at anyone on ZH.
I'm of the opinion that our minds operate the way they do because it was beneficial. Dysfunctional thinking should not be selected for, so I wonder if denial is a useful mechanism to prevent us from over reacting to the constant change that exists. The cultural inertia works to maintain the status quo because we are creatures of habit and we prefer a steady state. Only when the change is threatening does the denial breakdown and force us to re-evaluate our perceptions. The harsh reality of life has made me aware of my own denials a couple of times. It's not an enjoyable experience but a necessary one. Change that comes quick is easier to spot. It's that slow, incremental descent that creeps up on us that is not detected. The manipulations that are exposed here disguise the change that is occurring which creates enough doubt in our minds to maintain our course, which I find worrisome. I would rather it crash.
Whoa...thanks for the psychology lesson. Yes ZH is a contrarian site, but has some great insights and data.
My unsolicited advice for all the readers is to get data and opinions from a variety of sources, use your own brain and don't over generalize.
The us vs them mentality will limit your thinking and focus. It is an age old trick for leaders in gov, religion and business. Republicans vs Demos, Inflation vs Deflation Christians vs Muslims, Apple vs Microsoft, Bulls vs Bears. The truth is both opposing groups are often right.
Look for the micro paths to growth. They are out there.
i would say the truth is both opposing groups are often in cahoots with each other to mislead the majority.
Well Stated
+100
the world is ...
a metaphor! really.
....
as proof of this i ask you, "what day is it?"
and what makes you think anyone is asking
you this question?
anyone
is........
me.
Jesus people The matrix was just a movie. It was a metaphor, it's not real. There is no blue pill, we are not going to wake up in a vat of slime hooked to tubes. All you commenters babbling " ponzi,"blood pressure rising with specs of spittle frothing on your lips... What the f are you talking about. Oh boo hoo, there are mean greedy people manipulating the system. You mean leave it to beaver wasn't real either? Is it a "federal case" because your little fantasy land seems to be breaking down. Don't you know any history? Can't you see how much better off the world as a whole is now? In the 60s we carpet bombed large civilian populations: now we don't. The gun nut wannabe revolutionaries who comment here make me sick. I hope the Feds come for your ass first. I intend to do what I can to help kick the cab down the road. Human society always has tension over power and wealth and who gets it. So what
Aren't you taking all a little to literal? The phrase Matrix is the implication most of us are asleep. CD makes the perfect debate, when in discussion with a group of like minded people you do have to evaluate the group think. CD has many times in the past posed questions making me look a little deeper. Thanks CD, we should all pause now and then to reevaluate our trading and lifestyles.
No, what I was trying to get at, and it's related to CD's point, is that the continued use of a metaphor (in this case The Matrix) starts to affect one's thinking. IMO "The Matrix" is not a good metaphor for reality. In the movie what people thought was real was totally fake, and the was a "real" reality they could wake up to. In the comments here, I get the sense that people actually think our whole "system" is fake, and there is some other place to go. There isn't! This is the utopian impulse, and man does it lead to some serious death and destruction. I think CD is getting at this.
But really, these ideas that people live in a belief system that is constructed by themselves and others: this is not a new insight. Post modern academics have been wrangling with these ideas for 50 years. Does anyone think that African Americans are shocked that "the system" is not benevolent. How about Native Americans. Did they ever get on the Mom and Apple Pie bandwagon. No. Hello Noam Chomsky!
But getting back to my point, I get upset with commenters here ranting about hanging Bernanke and crew in front of the congress. I value ZH as whole, and I appreciate what CD is trying to do here. For those who are waiting for "The System" to collapse: What comes next? We will have to rebuild, and of course execute the elite from the old regime, who can never be reformed. The De-Keynesianification process so to speak.
What I like most about ZH are the posts from people with actual knowledge about trading and the markets, as it is unfamiliar to me, and fascinating. When it comes to practical steps to, let's say, prepare myself for the coming collapse, there is no way I am going to start stockpiling food, water, weapons. My hope is for muddling through, it's always less destructive. Rant over:)
If you made it all the way to the end of the Matrix trilogy, you found that even "reality" was fake. This was the sixth time Neo, Zion and The Matrix had been "created" or spawned by...............who or what? Each time the programming was set in motion, the outcome was different than expected. So who created the programing and "where" was it running and on "what" was "it" running.
In other words, even those who did "wake up to" reality weren't actually in a "real" reality. This is why I say in my essay
That's all true in its compactness. The objective is to escape/survive with as much bodily and worldly health as possible. Getting trampled in the process is not a goal as much as a consequence of poor planning.
CogDis,
Is the fanatic in Eric Hoffer's The True Believer driven by an excessive accumulation of cognitive dissonances; is the degree of fanaticism proportional to the number of cognitive dissonances within his own mind? And the lashing out at others is then a manifestation of denial preservation?
Some years ago I paused to inventory and deal with my own accumulating cd's; I elected to move many of my beliefs back a notch to the "do not believe but do not disbelieve, either" catagory. I have grown comfortable with not knowing. I no longer seek certainty in a world governed by probability. Am I making progress?
OK, here's the Plan -
1. Make the US dollar the universal currency of the entire economic world by guaranteeing its convertibility into gold on demand. Hence, no other currency need be backed by gold, because they can instead just link to the US currency. Done. 1944
2. Take the US currency off the gold standard, such that all currencies of the world are fiat). Done. 1971
3. Keep the US dollar strong (and gold weak) for a generation, such that most people of the world know without thinking about it that the US dollar is as good as (and better than) gold. Done. 2000
4. Quietly and systematically start accumulating gold and silver, making payment in newly-printed fiat paper currencies. Currency generated for gold and silver purchase is not to exceed 10% of existing outstanding currency per annum unless approved. Generate crises as needed as diversionay tactics. Underway.
5. When 75% of the world supply of gold and silver have been accumulated, a list of instructions for Phase 2 will be issued.
5a. If running behind schedule, confiscate or tax as needed.
Good food for thought. Thanks.
With regard to the ponzi I subscribe to the fast collapse belief but acknowledge I could be completely wrong since much of the outcome is a function of politics and mass physcology, both of which are unpredictable.
Looking beyond the ponzi I am more certain of rapid economic deline and hunger since peak oil and global warming are soundly rooted in physics and not subject to the whims of politics or beliefs.
Well done CD, I suspect that the unwind, although slow now, will finally experience a waterfall event, as Ponzi's do...
Implicit - Thanks, I needed that. My mood has lightened. But I'm still negative, and I'm not giving that up.
Find tranquility in your pain; you'll enjoy the enlightenment more :>}
As was so wonderfully illustrated in “The Matrix”, nearly all of the population will fight to remain within the lie for as long as they can simply because the alternative is too horrible to accept.
just pass me the damn red pill along with an iced single vente, 7 pump peppermint, caramel sauce top and bottom, no whip, mocha.
CD,
You are in denial. You are stuck expounding on how the royal "we" need to examine and question our assumptions because you are afraid to come to any firm conclusions yourself. You are afraid to decide once and for all what you believe.
You want to continue preaching this psychological bla bla bla, using the royal "we" like you understand some significant percentage of minds. You don't.
This is intellectual cowardice. Your writing is boring and doggedly repetitious. To any of the rest of you ZHers who might be seduced by this guy's trance, remember: a person who will stand for nothing will fall for anything.
"Question/understand your assumptions" ="stand for nothing", huh? Quite a leap there, Clint.
"You are afraid to decide once and for all what you believe". Are you saying that CD should make up his mind how the world works and what he thinks the future holds and stick to it, no matter what the facts? That new information should never be allowed to get in the way of a firmly held belief? The world is flat and no amount of evidence will convince you otherwise, huh, Clint?
Must be nice to have that absolute certainty that your view is correct and unbiased, that your projection of the future is accurate and irrefutable, that you are untainted by fear, prejudice, greed, etc., and that you never filter information that doesn't fit your preconceived notions. You should write a book. Humans have been trying to reach this enlightened state for thousands of years, by everything from Buddhist meditation to modern psychotherapy, and here you have actually achieved it!
Personally, I cling to multiple self deceptions. My favorite one is pretty common, that everything is so screwed up that there is nothing I can do to fix it. This, of course, absolves me from having to get up off my butt and try to change things. I can surf the web or play computer games, secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't make a difference and therefore don't have to feel guilty about not trying. I can ignore the success of others who make a difference by just claiming I don't have what it takes to do the same.
Wow, I sure bring out the best in you, don't I? I'm glad to see my writing triggers you. It seems that you and Gully have something in common.
I suspect that's how you're able to cope in your world, by taking firm stands and declaring your beliefs. You're a numbers guy, right? Everything has a place. Does it make life clearer for you when things are black and white rather than gray? When there is no room for doubt or more than one view in your world, it must appear to be safer? Or make sense?
Did it ever occur to you to just say no and not click on my articles so as not to be subjected to my "psychological bla bla bla"? That fact that you still do, even though you're repulsed by my writing, speaks far more about you than me.
BTW there are no limits to how long your comment can be. So type a rebuttal and explain to the world how I'm in denial and why this is all psychological bla bla bla. I'm always open to the idea that I'm in denial. In fact, I'll be the first one to agree. You can work from there. Of course, it's so much easier to tear something down that to build it up, isn't it? But go ahead and give it a try. What do you have to lose?
Cognitive Dissonance - out with a bang / or whimper? Neither.
The central bitch made in this essay is that the ship of state knowingly
exacts its pound of flesh from the weak minded, well intended suckers,
and all else not clever enough to sidestep misinformation, confidence
games, and universal greed.
My view has simplicity going for it: Imagine the ship of state a vessel
14 miles long by 5 miles wide. Imagine that it has a rudder the size of
a dinner plate. It matters little if a civilian, military, professional, or
idiot sits on the bridge - course direction and change was long ago given up in favor of personal aggrandizement, moments of fame or
common shilling.
I laugh out loud at conspiracy theories' attempt to paint everything but the truth regarding where we are and how we got here. Rather
than denial or obfuscation, it has been crystal clear since Jack got whacked, what is at stake.
I submit, there is absolutely nothing that can remedy the global future. Build a scare hole? Forget it. Help your fellow man? Chump.
Go forth and multiply? Tried that. Organize, safety in numbers?
Double castration. Give it all away & roam the earth helping the poor? Look no further than any U.S. city. Bring on mayhem or choke
the snake? You first.
Wants and desires are many, needs are but few. I suggest that in the time remaining, people create a window of sanity, wherein they
divest themselves of useless 'shit' as Carlin termed it. Insofar as
possible, lose what ever cannot be eaten, drunk, easily traded or serve as shelter. Give everything else away, It'll be fun. Same high
as loosing at Vegas less the BS. Caution: don't delay, soon the whole country will be awash in useless stuff that cannot be given away.
Finally, I want to close on a positive note. Its an observation really.
It concerns the collection of officials, leaders, and executives of all
agencies, corporate, military, and governmental, national, state and local: If they were any smarter, they'd be dangerous.
Mine eye well knows what with his gust is 'greeing,
And to his palate doth prepare the cup:
If it be poison'd, 'tis the lesser sin
That mine eye loves it and doth first begin.
Son CXIV
CE is so sure of his sureness.
CD is so sure of his unsureness.
They're both so sure.
Education is the process of going from a position of cocksure ignorance to one of thoughtful uncertainty. (author not remembered)
You seem upset. Let me tell you a joke.
Two atoms go into a crowded bar and get bumped around, and one of them loses an electron.
The other one says, "Are you all right?"
The atom says "Ya", and the other atom says "Are you sure",
and the atom says "I'm Positive"