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The Zero Hedge Effect – Crossing the Event Horizon - Part 1 of 2
The Zero Hedge Effect – Crossing the Event Horizon
Chapter One of Two
By
Cognitive Dissonance
[TV commercial script] (During the voice over we see a series of obviously distraught and distressed men and woman huddled in bed, pacing the floor or sitting on the edge of their seat slowly wringing their hands and quietly crying. The backgrounds are darkened and everything is slightly out of focus while the background music is dour and slightly off key.) “Do you have trouble sleeping at night, endlessly tossing and turning until, exhausted, you get up and begin your day? Are you constantly worried about money or your job? Have you been feeling alone and isolated, with your family and friends refusing to discuss those things that deeply concern you? Do you obsessively read financial blogs and web sites, but never find the answers you’re looking for?” (The scene slowly changes to a husband and wife angrily arguing. Then the scene dissolves into a close up of the worried husband hunched over his computer monitor in a darkened room, the glow from the monitor flickering on his face. The scene fades out while simultaneously fading back in to a close up of his right index finger repeatedly clicking the computer mouse.) “If any of these symptoms describes you or a loved one, you might be suffering from an increasingly common and very serious cognitive dissonance. The good news is that now there is real hope with a treatment available that can give you the peace of mind you need and deserve. Stay tuned for more information.” [End script] Of course, as soon as the TV commercial mentions ‘good news’ we quickly see lots of smiling faces and hand holding, along with people walking in fields of flowers or laughing with friends and family. The narrator then informs us of the latest greatest drug to benefit mankind…..immediately followed by a 30 second listing of potential side effects. If I had not given it away by mentioning financial blogs, one might recognize that the above ‘symptoms’ have been experienced by nearly every one of us at one point or another. Well, most of the symptoms anyway. But in this case it’s not a drug that ultimately cures the cognitive dissonance, but rather truth telling via a relatively new phenomenon sweeping the world. It is pretty clear that there is something special about Zero Hedge, along with several dozen other web sites and blogs, financial or otherwise. So let’s explore a bit and find out what is going on along with a warning not to become complacent and assume that we have arrived and can now stop searching. For hundreds of years there have been various sources of information which, when uncovered, enabled the determined searcher to peer through the facade and gaze upon some of the truth hidden by the official keepers of the public myth. But this knowledge was glimpsed only by a limited few who had the time and means to conduct a comprehensive search of original texts and documents, then publish their findings for an extremely small audience. When the Internet began to open up more of the mysteries hidden from the public, the few expanded into a few more that were, for the most part, clustered around so-called ‘fringe’ Internet communities, newsgroups and more recently small web sites and blogs. But even with the expanded modern day access to vast pools of information via the early Internet, most of the research was still limited to political assassinations, false flag attacks, governmental, military and individual skullduggery, wars of opportunity or empire, financial fraud and so on. More importantly, for the vast majority of time the perspective of this research was retrospective in nature, often looking back years, decades, even centuries into the past. Near real time analysis was limited mostly to pure speculation and supposition, often because real time info was extremely limited and required a consensus reality point of view to gain entry. You needed to be part of the group to be given the right to listen in on the group. Zero Hedge specifically, and several other blogs and web sites in general, approached the problem of near real time research and dissemination of contrary information from an entirely new and amazingly vulnerable sector, that of business and investment, an industry that already disseminates massive amounts of (near) real time information in order to give the impression of a level playing field among lesser competitors and a vast worldwide pool of patsy investors. Now more than ever, primarily because the world depends upon just in time Federal Reserve digital money printing and liquidity injections, as well as Congressional emergency bailouts and crony systemic manipulation, a growing understanding of the inner workings of the financial world, as well as widely disseminated global financial information, has begun to expose the secret world of the financially powerful and politically connected to ‘we the people’.
The democratization of financial information has evolved in a manner never considered particularly vulnerable to the powers that be for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, those who could understand (and use) the financial information flow were never seriously considered to be a source of disloyalty since it was always assumed ‘they’ were either using or twisting this information in order to deceive and/or trade off for power or profit rather than use it to help expose and potentially destroy or disrupt the very system they could profit from.
This limited perspective is a wonderfully penetrating example of the narrow mindedness and naiveté that is displayed by the captured mind of the central sociopaths and their large group of enablers, particularly when they believe they are all powerful. People often expect other people to think, act and say pretty much what they would think, act or say. The (financial) criminal minds, including those of the hard core sociopaths and their first and second tier enablers, are often not very imaginative, particularly if it isn’t required of them on a daily basis for anything more than to rape, rob and steal.
However, in the vast majority of cases the rich and powerful were correct in assuming no one would defect or that those who did would be ineffective, marginalized or quickly squelched. In their minds the equation is simple. Who would possibly give up the enormous wealth and income that flows from intimate business connections and insider information? Better yet, who would want to overcome the cost of entry and the risk of ridicule (or much worse) that comes with becoming a dangerous whistleblower?
Alas, the sociopaths completely underestimated that which they do not possess, the single minded power demonstrated by those with strong moral character, fearless courage and righteous indignation. Combine this with the ability to monetize page views, thus mitigating some of the cost of entry, and a rapidly growing and thoroughly pissed off proletariat, including some morally outraged, burned out and/or jettisoned financial workers, and you have the means, motive and opportunity for economic truth mongers to blossom. The rest, as they say, is history. All of the above is obviously a gross over simplification of the phenomenon, but you get the idea.
I do not wish to diminish the contribution of dozens upon dozens of web sites and blogs that pre-date Zero Hedge (ZH), all of which served to plow the raw and underdeveloped truth speaking land and turn the soil in preparation for the Zero Hedge Effect meme seeding. But the prolific posting of 10 to 15 original articles a day by ZH’s founder(s), who uses the alias Tyler Durden, as well as guest posts and the output of numerous contributors, provides an at times mind bending journey into the alternative reality of truth speaking. As well, Tyler’s in-your-face style serves to embolden those who read his prose, a necessary attraction if one is going to entice reluctant or frightened souls out of their burrows and into what they’ve been told all their lives is blasphemous and heretical territory.
Zero Hedge, and all the other destroyers of the public myths, are so much more than ‘just’ truth telling web sites; they are a singularity, the precursor to a potentially mind expanding metamorphosis, a meme movement of historic proportions that will only be fully recognized and understood with the 20-20 hindsight of historical perspective. This grass roots movement is clearly a force to be reckoned with simply because it has made its presence felt despite mainstream media opposition and outright hostility from those who carry the water for the political, corporate and financial powers that be.
In fact this new and utterly unique form of near real time truth speaking is so revolutionary that I have coined a term for it, “The Zero Hedge Effect”, which I use to describe the overall financial and business truth speaking movement that includes dozens of other web sites and blogs, a sampling of which can be found on the left hand side of every ZH web page. This blossoming has emboldened others to double their efforts and either expand their (non) financial truth speaking web sites or to create all new ones. This is the definition of a popular movement and not a fad. The proof of its power is seen within the escalating efforts by disinformation agents to attack their credibility. One does not fight what one does not fear.
The Zero Hedge Effect describes the overall experience that must have overwhelmed Alice as she explored the rabbit hole and suffered one cognitive dissonance after another in rapid succession. The World of Wonderland must have been extremely distorted and disorientating for Alice, just as the world looks to those who stumble into The Zero Hedge Effect after clicking a stray link or hearing about the Hedge from other web sites. From that moment on they begin a journey into an alternative realty so demonstratively different from what is presented by the mainstream media, the education system and the general consensus belief system that severe vertigo and projectile vomiting are just a few of the early physical symptoms of old meme purging and cognitive disruption.
From that point on nearly all who enter The Hedge, or any of the other non coordinated (but still in the eyes of the PTB, co-conspirator) web sites, experience time and reality dilation and distortion effects similar to what one imagines we would experience if we were to cross the event horizon of a massive black hole, thus the reason I describe the actual transformation process itself as “Crossing the Event Horizon”.
For those who undergo the gut wrenching and emotionally destabilizing process of unlearning nearly everything they thought they knew while simultaneously downloading not only truth, but an entirely new vocabulary of financial and political terms and phrases, they are never the same again. And for this reason alone many quickly turn around and never look back as they scurry towards the warm and seductive embrace of near total truth blackout living.
However, there is great danger in thinking that we have now crossed through the event horizon and are safely on the other side, thus fully awake and seeing clearly. This just isn’t correct and to believe so is the act of the self deluded fool. One doesn’t overcome thousands of years of thought meme conditioning and cultural indoctrination by overcoming a few obviously transparent lies and self deceptions. In fact, one of the lies we tell ourselves in order to assimilate all the initial cognitive dissonances is that the tough part is done and the road forward is clear. Who really wants to face digging an endless pit for the rest of their lives? While I most certainly can be accused of beating this mule to death, let’s once again take a look at the group and individual psychology of this issue. One must begin to understand the reason why people and groups do, or don’t do, the things we do if one is to see the bigger picture. Otherwise it’s simply too easy to dismiss explanations such as what follows as silly and illogical or not applicable to us under the false belief that we act for the most part logically and in our own best interest. Or even that we know our self very well, thus we are finally free thinking, the ultimate self delusion. Forget about pointing fingers at others in order to shield ourselves from this potentially stinging rebuke. I’m talking about you and me here and no one else. Take a chance that you and I might not know everything about ourselves, that we might actually continue to lie to ourselves without even realizing it, and open our minds to other possibilities. For decades, the stock markets were supposedly influenced and even regulated under the ‘logic’ of efficient markets. Only now are people finding the courage to look closely at the illogical lunacy of these theories. Isn’t it interesting that these ‘efficient market’ theories, when accepted by the masses and by a large majority of financial advisors and money managers, had the effect of making suckers out of the very same masses it was supposedly designed to help? But I guess that was just a coincidental accident, right? The same applies when thinking about ourselves and how we act privately and publically. Is it such a surprise to discover that we act illogically and often at cross purposes to our own well being? Yet we are told we’re free to choose, that our leaders work for us, that we determine our own destiny, when a careful and unbiased examination tells us exactly the opposite. If we don’t begin to understand why we continuously fall for the same bag of tricks we will remain hopelessly stuck within the false illusion the rich and powerful present to us as our ‘true’ reality. Any book, article or video that discusses political, social and economic policy or even corruption without factoring in individual and group psychology is seriously flawed simply because the entire story isn’t being told. One simply cannot convey a complex and nuanced condition or idea using less than half of the available alphabet or dictionary. The unspoken presumption underlying many (but not all) attempts to expose ‘the truth’ is that if only the author could inform the sleeping masses of the ‘real’ story, of the hidden information, then the slumbering giant would rapidly wake and shake off the tyranny. My apologies to all the sincere and serious authors out there, but this view is hopelessly naive and speaks more to the psychology and conditioning of the author than the reader. In fact, an important component of our social conditioning and an integral part of the Big Lie is the deeply conditioned belief that it’s impolite or even rude to speak to each other about our own tendency to defer to the manipulation and lies promoted by ‘our’ authority figures. It’s almost as if we are acting like children talking about serious flaws in our parents. If we make believe and don’t really talk about it, then it isn’t real. The only social class allowed to discuss this subject (other than our masters, along with the advertising and government intelligence agency classes) is the professional class of social scientists, doctors, psychologists and academics and then only in the most sterile and dispassionate clinical terms. There is this intellectual wall that’s erected around them forbidding anyone other than these ‘experts’ from discussing psychology in public. Only the great Wizards are allowed to discuss the mysteries of the human psyche. After all, they are all experts and we are just uninformed and potentially self destructive children. Any explorations and explanations offered by amateurs such as myself are quickly branded as deluded babbling or children playing with matches. Only the great Merlin and his anointed sorcerers are empowered to conduct such forays into the dark psychological arts. And God forbid if a non ‘professional’ embarrasses the reader by pointing out the obvious. It’s almost as if people believe that to speak about the unspeakable is just rubbing their noses in their own futility. Hush hush sweet Charlotte, civilized people don’t talk about such things. Or maybe it is all just our fragile little egos screaming at us to leave the blanket draped over the dead and rotting corpse. What we don’t see, what we are conditioned not to see, is that this is all part of our conditioning, that only the high priests are allowed to discuss the very subject(s) that can and will help set us free if only we would understand and use them. This is a constant within the illusion. Anything that can empower or free us is removed, restricted or demonized, thus severely limiting our innate and natural ability to heal, grow and flourish. At best we are told we should restrict ourselves to applying band aids and hydrogen peroxide. Anything more than this should be left to the professional mind magicians and the grand keepers of the public myths.
I’ve been told a number of times by ‘professionals’ including financial, medical, scientific, even philosophical (which just goes to show how deeply all professionals are indoctrinated to stay within the lines including myself) that I shouldn’t stray where I don’t belong. Sometimes I’m even scolded as one would an errant child who has just been warned to stay away from the sharp scissors. We are conditioned to believe that just about any emotional discomfort is considered an illness that must be treated with Makita skull saws and surgical mind grips when what our emotional pain should be seen as is a warning sign that something is seriously wrong with our present day reality and not necessarily with us. When waking up to a world gone mad the prescription that is needed is not additional heavy medication, more mindless TV indoctrination and desperate consumerism. Have you ever wondered why the ‘healing arts’ magicians claim they ‘practice’ their profession, that they own a ‘practice’? This is not a play on words; they use this term very specifically to describe an inexact process. As much as we wish to believe, as much as we are told to believe, that it is a complex science and well above our pay grade, much of it, particularly psychology, is simply theory and consensus belief systems that are applied under ‘sterile’ or controlled conditions. I’ve often wondered how many emotionally distraught individuals who are finally waking to their insanity are re-infected with mad human disease while prone upon the psychologist’s brown leather sofa. And do we not see the sublime irony in the fact that some of the nastiest and deadliest infections are ‘caught’ during a hospital stay? There is a world of difference between setting a broken bone, undergoing transplant surgery or treating psychological trauma caused by the sudden loss of a loved one, which I’m not talking about here, and understanding what makes us psychologically tick and how we are manipulated, how our own imagined and conditioned fears and phobias are used against us. We are confidently told that psychologists know what they are doing, but a careful reading of ‘accepted practice’ suggests to me that they are simply intensively and often narrowly trained practitioners rather than holistic healers. To a great degree this also applies to the medical field as well. We are all conditioned to be the passive and cooperative patient and are told to let the ‘health professionals’ control our health and well being, also known as the illusion. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard family and friends tell me that their doctor doesn’t listen to them. More often than not they don’t listen, at least not beyond the initial description of the primary symptom(s). About two years ago my extended family all agreed we would accompany each other to doctor appointments as each other’s advocate. While it is a huge hassle for all, it is remarkable the difference we have seen in the responsiveness of our doctors and nurses. Our passivity and isolation in the hands of the ‘healing’ professionals is our implied acceptance of their projected illusion. We cannot see outside of the illusion when we fully accept the illusion as the only ‘real’ reality. This is not to say that some people are not gravely mentally or physically ill and would do great harm to themselves and to others if they were not ‘treated’. And of course medical doctors perform a vital service in treating serious disease and injury. This is not what I’m talking about. But how much of today’s treatment, particularly psychological, is simply designed to get the wage slave back onto his or her feet and once again profitably producing on the economic chain gang. I owe, I owe, so off to work I go. Instead of treating the daily cumulative emotional distress so many of us experience as an issue with us personally, maybe we should begin to see that our emotional pain is an obvious and clear warning sign that something is terribly wrong with our world and that it is not ‘we the people’ who should be fixed, but rather that the sociopaths and all their enablers should be run to ground and destroyed while we debt slaves free ourselves. By not discussing the real chains that bind us to the illusion and by not willingly accepting personal responsibility for our own understanding and well being, we perpetuate the basic victim mentality that chains us to our own impotence and unhealthy practices, regardless of whether our bindings are physical or mental. The one constant among nearly all religions (including the Gods of money and consumerism) is the demand that we must willingly accept the proffered illusion if we are to be saved, born again, reach nirvana, live happily ever after, makes lots of money, comfortably retire etc. Instead of 70 plus virgins, I’m promised consumer nirvana if only I reject nearly all healthy physical and mental practices and blindly dive into the shallow end of the consumer pool. Consumer bliss is just another McFat burger away.
While I deeply respect and even admire the tremendous amount of time, effort and dedication that goes into becoming a doctor, psychologist or anyone else in the ‘healing arts’ field for that matter, at some point we must ask ourselves what it is we think they are doing to and for us. I have no doubt that the vast majority of them sincerely believe they are doing ‘good’ and would never intentionally harm their patients. That’s not the question here and it never really was. But that doesn’t mean they do not do harm, just that they do not intend to do harm. In my book, malpractice is far more than negligence, be it gross, intentional, misguided or otherwise. “God forgive them for they know not what they do” sounds like it might apply here. They practice in a field that is a business first and their business is to get the patient back up on the hamster wheel and plugged into the illusion, either physically or mentally. Doesn’t this make them at a minimum conflicted or possibly misguided? Just because everyone else is doing the same thing doesn’t make it right nor does that absolve the practitioner. In so many ways the ‘healing arts’ are just another form of consensus group think run rampant, controlled by Big Pharma, Big Health Insurance and Big Government. The men and women of the health professions are without a doubt subjected to the same propaganda you and I are, including cultural and social indoctrination. And it is the rare individual who can see beyond their social and professional conditioning when it pays them not only to fit in but to excel. That sounds like a serious conflict of interest to me and while I’m sure I will hear screams from the comment section that these professionals put their own self interest last, isn’t that what we all tell ourselves. I would argue that they are even more intensively indoctrinated considering all their years of training. Yet rarely do we view them as a critical part of the control system. Instead we are conditioned to believe they are trained to be impartial and thus impervious to the same influences we recognize affects us. They are showered with drug company information, including ‘incentives’ to prescribe various drugs to fix or repair our mental and physical ills. Or as I like to say in all seriousness, they are given incentives (even if it is simply personal motivation to help) to cast their magician’s spell(s) to keep us within (or to reenter) the illusion. These professionals, and in fact all intensively trained professionals (of which I am one) are the epitome of group think to the nth degree. Only in this case it’s OK because we want to help rather than harm. Show me one professional who willingly admits he or she wishes to harm. We all want to believe our intentions are good and benevolent. And yet harm does and will continue to occur because of our professional actions. Why doesn’t this worry us? Under conditions such as this why do we still willingly surrender our will and our bodies to their dictates without serious questioning? Why don’t we inform ourselves? It might be in our best interest to look just as closely at what they tell us about our mental and physical health as we do regarding our financial health. I suspect that most of us would avoid professional financial advisors who are still completely plugged into the Ponzi and who continue to spout ‘efficient markets’ and ‘endless growth’ nonsense. If so, why are we still playing by the rules when it comes to our mental and physical health? Why don’t we question our doctor or therapist as closely as we might our financial advisor? Might it be that we are still under the influence of the magician’s spell, but our ego won’t let us admit it? The Big Lie is so much deeper than ‘just’ the financial Ponzi. I’ve talked about this in great detail in other articles so I won’t go any further (thank God some are saying). But the reader should consider that their professional doctor and psychologist are just as caught up in the illusion as we are. Their job, whether they are fully conscious of it or not, is to keep you and I peddling away on our hamster wheel and thus fully immersed within the illusion. If you’re reading this article it seems to me you wish to do the opposite. So maybe it is time to reexamine everything including your most basic assumptions. In Chapter Two we will explore our individual and group self deception and how it keeps us trapped within the event horizon. Cognitive Dissonance 07-12-2011
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This same ethical issue faces many people in my profession, including myself. Many annuities that pay a very high commission were, and still are, sold simply because they pay a high commission. Not all, but many. It isn't right, but if the advisor is inclined to do this, they can nearly always find an excuse and a justification.
I have discovered that the trait of thrift forces one to take the fair or honest road many times. Seeing waste is anathema to me. Even if I'm watering the lawn I'll turn off the tap water when brushing my teeth. I hate to see water going down the drain unused, even if water is being taken off due to evaporation right out the window. Sorta weird but it overlapped my business methods as well. When giving a customer choices I always helped them pick what would save them money, time, or material. The thoughts of making more money off a scenario was subordinated.
funny, rock, i feed my plants my shower water. still trying to figure out the most effective way to scoop it out of the tub though :) water is life.
grey water
Pesky building code prevents me from doing that I'm afraid, but I'd be on that one fast.
drupe
CD awesome stuff, but really, I can only get through 50% before my eyes glaze over.
That said, I can't help but thinking your one of the Tylers. Perhaps it doesn't matter.
I have a buddy who runs a hedge fund who says he "had to stop reading Zero Hedge," because he couldn't take it. I joke that he got "reinserted into the Matrix," but that my reinsertion process failed ("I want to come back as someone important - an actor maybe").
Literally, on a weekly basis, I try to reinsert myself back into the Matrix. But there's always an overwhelming amount of pesky data that makes my reinsertion fail. I often feel like I'm going crazy.
I honestly believe that ZH is mentally programming "The Remnant," and that at a certain point the seeds from this site will spread to help rebuild after "The Great Reset," which I'd argue is inevitable at this point.
Thanks to all of you for your wonderful creation.
P.S. - "The Zero Effect," starring Bill Pullman, is an awesome, underrated movie. I have to believe you've seen it too.
I loved The Zero Effect, own the DVD and pull it out every 6 months or so for a trip down memory lane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Effect
Please tell me that you have seen Revolver. Don't read the spoilers or summary. Rent or buy it and then watch it. If you have time after you are done you will want to watch it again. And again. And.......
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365686/
I have seen Revolver. I'm going to do a combo Zero Effect/Revolver back-to-back feature night in your honor. Cheers.
Revolver is a brilliant, vastly underrated and over-criticized movie. Great catch, CD -- will have to watch it again soon.
I am so there. Well, maybe.
It's hard when everyone around you rejects what you want to say to them.
Lonely.
Don;t make your happiness dependent on anyone. You create your own happiness. You also create your own loneliness. Get some self confidence. And stop using the word "everyone". Think relative, not absolutes.
well said
Yup. Very lonely.
And the reason I wish to talk about it. Because no one else is, at least on ZH.
BRILLIANT! Can't wait for part 2.
E P I C .
There is an absolute truth, but it is hidden behind the veil of human greed and fear. That truth will appear again and when He does He will burn the insulation from the lies and deceipt so we can see plainly. For some that will be too late. Until then, we can only see what we are willing to see.
CD...awesome
For those wanting it all paraphrased...
The Emperor has no clothes...
This post describes a situation I understand all too well, but gives me some comfort to see articulated by another. I may be going crazy, but at least I'll have company.
Insanity is much more enjoyable when shared with friends and other like minded people.
As is a round of sovereign beer or wine. In the world of insanity, those with their eyes open are few and quite far between. If you're lucky enough to know one personally, I highly recommend a regular hangout session (BBQ, game of chess, poker, jam session, or just casual discussion). I personally think nothings better than a home brew to help it happen.
I hope CD and TD and ZH don't mind I put the article rant here in Word Doc so you can print and read in the sunshine.
http://www.box.net/shared/q902ieccax5ah0on6n38
Well......
I always ask that if someone is going to post my articles somewhere else that a link be included and that affirmation be given. I wish the link be added for some specific reasons. The comments that are left quickly fuse into the article and it all becomes one integrated mass. To just post the article without the link to the comments isn't right in my book. Plus ZH should be given the chance to have people visit their web site, not just the article.
So please include the link at the beginning. The affirmation is already there. Thanks.
Real world example: My father is an eye surgeon. There are two injections that treat a disease. They are slightly different in chemistry but both achieve identical results, as shown in independent studies. One injection (the one from a big-pharma company) is $1000 more than the other. So obviously no doctor give that injection to their patients... oh wait, they get paid $100 extra to give the drug that costs their patient an extra $1000... MANY MANY doctors are picking drugs that do you no extra benefit but cost you multiples more.
for the record, my dad uses the cheap drug and only accepted employment from an employer with similar views. There is hope... now if only he didn't favor obama.
Loved it. I think you hit a nerve with a lot of us. The matrix analogy is far overused but entirely apt.
Try thinking deeper.
What Event Horizon?
https://libertyrevival.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/the-henry-george-conspir...
https://libertyrevival.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/ending-poverty-and-polit...
https://libertyrevival.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/milton-friedman-pay-off-...
nice avatar scrappy...in lak'ech...
did not know that Monopoly was based on Henry George's teachings...interesting. wonder what he would think about Atlantic City?
like this quote: “There are people into whose heads it never enters to conceive of any better state of society than that which now exists.” — Henry George
All humans need to be happy and succeed is: be sane.
But what is "sane"? The best short formulation I've seen is this one:
Sanity is seeing what's in front of your face, and not seeing what isn't.
While no one liner soundbite can be complete, this one is both insightful and clever (read it carefully).
What is not stated explicitly, but should be obvious, is the requirement to always observe first-hand with our own eyes, and never implicitly or explicitly accept or assume validity of the endless bogus ideas and concepts literally jammed into brains daily by media, friends, family, school, church, neighbors, authorities, etc.
The best way to avoid extreme intellectual harm is to disconnect from society as much as possible. To be independent in mind, body and identity is to be healthy. To become socialized is to become insane and self-destructive. Consider yourself an alien visiting earth and wandering inside an image-warping field that makes you look human. Just observe and identify what you see... and ignore what everyone says. 1000 viewpoints and 10000 delusions. The human intellectual batting average is below zero. Which is why observing and thinking for self is the one and only viable strategy.
Our eyes can lies to us also. Being thought a "kook" by those around you is not healthy for you. You need to be independent, but also place a protective fasade about you to let others rationalize your stauch individualism, into a morphed and acceptable "he is a bit out there". Clear enough?
I prefer to be honest. Fully honest. Well, if the jack booted thugs showed up at my front door and demanded to know where my friend is, I wouldn't say "second door on the left" (unless nobody was there). But my point is, screw everyone who can't stand honesty.
The failure to identify dishonesty and corruption is a large part of the reason dishonesty and corruption flourishes.
I've often wondered what the world would be like, if it were impossible to lie. If fully mature humans could discern the intent, thought and emotion of others to the extent that lying (even by omission) to a group of any size would be futile? It seems many have these abilities and learn to ignore them in childhood, mostly because parents don't take correction well from their children. Can we (humans) learn to (re)develop such awareness?
There is always what I like to call "prevarication of convenience." That's what a guy tells his wife when she asks if those pants make her ass look fat. We don't say, "It's not the pants." We say, "Of course not, dear", without implying that it is her fat ass that is to blame.
Sorry to bring such a lofty conversation to this crass level.
That's what a guy tells his wife when she asks if those pants make her ass look fat. We don't say, "It's not the pants." We say, "Of course not, dear", without implying that it is her fat ass that is to blame.
How about a simple, honest "no".
Is that honest? Consider the question. Do these PANTs make my ass look fat? The honest answer is "no", because it is her ass that looks fat all by itself, and the pants don't add or subtract a thing.
Of course, if it IS the pants that make her ass look fat, maybe "yes, those pants make your skinny butt look fat... better try another pair".
See? Honesty works.
:-)
How about a simple 'yes' if they do and 'no' if they don't? Never understood the say 'yes' when you mean 'no' and die a little inside caus your married to a fatty. If it is a solid yes, why not suggest running/biking/gym work together? Simple no?
That is, indeed the wise approach.
However, once you've encouraged that a few dozen [or hundred] times, you pretty much already know whether she is willing to exercise or not.
I don't advocate mean. Honesty doesn't have to be expressed in a mean tone or mean way, even when the question isn't formulated in a way that lets you answer honestly without risk.
Honesty [or silence] is the best policy, except in extraordinary situations... like when the neo-nazi swat team comes looking for your brother because he supports Ron Paul.
My wife usually asks the opposite "do these pants make my ass look skinny?" - as she is staring over her shoulder into the mirror. My response is always "your ass makes those pants look perfect."
She has already made her mind up per the pants/ass interface, she is just fishing to see if I am paying attention as she preens.
Bingo!
We have a long and happy marriage over here.
Someone take some samples please. This is very rare and you might not see this again in your lifetime. :)
Actually I think you and your friends are bringing it up a notch or two.
So this is how you get free long distance?
An essential part of empathy is recognizing the pain you are inflecting upon someone else needlessly. I will not do so when I can feel their pain. We can not wake everyone up because many people just are not ready to wake. Period. It matters not how unfair or frustrating this might be. It is just this way. Once this is understood, then from that point onward to continue to beat people over the head with our two by four is simply sadistic and unwarranted.
I'm not saying we should shut up. We must continue to speak because there is always someone ready to wake and it will be our voice they will hear when they do. But to scream in the face of the sleeping is just cruel. This is simply my opinion based upon having been on both sides of the screaming.
If you're talking about walking up to people and saying "you're ugly" or something like that... that has nothing to do with honesty. I'm not sure who came up with the scam of inter-changing honesty with overt out-of-place rudeness, but that's a scam argument. To be sure, that's not what I'm talking about. In fact, I usually go out of my way to state that "honesty with self" is far and away the most important aspect of honesty. And the whole point of making honest statements is to avoid unjust treatment, not cause it.
When it comes to predators, I have zero concern for their "feelings" or "frustrations". For them, I advocate a quick bullet through the brain to eliminate any pain that might be associated. To tolerate or sanction predators is to help destroy all good, and thus I advocate no holds barred when dealing with predators.
As for the millions of morons and clueless fools who parrot the soundbites of predators, sorry, but they bear responsibility for their actions, including aiding and abetting the atrocities caused by predators. I'm happy to beat them over the head with clear statements of the consequences of the atrocities they advocate. Of course, if they are basically honest and listen, they will not require repeated beatings, for they will question what they advocate and change their minds... or at least stop advocating destruction.
I'm not sure how literally you mean "scream into the face of the sleeping". If you mean that literally, that's something I've never done, and can't imagine doing. If you mean clueless zombies wandering around advocating for hitler or obama or authoritarianism, then screw them. They are trying to destroy me and every honest, ethical, benevolent, productive being in the universe, and I have zero sympathy for any hardship they suffer. To advocate for tyrants is to assault me.
I guess we are not talking about the same people. When I say the sleepers I'm talking about the mindless apathetic who don't want to be bothered, are not angry or vicious, don't vote or take political positions and live for the TV and the weekends. They just want to be left alone and asleep.
If they don't advocate my abuse or enslavement, they have a perfect right to remain total morons and they should be left entirely alone.
OTOH, if they collect "entitlements" in excess of what's been stolen from them, that puts them on or over the edge of deserving a little grief... in proportion to their degree of parasitism.
Namasteji! Karma has lead me to this place in time.
The import of your prose led me to consult the I-Ching for further wisdom. Consulting the tetrads of Justice and Karma, specifically:
Hex 28: High Over Head. Trigrams: Contents over Streaks.The positive x-axis of the tetrad of Justice or Karma represents excess over the available support and restraint that causes roof beams to bend and break and individual actions to exceed proper bounds and break the law.
And:
Hex 27: Nursing Trigrams: Peaks over Swoops.The negative x-axis of the tetrad of Justice or Karma decad. This hexagram represents the thirst or desire within that is the motivation for all action and thus all Karma as the effects of these desires as causes that put into motion the actions that will require justice to be administered.
led me unneringly through the gate of:
Hex29: Deep Depths. Trigrams: Depths over Depths.The high energy positive y-axis of the tetrad of Justice or Karma or Cause-and-effect represents the racing of mountain streams as they follow the elevation of the topography towards their natural consequences and conclusions.
Directly to the Po hexagram, where the 5th line seemed to ring true:
The fifth Yin line, divided, shows (its subject leading on the others like) a string of fishes, and (obtaining for them) the favour that lights on the inmates of the palace. There will be advantage in every way.
So, it appears the the wisdom of your words - if properly understood and utilized, will bring advantages to those trapped in the palace of lies.
I don't know Ari. Sounds like free radicals to me. :>)
Meet Rover. But remember, no more than twice a week with the Cramer crap. Rover can't take any more than that.
AAAAOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!! Man I love it when she gets bitchin' righteous....
Per those free radicals....not a damn one of them were free, Cog, I bought and paid for them all.
Tell Rover I will be moving in the Harpsichord on Friday.
from the Wilhelm/Baynes translation:
hex 23. Po. The Judgement : Splitting Apart. It does not further one To go anywhere.
this pictures a time when inferior people are pushing forward & are about to crowd out the few remaining strong & superior men. Under these circumstances, which are due to the the time, it is not favorable for the superior man to undertake anything. Earth (docility, devotion) under the Mountain (stillness). This suggests that one should submit to the bad time and remain quiet. For it is a question not of man's doing but of time conditions, which, according to the laws of heaven, show an alternation between fullness & emptiness. It is impossible to counteract these conditions of the time. Hence it is not cowardice but wisdom to submit & avoid action.
A resonant Yin in the 5th place means: A shoal of fishes. Favor comes through the court ladies. Everything acts to further.
(the 5th yin line changing to a yang leads to)
hex 20. Kuan / Contemplation (View). Wind blowing over the Earth.
(switching to Karcher translation)
Let everything come into view, examine, contemplate, divine the meaning; spirit manifest in the omens. the need to look w/o acting. image of the tower used to observe the signs in heaven & earth. Way to deal with it is to let everything to emerge and divine the central meaning. Particularly, look at what you usually don't want to see or think about.
Have confidence. Examining things will bring you the insight you need. When you have made the preparations, the spirit presence will arrive and carry you through...
~~~
nice one Ari...very synchronic for sure.
Thanks Tip....I am no expert by any means, and sometimes I wonder about my logic jumps from one hex to the other...and, as you are aware, there are multiple doors to open going down that path, often with several fitting scenarios. Funny though, if you make the correct linkages, all the scenarios seem true and in concert.
Ari, you have what they call "beginner's mind" which is actually the best way to approach the I Ching by far. good thing to remember is that if a particular line in a hexagram strikes you, it's because it wants to 'change', either from yin to yang or yang to yin. switch that line over and read the hex that results from the change.
i just think that it's amazing that someone was able to design something so complex & intricate 2000 years ago. it makes me wonder how much useful knowledge that we have buried in the name of 'progress'.
This is precisely why "history" as taught in the local indoctrination centers (aka school) is distorted, fabricated and made up. There is incredible knowledge to be gained from the ancients and this knowledge would destroy the present powers that be because it would empower us. So it is deliberately buried and forgotten.
There is a reason we are taught that nothing of real significance happened in the past until just a few hundred years ago. Keep your head straight and your eyes focused on what we show you. Ignore the history and knowledge behind the curtain.
tell me about it. since we're on the "medical" tip, take accupuncture for example. as an experiment, me & a friend who's an extremely intuitive massage therapist did an experiment last month. i've never really studied the map of energy meridians, so we both got a very deep state of consciousness and she started applying pressure to certain points and i observed internally where the energy was flowing in my body and made a map in my mind. when we were finished, i drew those observed channels on a map of the human body. then we compared with the chart. it lined up perfectly. of course, the real map was by far more complex.
now, most every therapist has said that i'm the most energetically sensitive person they've ever worked on. if that's the case and i was only able to sketch the basics, imagine the understanding of human physiology (which western medicine has subsequently proven) and inner energetics (which western medicine continues to deny) that these people had to design such an intricate map thousands of years ago? it's almost like they were superhuman (at least based on our modern conception of what humans can feel & 'see'). now, riddle me this, how many insurance plans cover accupuncture?
of course, it's not just the ancient Chinese who possessed this. methinks we all should start more deeply investigating some of these buried treasures. maybe this is what the rise of the 'barbarous relic' is telling us...come back to us. there is so much we can teach you that you can apply to your world.
and don't even get me started on speculating why there are noticable watermarks on some of the Pyramids & the Sphinx...