Cognitive Dissonance's blog

Would someone kindly explain to me why we jeer those who fill the streets in Europe yet we cheer the Egyptians for doing precisely the same thing for essentially the same reasons?

There simply cannot be a con without two opposing but cooperative parties involved. And both sides need to expect to get something out of the deal, regardless of whether it happens or not and despite all the facts not being known by one or more of the parties.

Our veterans were an important part of the internal control mechanism that all unorganized groups develop as a matter of instinct and survival. Natural leaders emerge and are respected not just for their inherent authority, but because of their common sense approach and fairness even to those they oppose. Thus form and function develops out of chaos and the community coalesces.

Interestingly, the esteemed economist John Maynard Keynes considered the love of money a form of mental illness. Our need for money becomes the ‘hook’ through which the Big Wetikos (who control the supply and value of money) can ‘yank our leash’ and manipulate humanity.

The most powerful force in the universe is the seed of an idea that is embodied and made real, first in our minds and then with our hands. Often the cost of implementation is minor except for the activating ingredients, those most precious and rare elements called imagination, inspiration, initiative and leadership.

Suddenly your world is out of control and you’re desperate for money. What do you do? Zero Hedge’s Cougar_w presents us with this fictional situation, only this time with an interesting twist. What would happen if two extraordinary creatures trying to coexist in a world of ordinary humans are overcome by money madness and walk into a bank to rob it? In this humorous, thought provoking and poignant excerpt of a larger story, we find out who has more humanity when put to the test.

Among the richest and most powerful, the senior partners of Crony America if you will, it was always understood that sharing the wealth with the lower class was simply a means to an end and would cease when it was no longer profitable to do so. Only those in deep denial cannot see that we have reached that point today.

Some say all this insanity is just greed and corruption run amuck. Others claim the political, financial and judicial process has been co-opted in some type of modern day Coup D’état. Might it be both and could it have taken place much earlier in the decade under the cover of some other triggering event?

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.

“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

We are face to face with the classic "who do you trust" situation, where the company who caused the problem is tasked with fixing it. With the full support of the authorities no less. Who can we believe? And should we?

It’s generally understood by all that something that’s taken by force has much less value compared to the same thing given freely and willingly. Never again consider yourself powerless when it’s clear you posses something of such immense power and wealth that it’s constantly being manipulated and seduced from your hands.

In Chapter 4 we look at the concept of control and how fear is used to control us while we use fear to control ourselves. We learn we make reality fresh every day and we examine the dynamic of apathy. For those of us who come up short, we learn it’s not what you have but how you use it and we visit with the Nailman, who explains that there's no trying, just doing.

In Chapter 3 of this continuing examination of our collective insanity, we begin to unfold the dynamics of the public lie, our often unconscious defense of the public lie, setting up our personal psychic firewalls, the Stockholm syndrome and the dynamics of the family when dealing with the addicted/abuser, Mother Nature’s nose candy, how we can break the conditioning and then reinforce the changed behavior.

As we continue our exploration of our individual and collective insanity, we spend some time examining that lovable megalomaniac ego inside each of us, why and where it all went wrong, the sliding scale of insanity with lots of finger pointing, how we certify our madness for comfort and support, our mental toxic waste dumps and the first sighting of light at the end of the tunnel. Or is that just the crazy train express to DC? Here’s one car wreck we can all safely examine as we drive by in our economic suicide machine.