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Perhaps a Crumble Rather Than a Collapse – Chapter One Of Three
Perhaps a Crumble Rather Than a Collapse – Chapter One of Three
By
Cognitive Dissonance
Chapter Two may be found here.
Chapter Three may be found here.
Why even question the obvious?
When contemplating a complex subject, especially one in which I hold a strong emotional investment, I find it extremely valuable to seriously and consistently challenge my own thinking, to play devil’s advocate with my oftentimes emotional mind. A ‘truth’ untested, particularly one I’m emotionally bound to, is little more than a belief, a comforting factoid that confirms my biases rather than enlightening and informing my mind. If I am to progress in my personal development I must test the mettle of my beliefs up to, and if need be well past, their destruction. For only then can I truly be free to exercise, and honor, my personal sovereignty on an everyday basis.
So it is that I’ve been considering the concept of ‘collapse’ with regard to society and its socioeconomic system(s), both on a personal and collective emotional and psychological basis. While it is always dangerous to paint detailed pictures with broad brushes, to some degree or another we are all emotional human beings. So while the cognitive details may vary (greatly) from person to person, our tendencies and triggers are very similar (partly because of a shared and distorted worldview) and relatively easy to discern if we have the courage to first look deeply within and then apply what we have found to the world around us. A word of warning here because this article is not a technical or fundamental economic analysis, at least not based upon the traditional financial definition of those terms.
Among the contrary crowd, of which I proudly count myself a member in good standing, it is widely accepted that an economic collapse that quickly leads to violent social upheaval is not only very possible, but inevitable, a ‘given’ fact so to speak. For the most part we accept that a collapse is not a question of if, but of when and in what form and of what severity. The consensus is that this rapid socioeconomic decline, when it comes, will be sudden and complete, thus the popular use of the term ‘collapse’. This ‘a priori’ position, which truth be told is simply a strongly held belief, is in serious need of examination if we are to follow our inner Golden Rule, that of questioning everything beginning with ourselves and our most cherished and firmly held beliefs and opinions.
Before going any further I wish to emphasize that the following is simply a thought experiment, a mental dalliance and a delicate dance with what if, how about and why not. Just because I argue a position doesn’t necessarily mean I’m wed to it or even that I support it. The ultimate purpose of my internal interrogatory is not necessarily to replace my current thinking, but to test it again and again and again, particularly if I consider my thinking solid and essentially beyond reproach. In my opinion this is where true personal courage is born and nurtured, for if I am willing to honestly face myself, particularly those deep dark places even I wish to hide from, then anything I might face externally pales in comparison.
Many more times than I care to admit I have found that what I previously thought was a solid conclusion was actually based not upon facts and reasoning, but upon preconceived notions (aka my conditioned worldview) as well as group think and/or consensus seeking. And just as often the real reason for my blind acceptance of certain facts and conclusions was to push my confirmation bias endorphin triggers again and again, as all severely addicted drug addicts are compelled to do. And boy oh boy do I love triggering my confirmation bias. There is no other drug induced high quite like knowing that I’m right and you’re wrong………except knowing that I’m right and everyone else is wrong.
Running with the (contrary) herd
Rather than denying or rejecting the notion that we are deeply influenced by the herd, a typical egoic response even if the herd is considered contrary (and don’t forget that the herd, contrary or not, might simply be a construct of my mind and populated solely by me, myself and I) if we wish to consider ourselves to be sentient sovereign beings then we must remain constantly alert to, and aware of, the herd’s influence on our emotional and spiritual centering. In addition, we need to be ever vigilant of its corrosive effects on our thought process and the conclusions we draw from within that distortion.
This is the big lie that influences us all, that while we might be part of a herd (if we can even manage to admit that much) we are thoughtful, intelligent and educated adults and thus not really affected by the herd to any significant degree. But common sense and life experience tells us otherwise, that this just isn’t true, that we are very much herding humans (whether by nature, nurture or both, ultimately it really doesn’t matter) and that we are most certainly influenced by others. In fact I would go so far as to say that for the most part we do not enjoy freedom from the herd, just freedom to choose the herd we run and think with.
The soothing self deception that we are stoic free thinking individuals, our psychological Achilles Heel if you will, is repeatedly and successfully leveraged against us by those who wish to manipulate and control. Very often it is not an outside force that blinds us, but rather an outside force that leverages our own blindness. This is why we must always question everything, beginning with ourselves. It is our own (mis)perception and worldview that is being manipulated, which often leads to our own blind and unquestioning support of policies, positions and laws that are entirely contrary to our own self interest or the collective (herds) good.
We often blame the herding rat race for our own lot in life (either on a micro or macro level) confidently declaring that ‘they’ are the problem so we are exempt from blame and responsibility. Then we do next to nothing to change our own circumstances, claiming it’s futile to even try because ‘they’ block the way forward towards significant and lasting personal and social change.
After successfully doing nothing we proudly take the softer easier highway to hell, a path that is conveniently laid out and paved by our controllers. Then we sit back smug as a bug in our self righteous indignation when anyone dares to place the blame back at the source of our own servitude. Our controllers love that we don’t even try to pick up the cognitive tools that lie scattered at our feet, let alone use them to defend and empower us. Hands down the most powerful weapon in the world used repeatedly against us is ourselves. Blunt force trauma by self (and group) is extremely effective when self (and group) corralling.
Certainty breeds contempt of our self
At times I struggle to remind myself that the more certain I am of something the greater the likelihood that I’m wrong, if for no other reason than that my absolute certainty most definitely closes my mind to alternative possibilities no matter how obvious they may appear to others. Not recognizing or even considering the possibility that I might be wrong feeds my confirmation bias and rewards my circular thinking with another shot of delicious cognitive dissonance soothing endorphins. Do not underestimate the power of this positive feedback loop for it claims all of us at one time or another, particularly when we confidently claim that it is not now doing so. Our critical thinking is often the weakest precisely when we believe it to be the strongest.
For the vast majority of us a new thought trail is blazed one cautious step at a time despite our egotistic self delusions that we bravely and willingly go where we’ve never cognitively gone before. And for the most part we all color well within the socially correct lines with very rare and short lived deviations beyond the border and into the cognitive badlands. Thus the reason for my venturing outside conventional contrary thinking and into what at first blush might appear to be the mainstream meme. Rigid beliefs and preordained conclusions must never dictate the (self) discovery process or the intent of that process.
Despite egoic protestations to the contrary it is downright frightening to venture outside the comfortable confines and safety of the consensus herd’s artificial reality, thus one of the reasons we keep tripping over our own (and other’s) cognitive dissonance. Once off the reservation we tend to huddle with other similarly off-the-beaten-track explorers, a perfect example being our affinity for Zero Hedge and its own equally artificial reality. The only thing better than being right when we know everyone else is wrong is cahooting with others who validate our beliefs. You scratch my confirmation bias and I’ll scratch yours.
If we are unwilling to travel in new perceptual directions, even if we can conceive of no readily apparent benefit and especially if we feel emotional pain while doing so and quickly back off, then all we ever manage to do is endlessly cover the same well marked territory regardless of its perceived (validating) distance from the majority consensus. Just because our intellectual hunting grounds may lie outside the mainstream meme doesn’t mean we are immune to our own brand of rutted rigid thinking and herd mentality. In fact we often justify our own rote thinking by pointing to our contrary stance as proof we are flexible and thorough in our self examination.

Self inflicted mind control
One man’s collapse is another man’s crumble, two seemingly divergent points of view formed in large part by very different perspectives as to the meaning of both terms as well as the active ingredients propelling the use of those terms within our respective (mostly false) world views. While on the surface this may seem painfully obvious, very often we do not practice what we perceive and even less often do we perceive without self deceiving, without externally and internally self inflicted distortions and blurring.
This is the art of mind control and false realty creation, to induce you and me to willingly create an alternatively perceived reality, often entirely within our own minds, thereby eliminating the need for messy ‘reality’ based rules, independent verification and basic fact checking. And for the most part we do this in response to manipulated external stimuli which is often in direct conflict with our true inner knowing.
The key to this manipulation is to convince all of us that it is in our best interest to ignore our better judgment, our inner voice of caution and prudence, and willingly surrender our personal sovereignty to a false external authority while rejecting our genuine inner sovereign authority. I say all of us because to some degree or another and at one time or another we have all done so, usually with plenty of excuses, rationalizations and justifications for doing so safely tucked away in our back pockets.
We surrendered our personal sovereignty long before we were ever threatened with concocted external ‘terrorist’ threats when we consciously decided to ignore the obvious early warning signs of an increasingly out of control and hijacked government and instead pursued our own ideology, financial self interest and assorted pleasures. Unfortunately very few of us will admit this, thereby keeping us locked in our own vicious circle of denial and dependence.
We rationalize(d) it all away by saying that at least we aren’t as bad as ‘those guys over there’, when ‘they’ are saying the exact same thing about us. Or worse, we utter the entirely self absorbed and narcissistic declaration that “It’s not my problem” or “I didn’t vote for that guy so…..” The litany of excuses given for our inaction, both for internal and external issues, is endless.
Within this skewed alternative reality state of mind, where we stand depends entirely upon where we sit, and where we sit nearly always depends upon our financial, emotional and psychological self deceptions as well as our strategically selected denials and raging co-dependencies. Essentially we achieve a perpetual infantile state of mind in return for transient material comforts and a false sense of security, security that could quickly and easily be achieved if only we were to (re)connect with our own personal sovereignty.
Like a dog endlessly chasing its tail, we can never practice true freedom of thought and being while deeply dependent upon and fully immersed within someone else’s version of reality, particularly when it is self induced. Yet after a sufficiently long enough period of time of sustained conditioning within our mentally confined cognitive box (achieved for the most part during our state sponsored education and in concert with the willing assistance of our loving parents who passed on their own cognitive conditioning) we find it nearly impossible to conceive of a life of true freedom (that of a practicing personal sovereign) without our deeply embedded co-dependencies and ingrained notions of how the world works, thereby completing the circular co-opting of our inner spiritual and sovereign being.
Freedom to choose………slavery
The brilliance behind our so-called (illusionary) freedom (of choice) is that we almost always consciously choose our own enslavement. The genius lay in never forcing us to make one large and final decision in favor of enslavement. “Sure, I’ll be a slave for life. Are there any fringe benefits?” The socioeconomic control system helpfully breaks the decision making process down into tiny little bite sized bits of slippery slope while sweetening the gruel with flashing lights and artificial colors, tastes and textures. “OMG, it’s the iPad mini in white and silver with a ruby red cover. Can I charge it?”
And when we do willingly choose enslavement we almost always make the choice based upon our own personally customized reasons that helpfully mesh with our mostly programmed pursuits and interests (reasons that just happen to be wonderfully aligned with the control systems’ own agenda) in the same way a cattle shoot funnels the willing cattle to their own personal date with slaughterhouse destiny. I don’t need to list them because there are hundreds of millions of them, several hundred of which I have personally used myself.
Regardless of whether these thousands of tiny little micro decisions appeal to our ego, vanity, sense of self worth, hidden inner fears or unsated (mostly externally manufactured) hopes and dreams (just review Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for a more complete list) and even if the decision is made by default, meaning we make no decision other than to stay with the status quo, the deed is still done. The ultimate Catch 22 is the cognitive catch you never fully recognize, but still willingly embrace. Where is John Yossarian when you need him?
Our ‘willing’ participation within the present paradigm only serves to strengthen the cognitive binds that tie us to our internal and external dependencies. It matters not if it is an agnostic, mindless, resentful or even hostile participation, just that we all march to the same narrow range of emotional and spiritual frequencies. And it really doesn’t matter if we are fully or partially aware of our dependencies nor that we might strenuously object to them, only that we participate in order to enable this powerful form of consent. Our slavery is always hidden in plain sight under layer after layer of willing consent, regardless if most of it is coerced with threats of state violence.

Socioeconomically addicted
To directly oppose this addictive material compulsion (whether by force of mind or body) only serves to nourish and strengthen it simply because it is cognitively and spiritually designed to absorb our misdirected emotional and physical energy by using it to feed other parts of the whole in the same manner someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol fails to secure his or her release from the addiction by way of denial or brute opposing mental force.
Ask any long term recovering drug addict or alcoholic (to name just two examples of deeply embedded co-dependencies) if they were able to free themselves from their addiction by just saying NO (and really meaning it this time) and their responses will be overwhelmingly negative. The consumed active addict simply refuses to acknowledge that they can no longer participate in their obsessive activity. Their battle is always to limit the addiction and never to admit defeat in their ability to control their addiction. Always they wish to bargain and always they lose more ground to the addiction. If asked, the intelligence services might call this socioeconomic addict a ‘compromised person’.
At first glance this appears to be a huge contradiction since how can you ‘control’ something by admitting defeat. The key is not to (even try to) control, but simply to disarm and disempower that which is controlling us. This allows the addicted to move beyond this seemingly impenetrable roadblock rather than meeting it head-on. The fight is always with us and within us, not externally where the illusion makes it appear to be, and the way to personal and spiritual release is not to fight, not even to try to ‘win’.
Our ego simply refuses to recognize that we are physically and mentally consumed and spiritually broken. The longer the battle for control rages the more consumed the ego becomes in winning a battle that only exists within and can never be won and only be lost. The solution is to accept completely and unquestioningly that the battle can never be won, then turn in an entirely different direction and begin to do those things we never would have done before because we were consumed with pounding on the closed door of addiction directly in front of us and oblivious to the dozens of open doors all around.
By opposing the addictive force directly the addicted is hopelessly consumed by himself, by his mental, emotional and spiritual defects. His directed energy, the force he applies when trying to break the addictive binds that tie, is mirrored and deflected back towards him, creating a situation where he is literally fighting with himself. Imagine a split personality pushing on both sides of an open door at the same time, one trying to force it closed while the other tries to push it open. Any increase in force from either side is immediately met with an equal and opposite force from the other. The only way to ‘win’ is not to play at all, to circumvent any notion what-so-ever of winning or losing and just walk away. Clearly this is easier said than done and thus exactly why the socioeconomic addict remains consumed and compromised.
This process describes very well the convoluted and conflicted mind of the severely socioeconomically co-dependent addict and it applies both externally in the ‘real’ world as well as internally, within our controlled and manipulated minds. To ignore this dynamic is to be totally controlled by it, the ultimate fulcrum that is leveraged against us by external mind control forces.
The Trojan horse money meme
The all consuming fear based economic mind control money meme of (among other things) contrived scarcity is the Trojan horse that gains entry to our mind and spirit and it is something we for the most part willingly embrace even while denouncing certain select portions of it as ‘the’ problem. We are simply unwilling to look critically at the entire money meme, at the artificial and contrived scarcity of many resources which is designed to demand of us that we ‘pay’ (our masters) just so that we may continue to exist.
We do not wish to look too deeply into the fundamental flaws of this system, of our willing and complicit bondage, because that might entail leaving it all behind once we recognize its true nature. This is our root addiction and one we are loath to abandon because that would entail embracing true freedom, not just freedom of choice. We have allowed ourselves to become institutionalized, sated fat rats that are more than willing to run the maze each day for our daily keep. We are a slave nation and rapidly becoming a slave Earth.
Like the (completely) consumed drug addict or alcoholic, we are desperate to control the money meme’s hold on us so that we can still partake of certain select (believed) ‘good’ components rather than to admit total defeat and begin to do those things we really don’t wish to do, to first look within and recognize who and what we are, and then to act upon those discoveries. We convince ourselves that if only this component was removed or that participant was properly controlled or regulated that the socioeconomic system would function properly.
This is the big lie. The money meme itself is designed to mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically enslave you and me while enriching and empowering a select few regardless of how well we think it can work if only we ousted the rogue elements, an excuse which is itself a colossal self deception. Explain to me again why we wish to salvage this? But of course logic and reason fall on deaf ears with the consumed compromised addict.
This concept can be difficult to comprehend for a mind thoroughly immersed within the right-wrong, good-bad, left-right present day paradigm. Or worse, it is impossible to accept for a mind that perceives itself as not afflicted by the money meme mind virus at all, as above the sordid fray and immune to the collective madness. To some degree or another we are all specialists in our own psychological damage control. We are experts in blame, involvement and personal responsibility avoidance at all cost because……well, it’s the other guy who’s to blame, not me. Tell him to get his house in order, and then maybe I’ll take a look at mine.
The amount of energy we expend to rationalize away our own direct and indirect involvement, of our actual willing participation, would be truly staggering to measure if it weren’t so sad to behold. I am constantly amazed how quickly we shed any personal blame whatsoever once we begin to gain some insight into the ugly underbelly of the mind control machine of the money meme. It seems as if once a portion of the manipulation is unearthed we become desperate to believe that now that the infection is somewhat visible to the naked eye, the virus is no longer infectious to us, as if our (limited) awareness somehow sterilizes the madness.
It’s the best of both worlds. At first we aren’t affected when we are clueless because ignorance is bliss, then we become magically immune once we are (somewhat) aware of the illusion. Sadly these are the first, second and third orders of our addiction; the denial, then the denial of the denial, and finally the denial that there ever was any denial in the first place. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can clearly see what the issue is and it sure as hell ain’t me. It’s you and those idiots over there that’s the problem, not me.”
Our distorted worldview
Once we begin to peak beneath the surface layer we become so certain of our understanding of how the ‘real’ world works now (as opposed to how certain we were about how it worked before our revelation) that we rarely give it a second look, let alone devote any time to examine it critically. And why should we? Why venture too far down the rabbit hole when the next conveniently presented answer is right in front of us? The fact is that nowadays we are so completely bombarded with absurdity after absurdity on an exponentially increasing scale that we begin to lose all touch with common sense and reality…………including our own.
Stay high or drunk on the money meme long enough and reality becomes so strange that it is to be avoided at all costs. Soon enough our warped sense of perception comes measured by our dependencies rather than despite them. This all too common state of emotional and intellectual paralysis might help to explain certain vows of poverty and abstinence practiced by tens of thousands of history’s thinkers, philosophers and holy/spiritual men. One cannot see clearly while in the midst of the madness using only the cognitive tools and worldview assumptions supported and promoted by the madness.
Simply put if we allow ourselves the conceit of believing that we are thinking outside the box without actually (destructively) testing our predispositions, all we’re ever really doing is confirming for ourselves not only our imagined outlaw status, but our more perfectly conditioned and captured mental state. It is highly likely, absent a rigorous and continuous self examination, that we are blindly trapped within another smaller, though still thoroughly confined, psychological thought control box a la those fascinating little Russian nesting dolls.
With this entirely self imposed cognitive impediment blocking our way forward (meaning our unwillingness to destructively test our own thinking) our only claim to fame might actually be that we are still somewhat closer to the core issues of our own self enslavement. Tragically, this slightly higher state of self awareness in no way mitigates the fact that we are still hopelessly mired within the muddy waters of the present day false reality paradigm.
Chapter Two to follow shortly.
01-27-2013
Cognitive Dissonance
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None of us can forsee the future, but we all know that change is inevitable. The thing that keeps me going, personally, is that I really want to see what happens next. Did I guess correctly, or did change smack me in the face? Stay tuned; we all have a front row seat.
"None of us can forsee the future"
I take exception! :-)
Actually, we really can. The problem is that we don't want to.
To those who have watched Dr. Albert Bartlett's video Arithmetic, Population and Energy he mentions his telling people that they CAN know what Boulder, Colorado would look like in 20 years (I believe that was the number of years) if it continued to grow at 7% (or such), that all they had to do was to hop on an airplane and fly to Los Angeles. Similarly, I believe that one CAN know what the future will be like by flying to another part of the world, to a place that is lower on the energy-consumption scale; such a place would be closer to how humanity has existed for most of its history. I believe that we are practicing self-deception when we say that we cannot know the future, that this allows us to clinging to the hope that it won't be as this: bury the head in the sand and what we don't see won't hurt us.
Yes, we cannot know the exact details. But, I believe that we do in fact have an idea of the general shape of what the future will be. Initiate the future rather than being passive and opting to pull the excuse that you couldn't have foreseen the future (using that as an excuse), which is the role of the victim.
I prefer a seat near the exit. You know, for when the government cries "false flag" in the crowded theater.
We've been here before
"But it still goes on"
“The extraordinary thing to me, David, is: that it’s finished and ended and over, but it still goes on ... like the watch in the pocket of a dead man…
The bottom has fallen out of the world. The Sunday journalists and the politicians and the Church of course all pretend that it hasn’t, and everyone else plays up to them. But it’s no good. It’s finished; except that it still goes on...
Of course, the public can't see at all what is after all the most important human catastrophe that’s ever happened - No, not the Great War, that was a diversion to distract public attention from the all-important loss. The War is always made to account for every remarkable change in human affairs that has happened since the true catastrophe.
The pretence is that the War was only a temporary morbidity, and that these changes are morbid hang-overs from the war and so only temporary too. The war was the loudest noise humanly possible, a counter-noise to the noise - the bottom falling out of things….
….yet its business as usual for the four prime pre-catastrophic professions—the four that abandoned themselves to an orgy of usefulness during the war to prove that they still had firm ground under their feet"
… it’s impossible for a proper person to feel the world as a necessary world—an intelligible world in which there’s any hope or fear for the future—a world worth bothering about—or, if he happens to be a poet, a world worth writing for— a world in which there’s any morality left to bother about, but his own personal morality: that gets more and more strict, of course...
...it was a stupid war, it came too late, it wasn’t thorough enough, and several proper people were killed in it along with the unnecessaries...
Now there’s nothing to rebel against or be conservative about"
It's ALL been theater. It's ALL been virtual. We ought to clap our hands and say "good performance" and then leave our seats and return to life, the physical real world of life, not the heady, temporary virtual world that has been our entertainment (made possible by a sponsorship of cheap energy/oil).
"Now there’s nothing to rebel against or be conservative about"
Correct. It's time to strap on the boots and gloves and get on with living on a level that can be sustained. The option is?
I like it!
Sorry, but I just do not get your post.
Yes humanity has "been here before" a myriad times with wars, but who are you quoting?
Who is David?
Who are "the four prime pre-catastrophic professions".
What particular war is being refered to?
Your quote might well refer to reflections on WW1 - "the war to end all wars" lol - but you give no context and so I have no idea of the point you are trying to make.
he might be referring to gender, posterity and
all wars? it is poetic and odyssic(?). imho
"...a rigorous and continuous self examination.."
must...go..to aa meeting....today.
author...has hit..aa philosophy....triggers.
23 years and counting.......one day at a time. :)
April 1st coming up will be 22 years for me. I have a lot of debt to pay still, in many ways.
I worry about the notion of keeping score. Instead I believe in just doing because that is who you are.
As Popeye said: I am what I am.
And I'm glad that I never was hogtied by any substance other than tobacco. Drink I just decided made it (more) difficult to get up in the morning so I just kind of never felt like it again. Smoking was cold-turkey; plenty of mental tricks, but they worked: never congratulated myself, just kept saying that "I do not smoke."
The demons of past are behind. No need to look back. (perhaps because I didn't run over anyone) The road ahead need not concern them... (and therefore will not be ill-affected by them- you are free to be a good person, be that person and good then happens)
Time spent in the Program is not a badge of honor, Seer. It's just a reminder of where we've been because we can all end up there again. Alcoholism doesn't just disappear and one is "cured" after some designated period of time. The reason being that the symptoms are the problem, and those can be with us for a lifetime. It is described as a "progressive disease", meaning that it appears never to have left, just getting more strength as time goes on. When one begins again he picks up right where he left off in very short order. That's why we need a reminder. This is not speculation; it's empirical evidence that I've witnessed after literally thousands of meetings and hearing many hundreds of personal stories. It's not a program for everyone, but for the right person it can be a live saver -- literally.
Your notion of not needing to look back is quite valid for many situations. But reviewing the past has great benefits for an alcoholic. The past contains the seeds of the future which might not be so bright otherwise.
Have you ever read David Hume, CD?
He reckoned that if a paradox was not involved, a subject was probably not worth thinking about.
He also reasoned, "We could have no idea of a substance, if not for our passions and emotions."
It is entirely the way we FEEL about anything that gives psychological import to anything perceived, or thought.
Thus if a person FEELS that the US, England, France, Russia, etc. is the best place ever on this planet, he or she will act accordingly ... though objectively it is nonsense and paradoxical in terms of actual history.
I've had exposure, but I've also had erasure! Thanks for bringing this back up! (brain cells need to be refreshed every once in a while)
I've heard a variation on this as when someone is in a shitty mood, that one can nod to the person and tell him/her that when they no longer wish to be in that mood then you are happy to engage them :-) That is, it's completely up to oneself whether one wishes to feel shitty or not. However, one ought not realize the necessity of the notion/function of "depression" (to regroup when over-stimulated in an over-taxing, thought to be negative, way).
I have not read David Hume. I am actually quite ignorant when it comes to the great writers past and present.
"It is entirely the way we FEEL about anything that gives psychological import to anything perceived, or thought."
Often while others are trying to understand what their dream might mean I am more interested in how you felt about your dream. Information is conveyed by emotions as well as by words and body language.
"we know everyone else is wrong is cahooting with others who validate our beliefs. You scratch my confirmation bias and I’ll scratch yours." lol +5 CD, you have fucking deep thoughts man.
Welcome back CD, I was asking WB7 where you were.
Have you read Plato, or maybe Descartes?
If not, then maybe you should, because everything you (and I) are struggling with was described by Plato and Descartes, though I prefer Platos descriptions of Socrates - hence read my nick backwards - and such immortal dictums as:
"Know Thyself."
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
"To thine own self be true."
I have attempted to live by those dictums for nearly forty years and I don't regret a minute, though I am bound to warn you/everyone that this course in life is dangerous ... as described by Plato in the Cave Analogy.
When one loosens chains to conventional beliefs, all hell breaks loose.
Read for yourself in Platos "Republic" and therein read EVERYTHING that still plagues our species over two millenia later.
Nothing essential has changed for over two thousand years.
Sadly I have little to no exposure to the classics. Or maybe I am lucky? I claim no precedent to any of my ideas and thoughts, only to their unique composition on the computer screen.
I am impressionable enough to be sucked into many things I read, thus I don't like to dwell too long on any one author. We (authors) are all propagandists, trying to convince the reader of our point of view by only presenting shiny apples in the best possible light. In my view the best ideas are those you embrace yourself and not because someone else said you should. This includes my own writings.
If it was an oat and honey crumble on a good apple pie, I might say bye bye to the American crash.
But truly, the crash is the "optimistic" view. Get some crap over with, maybe even 10% of us die....and then rebuild hopefully not in jack booted tyranny.
In my opinion if the Soviet Union could have been controlled by the current riff raff who control the ( cough cough ) free world it would be part of the euro ( splendid chaps ) enabling a run on china for the royal flush!
Personally i find it outrageous that i require a visa to visit any jurisdiction on this planet provided i have the means. One would be hard pressed to find agreement on a number of issues by people living under the same roof let alone jane/joe from texas or new york or the yuroba in southern nigeria with the muslims in the north who would feel far more empathy with the peoples across the border in Maradi, Niger. Sooner rather than later most aspects of our lives will be decided on a local level lessening the grip of those benefitting from centralisation. At that stage MSM will reflect the views of ndividual states or cease to exist.
To end i bring up a couple of examples to back up my predictions:-
Large corporations have eroded community spirit by creating greater disparity between the have and have nots ; for example, only a handful of european football teams can afford to spend £50 million on a football player and pay him £250,000 per week. In some premier english teams 11 foreigners have taken the field, costing in the long term a lack of opportunity for young home grown players and for sure an uncompetitive english national team in world terms. Glasgow celtic the first british club to win the european cup fielded a side of 11 glaswegians. Athletico Bilbao in spain only field Basques. Smaller clubs in the english lower leagues appear to be going into administration every month due to financial difficulties, in most cases trying to compete ( gamble ) paying OTT wages in the hope of promotion which might pay off in the short term but causes severe damage in the long. The working man cannot afford to take his son and daughter to support his local team.
Lastly and on a similar theme i witnessed on a documentary in the US a constituents attempt to meet his elected representative. Finally tracking him down the middle aged man approached the limo window rolled down and asked politely if he could ask a few questions of the 28/30 year old who had the grace to visit for only the 3rd time in 2 years and was born in another state; only to be equally and politely declined. WTF
On the visa issue, I can see another side/concern. I don't like it, but one could, I suppose, rationalize it as such:
It's the vetting of allowing one to come and go. An acknowledgement that you are "free" (loosely speaking) to mingle within a larger group of people, a protocol accepted by that group of people (if not, then said people could/should be able to modify such protocol).
Imagine the case of folks being split up into localized groups (one could say "tribes") and someone completely unknown, and perhaps of some significant different physical appearance (and maybe even views/beliefs), comes strolling into your midst. Stop. What are/were your thoughts? Now think about this in the future, after much of what you know has pretty much decayed away, would that person strolling into your midst be an ex-bankster? someone of another religion who is looking to penetrate your area and push aside your community's beliefs (perhaps to "corporatize" the lot of you)?
I don't mean to be dismissive, it's just that I think that things are more complex than we'd like to think that they are. I have no answers, just questions...
"The working man cannot afford to take his son and daughter to support his local team."
How is this different than Dancing with the Stars? Really! One should be helping prepare his/her son/daughter for the future, not inducting them into the system of supporting wealthy non-productive peoples! Time is NOW to be getting braced for the sure-to-be immediate impact of the future.
The global economy won't collapse, because collectively the market cannot even conceptualise what a total economic collapse would envision. No inequality, no progress.
Wrong.
For starters there is no "market", other than an illusion like "god", "society" and other reifications of false collective mind-sets.
To the extent that there used to be a "market" of investors putting their money into the stocks and shares of various companies, all well and goodish. But those days are long gone, e.g. the days when Ford and Cadbury launched their industries ... and had an ethical concern for their employees.
There is no "market" per se.
Today we just have financialists/banksters out for greed and self-interest, who trade digital financial instruments of mass destruction.
Apparently you have not learned a thing since 2007.
Also you apparently cannot even conceptualize the fact that we live on a finite planet and therefore cannot continue exponential growth/exploitation of resources.
It is you, not "the market", who cannot envision total economic collapse, though it has happened many times before, e.g. the collapse of the Roman Empire, the British and French Empires quite recently ... and EVERY empire throughout history.
I guarantee you your empire WILL collapse, but not overnight of course.
Perhaps we need to make a clarification of the word "market?"
One is "The Market." The other is "a market."
The small "m" market has and always will exist (as long as there are multiple humans seeking to cooperate via trade).
The big "M" Market is built upon illusion and will one day cease to exist. (while small "m" markets continue)
"For starters there is no "market", other than an illusion like "god", "society" and other reifications of false collective mind-sets." Jesus christ.. And? hurr durr If your so enlightened why don't you do something. You keep worshipping the collapse and I'll keep stacking fiat and creating jobs.
Your fiat will hyperinflate a hell of a lot faster than you can stack unless you are Ben Bernanke or a bankster diversifying'.
There is only one measure that reflects a healthy market, the flow. The Private Federal Reserve Corporation could print 30 trillion dollars tomorrow. If it just sits there, it will be harmless.
Here is the question to ask. Are people hording, or investing? That should tell you if we have a market or not. And when it crashes, people have gone full retard on hording.
Distractions keep it going....
I agree 100%, granted I enjoy picking up nickels in front of speeding trains. If you want to see the future of the western world just take a good look at Japan. What they've been able to do for the last 20 years the US will also. (I know that is going to be upsetting for a lot of horders who want to see their country implode to fuel their worldview with a smug satisfaction that, LIEK OMG I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG MUHAHAHA) - We'll it won't.
If HSBC is to big to fail, do you really think the global reserve currency is going to hyper inflate anytime soon? Do you really think the powers that people that have everything vested are going to stand by and take the hit?
Now if on the other hand people realised T.I.N.A. -There Is No Alternative. Then they could be buying the dips and profiting off of the immiseration. For you see, tomorrow millions of tons of commodities will be consumed globally, if APPL goes to 0, this will still be the case. If WW3 starts, this will still be the case. If the US/Defaulted, this would still be the case. If magically aliens abducted all of the people who lived in North America, this would still be the case.
"If HSBC is to big to fail, do you really think the global reserve currency is going to hyper inflate anytime soon? Do you really think the powers that people that have everything vested are going to stand by and take the hit?
Now if on the other hand people realised T.I.N.A. -There Is No Alternative."
Right, and that is why the dollar was supported through the first and second oil crisis. However, you make a mistake thinking there is still no alternative. The support was given in order to create one. Today the dollar stands and will fall (mostly) alone.
The spice must flow.
Israeli intelligence officials have confirmed that a major explosion has rocked an Iranian nuclear facility - Fordo
http://goo.gl/gf5MG
I guess we could say skulldugery is a constant, then, and not a perception.
Cog, I am very pessimistic about the economy. IFor ex, I just took a look a look at the new postal rates that kick in today, January 27th and they are a Doozy!....will kill any remaing profit margin for mail order sales for many companies already teetering on the edge (thinking of Sears and JCPennys, for example). Ebay and Amazon sales are going to "collapse." Check out the new USPS costs. They are ugly:
http://www.stamps.com/usps/postage-rate-increase/
It looks (and feels) like a "collapse" is more likely then a slow "crumbling" (or deterioration, as my dad like sto label it) we have been seeing. It's going to happen so fast many people will be much worse off.
Just feels that way to me looking around, first hand. As my Mom used to say, "Forget checking the TV for the weather. Just look out the window, why don't you."
Dude those rate increase are only 2 or 3 percent? What are you ranting about, this is not a huge business crushing increase
The introspection described in the beginning of the piece sounds much like what i remember of Pascals Meditations.
Thank you CD, your silence has been too long.
I am grateful that you have broken it.
I remember commenting to co-workers in the '80's that
America's problem was it's addiction to a paycheck.
Things could have been so different if, in lieu of stuff,
we would have built our individual economic independence.
So much could have been avoided if collectively we could all have taken
a long step away from the systems and controls.
I wonder how many among the moaners and whiners here still bank
with TBTF's, still watch television, still fly on airplanes - all "justifiable",
as you so clearly describe.
Thank you CD - all good stuff!
I fear no man, only myself.
Wether i flourish, find a happy medium, crumble or collapse no excuses.
That said if you feel detached enough to turn a blind eye to a build up of missiles on turkeys boarder aimed at syria then along the path somewhere between crumble and collapse; coming to a " cinema " near you!
CD thank you for that long and thoughtful screed. I have chosen to run with this herd for over 3 years. ZH reinforces all of my beliefs and biases. I thought that the collapse would come sooner. I am undelrstanding the resilience of that status quo. Things evolve into a system that may wobble, but still keeps spinning. Most of my circle, tolerate my musings, but think I'm a full time Casandra. Your self reflections are shared by most thoughtful members of this herd. I try not to be obsessed with my outsiders point of view and still am productive and engaged with family and friends. This may go on for longer than I ever imagined, but it will not end well. What a long strange trip it's been. I await your further musings.
The end of the keysenian experiment is in sight, prepare accordingly
You are mostly incapable of escaping the herd except for fleeting moments. The guy who beats Jamie Dimon to a bloody pulp on Wall Street has escaped the herd..until someone else does the same to Lloyd Blankfein.
I've seen you less and less around here and I'd feared you'd given up guest commentary. Glad to see another thought jerker.
Thank you. Mrs Cog felt the same way. She missed Cog so she decided I needed to resurrect him.
I always do what Mrs Cog wants. :)
Cog Dis.....your writing is too long, a point can be made quicker
Let me make my point....
How does a drug addict reach the point of turning around?
By finding rock bottom once or twice or thrice
Do you see much difference in the USA's situation....maybe it a drug addict being extorted and blackmailed by a pimp who is also running the addict ass on the street.
Your point is short and sweet and I do get it. Speaking only of myself, the deeper I dig, the more layers I uncover, layers that are very often completely missed by the midnight grave robbers.
My articles are most definitely not fast food, though several have complained that they are just as fatty and leave them feeling bloated. :>)
<If you thought this was too long you're gonna hate Chapter Two.>
Thank you Mrs Cog!!!!
We have missed you and I enjoyed the read over coffee on this snowy morning.
Stuff that I will be thinking about for the rest of the day.... I find I always have to come back and re read your work after it has a chance to permeate into the gray cells.
Thank you for the welcome back. While I play on a daily basis in the comment section it has been nearly a year since I posted my thoughts at length here on ZH. Once again I am reminded that the true wisdom of ZH is not found in the articles, but rather in the comment section.
"I find I always have to come back and re read your work after it has a chance to permeate into the gray cells."
My work tends to be very dense and several layers deep if one wishes to look. When discussing concepts widely know and understood, just a few words are sufficient to convey a meaning. But when we delve into subjects rarely discussed, to assume that meanings can be expressed in a few words with the reader filling in the rest just leads to confusion and gross misinterpretations of my meaning.
It certainly can...care to trade Melville for Lady Gaga? Tolstoy for Britney? Shakespeare for One Direction?
Are you one of those people who thinks that the thrash remix of Beethoven's 5th is so much cooler because it's 1/4 the length?
I'll trade your Tolstoy for my Kafka. You can keep Lady Gaga and that Beethoven guy.
I tend to gag on the Gaga as well.