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The Ultimate Act of Freedom
The Ultimate Act of Freedom
By
Cognitive Dissonance
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I ask not because I require an answer, but rather because I desire to ask better questions both of myself and of the world around me. Asking a question that seems to compel the questioner to chase his or her tail is not as pointless as it may seem if the query can be redirected to challenge ‘common’ knowledge or long standing beliefs.
So let me try again with a different question. Which came first, the sociopathic leadership or the seriously dysfunctional populace? I suspect the answer is both and neither.
As with most symbiotic codependent (dysfunctional) relationships, there is no Yes or No, Right or Wrong, Black or White answer. Asking which came first is missing the point since one component of the relationship cannot exist as it does now without the other, at least not for long. A better question might be…..why do we believe there is a defined cause and effect relationship that creates the present day insanity when the very nature of insanity itself requires none in order to exist?
As I have said several times before in my comments and contributing articles, insanity is the ultimate in perfection. It is self replicating, self sustaining and most importantly self affirming. Nearly all sane (or near sane) entities cease and desist wasting energy on useless or self destructive tasks once its futility or danger is obvious and affirmed, often by outside forces or authorities but occasionally by self examination which prompts self awareness.
Insanity on the other hand is its own sole and ultimate authority which in turn acts as the energy source to keep the perpetual motion insanity machine marching forward toward a parabolic blow off of self annihilation. The potentially lethal mistake we all tend to make is in believing that there is only one flavor of crazy. There are in fact seven billion variations of the base product, uniquely customized in cut, color and clarity to meet our own individual needs and perceptions. So in effect the problem is not they, those and them, but us, we and me.
A Mind of its Own
I’m certain you have seen any of a dozen variations of the comedy routine where out of the blue the comedian’s arm or hand becomes possessed and tries to choke the comedian or otherwise attack the body that the arm is attached to. Suddenly the appendage has a mind of its own and that mind is usually extremely self destructive. It can be hilarious stuff when performed well, with a classic example being Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove.
Of course we all know this can’t really happen. A person’s brain controls all the appendages via the central nervous system, aside from certain special conditions such as a disease of the body. So while the body’s ‘operating system’ pretty much functions independently of our conscious awareness, essentially utilizing its own firmware/software routines, we (as do all other animals) command our assorted joints and appendages with broad commands to suit our needs and wants.
For example we think ‘I want that over there’ or ‘I want to pick that up’ rather than thinking about moving individual muscles. Though I suppose it could be argued that we don’t even ‘think’ about these commands in the same way we think about those financial problems that have been bugging us. We just sort of see or perceive that we want to do something and the internal software routine figures out the details. Either way, the only (perceived) difference between ‘we’ and the flea is that ‘we’ are conscious, and we believe the flea is not.
Perhaps it is this ability to command our appendages that afford us our false sense of perceived independence from, and control of, the body. Yet in so many ways it is our body and not our mind/consciousness that actually controls the appendages, though not in the direct sense of the word ‘control’. We spend our entire life attending to the needs of the body; feeding, sheltering and tending to all its various needs whether physical, emotional or psychological. And yet we maintain to our dying days that ‘we’ are in control of the body, rather than at a minimum acknowledge the obvious codependency.
Codependently Dysfunctional
In so many ways the human mind and the body are engaged in a symbiotic codependent dysfunctional relationship. Dysfunctional because for as long as the conscious mind believes it is the master of its domain (when clearly it is not) the relationship is not a healthy one by any stretch of the imagination. This error of perception (actually a deliberately staged continuous deception perpetrated by external sources) is one of the reasons I often speak about looking within, of understanding our motives and dependencies in order to move deeper down the rabbit hole.
We carry this potentially fatal disconnect with us when thinking about and interacting with not just the physical world around us, but with the social order and the so called powers that be, aka ‘our’ leadership. We believe ourselves disconnected from the world around us; particularly from those who we believe ‘control’ us or who are ‘leaders’ in our world. We speak of this phenomenon by using distancing terms such as they, them and those. We consider ourselves divorced from the cause and only subject to the effect.
And yet all around us we see on a daily basis various examples of nature interconnected, of animals moving and acting as one even though they are seemingly as disconnected from each other as we perceive ourselves to be separated from one another. Watch carefully as birds flock, fish school and cattle herd. Even a stand of trees or a patch of wild flowers will communicate with each other either through interconnected root systems, pheromones or other (un)known methods or processes. But communicate they do and it is only our denial that prevents us from recognizing the same in ourselves and others in the human herd.
Choice and Free Will
That which we try to ignore, outright deny or reject out of fear controls us, oftentimes on a deeply subconscious level. This concept as it applies to ‘them’ is very difficult for most of ‘us’ to grasp, let alone accept, principally because we believe ourselves to be ‘in control’ of ourselves, but not at all in control of, or responsible for, ‘their’ actions other than possibly in the most indirect and inconsequential way. No one rain drop feels responsible for the flood, yet here comes the rain. Can you say hip waders?
Why is it that throughout history every so called leader has demanded consent (some demand more nicely than others) from the population, regardless of whether the consent is coerced, connived or freely given? Think about that carefully for a while rather than to just dismiss it off hand with any of a dozen rote responses. A symbiotic relationship, no matter how dysfunctional or self destructive, requires consent from all parties at some level to function as it does.
As ridiculous as this may sound nothing truly compels us to consent even when the ultimate violence is threatened if we do not comply, that of (extreme) distress and/or death. We can choose death, though many will argue that to choose death is irrational or insane. However as I said earlier, that which we try to ignore, outright deny or reject out of fear controls us, oftentimes on a deeply subconscious level. And the vast majority of ‘us’ ignore, deny or reject seriously contemplating ‘our’ own death, whether by natural causes or externally applied violence.
We wish to believe that we live in a cooperative society; that we participate of our own ‘free will’. And yet when we see those flashing lights in the rear view mirror or open that demand letter from the IRS or ‘Justice’ system we do not actually participate of our own ‘free will’, but simply because a threat of (ultimate) violence is implied if we do not.
Still, this is consent simply because there is/are alternative(s) available. We consistently take the softer easier way and comply, then rationalize and justify it as reasonable, rational and sane. It is important that we recognize the difference between ‘free will’ and ‘consent’ because in so many ways they are very different concepts.
Since we make the (un)(semi)(fully)conscious decision to comply in many ways we are ‘willingly’ part of the very system we rail against as predatory and abusive. While many might argue that this is all just semantics, I contend that the world would be a very different place if we had the courage to consider the always available alternative choices other than the softer easier way of complying. Please notice I said consider, not agree. One must always (seriously) consider everything even if one does not agree.
In most, but not all cases, our pain comes not in knowing what we should do, but in actually doing it. In fact most of our emotional/psychological pain springs from the cognitive dissonance of trying to ignore, deny or reject that which we know to be true and correct.
The ultimate act of freedom is to seriously consider breaking the chains that bind us. And those chains are not physical and won’t be found binding our wrists or ankles, but rather they are self imposed upon our own minds. Freedom, true freedom, can only begin when we willing choose to start down the path of personal sovereignty and total personal accountability.
01-17-2014
Cognitive Dissonance
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"One important problem: you seem to ignore the survival instinct and its' effects, as Million Dollar Bogus perceptively nails."
Actually I do not ignore it at all. I simply try to put the so called 'survival instinct' into its proper perspective. If we believe that 'we' die when our physical bodies die than survival instinct is of prime importance. But independent minds much more powerful and aware than mine propose that this is not the case, that there is so much more during and after this physical existence has ended.
This concept is a very interesting line of thought that if followed just a bit will begin the process of freeing ourselves from ourselves. I was proposing this in the article above when I suggested that if we were to begin to seriously consider what controls us and how we control ourselves, life as we know it would be very different from what it is now.
I have to disagree. The survival instinct is hardwired and thus, part of the tools we come equipped with.Without it we lose a main driver for success. We can learn to modify its' effects and achieve a greater meaning, but to overwrite it? I think not, that would lead to suicide and that is the exact opposite of what I think we are here for.
Further, I never want to "free myself from myself". I would become something that is not me. We are the foundation for all that comes and that foundation is the result of all we have been.
You think these ideas are new? Then, why has life remained the same? Control is problematic. I seek to FUNCTION within the whole in a positive manner, not control how I act within it. There needs to be some acceptance of a greater design that should be obvious from the world we live in. MY life could be different and if that affects others in a way that benefits them, great, but ultimately we are all responsible for our pasts, presents and futures.
True liberty always appears to be utopian, because we know it can never exist in this world. Perhaps we are here to figure this out? Maybe, it is by learning how to live in liberty that we escape to the next level. Perhaps we ARE eternal, but the process of progressions gives eternity meaning and interest?
I appreciate the sincerity and drive with which you think and write. I don't have all the answers, just more and more questions as I look further within. It seems you do as well.
Thank you for your feedback and conversation.
Thank you for yours. We rarely have opportunities to explore these ideas and your essays are excellent for doing just that.
Hands down the best part of my articles are the comments below. My articles are simply the catalyst for deeper, wider and more thorough thought by those who contain all knowledge...we, us and thee.
One of the greatest exchanges I have seen here in a while by two of my dearest contributors.
I thank you both for an incredibly thoughtful exchange of very important ideals and ideas.
If the rest of the world were able to function at the same depth of understanding of the human condition as the two of you display, your entire exchange would be unnecessary and superfluous... and so we all must hope that some day it will come to pass that it is so.
Rambling nonsense
No soup for you!
Next....
That depends on what you want to be and where you want to go.
As flawed as it may be I at least attempt to make my own soup. No patiently waiting in line for this fool to receive someone else's ready made reality.
? Terence McKenna - Nobody is smarter than you are - YouTube
(1.37)
liberate yourself from the illusion of culture
that right there alone would work wonders
Great stuff CG. As I read this, an old awareness arises in me. The awareness is that of who I am. It is a kind of conciousness that allows me to distinguish between two MEs. The physical and the Other. The Other understands the physical me and that this physical will die at some point in time. The Other is probably eternal, though that is somewhat a statement of faith or, perhaps, is known through intuition.
Now, the Other is quite free in the deepest sense of the word. I think that is because the Other only lives in the present moment where time has an eternal quality. The Other is not fearful at all and thus cannot be controlled.
The physical me is always fearful, or at least "concerned." The physical me is "practical", "pragmatic", "calculating", "preparing", "avoiding", "resenting", etc.... This me is a real pain in the butt.
Thanks for the whack on the side of the head.
Great observations Purplefrog.
In our ongoing conversations, Cog and I refer to what you have described as learning to live on two ice floes. One is the Matrix all around us. It is the control structure, the physical world that many think is reality. The other is what is inside each of us, what I call my inner knowing. When I can kick my ego aside, I can reach my inner knowing or Self and be centered. When I am centered, I can recognize truth. When I am not centered, balancing between the two ice floes can be completely maddening. I think finding that balance between ice floes will take more than one lifetime, but I find it is a worthy journey.
This and much more is what we hope to discuss in greater depth on Cog's new website (coming soon).
It's the goldfish jumping into another bowl - the red pill, so to speak. You go girl!!
The only comment I would make about your ice floe analogy - there is a qualitative difference between the two MEs. Clearly the current physical life is an ice floe. The Other hovers over it.
I am looking forward to this new forum. The awakening is increasing.
Whew !
You shouldn't write that kind of stuff, Cognitive Dissonance. I had to read it three times before getting some feeling I understood it (and that's only a feeling). I must add that english is not my natural language.
Anyway I have a question. You may know that neurologist have found nothing resembling some kind of "center of consciousness" in human brain. That is supposed to mean that "consciousness" is some dynamical process in which every part of your body (brain included, of course) has some role to play. This, at least to some inquisitive minds, raises rather embarrassing questions about notions like freedom or freewill, for example.
So, when someone says "...I have freedom ...", for example; who, what, and/or where is this "I" that has "freedom" ?
Consciousness is non-local. Thus 'I' does not directly relate to our physical body, our avatar 'presence' on this big blue marble.
That concept alone would shake the world to it's very foundation if it were widely considered (notice I did not say accepted) and precisely why the PTB keeps the masses divided, polarized, distracted and physically and mentally sick.
Begin to grasp this idea and the trip down the rabbit hole begins in earnest. The true red pill since once swallowed nothing is ever the same again.
" Consciousness is non-local. Thus 'I' does not directly relate to our physical body ..."
Ok ...
You realize though, that if "I" is an expression of "consciousness", it's also precisely a direct expression of locality : "I", different from somebody (some body) else called "you" ?
When someone asks : " who did this ? ", when answering : " I did it .", the one who did it tends to show him/herself with his/her index.
"Tell them that I AM sent you..."
Consciousness has no 'location', thus the non-local part. I can most certainly locate my physical avatar. It's located on the third rock from the sun. My consciousness is not located there. Or maybe I need to say it is not 'centered' there if that helps. The language we use to describe our 'being', our 'self' is imperfect and designed to obscure and confuse.
My avatar has a reputation. My reputation can be assaulted and denounced. My reputation is not "I". It is a construct of the reality my physical avatar resides in. Our problems result from our present inability to distinguish between our avatars, and all things avatar, and our 'self', our consciousness.
It seems to me that our avatars have a unique and a very personal ability to perceive.. to be aware. We also have the ability to act without perceiving the full consequences of said actions.... this is what most people think of as free will, the ability to act.
Moral of this story:
Hone your perception, your awareness of the whole and act deliberately and sparingly. Head up, Butt down. Their are no ends..No heaven, no victories, no goalposts..only the chain(s) of never ending (circles of?) karma and the reality of the eternal now.
Head up, Butt down.
I like that. Short and sweet and full of meaning.
how come i am not meeting people of such knowledge in my everyday?
are there so few. or just not getting to this level of understanding(each other).
nice stuff. (writing some of this down) thanks...
Melville's great short story, "Bartleby the Scrivener."
"I would prefer not too."
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
Good to see you out and about Motley. We are indeed still the enemy.
Wasteful and nonsensical mental excretions.
I'm free not to read this.
or ....
i'm free to not read this.
it is up to you, or it is down to you?
.
John Cale "Leaving it up to you"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhmoMyf8xwE
The ultimate act of freedom is to (seriously consider) break(ing) the chains that bind us.
Which requires learning, and taking the Red Pill. Once you cross this (Red) line, there is no going back (to ignorance) - you then know how deep the corruption goes and you will never ever re-enter the casino.
You become a Free Thinker which leaves you outside the mainsream and some can discern your non-sheeple vocabulary ("the Fed", "Ron Paul", "NSA = National Spy Agency", etc) - Never forget the sheeple dialect (NASCAR schedule, NBA schedule, NFL schedule), you may need it in a TSA inspection line.
CD, you hit the nail on the head - freedom is in our heads - but just a word of cautionto my ZH brethren (and sisters), don't go ALL Dali Lama, remember the "sheeple speak" to squeak by inspection lines and check points - just sayin'. For now, THEY control the check points.
Best wishes to you and Mrs. Cog Dis in 2014 - may it be a happier and prosperous year for you and all industrious Americans in 2014.
"Sheeple speak"
The (self) controlling language of Empire.
so i have crossed the line(again). i have pissed people off all my life(wasn't trying).
i a way i just never fit in. thanks dad!
nice.
some things will never change.
sheeple speak - lol
ah, that makes my night.
thanks for the laugh from your serious post.
Very Buddhist, COG. We gotta understand this imaginary me we keep creating before we have any real opportunity to spread peace, love, joy, or armed revolution - or all of the above.
Well said.
How are we to revolt, which implies creating our own change, if we are unable to see clearly where we have been or where we are going. In my opinion this is why the vast majority of revolutions just devolve into more of the same, starting the cycle all over again. Time to look within and discover why this is so.
Someday I hope I will smoke up with you guys. Perhaps we can get Radical Marijuana to front us?(I would want him there as well) None of that will happen though. It was a good read CogDis.
"our pain comes not in knowing what we should do, but in actually doing it."
That statement is as true as an arrow. So many people are angry and not only here on ZH but everywhere I go whether online or in physical public. I am not the loud and boisterous type. I like to observe things and it could be anything but I have not liked what I have seen of human interaction of late. I can not believe how brutal people are to one another anymore. We all know we are fucked I guess. Perhaps I should start loading more ammo because I see no other way out of this.
All of this talk for all of these years about guns and ammo. Well, are we going to use them? I will give the gold and silver to the family and tell them to get the hell out but the guns and ammo were for me. The tree of liberty needs something at it's roots. I know that you do not want this but there seems no other option. If there is another option then I want to know about it.
Looks like Radical Marijuana just showed up. Look above. :)
We only just need to pass around the smoke. I really do want to to hear it all from the likes of this crowd. I would want Mrs. Cog there as well because Mrs. M would make fine company for her. Those women would end up making fun of us though. Mrs. M does not smoke anything though. She just won't even try. The last drink she had must have been at least five years ago. That is her own fault.
"If you want freedom you need weapons. What are our weapons?"
Indeed. They have weaponized money. Use it (withdraw) against them.
But you still want to seal your own doom and play by the last milleniums rules? guns?
How quaint.
Remove your money from their system and remove your productivity and they all wither and die.
Agreed!
Say what you want about the DOD/Pentagon, but they do know a thing or two about war. And they fully agree that the next all engulfing war will be cyber (beginning and possibly ending as such) and it will be preceded by an attack upon a nations currency and money system.
If you put all your eggs in one basket (a virtual currency leveraged up the wazoo) it becomes so much easier to be destroyed when you basket is jostled or dropped.
"that of (extreme) distress and/or death. We can choose death"
Just ask Guantanamo. Can't say I blame them, Then again, neither could our government. For that or anything else
"In fact most of our emotional/psychological pain springs from the cognitive dissonance of trying to ignore, deny or reject that which we know to be true and correct."
The worst part may not be the pain but the very energy, the effort, the growing effort we waste, building these constructs at the very moment we need it and our children too.
Well said CD
Speaking as someone who has been on the wrong side of a gun on a few occasions I learned something very valuable when I was younger and prone to get into those types of situations.
When ordered to do something, particularly when the ultimate violence is threatened for non compliance, if we "Just say no" we completely dis-empower the holder of the weapon. They are now faced with either carrying out their ultimate threat (not an easy task for anyone to do to someone just standing there) or resorting to something less than their threatened ultimate violence....which just shows them how dis-empowered they really are.
They usually get very angry when they discover their true impotence. I would rather be pistol whipped by their impotence than shot by their psychopathy. But my limited experience tells me many people are not ready to pull the trigger on the ultimate violence.
Military troops and police officers must be trained to pull the trigger, to dissociate their use of the ultimate violence with their 'self'. In so many ways, particularly with military troops, their training turns them into psychopaths which helps explain why many have difficulties reentering society.
reminds me of when my childern wanted to "fight back-mad as hell" when we said no, but i would aproach them and hug them. they fucking did not know what to do!
deleted
If you want freedom you need weapons. What are our weapons?
Perhaps a contagious self-replicating system of belief that is founded within open source software. Not like beer.
If you want weapons, you need freedom... chicken/egg again
Nice reversal to seek a balanced equation.
Often we do not know what we have lost until it is gone. This would not happen as often if we attempted to remain in a mindful state of awareness. One way to do so is to question everything, and most especially those things we do not feel need to be questioned.
The more certain I am that I am right the higher the probability I am wrong. Certainty breeds contempt of ourselves.
Speakin' of not knowing, what happens when the S&P goes to 250? How many will be wiped out? Not a prediction, just sayin'. In fiat world, anything can happen.
The more I know I know, the more I know I know less.
Fear not, it is a healthy, positive mental attribute NR.
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wiseman knows himself to be a fool."
Understanding & knowledge starts with simple humility and of embracing the fact that the Dunning-Kruger effect is real and most of "our wise men" are oblivious of it ;-)
I sometimes use phrases such as "This fool" or "Fool that I am" and some people consider this unhealthy and emotionally disparaging. I have been told to "Stop running yourself down".
Unfortunately they do not understand that "I" am not my avatar nor am "I" what society considers or wishes me to be. I do not need my ego inflated in order to be centered. In fact the opposite is usually the result of an ego on steroids. When my ego runs riot I am self centered and the farthest away from being centered.
Your tone and pace while internally calling you "fool that I am" would be of much greater importance than the words themselves. If in doubt, just add a "beloved" or something like that to your sentence. Or sinmply change time: "Fool that I was [...]". In order to be centered you also don't need your ego deflated. ;-)