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Two Ice Floes
Two Ice Floes
By
Cognitive Dissonance
Introducing a new portal into the mind of Cognitive Dissonance
Regardless of who we are or where we live one truth seems unmistakably clear; we live, work, play, think and just plain exist in two very different worlds simultaneously, while moving seamlessly between and within them in real time. The more obvious of these two realms is the physical ‘real’ world that lay all around us, the place where our physical bodies reside and the space in which we live and eventually die. And then there is the dominion of our (non local) consciousness, some might call it the ‘mind’, ‘soul’ or ‘self’, the place only ‘I’ may find me, myself and mine.
Essentially we exist on two ice floes, which for the vast majority of us are permanently locked together and seemingly inseparable. But for those of us who begin to open our minds and plumb the depths of the rabbit hole, there is an increasing awareness that these two ice floes can and will not only move separately, but at different speeds and levels of awareness.
For the most part we believe that the first world, the so called ‘real’ world, is authentic and genuine, while the second place is just a space, a figment of our mind. And I guess the proof of this lay within our global insane asylum, for if we inmates were not so crazy in the mind, then our world would not be so very confined. But for this particular inmate it is well past time to release me, myself and mine from the self imposed ties that bind.
I am not a victim and I am not a slave. I am what I decide I am both in the physical realm and within the space of my mind. For far too long I have allowed…….no, more honest words would be passively enabled, my physical world to be fused and formed not by my own mind, not by my own inner being, my ‘self’, but by all the other minds with whom I share this physical world, some of which are much more nefarious and soul sucking than me and mine.
My ego proudly asserts that I alone make my fate, and to a large extent this may be true, at least in the ‘real’ world. But up to this point if it is true it’s only because I have allowed the prevailing default mind control program to dominate me with only slight alterations and modifications to suit the egotistic belief that I am unique in a world not of my own making.
For the most part I live in a reality created by those who do not have my best interests in mind, who wish to control my mind and subvert my consciousness so that the body obediently follows.
My Cognitive Dissonance is that up until a half dozen or so years ago this Cog did not believe he was just another custom colored gear in the reality machine operating system, an emotionally comforting self deception that I desperately wanted to believe in order to rationalize my conformity.
Few wish to march to a different drummer, to be a self imposed outcast from the herd, a contrarian, a loner. Please, please, may I join your self-affirming pod? Born a perfectly unique individual, we spend the rest of our physical lives trying the die just like all the others. Conditioned from birth to believe that ‘I’ was only fit to be part of a ‘we’, breaking up is hard to do.

As I began to seek out answers to the questions that were rapidly forming in my mind and soul I quickly found that there were no end of people, places and things that promised me they had “The Answer” (which as we all know is actually 42). The problem was that often, if not always, “The Answer” promoted by “A” conflicted with “The Answer” offered by “Z”. And yet when examined individually, and most importantly with an open mind, they both made some sense while isolated from both worlds.
Worse, regardless of whether I was examining explanations promoted from the ‘real’ world perspective (aka the scientific worldview mindset) or the esoteric point of view (the woo woo world as some would call it) they all ultimately required blind ‘belief’, a giant leap of faith that this was truth and that was not. “They” of course would loudly claim that this was not so, that it was the other side that required the faith. See…here is my proof.
The one common denominator I consistently found among the self professed truth purveyors was that whoever was speaking from whatever point of view they were promoting, the narrative was always one of self assured confidence that wisdom and light was their exclusive domain. No wavering, no self doubt, no hedging allowed when spouting “The Truth”. To express any uncertainty whatsoever was, and still is, considered a sure sign of weakness and will never be entertained. This belief is nearly universally held and is of course promoted by all self proclaimed authorities.
While the word “Propaganda” has been almost completely intertwined with government controlled information, the reality is that we are all propagandists in the purest sense of the term. When we speak, write or communicate an idea or thought, we tend to present our best argument in favor of our point of view and either diminish, ignore or subvert contrary information that does not help our case and might actually torpedo it.
I am just as guilty of this practice as anyone else, though I do try my best to at least expose myself as a propagandist by declaring myself one with as much certainty as possible. What I try to do in an attempt to compensate for what comes naturally to all of us, primarily because we have been immersed in this authoritarian culture from birth, is to inject a smidge of humility into the equation by exposing my flaws, doubts, confusion and uncertainty. In short, to be aware of my ego and its sometimes subtle, sometimes enormous, influences upon “me”.
There is a saying I am sure I’m about to butcher. There is your truth, there is my truth, and then there is the ‘truth’ which can usually be found somewhere in between, possibly even in the middle. I suspect the actual location is not fixed and will almost certainly not be found between the two promoted “truths” simply because it would be outrageously narcissistic to proclaim that all the undiscovered territory is safely contained between the two “know” end points. It is the epitome of egotistic expression to confidently claim that I occupy one end of the universe, let alone the very center.
Even if one does not accept this premise, and you most certainly should not simply because I am promoting it, what is one to do if one is lost in the wilderness without an accurate compass, maps or signposts, also known as static answers? Well….if you want better answers, the only solution is to ask better questions. And the only way I can see how we can formulate better questions is to expand our perceptive minds and awareness and dump our preconceived notions and beliefs overboard.
I don’t have all the answers. In fact I only have a few. What I have, at least when I can convince my ego that new knowledge is not threatening to it, and thus to me, is the desire and capacity to explore and expand my severely limited universe and seek out those better questions. I am willing to go it alone, but it seems silly to even try when I am not alone in my desire to look beyond my nose and push back the barriers of the ‘known’ body of knowledge and wisdom.

How do you eat an elephant, particularly one that just appeared out of nowhere right in front of your eyes? One bite at a time is the only answer that works for everyone and one that seems to work for me. Over the last seven years, as my growing awareness of the grand facade grew, I began to make changes both personally and professionally, some small and seemingly inconsequential, and others huge and life altering. With the help and encouragement of Mrs. Cog I am once again turning the wheel of life and embarking on another life altering metamorphosis.
Would you care to join me, to observe or even to participate, in a real time thought experiment of alternative reality creation played out in a semi public forum? If you would like to do so then may I introduce you to a new portal into the mind of Cognitive Dissonance?
02-20-2014
Cognitive Dissonance
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The "trinity" has great meaning throughout the ages. A subject I wish to pursue in more depth at a later date.
Linda Ronstadt - Blue Bayou
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUs8ww9t3dU (4:02)
goldie,
your up-vote is from janus...he savors maple-sweet voices and inspired songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igj20M84hbo
i get it all,
janus
While a fell I shouldn't say it because the depth of the proposition is not clear I do have to say that "dump our preconceived notions and beliefs overboard" is a dangerous act as they have a thousand ways to, a few year later, find you again and bite your ass, hard. The simplest of reasons is that some, though preconceived, are True.
The search *is* a lonely journey, and there is no way around it as all great poets, philosophers, mystics, dead or alive, tell us. But one poet, Antonio Machado, also warns:
In my solitude
I have seen things very clearly
that were not true.
So, there is that...
---
The search stops, unfinished, with your last breath, wherever you are.
Hopefully a peaceful one.
Truth is just taking a piece of information and declaring that there is no possible contradiction - you assume you understand all possibility.
Belief of all kind is not justified - all we can really say is that we observe information, we can apply logic, we can remember and we can structure that information as language.
Every other truth is simply an assumption - waiting to be contradicted by something we cannot forsee.
Truth is not a logical conclusion but a necessity for something to exist. If your truth (not Truth) changes as facts change then you are still in dialectics (or the realm of possibilities as you say). When all contradictions in one topic are cleared then you can describe/explain it logically why it is so and understand why Truth is prior and not posterior.
"Belief of all kind is not justified". That is a tautology. Reason and Intuition are different capabilities of the mind along with the lower Instinct. The rest of the paragraph is just Phenomenology, isn't it?
As for "waiting to be contradicted by something we cannot forsee", Reason is not a substitute for Instinct and Intuition. Instinct tells you to run while Intuition why you shouldn't go there to start with; Reason at the wrong time and place will kill you. You have to use all three to be (and stay) a whole person.
---
And, to be honest, I do not want to take part in a "higher" conversation where basic Notions are not understood.
"The simplest of reasons is that some, though preconceived, are True."
I agree. Some are actually true, or at least as true as true can be these days.
What I didn't take the time to say in the piece above, mostly because it wasn't the point I was making, is that once you throw those notions overboard you then need to make them prove to you why they should be let back on board. I am constantly surprised that I'm still carrying a whole lot of silly shit in my backpack, and have been for years and years.
And I also have a few very valuable tools as well. Those have been safely tucked back into my backpack once again. Unfortunately I'm a cultural nicknack pack rat, as are most of us these days, so the backpack needs a regular cleaning.
Maybe there are a lot of truths. It's the explanation or interpretation of the truths that are fluid and leave us wanting.
[note to self: one tool I should always have at ready is
"careful proofreading" before posting... after a thousand tiny edits, the idea I was trying to express is clear in my mind but "While a fell I shouldn't" doesn't start to express it. Some kind of "phonetic blindness" I guess.]
Yes, and then some idiot replies and you're left kicking yourself. Hate that.
I resemble that remark. :)
Cheers, Cog. Nice work, once again. You're an inspiration to many of us here, even if we don't often say so.
Thank you. That is kind of you to say.
In reality I'm just trying to inspire myself and you guys are just along for the ride. :)
or maybe we're all just inspiring you to come along for the ride and let you pretend that you are driving?
same could be said for the little egos in all of us?
things have a way of going both ways when open honest dialog takes place...
Mrs. Cog never lets me drive the party bus. She's so mean to me. :)
I think many of us here are doom-porm addicts. We have a love/hate relationship with what's going on -- waiting for the fall, but enjoying the pain, a little.
Even those of us who are aware, and are taking steps, mostly are not stepping out like this -- in practice, and so publically.
Many of us long to, and will be more now I suspect.
Role models and real leaders who set a new course, should be admired.
((of course, maybe it's just the singing flowers video in the other window!))
I think many of us here are doom-porn addicts.
methinks you've just slapped the ZHeitgeist squarely in the face.
thanks for that, please feel free to repeat as often as necessary.
Doom-porn addicts.
I've actually started several articles on the subject and have never finished a single one. Maybe when I figure out why I watch the show I'll explain it to y'all.
I watch so that I'll know when to gather in my family and close the storm doors behind me.
Mrs. Cog and I, along with the child unit, have basically done that by moving to "The Mountain".
So what's my excuse now?
i'm losing interest(sucks my positive energy) and need the balance back. the level of understanding has been achieved(doom shit and the systems in place by the ptb-rerun/repeat). your stuff, now that has my focus, as it always has been since i sobered up. no more dry drunk crap. time to progress to the promissed land:) will talk over at the flow, but I have a mission in TX to do - what you did moving to virginia...
7 inches and 30 plus mph followed by yet another vortex- I gotta get out of here(alice cooper) hehe.
Song of the soil link (above) helped me earlier, really. It all becomes madness otherwise.
Few wish to march to a different drummer, to be a self imposed outcast from the herd, a contrarian, a loner.
In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
- Notebook, 1904
Mark Twain
I like your style CD.
Your writing was close.
Check this out. (goes with your overall theme)
The truth is indeed strange.
http://www.nationallibertyalliance.org/files/radio/14-1-24%20Awake%20and%20Empowered%20Radio.mp3
This is what has really happened to us.
(Have a drink and take a red pill)
http://www.nationallibertyalliance.org/what-happend-constitution
If we convene a “Common Law Grand Jury”, the people will come.
Please consider joining us.
http://www.nationallibertyalliance.org/
* HONOR * JUSTICE * MERCY *
Free Yourself
How can you free yourself using law? It is law that allows others to enslave you. Law cannot be cleansed, it will always fall victim to manipulation and influence. If you wish to free yourself, you need only reject law in all its' forms.
1Cor 9:21
To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.Gal 2: 19For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousnessc were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Truth-Lie-Ignorance Ternary Diagram
http://www.scribd.com/doc/101478230/geological-t-l-i-ternary-system
Personally, I think it might be able to go tetrahedral if "reality" is made another endpoint.
Once upon a time, I thought "truth" was subjective. There's your truth, his truth, their truth... and I also observed that sometimes the truth appeared to be subject to situations - situational truth - for some people.
I thought lots of things I think are silly now. Life and truth are more a theory, than a mathematical proof - but closer than it was, when I was 21.
Truth is more like a journey and less like a destination.
That's a nice way to put it.
I was a bit worried with my last post when I mentioned, "truth", because I didn't want to be confused with those religious people who write it with a capital 'T', and then waste time explaining the difference between ethos and ethics, facts and perceptions.
I see it as a progression, a journey if you like, that starts with data which leads to information, that forms knowledge, which ultimately, hopefully, leads to wisdom. Sometimes, even in most seemingly inflexible disciplines, the raw data changes from time to time, place to place, & so too does perceived wisdom. Ask any old theoretical physicist. :).
It's nice to share information and knowledge freely. That's what is so great about the internet. But when knowledge is hoarded and hidden by guilds in education and commerce, raw data manipulated and perverted to suit a particular agenda, institutions existing not for research, but to protect outmoded ideas, that's when we regress and start to lose the best survival skill we have: Adaptation.
I'm an optimist usually, but these days the way we're all heading, I feel a great sorrow for the future generations and the legacy we're leaving them. Mea culpa, but I'd also like to resign from the human race, so I can tell any visiting intelligent lifeforms, "Look, I'm not with these insane, destructive assholes". If only.
"I'm an optimist usually, but these days the way we're all heading, I feel a great sorrow for the future generations and the legacy we're leaving them. Mea culpa, but I'd also like to resign from the human race, so I can tell any visiting intelligent lifeforms, "Look, I'm not with these insane, destructive assholes". If only."
Just about sums it up. If most of the 'people' around me are representative of the human race, I'm ashamed to be considered one of them! I say it to people regularly.
Mrs. Cog and I have this story about how we are the reincarnated souls of two aliens who were passing by Earth and crashed our spacecraft into this God forsaken mud ball.
We are still waiting to be rescued, but maintain our cover in order not to be burned at the stake, or worse......probed by some damn Earthling doctors. :)
"Mea culpa, but I'd also like to resign from the human race, so I can
tell any visiting intelligent lifeforms, "Look, I'm not with these
insane, destructive assholes". If only."
I tell them that all the time. But still they use that damn probe.:)
When I'm (desperately) trying to gain perspective I image myself a space alien buzzing around this blue marble trying to figure out what the hell is going on below. I can never figure it out, but it is fascinating to watch.
<Would someone please explain to me what a "Warren Buffett" is?>
"When I'm (desperately) trying to gain perspective I image myself a space alien buzzing around this blue marble trying to figure out what the hell is going on below. I can never figure it out, but it is fascinating to watch."
It's like stirring up an ant bed. You watch them goiing about their business. Stir up the bed and they continue to go about their business. Only faster and with more resolve. Stir it up enough and they move the bed maybe three feet to the left, or right.
truths are the foundation. facts provide evidence. the journey dies when i die...
hopefully, i can hand the baton to my sons. hopefully, there are enough on this journey to steer the ship from the rocks ahead.
wish/think/realize/understand/diagnosis/act-rectify
Our foundation right now is sand.
The eternal foundation is the stone that the builders rejected.
The Lia Fail - The Stone of Destiny.
One day something very special will happen.
http://jahtruth.net/stone.htm
http://jahtruth.net/uflag.htm
CD
Are "Facts" the same as "Truth"?
I love trick questions. I'd say that the answer is 42. :)
You sound like a lawyer. 'Facts' are usually established using preset parameters. For example science, math or religion all have their own set of 'facts'. Those 'facts' are then used to establish or butress a 'truth'.
So the answer to your questions is......it depends upon whom you're talking to.
Not a trick question
Not a lawyer
Most times a farmer
Just playing around nobody. You've explained who you are a few times here on ZH. Thanks for the penetrating question. Made me think for a bit before answering.
To be more clear.....no, they are not the same thing.
I agree, a fact is irrespective of human nature.
Truth is always human derived.
Actually, science and math are not a set of facts. They are a method and a language respectively for formulating and validating alternative models of reality. They are ultimately only as valid as truths when observation during experiments continues to establish their viability. No model/theory is ever proven it can only be falsified by the scientific method (modern adherents to the "science " of AGW should take note). And, as Kurt Godel showed, even in finite mathematical system there are always propositions which can neither be proven nor disproven-they are undecidable. His undecidability proof transformed the way we understand mathematics just as the chaos theory and quantum theory undermined determinism and classical physics,respectively. In the most exact model in science, quantum dynamics, the act of measurement itself determines the outcome of the observation. There is guaranteed uncertainty in the measurement of position and velocity since trying to measure the position of an particle more precisely requires higher and higher energy of the probe, thus perturbing the velocity of the particle. But if you try to rectify this by using low energy (i.e. long wavelength) then you don't really know where its located, though you haven't altered it velocity very much. Uncertainly is the essence of good science, and indeed life itself. That's why its best to be a stoic and realize we're all "fooled by randomness".
Nicely said John. +100
Facts, truth are, until they are not.
someone's been reading something other than jazz reviews.
+3.14(etc)
Ah, very good.
Randomness is the incense of reality.
That's why I said 'Facts' are usually established using preset parameters."
In my reality I can call anything a 'fact' if I first set the parameters on what makes a 'fact' a 'fact'.
And, perhaps, which facts are admitted (permitted?).
Perhaps, there are only temporary "true" answers. Perhaps, the truth is changing or evolving due to entirely new entities appearing in the world. Nature uses sexual reproduction, instead of vegetative reproduction, to create entirely new realities. An alternate reality can become a true reality, if its needed parts begin to exist. Once physics had only a Newtonian reality, until Einstein introduced a relativity reality. What if the speed of light is not the fastest speed in a higher reality. Isn't present truth only that which is always reproducibly true, in present time. It's true until something unknown is created, which changes the truth.
There are truths created by man, thus consumed by man's flaws. Then there are other truths uncorrupted by man. We've got plenty of the first and too few of the second.