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Question Everything, Believe Nothing - Chapter One - Suspending Disbelief
Question Everything, Believe Nothing
Chapter One
Suspending Disbelief
By
Cognitive Dissonance
Introducing a new portal into the mind of Cognitive Dissonance
Chapter Two may be found here.
Where are the outer boundaries of our mental box, that comforting space where we ‘believe’ the uniquely individual ‘me’ can be found? What is the limit of our ability to think and perceive beyond our current ‘belief’ system, to think outside the lines of our own perceptional box? Can we ever locate a clearly defined line of demarcation where we cross over from all that ‘we’ believe is ‘me’ and where the herding ‘we’ bulls ‘us’ over?
Is ‘our’ belief system entirely ‘yours’ or is it for the most part indoctrinated into you by ‘our’ culture and those who directly or indirectly influence our culture, thus by extension ‘you’? Who, or more accurately, what are ‘you’ if very little of substance differentiates ‘you’ from ‘us’? In many ways this is a chicken or egg question and it appears that a decent method by which we may answer it is to work backwards and examine what is ‘belief’ and what it means for us to ‘believe’.
One of the ways we have been mentally, emotionally and spiritually hijacked is through our language, a concept brilliantly described in Orwell’s classic work ‘1984’. For many, the words ‘believe’ or ‘belief’ are seen as strictly religious or fantastical thinking, and certainly not for the logical or scientific mind. In the worldview of most, which neatly encompasses their ‘belief’ system, there are ‘facts, science and math’, and then there is ‘belief’ and ‘faith’.
Sadly this is the Achilles heel of the average person (we are all more or less average when it comes to self awareness, though we love to ‘believe’ we are well above that mark) because by thinking this way, by believing in this manner, we create our own blind spots and exclude ourselves from what in many aspects we actually practice, essentially complete and total blind faith and belief in nearly all facets of daily thought and living.
How much of our thought, of our daily thinking, is original or organic and how much is slightly modified, then enthusiastically regurgitated, cultural beliefs indoctrinated into us from an early age. Reinforced by the echo chamber of news, advertising and TV programming as well as movies, books, social media, science, economics and politics, can any of us ever really tell which thoughts are ‘ours’ and which were created to be ours via cultural conditioning. Unless we force ourselves to first obtain, and then maintain perspective, it all becomes a blur of flashing lights and background noise to be willingly, even eagerly, accepted as just the way things are.
Our society is obsessed with the holy grail of facts, absolutes, and conclusive answers. We are taught as soon as we can comprehend that this is the way things are and we know these things to be true. We view our recent ancestors as backwards and uninformed, cavemen for all practical purposes, yet we never seriously consider that we are just as uninformed and will be considered so by the future ‘us’ in twenty, fifty, a hundred years from now.

There is no respect given (because none is seriously offered by ‘us’) to the inquiring mind willing to step outside the boundaries of conventional thinking, only empty vessels that wish to be fully indoctrinated into the present day belief system. The herd demands we believe what the herd believes and increasingly that belief is divorced from reality.
I suspect there are several reasons for this phenomenon. As I discussed in “The Science Delusion” the spectacular success of materials science (the mass production of ten million things) has contributed to the delusion that we know it all, that we have arrived, that there is certainty in many if not all things, and that we ‘know’ this ‘certainty’ with near absolute precision. All it needs is a few small tweaks here and there.
But I suspect something else is going on here and I don’t recall it being discussed much in the virtual circles I frequent. Until the advent of mass media, ‘modern’ man lived an existence surrounded almost entirely by physical reality, up close and very personal. In fact, until sometime after World War Two most homes did not even have central heat, indoor plumbing or a house wired for electricity. Life, to put it simply, was very raw.
There was once a mostly solitary and desperate immediacy to daily living (the present day homeless are quite familiar with this condition) and a mind that dwelled in fantasy and not focused on the needs of the here and now was often severely punished by Mother Nature. Dawdle too long in the petunias and you might die of exposure later because you did not put up enough firewood and salt away enough food.
Presently we trade our regimented labor for easily convertible script, also known as currency, which in turn we redeem for fundamental basics, creature comforts and desirable wants (as opposed to ‘needs’) that until 100 years ago were almost exclusively the realm of the very wealthy. This in turn has greatly diminished the immediacy of the here and now, and thus its apparent relevance and importance. While there is great debate over whether idle or free time has increased or decreased over the last hundred years, what we ‘do’ with our free time has dramatically changed, and in my opinion not for the better.
While man has always devoted some of his play time to alternative reality fantasy thinking, whether it was simply daydreaming on a warm spring day or reading a classic work of fiction, never in the history of ‘modern’ man has such a huge percentage of the population devoted hours upon hours every day exclusively to ‘suspending disbelief’. Nor have we done so in such a mentally and emotionally intrusive manner. I am, of course, speaking about television, movies and other forms of immersive mass media mind warping.

If you were to ask the average person if they understood the difference between ‘real world’ reality and TV or movie reality, you would be hard pressed to find someone who wasn’t absolutely certain they could tell the difference. And yet so much of the mass media we consume is integrated into our daily living so seamlessly that no longer can we clearly see the fine line of demarcation between reality and fantasy.
Just talk to an attorney, public defender or police officer about the public’s perception of justice and police processes after the public has drunk deeply from the CSI media cup for well over a decade and you will get an earful. We aren’t talking about ignorance here, as in a lack of knowledge, but rather deliberately distorted perceptions and programmed ignorance, a far more dangerous and easily controlled state of mind.
The only thing worse than someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about is someone who believes they do because they have been conditioned to think so, but still does not. The serially convinced are so much more dangerous to themselves and to others than the merely deluded delusional.
I don’t necessarily object to fantasy or fantastical thinking, of suspending disbelief in order to enjoy a depiction of alternative reality, which is essentially the altered mental and emotional state we enter into when consuming ‘pulp fiction’ mass media. In fact I was (and still am) a rabid fan of science fiction when I was a younger man. My problem is in the method of media immersion, completely passive rather than interactive and creative.
While reading (science) fiction, daydreaming or engaging in truly creative thought or artistic expression, the activity itself requires that we co-create the reality, to engage our creative energy and thinking process and actively interact. On the other hand mass media consumption requires of us, demands of us, very little (if any) real intellectual or creative effort on our part, only a willing suspension of disbelief and the near total surrender of our mind. Just turn on, tune out and tumble in.
The mass media alternative reality world is already imagined, produced and packaged for us by others and we are simply a passive recipient of the information download, or programming as the networks readily admit it is called. We are just along for the ride so buckle up, open your eyes wide and fully disengage the discerning mind. Suspending disbelief in three, two, one………
Do some research on brainwaves during different activities, then compare the mind while reading, writing, even dreaming, and when passively watching the television or a movie. Even when the brain absorbs so called ‘educational’ documentaries, when viewed through the brain imaging MRI, the results are little different from “CSI” or “Days of our Lives”. Garbage in garbage out makes for a garbage mind, with the body soon to follow.

Not only are we being deeply programmed into hundreds of alternative realities, the cumulative effect of which we are increasingly unable to discern, but we are also being conditioned to remain in a near constant state of belief suspension, the most psychically, emotionally and spiritually vulnerable condition we could possibly allow ourselves to remain in.
Comparable to Pavlov’s dogs responding predictably to specific stimuli, we willingly and eagerly suspend disbelief while consuming pulp fiction on TV and other mass media. While we claim the ability to re-enter the ‘real’ world when the news or a commercial comes on, from what I have learned our brain wave pattern doesn’t change all that much when we switch from ‘True Blood’ to the bloody evening news and then back again.
And make no mistake about it; mass media news and other ‘real’ programming is just another form of prepackaged pulp fiction that we vacantly consume with little or no discernment between one alternative reality and another. The principal difference is that we have been conditioned to believe that the news is ‘real’, thus it is even more deeply absorbed into our psyche as ‘truth’ where it mixes and melds with other deeply programmed beliefs we mistakenly call facts, reality and truth.
Similar to an inch worm’s incremental progress, as long as the latest alternative reality conditioning is similar to the old one (it doesn’t need to be exact) we inch our ‘real world’ perception further and further away from reality and closer to the world our handlers create for us. This is one of the reasons predictive programming is so successful. Repeatedly plant the suggested meme seed now and reap the harvested alternative reality later.
Reflexively we fall into a state of passive receptivity when plopped in front of the boob tube. And as much as we may protest to the contrary, there is less of a tendency to apply critical thinking when in front of the glowing conditioning apparatus then when reading the exact same material or discussing it with others.
The brilliance behind this type of deep conditioning is that it targets our natural tendency to rationalize away any negative aspects under the guise of entertainment. “Hey, we’re just having some fun. It’s a TV show for crying out loud, not real life.” The programmer doesn’t need to convince us to suspend disbelief when we willing do so under the cover of fun for all. Open wide and say “Please sir, may I have moar”.
The latest programming phase started more than a dozen years ago with so called ‘reality TV’ programming, which supposedly features ‘real life’ people dealing with contrived difficulties in purportedly unscripted situations. While I agree that every action seen on the viewing screen is not strictly or rigidly scripted, both the characters and producer, along with the editing room, insert false conflicts and drama where little or none would normally exist, all under the pretence of a ‘game’ show. More importantly we are shown, and expressly informed, that something is ‘real’ when clearly it is not. So once again belief is engaged by suspending disbelief in order to swallow whole the patently unbelievable.

If we examine the term ‘suspending disbelief’ we realize that what we are asked to do, what is demanded of us in order to ‘enjoy’ a harmless little activity and accept our programming, is to ‘believe’ what we are seeing in order to internalize and embody it as real. Our imagination is the creator of our own personal reality so hijack that and you and I are effectively controlled.
Only if we accept what we are seeing and hearing as ‘real’ will we express emotion and empathy and fully engage in the alternative reality. This in turn enables and allows our ‘self’ to be fully assimilated Borg like into the proffered fantasy hook, line and sinker. When all the moving parts click the programming results are spectacular. Just watch the apparatus work its magic when imminent war is being announced or the next financial crisis ‘suddenly’ occurs.
Every twelve to fifteen minutes during prime conditioning time our primary programming is interrupted for commercial breaks during which, while our empathy and emotions are fully exposed and vulnerable, we are showered with sales ads precisely designed to do the same. Meaning we are programmed to desire whatever it is they are selling using our own fully exposed emotion and empathy as leverage against us. Talk about striking while the fire is hot.
I looked up ‘belief’ and ‘believe’ in several dictionaries and found near universal definitions that often had little to do with religion and much to do with everyday living and thinking. For example, from Merriam-Webster comes the following.
be·lief: noun, a feeling of being sure that someone or something exists or that something is true; a feeling that something is good, right, or valuable; a feeling of trust in the worth or ability of someone; a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing; a tenet or body of tenets held by a group; conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence.
be·lieve: verb, to accept or regard (something) as true, to accept the truth of what is said by (someone), to have (a specified opinion), to have a firm religious faith, to accept something as true, genuine, or real; to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something; to consider to be true or honest; to accept the word or evidence of.
Wow, I could not have said it better myself. Who among us has the courage and internal steadiness to examine ourselves for any and all traces of unexamined belief, then thoroughly remove all threads from our everyday use, all while maintaining some semblance of continuity in relationships, work, play and growth. Personally I find the task daunting at best and just about impossible at worst. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t even try.
Chapter Two to follow soon.
03-05-2014
Cognitive Dissonance
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Cog, you forgot to mention that to 'go out of our mental box' with regard to beliefs and what not, that there will be pain, particularly when one examines their incorrect beliefs that have been held long and closely to one's heart (or mind). That is the real challenge for most and therefore why more folks do not step out of their comfort zone.
This really is an interesting issue, at least to me. When I find out my provisional inference/understanding of something has been wrong, I am thrilled --- thrilled because I no longer hold some bogus notion in my head, thrilled because I know better, thrilled because I advanced my understanding of reality.
This is strange, no? Since I was a little kid, I noticed [virtually] everyone else is wired backwards from me. They are happy to be wrong, even thrilled to be wrong --- as long as other people think they are correct. As if being wrong is just fine, as long as you stick to your guns... or something.
Long ago I came to understand that most people don't give even the slightest damn whether they know anything or not. But they care a LOT whether other people think they are wrong.
At first, I just shook my head at this in disbelief. My childish brain just couldn't believe people would purposely continue to be stupid and wrong when all they had to do was change their mind. I mean, they didn't even have to admit to error on the spot, they could walk away, then in the future take the valid side of the argument when the issue came up again.
But no. They didn't. I found this incredibly strange! After some time, in conversations with other people, they could adopt the correct position, and look smart. So even if they only cared about looking right, not being right, they would be far ahead by adjusting their opinions and positions when they found they were wrong.
But I observed, this almost never happens.
Here is another funny personal observation. When I used to get into brainstorming sessions with smart people (long before I moved to the extreme boonies), now and then I'd be supporting some position when someone mentioned an important fact that somehow I had not connected to the topic at hand... one that demonstrated my position was wrong. At which point I'd say something like, "Wait! Yes, that's right"... and immediately switch my opinion accordingly, and start defending that position.
When this would happen, people got royally pissed off. I never did understand this. I mean, why would people get pissed off when someone admits to being wrong? Strange, I thought!
My best guess at this point is the following. Since those poor fools were in the normal camp of humans who defend the most insane and stupid ideas to the death... me changing my opinion so quickly, easily and immediately had to seem like cheating. They're thinking, "that's not fair, I have to defend and endless stream of the stupidest nonsense known to man my entire life... and this asshole can just switch positions and escape all that misery".
Or something like that. I'm not sure. This really was strange to me.
Since I was a little kid, I was a little scientist, engineer, inventor, philosopher... always trying to figure out the nature of reality, understand how things work, figure everything out. I mean, it was 100% obvious to me that I wasn't born knowing everything about reality, and equally obvious that as I formulated best guesses and provisional inferences, often I'd later find out I was partially or blatantly wrong in various ways, and have to search for other possibilities. I mean, what's the alternative?
I guess what I'm saying is... being out of my mental box causes me no pain. Hell, I regularly and intentionally go to the far reaches of the universe to find new, unexplored places as far from my usual "mental box" as possible. Why? Because that's where the most interesting stuff is! The more "out of box", the more enjoyable, the more fertile the territory, the more to learn, the more insight to be gained, the wider scope to grasp and to act.
It is strange, isn't it? Anyone who really cares about being right is happy to instantly eject even his most loved theory out of the airlock if evidence refutes it, or they just realize they were wrong. I feel thrill and happiness, not pain. Now I know better. I advanced. I gain untold new opportunities to see where this new insight leads.
So what is going on here, actually? Why do people experience discomfort and pain when they learn? That's what you're saying here, right? That most people experience pain when they learn something new, when they increase their knowledge, when they advance? How on earth can people get their brains wired up like this - to feel pain when they advance? Mind boggling! Clearly I'm wired backwards. I've seen this since I was a little kid.
So please, try to explain how on earth people feel pain when they gain new insight, learn new knowledge, advance their intellect. That's just... weird. No? How can this be? What makes people this way? I'd really like to know, because that's so alien to me. Quite the mystery.
I think I know a small part of the answer, but only a small part. When I was 4 years old, I noticed different adults gave me different answers. And I had learned that people in different "cultures" in different parts of the worlds believed massively different things. There were dozens if not hundreds of "the one and only god who created the universe". This was vastly more than enough to prove to even a lame-brain 4 year old that we can't believe what other people say, not even adults, not anyone (since at least 99% of all cultures and religious absolutely had to be wrong, because at most only one could be correct). So I decided my only hope was to learn by my own observation and my own thinking processes. That seemed like a hopeless situation to be in, with so much to learn about reality, but obviously I had no choice. This remains obvious to me to this day, and in fact, to every honest individual on the planet whether they want to admit this or not.
So yeah, part of the answer is, I took responsibility for my own brain. I'm sure that matters a lot, but... it isn't the whole answer. It can't be. Being that my first non-conventional interest in life was astronomy, I soon internalized the widest possible [real] perspective any being can adopt --- the entire universe. And by analogy or metaphor (or something similar), I considered myself an alien orbiting the earth, watching the strange creatures "down there", and especially the universe "out there". I'm sure this helped in some way too, though I can't see exactly how.
But anyway, I'm not really interested in me. I know me. I'm interested in what you described. I want to understand how human beings can feel so much pain when they learn something new... when they are able to advance, become more knowledgeable, become more insightful, advance their understanding, improve themselves. Why does this happen? It just seems too bizarre to be true... yet obviously it is. I mean, what? Do people love to be fools? Do people love to be wrong? Do people love to be stupid? Do people love to destroy their most precious ability? Seriously? And do people gain pleasure or satisfaction from being fools, wrong, stupid and thwarting their ability to understand the universe they live in? Don't they experience pain when they realize what they're doing to themselves when they purposely subvert their powers of observation and identification and insight?
I guess one thing I do know (have observed), is that humans are habit machines. So quite possibly a large part of the answer is that once an individual is 10 or 15 years old, they may have already formed such a firm habit of experiencing pain when they are honest with themselves, that they almost cannot break their programming in later years. Of course, this leaves the main question --- what establishes that habit?
I've come to understand that this reaction is a product of people establishing personal identity based on their own ideas and beliefs rather than establishing personal identity on a more meta-cognitive level. People who take identity in their beliefs interpret being wrong as a personal failing or being corrected as an attack on their self-concept directly. Rather than a change of opinion representing a change in the beliefs that the self holds, it is a change in that person's self concept. Changing the self-concept is far more difficult than changing something attached to the self-concept.
Makes some sense, but then why do most kids give up the fiction called SantaClaus at some point? I mean, there can't be many bogus fictions that kids love more than SantaClaus! And I haven't seen many kids heads explode when they do. Perhaps this is the so far unidentified leading cause of death in young people. Or not.
Just kidding of course, but then why give up some fictions that are extremely valued, but not give up other less [self-] important ones?
one of your best, ann. you're a scientist's scientist in my little book, fwiw.
as to the main question, seems to me that constant & repetitive negative reinforcement for being wrong from parents, teachers, society, etc etc etc, would be what links & hardens those habitual pain chains at an early age, mixed with any positive reinforcement from getting away with deception (or observing the tactic's success in one's external environment which as we can see seems more than vaguely apparent).
then again, to borrow E's from preservity, i reserve the right to absolutely incorrect :)
to test the hypothesis at the risk of invading your privacy, in your case, was there an absence of negative reinforcement triggers when you were growing up?
Well, I was always exact opposite from everyone I knew. I'm not sure how I figured this out, but I did figure out the best policy to adopt was to "evade, not fight" everyone. So whenever I figured something out (like "there is no god"), I might mention it once or twice and then run fast when I saw the reaction, but generally just keep quiet. By the time I was... oh... maybe around 8 years old, I stopped saying anything around family or school about what I knew or believed... outside the uncontrollable snide comment once in a while.
So... no... there were endless negative re-inforcement triggers LITERALLY everywhere. When I decided there was no god for example, I thought I was the only human on earth who believed that, since I never heard anyone else question the notion. Of course, I did notice that different people believed in different "gods", which automatically meant they did NOT believe in the other 999 of them.
So, endless negative triggers, and I certainly did suffer assaults when disagreements could not be avoided. And, of course, in school where I could say what I believe (but only to other students), I was always the "oddball". I suppose that is a huge negative trigger to most kids - to be rejected by all the other kids - but it didn't bother me much, because I understood the price (completely subvert my honesty and intellect to the popular crowd). So I learned a couple stupid tricks to deal with confrontations when they were unavoidable. Like, when someone calls me names, I'd just say "that's not half as bad as the truth". That would usually shut them up, because they already blew their wad in the attack, and sometimes they'd come ask me later, privately, "what is the truth". Of course I'd never answer, because... well... why play that game further?
But still, in all of this, I can't figure out why people are willing to make themselves stupid. Do they not realize the price they are paying for whatever they believe they gain? For me, it was always clear that my most precious attribute was my brain, and I was not much tempted to purposely fill it with garbage. I firmly decided to be fully honest with myself at age 4, probably 12~16 months before I entered first grade. So maybe that provided some protection from the onslaught of "social pressures" and programming attempts that followed in the years to come. At the very least, I have to admit that the outcome of this struggle was pretty much decided at age 4, when I set my own "prime directive", which was to be 100% honest with myself. If that required lying to others to protect myself, I would. But I knew the difference, and would never lie to myself. To me, that's intellectual suicide.
So... I don't think the above is an answer really. At least not for why people work this way. I just find it astonishing that honesty causes pain for most people. I mean, they'd be living in permanent agony if they lived in my brain! But it still makes no sense to me, because it must be obvious to everyone that nothing is more important to oneself than ones own brain!
BTW, I think you accidentally slipped up when you formulated your post. I think you meant to say that repetitive negative feedback for being HONEST is what creates the "honest == pain" association. Right? And getting positive feedback for being DISHONEST (repeating popular lies) is what creates the "dishonesty == pleasure" association. Frankly, don't you think it is downright scary how similar humans are to Pavlov's dogs?
Yes that's exactly what I meant. Thanks for graciously correcting my error.
The mystery continues then. Too bad chindit didn't share with us some of that material on consciousness, but then that may have exposed him to too much pain in the brain.
Funny you should mention dogs, have been musing on them lately. Went to visit a house for sale recently. The people living there had about 2 dozen of them, all shapes and sizes. The entire house was littered with about 3 inches of dogshit (no I'm exaggerating). I'm usually pretty tolerant of smells but even I had to put on a mask. It smelt like death actually, not only the shit, but the black mold growing on the ceiling.
They did have 3 or 4 really huge big-screen TVs though, so there you go.
Outside were a flock of sheep they had to be considered a "farm". When we escaped back outside, the sheep were all licking the road salt off our trucks because they were so malnourished. I went into the sheep house (which incidentally was spotless of crap compared with the "human" house) and discovered 2 dead sheep pretty much frozen. The owner kept repeating how one of the dogs escaped and went after the sheep...for food I guess.
Intensely sad experience it was, but it made me wonder why humans domesticated the canine in the first place and how dogs have become "man's best friend" while they are always only 1 meal away from their predator origins. Your final question may have revealed the answer to my musings. Although the realization causes me no pleasure, Thanks for that.
p.s. Not that it makes any difference now, but I would have went in half & half on that island with you. Everything happens for a reason I guess, and it seems that you have found home, and for that, I am honestly happy.
Well, though most of my gold got converted to the place I have now, I'm always on the lookout for a second place. I'm pretty sure this island must have sold by now, since it was about two years ago it was for sale, and was such a great deal. OTOH, it was not sold the last time I checked, so I could check again. But now I could only pay 1/3 of the "cool million", so either we'd need a 3-way partnership with $333K each, or someone with $667K to take 2/3.
In case you're curious, here are links to a few photos:
http://www.iceapps.com/sonet/sovereignones_island_0000.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/sonet/sovereignones_island_0001.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/sonet/sovereignones_island_0002.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/sonet/sovereignones_island_0003.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/sonet/sovereignones_island_0004.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/sonet/sovereignones_island_0005.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/sonet/sovereignones_island_0006.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/sonet/sovereignones_island_0007.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/sonet/sovereignones_island_0008.jpg
All but the first link are views taken from google earth.
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You might also enjoy looking at another southern hemisphere coastal property that was even cheaper... about $850K if memory serves (before improving or developing).
http://www.iceapps.com/socom
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Here is another property that unfortunately is within the evil empire. This is on the west coast of the island of Molokai in Hawaii. This is the only undeveloped island in the Hawaiian chain... not even one stop light on the whole island! Yes! The photos on this page suck. This property was only 6 acres, but on a 2 mile long beach that is always empty or very close to empty (meaning "no humans", just the occasional turtle or crab. And, of course, endless tropical fish and snorkel/scuba paradise in the warm ocean. The asking price on this property was $500K, and might still be available. Amazingly, humans are so stupid that they will not buy oceanfront on this island, but happily pay $20,000,000 for one acre on Maui or Kauai. Go figure. Morons!
http://www.iceapps.com/soorg
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Finally, I mentioned that vessel I just missed buying. Want to drool? Just look. How'd you like to live on that for the rest of your life? I could! :-)
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0001.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0002.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0003.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0004.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0005.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0006.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0007.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0008.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0009.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0010.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0011.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0012.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0013.jpg
http://www.iceapps.com/socom/sovereign_vessel_0014.jpg
It is still possible to get a mind-blowing awesome vessel like that built by craftsmen in Indonesia. After another generation or two, the teak forest will not produce large enough high quality teak [and optionally ironwood for portions in direct permanent contact with ocean] to build these amazing vessels. I'd still be potentially up to collaborate on a 40-meter to 50-meter vessel similar to this, but... anyone who got involved with this would need to understand how hands-on a venture like this is. The craftsmen only make the vessel... everything made out of their gorgeous wood. This includes the vessel, seats, cabinets, interior walls, floors, ceilings, bed platforms and so forth. But they do NOT install or fit the rest of the luxury goodies (but will make the platforms and cabinetry that surround them). So the poor fools (us) who buys such a vessel needs to buy and find others to install engines, kitchen goodies and lots of other parts. That's one reason I was attracted to a super-cheap (considering) finished vessel. It wasn't perfect, but it sure was gorgeous and more than good enough for me!
Anyway, as I said many times here in this forum, I spent many years searching for the best place for me, and learned that now and then it is possible to buy utterly mind-blowing quality [and quantity] for only 3 to 5 times the cost of a cardboard cut-out house on 1/12 acre in a carbon-copy neighborhood in a city or town near you. Unfortunately, at this point I only have $300K ~ $350K after building out my own personal paradise in the boonies. But if we were close but just short, I've had 2 or 3 people with around $100K to $150K savings who claim they'd go for an amazing gig if I or other liberty minded folks find one. So... I don't have to be the only one who has their own personal paradise. :-)
The domains and email addresses are obsolete (expired).
I love that ann. I used to perversely say to people that "I reserve the right to be inconsistent".
I'd say a lot of people can't do this trick because they invested a lot into membership of groups. which includes often a couple of beliefs, opinions and prejudices
and I'm not condemning them. belonging to a group is - I know here my opinion differs from you two - a survival trait imho somewhat bred into the genes or part of a culture or both
This explains a lot about the difference between "social beings" and "independent folks".
I could never tolerate groups. Even groups that I shared a very strong common interest with just didn't work for me. For others? Well, obviously being in those groups "felt good or comfortable", or otherwise gave them something they wanted (real or illusory).
NOT ME.
And every single time I struck off on my own --- my life was drastically better!
So I disagree with you that group membership is a positive. I suppose if a person intentionally adopts a policy of being a complete wimp... THEN... being in a group might deliver some benefits --- in extraordinary situations. In every day situations, being part of a group is personal subversion. You give up your honesty, you give up your intellect, you give up your independence, you give up most skills that highly independent people acquire and value above all others.
When we are independent, we are free to be honest with ourselves, we are never required to pervert our intellect with bogus nonsense, we are independent and free to make our own choices and take the actions those choices lead to.
Of course, an independent being is also the one who suffers the consequences of the actions he take. Which is REALITY FEEDBACK --- which is positive when we are right, and negative when we are wrong.
And this is why fully and seriously indepenent folks WANT to be honest with themself. They know, if they are intellectually lazy or blind or stupid or careless... THEY will be struck down by the consequences of their choices and actions.
And as a consequence, individualists who survive a few years tend to realists who refuse to be dishonest with themself. They KNOW the consequences of self-deception, because THEY experience it first hand (not dispersed through some group, with stronger [fool] members absorbing the brunt of bad consequences).
So you are correct. I do NOT believe joining groups is a positive trait, and you do.
However, I suspect there is a small "common ground" we can agree upon. I do believe in collaborations between individuals. Now, you can talk about "membership" and "groups" if you want, but what I mean by "collaboration" is fairly different. A collaboration is very, very narrow... and thus not very similar to anything like a "group" or "membership". One example might be a collaboration with another individual or family who lives near you but far out in the boonies. Neither of you can get to your homes due to a slot canyon or huge gulch after a terrible rain and floods. So you decide to combine time, effort and resources to build ONE bridge across the canyon or ravine or ditch.
You share NO other commonalities, other than accidentally living a few kilometers from each other. You need not adopt ANY common views... except the one desire to have a way to drive land vehicles to your homes.
THAT is a collaboration, and I am all for them --- where they can be found.
One of my great regrets is, in modern times, collaborations are extremely difficult to find. Partly I suspect this is because too many people are liars and thieves, and now too many people know this and refuse to risk even a very limited collaboration with someone else.
Nonetheless, I am positive about 100% voluntary collaborations (without any form of ongoing membership or requirements). However, to me, that is not a collective activity in any essential way. This is just two individuals taking complementary and collaborative actions. Some small vague similarity, but not really.
Perhaps another way to say this is... if I share genes with anyone else, that has no consequences. I can say without a shadow of doubt that I would infinitely prefer to interact or collaborate with an alien species or inorganic consciousness that shares honesty and integrity with me, than interact or collaborate with any creature because their gene configurations happen to have something in common.
I know what is important, and having similar genes is NOT.
Selco at SHTF basically says from his experiences in Bosnian war and social collapse that without a group you just die very fast, the group is everything to survival. But I don't know that having a flexible mind is an impediment to being in such a group.
So it all depends on the nature of the 'group'. If it's a group about ideas, yeah, it's not going to go down too well, but unthinking inflexible dedication to fixed ideas is not a group I'd want to be in.
Yes. A human with a capable and flexible mind who joins a group is...
A predator, also known as a leader or authority the others must obey.
Of course, there can be exceptions, but this is the norm.
I believe you are just repeating propadanda that you have not tested.
To be sure, if you throw a baby out in the street or forest without anyone (a family or "group") to help them, they are probably dead meat. We can agree on that.
But once a human lives 20 years or so as an individualist, I believe a human is vastly better off NOT being a member of a group. Of course, the first thing a true individualist realizes is... the conditions are not the same everywhere on earth. So an honest individualist will get the hell out of dodge if dodge is controlled by predators and gangs.
You would be correct to say that an individualist would be in a bad situation if he decided to live like a collectivist coward, refuse to observe and identify the nature of reality around him (and elsewhere), and take intelligent, self-preserving actions based upon his observations and inferences. But that's not a fair comparison, because the whole point of being an individualist is... you do make those independent observations, and you do take independent actions.
Which means, you move to some south-pacific island, or the high andes, or some other place if that's the best combination of safety, comfort, security and all other attributes you assign values to.
BTW, I'm not just talking about SHTF. I'm talking about every day life. Being an independent individualist is a superior life. I can say that because I invested a lot of time, effort and resources to create a self-sufficient life in the extreme boonies, and when I hear (and remember) how other people live in comparison. Wow! It isn't even close. Being a individualist and doing away with everything "group oriented" is only about a million times better. Except they can't even be compared this way, because the measures are not commensurate. Because pain and pleasure are not on the same scale, and neither is slavery and freedom, and neither is misery and happiness.
There is more of this idea explored in the next part of this article regarding the hive mind mentality.
From the unpublished Chapter Two:
'Having little to no experience in these matters, many (including myself on several occasions) are quickly overcome by vertigo and scurry back to the safety of terra firma and our familiar self deceptions. Knowing what we have just done, our ego, the master puppeteer, then skillfully encourages us to bargain with what we have seen to assuage our shame and remorse and settle for just another comforting version of the original lie.'
Chapter Two is now posted on TwoIceFloes.com
I love ZH, how everyday they create 4-5 different posts each designed to attract a specific social deviancy.
Here on the COG you have a 'honey-pot' for the Virtual-Gaming nutwits,-
Then there are several for the Obama Haters, ... and J- haters, toss in a few posts for the bean-counters,
It's like a little bit of paradise for everyone,
Circle Jerk Uptopia,... how's that for fantasy Nihilism cog?
The drawback to ZH is it tends to be a forum for those
who suffer from verbal diarrhea.
Writers should consider the tenet that brevity is the essence of good manners....yes, a stretch for many so afflicted.
Brevity, as in say air traffic control brevity, is required to deliver essential communications as quickly as possible, to convey meaning that is needed, and no more, in order to avoid radio congestion so all aircraft can be communicated with, in time. That sort of environment is what brevity is for.
A blog comment section does not have to be brief especially when dealing with complex topics which deserve or require more detailed discussion to convey understanding.
'Manners' have nothing to do with it, and given your comments, you really don't seem too interested in manners.
And where did you get the idea that this is a place where brevity is appropriate? No one has ever forced you to read a blog page, or a comment section, nor any particular comment? So if you're pissed-off that you did, then by all means, give yourself a good belting.
i've never been a virtual gamer, i just play one when commenting on cog's articles, so as to be ridiculed by individuals who believe themselves to be smarter & superior to everyone else. call me a masochist, i guess.
and you?
troll alert tip.e
i choose to believe that we are all mirrors, my friend. and what i see staring back at me is getting uglier by the hour lately. but maybe that reflection has been ugly all along, it's only now increasingly unpossible to shy away from it.
i choose to stare back with a finger and a smile. trav's old avatar comes to mind...
A good first step to break the chains is to substitute the word/concept "reality" with "relativity" in our respective philosophical lexicons. I mean this in the literal sense in that reality is relative; that it's simply a function of perception, belief, imagination... imagination being the keystone, imho. Very good read, by the bye.
It is amazing how being conscious of, then deliberately changing, certain words in our vocabulary propels us in different directions. Control the language, and the interpretation of the language, and you in effect control the population.
I try to banish the words 'belief' and 'believe' from my daily use. It forces me to think about what it is I'm expressing and the ownership of what I am saying and thinking.
Looks interesting, I'll read it when Jerry Springer has finished.
LOL
The problem is that Jerry Springer is NEVER finished.
nicely said, but it's all been said before and it will be said again and again because we do not have the 'psychological balls' to break the spell.
words of the Buddha come to mind, J. Krishnamurti comes to mind, i'm sure there are others. who is it that said 'be in this world but not of it' or "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes. belief systems, we need them because we don't know who we are and it's so much easier to accept someone else's def. of who i am than to work it out for myself.
we all agree with the author and then go back to doing what we were doing before we read it. --move along nothing to see here.
And yet you didn't ... UG Krishnamurti was even better than JK in some ways, funny as hell too, if you like extreme crankiness, he was like the Trav7777 version of JK.
Too funny. Laughed out loud while reading your comment. Read it three more times just so I could continue to laugh at your description of JK. So true.
I liked this piece very much and am looking forward to the rest of it. We just dont get grown up thoughts presented often enough. Keep up the good work.
Thank you. I fully 'get' what you are saying. It just brought me down another rabbit hole.
Not sure in the least if I'm grown up or if this article is a grown up thought. Children, especially very young children, are less indoctrinated than adults, so their mind is freer to make some connections we would not. I am trying so hard to regress to a childlike state and free my mind enough to make connections I wouldn't otherwise make.
Mrs. Cog says I'm a five year old hiding under the bed and she needs to drag me out on occasion. Have we every really wondered why children ask so many questions? In my opinion it is because 'we' adults are insane and through the child's eyes the adult's world just doesn't make any natural sense.
Well the article is just wrong. Magical thinking was a huge and dominant part of the cultures of the past. Challenges to convention were rare and dangerous. Skepticism, debunking, counter propositions are more plentiful by a couple of orders of magnitude. Delusional thinking still dominates but it has become more sophisticated.
Thanks for your feedback.
I did not say that 'magical' thinking wasn't part of our past. Of course it was and I acknowledge it in the article. I said that the immersive manner in which today's 'magical' thinking is experienced IS new.
Maybe you are saying the same thing when you said "Delusional thinking still dominates but it has become more sophisticated."
Delusional thinking still dominates but it has become more sophisticated.
If Delusional thinking still dominates your mind then just whom are you deceiving? Yourself? Are your own justifications becoming more sophisticated?
Are your conventions being challenged?
You do know that Sophistry is the practice of deceit, right? A Sophist, or a sophisticate, is one that practices deceit. And you do know that to call someone sophisticated is generally an insult as you are calling them an outright liar, right?
You might want to look that word up in the Dictionary.
Clarity is first acquired when one uses the proper definitions of words. In that way the confusion is removed and proper communication is acheived.
Or did you mean exactly what you wrote?
Sophisticated [suh-fis-ti-key-tid] adjective
1. (of a person, ideas, tastes, manners, etc.) altered by education, experience, etc., so as to be worldly-wise; not naive: a sophisticated young socialite; the sophisticated eye of a journalist.
2. pleasing or satisfactory to the tastes of sophisticates: sophisticated music.
3. deceptive; misleading.
4. complex or intricate, as a system, process, piece of machinery, or the like: a sophisticated electronic control system.
5. of, for, or reflecting educated taste, knowledgeable use, etc.: Many Americans are drinking more sophisticated wines now.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sophisticated
Few words have one narrow specific meaning. Sophistry and sophisticated, are not the same thing, only one definition and usage is.
Cog, I don't even believe in the alleged validity of thought. It is innately flawed, intrinsically limited, inescapably misleading and the mother of all illusions. It is aided and abetted by the greatest danger of all, the one thing thoughts can be manipulated by, namely, imagination. Lies always invoke imagination in order to believe the lie, and thus the illusion is created, which we believe in.
Whereas, actual truth does not invoke the imagination at all, as it doesn't even need it.
We don't even realize that imagination can be our greatest danger, our routine undoing, our downfall.
Yet most people are struggling on the level of belief still and believe that truth has to be believed in.
The truth just has to be seen and understood and never ignored or denied, then go from there.
You make excellent points Element. The great thing about freeing ourselves as much as possible from ironclad 'belief' is that once done (in reality is it a daily process to undo our indoctrinated beliefs) we suddenly realize that there is very little 'believing' required in order to navigate life. I do not have to believe or not believe your statements or you in order to seriously and thoroughly consider what you are saying.
The very fact that I am not triggered by your ideas and concepts because they don't conflict with 'beliefs' I am not holding (triple negative there folks, step carefully) allows me nearly complete freedom of thought and perception.
Great article Cog. I rarely watch TV and never watch movies. I just don't care for it. I enjoy spending my time trying to figure out what is reality and what I believe. The only problem is the more I look, the less reality I find and I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm just here experiencing the world through my 5 senses and I question even the validity of that. I pursue answers because I cannot accept most of what my senses pick up as real. When you learn to separate the mind from the body, thoughts from outside stimuli, this is where I have come to understand that I really do not understand anything, and "real" is subjective. In a dream state for instance, that is my reality. I am still who I am in a dream, but I accept it as my reality, except for rare occasions that I realize I am dreaming while still in the dream.
I read Zerohedge because this is the only place in virtual reality where I can get such thought provoking information such as what you have provided. Thank you.
Eahudimac
Poor fella, why not just pull down your pants and slide on the ice.........
Banzai7 provides a wonderful view into the world. Some people just look at the images he produces and sees same old same old. What I always find so fascinating about his work is the subtle nuance and the chance to look into his mind. Often his choices are not what I would expect or chose myself.
He is a very sane madman who is very capable of speech and artistic expression. I am grateful for the window he provides into his mind and into the insanity of the world around us.
Somehow between you and WB7, I am certain that a few lives get a litttle easier with each post. ;). Your comment reminds me of this particular cheers episode I watched some years ago. In good humor, here is the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LptupezcXtI
Thanks again to you both and the tylers too!
BTW is that a tambourine behind you?
LOL
"We view our recent ancestors as backwards and uninformed, cavemen for all practical purposes, ..."
Speak for yourself.
I took artistic liberty with the "we".
Of course I didn't mean 'you'. :)
What do we know that isn't a belief? Numerical mathematics is just a system of rules to use with something called numbers and which for many of us can be useful in living and surviving. What is physics, but another set of rules using mathematics which can be helpful in living and surviving. What all "believed" was physics truth was altered when Einstein proposed relativity. But what if the speed of light is not always constant, or the speed of other observable objects can exceed the speed of light?
What are religions but a set of rules "received" from a higher or everlasting entity by which to live? Evolution as proposed by Darwin is believed true by many, but doubted by scientists who see other mechanisms such as random (or planned?)mutations, which survive by chance instead of superior fitness?
What do I know? Nothing.
What do I believe? What works.
Temporarily? Longer? Forever? How could I ever know.
All that I know is that which I can define. If I cannot define it then I do not know it.
The definitions which I use are mutually agreed upon if they are to be useful. If we do not agree upon the definition then there is either faulty or no communication. (Try describing an infinitesimal to a Three Year Old. You might as well be talking to a wall as they are not going to understand.)
Of course the rest is beliefs about that which is defined.
(Try describing an infinitesimal to a Three Year Old. You might as well be talking to a wall as they are not going to understand.)
perhaps this is because an infinitesimal is impossible to describe with full accuracy within the boundaries of language, especially the language of a 3 year old?
but is that a limitation of a 3 year old's understanding of the infinite or is that a limitation of language itself?
Nice explanation.
I not only wish to examine 'our' beleifs, but the basis for our beliefs.....which is often that which we can define.
In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits... In the province of connected minds, what the network believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the network's mind there are no limits.
http://johnclilly.com/
Interesting website. Bet I could lose a few weeks in there. :)
quite the rabbit hole indeed. better hurry though, the seeds are slowly waking up, and soon will come the time to become slaves to the garden gnomes once again :)