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Breaking Broken Connections
Breaking Broken Connections
By
Cognitive Dissonance
From the moment we exit the birth canal we begin the process of making and breaking life’s connections. For example, our very first broken connection is the cutting of the umbilical cord which was our link to the gestation cocoon within the mother ship. Upon breaking this connection we immediately transition to bonding with mother and breast and the physical world outside. How we accomplish this, how we cope while doing so and the process we follow as we make and break life’s connections are ultimately what define us as fragile human beings and spiritual entities.
During the first five years of life, and arguably the first twenty, being human is mostly about making connections, initially instinctual and physical, then slowly progressing to emotional and intellectual. This is considered the natural process of growing and maturation and I would never argue this point. However, whether by omission or commission, and most likely a substantial portion of both, huge gaps are left in our development that leave many of us emotionally stunted and spiritually shriveled. Intentionally formed with feet of clay and then stranded in this condition, we are extremely vulnerable to external, and therefore ultimately internal, manipulation and grinding exploitation.
Becoming a healthy and whole being, living as both a physical and spiritual entity, is so much more than slavishly following the early imprinted connections that come to first rule, then dominate, our lives. What we are rarely taught as children and are often too set in our ways or too frightened to learn as adults, is how to break free from our already broken connections. Because we are rarely able to do so completely and of our own volition, our Self, our culture and our nation are littered with dysfunctional nonworking relationships that destroy so much more than they should or could, but for our own deliberate inattention.
Image by CD at George Washington Birthplace National Monument 10/08/2011
Natural healthy connections are obvious when seen.
I suppose this is where I should attempt to more clearly define the obviously broken principal connections along with the supporting secondary and tertiary bindings (also just as broken) that are the fundamental problem. The former associations are easy to describe for they are clearly seen as huge steel cables securely tying our lives into the dysfunctional sociopolitical web.
From a purely US centric point of view they are represented by God, Country and the American Way, a gloriously entangled trinity that rivals the Catholic Church’s own creation. Each global culture and/or state has its own version of this central meme, only theirs is not as pure and righteous as ours; an example of one of those broken programmed belief connections.
These artificially created and seemingly impenetrable primary meme structures skillfully hide the deliberately concealed smaller, and often broken, personal connections we create within until finally the rust and rot can no longer be painted over and the whole stinking edifice falls into the sea.
It is these smaller, more highly specialized, even customized connections that defy accurate description since they are literally a product of the beholder’s belief system. Since I can never ‘see’ the world in exactly the same manner as you, these subtle connections, these ties that thoroughly bind us into the main cables of the social, economic and political web, are often used (and abused) very differently even if they look the same.
Moreover since collective denial is an integral part of our social belief system, as we self sort into various sub groupings, we all use the same broken connections in entirely different ways and at cross purposes to each other. This concept becomes self evident when we see the same set of ‘facts’ being used in different ways to support conflicting beliefs by opposing groups. To avoid recognizing this basic truth I simply don’t internalize it as applying to my Self since I (as part of my grouping) wish to believe that we, and only we, know the truth and all others as just silly deluded fools……or worse.
This dynamic holds true deeply within my Self as well and is often the reason behind my own fuzzy thinking. As long as I don’t look too closely within, logic and reason need not apply to my worldview, allowing me to get away with all kinds of twisted thinking. Instead of breaking down and discarding these already broken connections, what we find ourselves doing again and again is supporting, even rebuilding, them as both we and our world death spiral down into the black abyss. We become one with the mob because we have thoroughly broken the only connection that really matters, with our sovereign Self.
Image by CD at GW Birthplace National Monument 10/08/2011
Two old souls who have weathered the breaking of many broken connections.
The best I could do here is to describe my broken connections, a useless exercise since it is yours you need to dig up, examine, and then discard for good. This is why the journey within in search of truth, of our true inner spiritual being, is intensely personal and completely unique. Even close family members have stitched their personal beliefs together using vastly difference life experiences colored by their own uniquely distorted and twisted perceptions. The world really is as we perceive it, not as it is.
It stands to reason then that nearly all of us have little more in common than those enormously flawed steel cables, at least when measured by the false reality of the Matrix. It is the deliberately created and manipulated illusion of a common false ideology, one that is actually designed to divide and conquer, that effectively paper’s over most of our differences and builds a false sense of shared belief or purpose and thus a binding connection. This bag of broken connections, this false ‘shared commonality’, is not only encouraged by, but is in fact created by, the cultural programming of the corporate owned, and government supported, mainstream media machine.
These broken connections, the ones we refuse to break and discard, are intimately woven not only into the very fabric of our lives so as to render them nearly seamless, but often they originate within our manipulated culture and are fed back into our 6 senses (the 5 accepted physical ones plus our spiritual sense of Self) in order to create and sustain the perfect positive feedback loop.
I’ve talked about this before, how everything we see all seems to make some sort of sense because it fits our programmed worldview, thus there is no urgent need to seriously question anything. We are mesmerized while at the same time terrorized by our own false creation, convinced that this and only this is our true reality and anyone speaking contrary to the consensus view is totally bonkers and off his feed.
But if we were to pop our heads down below the surface streets and poke around in the utility conduits and sewer system, we cannot shake this deeply unsettling sense that something is terribly wrong and that nearly everything is not as it seems. Even those who don’t look are beginning to feel that things are falling apart and the emperor has no clothes.
Image by CD at GW Birthplace National Monument 10/08/2011
The sheltering canopy protects us while we may break our broken connections.
Our inner being, the source of our true Self from which springs our inner knowing and its realty creation imagination machine, has become overgrown with choking weeds and tangled vines, all a direct result of not breaking free from our broken connections. We wind up devoting all of our time attempting to cope with our inner dysfunction, which in turn leaves us completely unable to deal with (never mind heal) the insanity outside that presses in on all fronts like a cold winter’s wind. We are constricted within while simultaneously set upon from without.
Thus we are marginalized and immobilized by severely damaged souls whose only purpose in life is to take from others in order to increase their own personal stake. Vampires within and without is the perfect analogy in this case. And worst of all, we enable them in our present state. Trapped by the artificial boundaries we have enabled externally, we are never able to withdraw within to clear the weeds and return our inner being to a proper state of health. Unable to muster the courage to face those oppressive external forces that rape and pillage, effectively we are reduced to a vegetative state of abject apathy, impotence and long term decay.
This explains perfectly the dysfunctional insanity of our world, for our external chaotic reality is simply an outward projection of our inner individual and collective disorder. As well, it also explains why ultimately any social upheaval or outright rebellion or revolution eventually fails. As the initial burst of external house cleaning wanes and falters, once again we invite back within the very same demons we just expelled. Because the inner dysfunction is never corrected, our external projection reverts back to the mirror image of our own inner cluttered house. The leopard’s spots never change because the inner decay always remains.
We are endlessly trapped within our own insanity because we are unable to create new functioning realities until we are able to effectively purge the old ones. And we won’t expel the old ones because we are bound to them with those steel cables that falsely appear stronger than us as individuals. This is the supreme illusion for we enable the ties that bind us to our own insanity. The dirty little secret is that for the vast majority of us, those who are fully assimilated slaves, we welcome the illusion of unbreakable ties that bind. Why struggle needlessly when victimhood is so warm and fuzzy. After all we can’t fight city hall, especially when we are city hall.
As long as we cling to our deepest darkest secrets, our false hopes and self deceptions, our blame shifting and dishonest personal and professional relations, our mind and spirit is permanently bound to the old social structure. We cannot create new realities while we remain so tightly bound to the old. In our mind the present dysfunctional reality remains more real than the new one ever could be, thus the new reality is never properly birthed and lay stillborn and discarded by the side of the road; tragically the only connection actually worth nurturing dies the cruel cold death of an abandoned orphan.
Image by CD at GW Birthplace National Monument 10/08/2011
Healthy connections blend naturally with nature and our Self.
The end game of the endless cycling of insanity is always the same. Externally oppressed and internally tormented beyond our capacity to tolerate, ultimately we are compelled to fight or flight in order to escape our demons. In order to overcome our apathy and perceived impotence as we try to remove the irritant, we convince ourselves well in advance that it is the external problem that is making us internally sick, rather than the other way around.
Eventually a small minority of us work ourselves into a murderous lather. Sufficiently emboldened, we then blindly strike out at everything and anything within reach in fits of near mindless rage. The vast majority of the rest remain barely contained within the distractions of mindless consumerism, idol worship and televised violence porn. This plays out regardless of whether we are rejecting a government, politician, Ponzi banker, employer, spouse or significant other or even our Self, especially our Self.
Once the frenzy has passed and whatever our rage has been directed towards lay in ruins, not to mention all the inner spiritual collateral damage, we turn our heads and avert our eyes in utter shock at our savage and ultimately dishonest display of the very same brutality we condemn. ‘This can’t be me’ we say and everyone shakes their heads in affirmation. Yes, it was the evil external devil that made me do those bad things. Then we rush home to count our looted things and return to ignoring the root of our global insanity.
Of course, what I’ve just outlined above is the extreme home version of the inner hide and (never) seek game, something a minority of us actually play. For all the rest of us, we get to wallow in intellectual self deception territory where we claim we aren’t that bad, so what we just witnessed on the idiot box can’t be us. Our confirmation bias (that we aren’t the problem) now properly stroked and carefully tucked away for future retrieval, conveniently relieves us of any personal responsibility. Sated and satisfied, we go about our business of enabling the exact same insanity we claim to disdain and dismiss.
And so on it goes, back and forth into infinity. Or at least back a few thousand years through a list of tyrant Pharaohs, Popes, Prime Ministers and Presidents. And all because we refuse to break free of our broken connections, the one task we must tackle if we are ever to reclaim our inner sovereignty. The ultimate self deception is to claim we are enslaved when we never really wanted to be free in the first place.
True freedom, not the artificial and external construct presented for our blind consumption, always begins within. Our sovereign being remains in chains because we wish to remain in chains, an ugly truth that once fully confronted will quickly break our broken connections. As long as we remain slaves to our own self deception, as long as we can hide from ourselves within the endless distraction and ego stroking of the modern meme machine, we will remain captured slaves and indentured servants.
Regardless of whether the machine falls apart of its own greed and corruption or if it’s pushed off the cliff by the previously described screaming mob, unless we begin here and now a process of inner reflection and inspection in order to break all our broken connections, all that will come from our latest exhortations is more of the same old insanity, recycled for the nth time.
10-27-2011
Cognitive Dissonance
Image by CD at GW Birthplace National Monument 10/08/2011
The control system placed their middle finger in front just for you.
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Thank you.
I've still be around, though much less in the comment section. And I haven't posted any articles in a while.
I have still been writing, but too many half finished meals on the desktop forced me to push a few out. And I have been working on some fiction while exploring the caves and woods, playing around with a new correspondence friend.
I knew your silence was for something exciting! What is her name? Just joking- I know that you are past simple motivations and you think on a higher plain. But, it is still nice to have someone to talk to that shares your beliefs. My husband and I are fellow posters here on zh and we help each other to grow. Glad you have a correspondence friend.
CD,
Well done, of course, and it's always a bit strange to read your words because I think much like you...
and, now we are in the process of coming to terms with the fact that those in control (and will continue to be, sans... whatever) would have not a clue, nor interest, in what you're talking about.
I've been here on ZH for a bit more than 2 years now. More and more people are responding to the subject matter I write about. People are waking up.
At first I thought maybe I was talking to the wrong audience. Now I understand I am right where I need to be.
I suspect there is no wrong audience!
Most of the world is crying silently to be Human and accepted as such, without the control and manipulation by outlier leadership and the fallout of the self-absorbed. You are doing the world a service by appealing to Real People -- Real People in turmoil.
The turmoil is bad.
Bad to the point where I believe your writings make good people squirm...
as we do when we're reminded that we've lost our way, are playing roles, are fearful of being ourselves, and have relinquished our power to others who do not, cannot, give a damn.
You should go back 18-24 months ago when I first began and read the comments under my articles. There were some very vile and angry people in the comment section back then. But things have changed as people begin to want to listen to any alternative that is open and honest.
http://www.zerohedge.com/blogs/cognitive-dissonance
I lurked for a while... and I've recognized a change here.
We've been consumed by lies, lies building to a crescendo, and now there is a STARVATION for Truth.
So, take some credit for helping to change the dynamic, and nudging the vile and angry to take a step back.
And what you do at the same time -- as do all "purveyors of truth and humility" -- helps people to recognize that they are not alone in their turmoil, which helps them to resolve their anger and focus on more outwardly rewarding things.
Everyone wants (needs) to feel ok about themselves, as Priority Uno, and you are sending an invitation to all, through your humility and willingness to remind us all that Being Human is a pretty damn good endeavor in itself.
What a wonderful conversation we are having. You have a wise old soul, a fact that was clear to me with your first comment when you demonstrated the desire to see beyond. Thank you for the great exchange. The real value of this back and forth is to those who come behind and read it.
Cheers my friend.
CD, just saw your last comment now.
Perhaps you will see mine.
Cheers to you too, my friend, and keep up the good, important work.
I know you will!
Interesting piece cg, and nice to see your words again, I almost never comment anymore, but for you, a fellow long timer here I will.
Incase you haven't come across it The Power of the Subconcious Mind is an excellent book that is very in harmony with your intention here.
Change starts with awareness, personal and cultural, I feel we are approaching the great awakening, and look forward to its changes.
My mother gave me that book about 6 months ago. She thought I might be interested. I have read most of it in little helpings. Excellant. I found myself a bit jealous a times. I wish I could write that well.
The scar tissue of any healed area may be stronger than the original was prior to the insult or injury. In the best of all possible worlds, we would be blessed to come out of this with the resilience of those who experienced the Depression. Innocence lost, experience gained and all that. (Hey, it may be unlikely but it's possible.)
It is never as bad as we project it will be and always worse than we want it to be.
No, sometimes it is indeed worse than we project it will be.
LOL
Then my dear friend, you do not have the proper sense of impending doom to begin with. :>)
I decided a long time ago to go with the mind set that it can always be much worse. That way you can simultaneously be pleasantly surprised if the outcome is better than expected yet remain aware and grateful for what you've got. If the outcome is lousy, well, you're prepared on some level for what comes after the initial surprise.
I consider myself a realist with an optimistic twist.
Fascinating book about people who successfully broke connections with the force of gravity:
http://www.amazon.com/Lighter-Than-Air-Rodney-Charles/dp/096385027X/ref=...
I read the first paragraph then got caught up by the pretty tree picture, then looked for more pretty tree pictures, then read the first comment and decided to break my connection with this "article"
Like bubblegum for the mind to chew over. Thank you for your excellent prose CD.
And yes you are now down past your usually 20 page dissertations, which I also enjoy very much.
You are very kind. Thank you very much.
There were a few times along the way when I considered not writing on ZH anymore. Always when that happened, you and others must have sensed it and immediately rushed in to fill me with support and praise. I never properly thanked you or the others.
So.......thank you very much for your support. It has meant the world to me and it has directly kept me going.
Thank you everyone.
Don't ever leave us CD!! We need you!
There was a thread running a coupla days ago that was "right up your alley" IMHO, I thought whereTF is CogDis? Then it dawned on me, "He's writing." and here we are. Keep it coming (please).
Cog,
I don't know what you are writing about and it is not because it is unintelligible or poorly written.
"I’ve talked about this before, how everything we see all seems to make some sort of sense because it fits our programmed worldview, thus there is no urgent need to seriously question anything. We are mesmerized while at the same time terrorized by our own false creation, convinced that this and only this is our true reality and anyone speaking contrary to the consensus view is totally bonkers and off his feed."
None of this has ever made any sense to this oldman even when he was thrown out of kindergarten when he was five. The conditioning was seen through for what it was: children have to agree with adults or they are castigated physically or with the 'cluck cluck' of an adult's disapproval. Or the school bully beats you up, or you receive the 'should' word until it nearly drives you crazy. Or-----blah, blah, blah-----you can easily fill in the blanks anyway you want to and we will not disagree.
And I was five to twenty from 1946 to 1961---I can't even imagine how it must be now with all the madness and distraction being spewed out 24/7 by all the 'new technology'. The shit is being piled on deeper and deeper---and so sophisticated that one can almost believe it. My skin, in places, is nearly worn out from pinching myself at what I read even on ZH at times.
As one who does not understand how anyone can be victimized by such marvelous phantoms as we are talking about, I still sometimes feel left out and just wish that I could 'go along with the rest'.
So, yeah, things are changing and it seems real, except that our history as a species has survived by going along----most of us that don't, die early. Maybe you feel differently about this, but I am not always so sure that I know a thing about it.
Please continue with these pieces---they are a nice change of pace om
To us older ladies and gents it does appear that the propaganda has become much more sophisticated. But it has not in many ways. The younger generation is far more aware of the use of manipulation than we ever were.
Now if we could just inspire in them a rebel yell we might just get something accomplished.
I find myself thinking about the things that I would like to change quite often as I approach the end of my sixth decade. approaching 60yrs. old. I look back at myself just 5 years ago, and think how naive was. I think that I thought the same thing five years ago about the prior five years, and etc..
Some of the chains that could be cut were. My money is in a credit union, and I no longer use credit cards. I started a decent size garden that I will expand next season. I stopped wearing a tie about 5 years ago; I was strangling myself. I ended a C-corp and started a sole proprietorship. Slowly, I am trying to cure the neurosis and anxiety from first, recognising the insanity of it all, and secondly, for being complicit with it.
Good for you, I worked in the trades all my life but have never put on the golden handcuffs. I lucky I've rented the same house for 30yrs and the garden area is 200'X 75' and should have a greenhouse done by the end of Nov. When corp. Amerika said good-bye to me I couldn't get to the taxi fast enough. You've have made some Big steps in that you could see the change in just five yrs. You'll be suprised in the next five yrs how much more you'll change and it's for the better as Amerika melts done and I find this sad.
Thanks CD, those that stop reading at the first tree will never leave the path of lies. Thanks for the book list I read them on a short vacation to Monterey, Calif. this last week. I was wondering have you ever read the True Believer by Eric Hoffer? I think its still in print.
I'm the far left.
So hard to break the broken conections we can't even see. It takes so many years to break through the initial programming and see the world and ourselves with fresh eyes. Often we are winding down our lives by that time.
Reminded me of an English Prof. I had decades ago who said, "Don't use big words when little words will suffice". Now they call that the KISS rules.
You should consider yourself lucky. I used to drone on for 20 or more pages at a time. I'm now down to 5 or less and still reducing. Poetry is next. :>)
Don't change a thing, CD. I just finished explaining the merrits of a throughly examned stream of thought to my wife whom I asked to read your essay after I had. We are there, we both are the products of the situation you describe. We have come to the conclusion on our own that we must question the reasons for everything, take nothing for granted. Our poor "connections" lead to much unnecessary suffering for most of our lives. We strive every day to connect in a healthy way.
An aside, your essay a while back about what happened to the hippies hit home. That is my father to a T. A multiple doctorate psychiatrist living in the suburbs after living the hippie dream of sit ins and a farm in Vermont . You nailed it.
All we can do is change ourselves. But by doing so we will change the world.
I missed you! Thanks again- I am really enjoying your writing. Were you out on a tour of NE being a leaf peeper? Is that why you were gone from writing much (long posts/blog entries) during October? Whatever the reason, I am glad you took off some time and came back with another wonderful post!
plus 5 poetry
a few words propel the soul
beyond the highest
+ 575!
My friend. Good to see you haunting my article thread.
May I plug your blog here or is it exclusive?
More and more lately I have found rhyme sneaking into my writing. The Gods are trying to tell me something. :>)
'tis time for rhyming
mercury chuckles, whispers
click the save button
Fuck the police, man
Aiming for veterans heads
Restore rule of law
And this helps me trade TZA, how? Put my brain in reverse and look at the pretty white clouds beyond those pine trees on the Potomac? Where did GW throw that $35 Silver thingee? Give me something I can use, not something to print up for the table next to my coffin, sheesh. What a waste of valuable time.
Mellow out. it will help your trading ;>)
I'm beginning to wonder where I developed the ADD that keeps me from slogging through these posts ... could it have been B-School?
CD, you want to try an HBS case study format to make it less ethereal and more engaging?
And yet you keep coming back for more.
I'm still working on the military technical field manual. Try back in a few years. :>)
Indeed ... when you stop trying, you are dead.
Winning hearts and minds.
I'm stealing the US Army's slogan. Be all the spiritual entity you can be.
Now....to the chopper.
Best work yet, GW. Puts in a new light what Master Choi, my Hap Ki Do Master, was trying to teach, as much as the mechanics of self defence. He was trying to teach us to be fully in the moment, seeing the world for what it is. Without a veil of self deception and complexity.
OK, you're right. What do we do about it? You are an excellent observer. You are ready to graduate to instructor. Don't use the cop out that all experience is individual.
I have been considering how I proceed to the next step. If I cannot remain consitent with my message while jealously guarding my integrity I will not even try.
Your essay is really about life itself. You wrote it yourself, pretty much the same old same old all the way back to Ancient Egypt.
Here are some possible ways to help me/you/us out (along with the rigorous inner cross-examination you have described):
-- Taoism, read the Tao Te Ching
-- Tai Chi, it works for me, it helps some
-- Visualizing a healthy energy, that will heal each of us inside
Keep writing! The value of your work is extremely high in our sick world.
CD:
such a masterful analysis, don't you think you should examine the meme of the middle finger?
Don'tcha' know.
- Ned
Exploitation is fundamental to all life. Conflicts of interest/survival is the check.