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Comfortably Numb – Coping, Captured or Total Capitulation - Part 1 of 2
Comfortably Numb – Coping, Captured or Total Capitulation
Chapter One of Two
By
Cognitive Dissonance
Chapter Two can be found here.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wondered why so many of ‘my’ generation, the so-called flower child social change community activist generation of the 60’s and 70’s, could have gone from long haired socially minded anti establishment ‘power to the people’ egalitarians to become guardians and enablers of the Ponzi universe as well as the most oppressive and manipulative power structure since……well, since I don’t know when. Even more damning and humiliating, how did we become a pulsating mass of self centered navel gazing mentally and physically obese obsessive compulsive useless shoppers who demand endless stimulation and entertainment?
And please don’t tell me that the social change activists and so-called malcontents of my generation were a small minority who have all since slipped away into gray bearded obscurity of menial professions and social conformity, because it just ain’t true. Many were the best and brightest of my generation and after leaving college, grad school and military service, nearly all took their diploma’s and/or military experience and blended into mainstream America where they’ve spent the last 30 to 40 plus years climbing the corporate and governmental ladder of professional success. In effect many have become exactly what they despised as young adults. It really does seem that what doesn’t kill you will overwhelm and absorb you. And that resistance is futile.
?
H/t Images by WilliamBanzai7 @ http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/
Upon graduation my button down banker uncle informed me (after closely examining my pony tail and beard) that it’s perfectly fine, healthy even, to strike out against the establishment when you’re an idealistic young adult. It’s all part of the rebellious youth phase we go through as we try to find our social sea legs. But what struck me as remarkable was his attitude towards what he termed the natural social order. He declared that if you are not part of the establishment by the time you’re 30, you’re just another one of life’s losers. He assured me no one ever built anything of substance or even made permanent changes while looking in from the outside.
He made a good point for essentially he was saying that if I really wanted to change the system I needed to do so from within. And it certainly didn’t hurt to be paid well while remaking the world. If nothing else (he helpfully reminded me) for the sake of my new wife and the bun in the oven I needed to conform to the system in order to survive in a world controlled by that very same system. Now that I was no longer shielded from the ‘real’ world by school I had real world obligations and responsibilities. Of course, once inside, a corrupt system almost always corrupts those who wish to make substantial changes along with those who just want to go with the flow. Talk about revenge of the status quo.
May I suggest we all pull out some college yearbooks from around 1965 to 1980 and spend a little time plugging some names into our favorite search engines? What we will find is a mixture of gray haired corporate, financial and governmental powers-that-be (along with an even larger class of junior underlings) that, while many weren’t necessarily all free love flower children, many were at one time involved in political, civil and environmental activism or as vocal war protestors.
My generation, a generation that shocked the world with its vocal and visible denunciations of American empire building and military conquest, is now right in the thick of things when it comes to abuse of Imperial power and manipulation of his or her fellow man. This metamorphosis so contradicts what my generation claimed to embody within their very souls that one is tempted to disbelieve these are the very same men and women. Such self delusions may calm the mind, but it just doesn’t ring true.
Are these men and women sell-outs, traitors to their beliefs, or are they just realists who are surviving like everyone else? Though I suppose we should redefine ‘surviving’. Is the act of gaming the system and our fellow man for our own benefit ‘surviving’, or is it total capitulation to avarice and pleasure via Borg like assimilation? I’ve been lectured by several of my old classmates over the years regarding our youth of naïve and innocent idealistic fantasies. A common theme thrust into my face is how hard they have worked to build this or that enterprise or profession. It’s pretty obvious they’ve been practicing their righteous indignation in front of the mirror for many years.
The point never was and still isn’t how hard they worked, but what they worked for and who gets screwed by all that hard work in their self described dog eat dog global game. Many of my old classmates regal me with stories of all the good their work has done…..conveniently pushing aside many of society’s ills as bigger social or governmental problems not of their making. I’m often told they don’t make the rules, they just play the game. Nearly every single one feels they are (relatively) pure of heart and mind and they can prove it with their cancelled checks to charity. When I ask if their business and political activities are creating the very social problems they are donating money to fix, they quickly change the subject or find someone else to talk to.
Slightly off topic, for an interesting twist on this overall theme, may I suggest the reader rent the German language film “Edukators” with English sub-titles? In the movie three young modern day activists, one hopelessly indebted, are educating society to its mindless consumerism when they bump headlong into an old time radical that is now thoroughly assimilated into our corrupt materialistic world. The result isn’t pretty for everyone involved and it illustrates how the material seduction of the idealist was and is a worldwide phenomenon. At least we aren’t alone in our abomination.
It’s all too easy to say it’s just a few bad apples that are responsible for this mess we’re in. Sadly nothing could be further from the truth. In fact the rot comes from nearly all the apples in the barrel including my own. The assimilated have become the quiet and complicit enablers of our own destruction, the supporting cast of characters in the biggest reality game show in history. The silent and silently assimilated majority now work in senior and junior positions within academia, think tanks, federal, state and municipal government, the mighty military machine itself and the hated CIA/NSA/DIA ‘intelligence’ services. And of course they run the corporate power structures that are the supporting foundation of all this abusive insanity.
There is simply no explaining this away as a few bad apples in the barrel. Something went horribly wrong and I’ve wanted to know how and why for a while now, almost as if by knowing I can more readily accept the fact that those brothers and sisters with whom I marched with many decades ago are now my spiritual, intellectual and financial mortal enemies.
H/t Images by WilliamBanzai7 @ http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/
This question has been haunting me for at least the last 10 years and it was one of the primary reasons I began looking within for answers. I’ve always assumed that the basic impulse that drives us to become what we are as individuals and as a society must live within all of us. Since each of us is not completely unique, but rather we share the same impulses and collective consciousness as everyone else with only the proportions mixed differently, it stands to reason we should begin within. This inner journey takes us down spiritual, religious and scientific paths in what is obviously an endless lesson in the workings of humanity and the human mind.
Of particular interest to me are the disciplines of psychology and philosophy. A basic working assumption I’ve held has been that since we are all biochemical creatures occupied by a consciousness, our emotional animal responses are influenced as much by biochemical reactions as by our social and physical environment. I’ll get back to this thought in Chapter Two.
Obviously this isn’t new territory I’m traveling since these basic questions have occupied man for thousands of years. And there is no doubt that history is replete with examples of generations going off the deep end and wrecking havoc on their country, region and even the world. In fact there appears to be an eighty year cycle of several generations each that endlessly repeats when mapping out these mega events. And it seems to me that each time this occurs there’s a divergence in the collective conscious mind.
A global insanity seems to take over the collective mind with cyclical regularity, with a small fraction of the population moving towards a greater than ‘normal’ abuse of power and the remaining much larger portion taking the other side of the abuser-abused relationship by moving towards a needy greedy passivity. However, this time it appears that with the help of major pharmacological and technological advances the effect has been magnified and leveraged exponentially.
While each cycle has its own rise and subsequent fall, the repeating 80 year cycles are also growing within what appears to be a larger mother cycle. After a while we begin to recognize that there are cycles within larger cycles within even larger cycles and it can be seen in the work of the recently deceased Benoit Mandlebrot. This makes sense when you understand that nature is nothing more than endless cyclical activity with small and large changes working their way through the system over vast swaths of time.
I’ve long thought there is a tie in between the syncing of multiple long and short cycles and the year 2012. No I’m not talking about the end of the world, but more along the lines of the rogue ocean wave syncing phenomenon. It does appear many forces are peaking together over the next few years, an awareness of which seems to be deeply embedded within the collective consciousness. This phenomenon has also been widely recognized by the alternative research community long before the 2012 end of the world fear memes were implanted into the collective consciousness by the pubic myth controlling mainstream media.
There are so many natural and scientific lines of (d)evolution, so-called progress and (I)maturation that are all peaking at or near this date, that mere coincidence or social hysteria should be ruled out as sufficient reason to ignore or even stop any personal investigation into this phenomenon. It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature and even worse to ignore her. I highly recommend you read “The Fourth Turning” by William Straus and Neil Howe if you wish to pursue this thought even deeper.
The problem one runs into when researching anything these days is the degree of sterilization that has been burned into the so-called history textbooks, aka the widely distributed and generally accepted version of world events called ‘history’. The old saying about history being a series of lies generally agreed upon rings true once you get off the beaten path and burrow into the astonishingly large selection of alternative information sources available to the inquisitive, many of which are serious works of scholar. Just be aware that some alternative sources are no doubt planted or seeded with disinformation to further confuse the issue and derail the casual researcher.
Finding a deeper truth is not easy and most certainly won’t be handed to you or me on a Silver platter, so act accordingly. Remain skeptical, but always keep an open mind. Just because something doesn’t mesh with our world view doesn’t make it incorrect. The more certain we are of something, the greater the likelihood there is an error in our thinking. This occurs because our absolute certainty effectively closes our mind to everything other than what will confirm our belief. This is a subtle cognitive process that works in the background without us being consciously aware of it unless we wish to be. Constant vigilance is required to counteract this bias, requiring us to eat humble pie on a regular basis.
The massive cognitive dissonance the average American experiences when reading revelations contrary to their conditioning assures the powers-that-be that the straying lambs will quickly return to suckle from mother’s propaganda teat. This is by design. The purpose of disinformation is to sow confusion and to demoralize, which in turns promotes emotional and psychological tension and infantile responses. We tend to return to mother, or in this case Big Brother, when we are frightened, confused or hurt.
While intellectually we might object to this description, in practice we almost always travel down Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid to the lower levels of (perceived) personal safety when we deny or ignore our innate authority and responsibility to our self. Those who do not have the courage to look within and know themselves are susceptible to easy manipulation. Big Brother is here because ultimately both collectively and individually we want him to be here, regardless of whether this is a conditioned response or not.
Some may not agree with this assessment. I respond by asking the reader to explain to me why so many people, including many here on Zero Hedge, are calling for someone, anyone, to stop the banking Ponzi as well as the governmental and corporate corruption? What about you and me? Is it not our responsibility to safeguard our own personal and community interests and doesn’t this systemic corruption endanger us? Why are we calling for an external authority to exert control over these rogue entities when you and I are the ultimate authorities of our body and mind? What exactly is our obligation here? It seems we have declared our responsibility to be little more than to point fingers and to be the righteously indignant victim calling for truth, freedom and justice to be handed down from higher authorities. The biggest roadblock to understanding what has happened in the past and what’s occurring today is our own willing participation in normalcy bias and preconceived notions of what truth is and what is a lie….starting with the lie that we’re all just helpless innocent victims. The fact that most people believe they aren’t responsible in the least for the mess we are in is our biggest bias and the primary roadblock to affecting change. It’s easy to say we aren’t influenced by our early childhood and young adult training and conditioning and another matter entirely to clear the mind of the ingrained beliefs that have not only sustained us for decades, but which bind us to those around us, be they family, friends or abusers. We are conditioned human animals and for the most part we don’t like to stray too far from the comforting herd. Tragically this flaw is consistently and effectively used against us by those who wish to control. And it is our denial of this that binds us to the false promises, which in turn keep us bound to our personalized hamster wheels. Since the Ponzi’s masters and their methods are already so thoroughly examined and documented here on Zero Hedge I would rather spend most of my time exploring the passive and compliant masses for a greater understanding into why, rather than who or how. An innocuous comment on a WilliamBanzai7 post back in December of 2010 got me thinking about not seeing the forest from the trees while also reminding me of a classic song by Pink Floyd called “Comfortably Numb”.
For thousands of years kings, religious leaders and governments large and small have employed psychological and propaganda operations against their own people. This is a given and only the brain dead, hopelessly naive or ideologically blinded cannot see this as a fact. Sadly the ranks of these three cognitive armies are bulging with new recruits as the fear meme is infiltrated ever deeper into the collective consciousness. As we begin to recognize we’ve been duped and our options are rapidly being extinguished, we will begin to fight among ourselves rather than combine to fight our common enemy. This self directed deception also serves to give us a handy reason to avoid looking within for our own culpability. The distracting rallying cry is often “It’s them, not me, who are the problem.” For us passive observers (enablers) the hope (intent) is that enough chaos and civil disorder is created during this upheaval that the central government collapses under the burden of maintaining social order, thus allowing us to keep our own hands clean. That’s the myth at least, the pipe dream if you will. That the weak shall rise up and inherit the Earth, a myth which if not outright believed by the masses is the fall back false hope that enables our inaction as we await our savior and salvation. The sad and inescapable conclusion I keep coming to is that as long as the powers-that-are can keep the masses distracted, fearful and (increasingly over the past 70 years of the present suicidal cycle) comfortably numb, little to nothing will be done to change the status quo that the powers that be are not implementing themselves.
We have been trained, conditioned more accurately, like lab rats from birth to seek the softer easier way, the path of least resistance and the road very well travelled……all classic signs of a herding animal. I have come to see this as conditioned into us from birth by the master’s social control systems as well as passed on from generation to generation for thousands of years. Mental, emotional and intellectual slave’s teaching fellow slaves how to be good little productive slaves. This helps explain why we must be stripped of our individuality and ego and then rebuilt and retrained to operate as a cohesive military fighting unit in order to walk directly into danger and fight for those who enslave us.
Even when this has been successfully accomplished and we become efficient killing machines, being shelled and shot at causes psychological damage, which in the modern era of state sponsored mass murder is diagnosed as post traumatic stress disorder. Contrary to the popular myth that man is a violent animal I contend that a relatively few men and women manipulate and coerce you and I into becoming violent animals either through outright physical oppression (aka slavery) or through social conditioning, training and propaganda. Widespread use of the carrot and stick helps the process along. To those who point to ‘evidence’ of violence over the last several hundred, even thousands of years, I point out that this conditioning has been going on for a very long time.
But with the introduction of designer drugs and expert psychological manipulation, combined with nonstop propaganda via the idiot box and a captured news media, never before have so few been able to control so many so completely. Scroll back up and carefully examine Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid with this thought in mind. The belief that man is naturally violent is a myth perpetuated by the controlling government(s) to serve its purpose and swallowed by a public looking to justify and rationalize our own willing and apathetic participation in the killing machine. Fear is a very poor long term motivator unless you’re trying to perpetuate violence among the slaves as a control mechanism.
At this point in our devolution into collective madness we are more than willing to internalize as the truth any information we are conditioned to be in agreement with no matter how ridiculous or categorically inconsistent with common sense or established fact it might be. This is the central tenant of denial, the desire to believe what we wish to believe without critical review or vetting.
Therefore, by controlling the overall meme that determines what is true and false and then feeding people information that confirms what they’ve been conditioned to believe, we for the most part are willing to be led by the nose wherever our masters take us. We are played as puppets and yet we believe that most (if not all) of our thoughts and decisions are made as independent entities and not as part of a managed and manipulated collective.
The fact that we can decide to leave for work at 6:53 AM or 7:10 AM, thus retaining the illusion of freedom of choice, means little when we must be at work no later than 8:00 AM. We engage in this psychological sleight of hand to feed and sooth our ego in order to deny our captivity and we are deliberately encouraged to do so by our owners. From the master’s point of view, the only thing better than kept slaves are slaves who keep themselves.
Our ego has been so thoroughly flattered since birth by delusions of freedom, truth, justice and the American way, along with visions of our magnificent benevolence to the world, that we would never tolerate, never mind entertain, the idea that we are herded like sheep and cattle to our thinking, feeding and reproduction pens. At this point in the collective farce the only difference between the USSR of the 1970’s and 80’s and America of 2011 is that the Russian people knew they were being lied to, used and abused.
And while they openly drowned this ugly realization in alcohol, they also developed alternative markets and barter system that proved useful when the system later collapsed. We however remain spellbound by the magician while also self medicating; only we tell ourselves we do so for different reasons such as depression or anxiety. What no one wishes to discuss is that our depression is the warning sign that something is terribly wrong. Sadly, given half a chance, denial marches on using whatever means available.
In Chapter Two I will begin to expand upon the physical means by which we are kept comfortably numb as well as our role in our own pacification and enslavement.
Cognitive Dissonance
08-01-2011
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I hate how the ever-receding illusion of potential pussy always keeps me from becoming a total caveman. American women are the most insidious conformity enforcers of all. American men are being selectively bred for conformity and materialism.
Manufacturing demand means creating an artifical need. It is making sociopaths out of us all.
Been posting a link to an old but good documentary on this very topic...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyPzGUsYyKM
You had me at... ;-)
I've wondered the same...why we are all so different after oming through the same time & experience.
"I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wondered why so many of ‘my’ generation, the so-called flower child social change community activist generation of the 60’s and 70’s, could have gone from long haired socially minded anti establishment ‘power to the people’ egalitarians to become guardians and enablers of the Ponzi universe as well as the most oppressive and manipulative power structure since……well, since I don’t know when. Even more damning and humiliating, how did we become a pulsating mass of self centered navel gazing mentally and physically obese obsessive compulsive useless shoppers who demand endless stimulation and entertainment?"
First, I came in on the heels of it...but for myself I think I got the gist of it. I would have been ten when Woodstock happened. But it went on through most of the seventies...with that my perspective.
To me it was an awakening for the young of that age, that authority had to be challenged...always. And please remember that point because I will come back to it as it is at the heart of why I absolutely despise some of the people I would have called my brothers & sisters all those years ago.
If authority were not, is not, challenged and found to be worthy, how can they be said to be correct & virtuous enough to lead? And this should be done by example, we would have to agree.
But something happened along the way. In every group I was involved in there was always someone (an alpha) who sought control and domination. There were always willing sychophants, stooges and the weak to enable the alpha. But the alpha, in time, would always become a captive to his/her own ego, by the sychophants, stooges and the weak themselves. Think back we all have examples, perhaps some of us were alphas ;-)
"Something went horribly wrong and I’ve wanted to know how and why for a while now, almost as if by knowing I can more readily accept the fact that those brothers and sisters with whom I marched with many decades ago are now my spiritual, intellectual and financial mortal enemies."
What I found was we were not much different from what we challenged. Maybe the best analogy I can make is one we all shared and can understand.
The word bogart comes from that time as meaning something that should be shared equally...but is not. And it never could be. Someone had to go buy or grow "it" in order to share "it" and the interloper who just happens up on the last one of "it" will always be labeled as somewhat of a bogart for being in the right place at the right time. So who is the actual bogart if they will not share their last willingly with a complete stranger? There was a decorum, of sorts, a right.
Now, remember I said above what is at the heart of my rage, angst...or whatever one wants to call it.
My "brothers & sisters" from long ago have assumed positions of power and prestige...such as it is...lol. These alphas now presume to know whats best for us all. To dominate our lives. To regulate to the absurd. To control.
From toxic lightbulbs, to Prius', to salt, to sugar, to thought, to speech, to primary education (which they have completely fucked up), to health insurance, to what is morally repugnant to them but not to all, to embracing the Keynesian fantasy of wealth without labor or equality, to preying on the narcissistic human trait that we, by merely existing, are destroying the natural world by breathing, although we are completely natural to the world.
There is nothing "liberal" in any of that.
?Authority must always be challenged so it can show its legitimacy. No one wants to hear it but "these children" are illegitimate to a free society. It is shown every day by their (our) actions.
nmewn
I'm always amazed how often we see eye to eye yet we start from very different points of view and we use a different process. Do me a favor. Contact me via email. Pick up a throw away email account if you feel the need to. I would like to collaborate with you on something for ZH.
zh cognitive dissonance at gmail dot com
Will do.
Sorry. Brain freeze. No spaces in front of the @
zhcognitivedissonance at gmail dot com
2009 is me.
What will it take to make you fight?
http://dixienet.org/rights/what_would_it_take_to_get_you_to_fight.php
See, I wish I could write like this. Reposted from your link above.
In order to properly and effectively “play the men,” to use a Biblical allusion, and to put up a good fight, we need to remember twelve fundamental rules:
The mantra “Violence [or the serious threat thereof] never settles anything” is patently false. History shows that it indeed does settle many things. Please don’t forget this—your enemy hasn’t.
Never underestimate your enemy but always make him underestimate you. There are some advantages to being perceived as “dumb Southerners . . .”
Educate yourself –don’t be content to be part of the herd. Learn useful things. Stupid, lazy people are not free people.
Don’t take anything for granted. Things are not always what they seem. Tomorrow is not guaranteed to be the same as today. Your own personal and family routine can be disrupted quite easily. Do you have a contingency plan?
Be a leader—don’t be a sheep (unless Christ is your Shepherd). Generate your own solutions instead of waiting for someone else to do it for you. How many times have I gotten a phone call from a League member who complains that nothing is happening in his area? What do I tell him . . . ?
Get tough, mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. The weak will surely perish. Don’t be afraid to be seen as a dissenter. Speak your mind—you’ll find people will respect you for it and will listen to what you have to say. Be willing to take risks. And most importantly, don’t take counsel from your fears. This is what the enemy expects you to do in the face of his superior strength (so he thinks). Disappoint him . . .
Don’t engage the enemy on ground of his own choosing. Don’t accept his labels—“domestic terrorist,” “right-wing extremist,” “racist,” “anti-semite,” etc. These terms are meant to shame and marginalize you. Know you own mind and laugh them off. This is quite unsettling to the enemy. Once he sees that you don’t wish to be accepted into his “society,” then he loses a major weapon (ostracization) to use against you.
Be unpredictable. If the enemy expects you to do “A,” then do “B.” Be creative with this category . . .
Pay heed to your experiences in all things. If something works, use it. If something fails, abandon it. If something is necessary, keep it; if it proves useless, get rid of it. This includes the mental as well as the physical. Don’t allow useless sentiments or junk to rule you. Get rid of anything that is a drag on your ability to be an effective warrior for Southern independence.
Know hope. You will make mistakes. Just don’t make big ones that cannot be overcome. Don’t give in to cynicism, defeatism, or nihilism—they will assure your ultimate destruction. Be realistic but never abandon your sense of optimism and hope for the future. Never fall victim to complacency—you can always do better.
He who is willing to die for a cause will defeat one who isn’t. Always act as if you are fighting in the last ditch for the survival of all you hold dear. The enemy does intend on killing you and taking all you have. He has made this fight personal—you had better take it that way.
We are already at war—we just don’t know it. One instance: Immigration. This is not just a matter of policy. It’s a matter of our very survival as white men and women of European Christian stock on this land we call the South. It is a zero sum game—we win or they win. There is no middle ground for compromise. Losing means that my grandchildren will grow up in a third world country. Multiculturalism and diversity means “we” cease to exist as a viable and prosperous people. Another instance: the criminal banksters—led by Bernanke and Geithner--and their politician-whores in Washington, DC, are in the process of stealing the wealth of the Southern middle and working class. We should have already considered this a declaration of war against us, for how can a man survive if he is robbed of his very sustenance. And the whole scheme is being pulled off under color of law. If this does not make you want to fight, then you don’t belong in our organization.
Great work CD - you're spot on.
why so many people, including many here on Zero Hedge, are calling for someone, anyone, to stop the banking Ponzi as well as the governmental and corporate corruption? What about you and me?
I think the answer to this question is fear. People are afraid of being made to look like an arse, afraid of losing their slave jobs and afraid of ending up sleeping on a bench knowing that they are right. Bollocks to fear.
Keep it up.
You are basically correct. Many of these fears are programed into us at an early age. The fear induced in "subjects" is an essential component of their power. They need to maintain some minimum collective fear level. Not sure it matters what the focus of the fear is.
If our owners rule by programmed fear, then what do they fear? I've often wondered if the 80 year war cycle is "feeding time" for "fear demons" that control our owners.
Even if we have no fear (that we know of) and know a good bit of the truth, there is still the question of how to proceed.
Organized violence is something they welcome, and it makes them stronger,. Opting out just leaves them the field, even as it lessens what they can siphon from you. Some might welcome an "enemy of the people" list, so local volunteers could act spontaneously (unorganized violence); but this would rightfully be viewed skeptically and could easily boomerang. Organized nonviolent movements are infiltrated and co-opted or destabilized. So where to from here? (Perhaps i have fear of tilting at windmills?) What might work?
Starve them.
(See, I'm trying to obey the resident English teacher.) :)
Cog- Excellent article. Wondering if the following might have provided any inspiration for the article?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P772Eb63qIY
Excellent post CD.
Anything that provokes thought and introspection is a good thing in these times.
Thank you.
Thanks CD. When reading your articles I always think about how I(we) are the First, Second, Third . . ., followers.
http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html
My shortest article EVER was based upon this Ted Talk.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-start-populist-movement-under-three-minutes
Two things, beloved brother Cog:
1. I know that you know that the above quote is not true...especially in a hostile takeover being perpetrated by bankers. In this case, we have to hand the easiest revolution that any nation could ever ask for...namely, that of the revolution of the closed wallet. Our current masters require spending to maintain upward momentum of their asset values, or their established wealth and power.
2. Also, and speaking as a former English comp teacher, I would encourage you to REDUCE. In this particular essay, you did better at this. I say this with the loving support of a brother. Now...this does not ALWAYS apply, but I am speaking more generally after reading all of your dirges since I came aboard ZH. I also confess that I, too, use far too many words to make my point. I am just as guilty, so chalk #2 up to it takes one to know one. "Brevity is the soul of wit," brother Cog. Once done, go back and slash and burn, baby. You will find that your essay will almost always sharpen if you prune "the limbs and outward flourishes."
I would invoke Hemingway in defense of my second point, a man who wrote and then cut his language down until the reader could almost no longer tell that the story was being told by an author, endeavoring instead to place the reader right in the story.
On the point more broadly, you are right. Our pampered egos in this nation make a movement back to truth very difficult. We may very well be fucked, and for a very long time.
Thank god for the medicine called The Martini.
Cdad,
I do appreciate what you are saying about brevity. But please understand that I write these essays not for posting or publication, but only to work things out in my head. I then essentially take what I have produced and post it up. I am not trying to impress or convince anyone with my writing, just to present my thinking at this moment.
This is what I was doing before Tyler plucked me from the comment section to become a contributor, writing for myself and only for myself. The deal I have with my readers is simple. I will projectile vomit words and they will read it or not. It's that simple.
When Tyler asked me to be a contributor I questioned him about what I could and could not write about. He said there were no restrictions and that the ZH readership would quickly determine if I had any value to them and they would let me know one way or another. It seems my writing strikes a note in many people because my article 'reads' are consistently in the top 20% for ZH and several articles have gone beyond ZH.
I agree that this Chapter did wander around quite a bit. See my comment further up. I tried to clean it up several times and still talk to myself about what I wanted to speak about. I found no solution after I had it on and off the shelf for months so I finally just pushed it out. Thanks again for your feedback and consistent contribution here on ZH.
Brother Cog,
I don't believe you. I think you are selling yourself short, and simultaneously letting yourself off of the hook. You are a published and publishing writer. I have no doubt that your hit count is high. Nothing in my comment was intended to challenge your content and the way in which it touches the readers of ZeroHedge. It touches me, too.
It is important commentary for a nation of people who have allowed themselves to believe many things that are not true. That is your muse. That is where your insight is. That is why people hit your links and read. That is why they leave messages of thanks down here in the comment section.
What I am suggesting is simply that your impact will increase if you reduce. And I promise you this, as well...you will like your writing better if you learn to do it. Both things will happen almost immediately if you attempt the discipline I am suggesting. You are far more intelligent than a man puking on the page. I don't believe that.
That was and is the intent of my comments down here. To the extent that you understand what I am saying and discipline your words, you will find your confidence in them growing. All of us guys who scratch out dirges in the dark love our words. That does not mean we should keep them all. It is when you discover that you are not just putting them down for yourself, that you are invested in the reader on the other side, that is when you will prune your branches...for them...I suspect.
In any event, I'll still be hitting your links...and perhaps grumbling at this or that. It's what I used to do for a living.
It matters, Cog...what you are writing about. Thanks for caring enough about it to put those words out there...even if I think there are too many of them.
Your brother,
Cdad
Whilst it's true that CD never uses one word where 6 or more will suffice, you, Cdad, are guilty of the very verbosity that you criticise - not to mention your grating cliches! The words "pot", "kettle" & "black" come to mind.
If it's any consolation, this horrendous usage appears to be an American national trait - even those from the best schools in the USA are guilty.
I suggest you both at least acqaint yourselves with THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE here: http://www.bartleby.com/141/
Once you've mastered the basics, I can guide you to some "heavier" musings on the subject by F.R. Leavis. And don't worry - you're not alone ! I'm sure that not one in 10,000 US "graduates" have heard of him!
You're welcome - glad to have been of assistance.
All your points are valid and all of them are dwarfed by your ego.
Let's call it even and we can both walk away winners. :>)
OK
You make a fair and reasoned argument. I'm not going to change part two coming out tomorrow since it is in the can and going out. But I will honestly try as you suggest from this point on and see where I wind up. I can't say that it is impossible or it won't work if I don't honestly try.
But I was honest when I say I write for myself. It is my way to heal......if that makes any sense. I have so much written that I have never posted because it is too personal.
Thanks for your feedback once again.
C.D. Have you ever read "The Alexandria Quartet" by Lawrence Durrell @ 1960. He did what Proust could not pull off in his "Remberances of things Past". Suggest a dictionary, just as if you are trying Thomas Pynchon. Milestones
I know this, about writing for yourself. It is a great way to heal. I can hear it in your words.
When you have a good draft, print it. Take out a pen of contrasting color and start slashing in a proportional sense. Remove redundancies...but not all of them. Remove flourish...but not all of it. The effect then, by this example, is that the remaining repetitions and flourish will have more impact. Transfer the deletions to the screen...and then reduce once again on screen. Measure your paragraphs against that which you intended to communicate. Make sure first and last sentences of each paragraph are the most concise and conclusive...the short jab punctuating the toss over to the next paragraph. Think momentum...the reader's momentum. This is the process in a practical sense.
The next step is writing it for them...at least more so. It will be a gradual process. You don't have to change anything for me...and certainly not overnight. That is not a reasonable expectation. And this is not what provoked my comment. I am just compelled to help you take that next step.
I'm on your side, Cog, and I look forward to reading more of your work.
Respectfully,
Cdad
P.S.
Something tells me that you recently had your "30 something" epiphany...namely, that of discovering that most of what you believed as a younger man, the things you thought were your foundation blocks, were entirely unsound and untrue. The 30s are hard that way.
Actually it's a 50 something epiphany. I have had four lives. 1 to 17 years of age, then 18 to 34, 35 to about 48 and finally 49 to now. Very different and distinct people for very personal reasons. Thus the need to heal.
I nearly destroyed myself several times. Now I am healing and building. I got tired of beating my head against the wall and decided there must be an easier way to die. To my delight I found there is. By living. :>)
Sweet! I am happy to be wrong about the 30s thing [although I am quite confident that there are some 30 somethings out there that know exactly what I am talking about]. Your prostate gland is officially larger than mine. Hooray! I have been on and off at various stages of destroying myself, too. Nice to make your acquaintance.
I was just coming back to edit one thing above that I want you get now.
I said: Transfer the deletions to the screen...and then reduce once again on screen.
I meant: Transfer the deletions to the screen...and then reduce again on screen at the level of individual words.
I wish I had your email, Cog...as maybe it would be better to chat about technical things somewhere other than here. I'd rather use the comment section to chime in on things I think you have struck spot on. Do you have one at the ZH?
Let me know.
zhcognitivedissonance at gmail dot com
I'm headed to an old(er) man's bed. See you in the morning.
Indeed. I shall be in touch.
Hmmm, Hemingway, the cat that blew himself away. Maybe he was too laconic.
Some would say he was too laconic. However, his words were intended to form on the tongue much as your brain would naturally assemble them were you on scene and watching. That was his art...to be true to it...to render it honestly and without his prejudice intruding.
As for his tragic end, the stories are numerous, from frustration with impotency to the government investigations into his life, etc. Not sure that anything I have read ever clarified it...beyond a tragedy.
Comfortably numb,
We send our children to schools that pump out left wing ideology berift of teaching them how to think. We vote for the lesser of two evils. We wash the car. We entertain ourselves with the "boob tube", and then bitch because of re-programming.
Yes, the unease is growing. We all know that something is not right. We all fear the knock at the door. We look for outside solutions to problems of our own making. We look at anyone outside the herd with suspicion. Soon we will be happy to turn in the "traitors and terrorists" that do not think with the herd.
We have met the enemy, and he is us. Pogo
My favorite of all times, is the truth captured in Calvin and Hobbs. Bravo CD.
This was all over the place, but generally great fun. I'm glad I deferred marriage and went to college later as well. So many overachievers from my high school are on their 3rd marriages and kids won't even talk to them and they can't understand why.
I agree this Chapter wandered quite a bit. I was trying to cover lot's of ground and I edited it poorly. Chapter Two is much more focused.
I write these essays to work things out in my mind, then I try to clean them up for presentation. This one, particularly the first chapter, didn't clean up well. That's why it has been on the back burner for months. I finally just got tired of trying to make it work and pushed it out.
Thanks for sticking with it.
Outstanding essay CD! Looking forward to part 2. Have you taken the opportunty to read Canetti's "Crowds and Power" written in 1960? His premise concerning "collective identities" is especially enlightening.
Nice work!
Too bad articles scroll off into the memory hole so quickly around here. Do you mirror your work elsewhere?
When I was in high school, the 'counter-culture' were all brainwashed by socialist tripe, led by teachers who were wanna-be hippies. Where did these apple-polishing students go, you wonder? Look at Washington! That's where the exceptionally ambitious few seem to be. As for the rest ...
Myself, I was a rebellious little bastard (Dad's term, I presume not literal), much to the dismay of my parents. I distinctly remember in grade school, coming to the realization that school was a sort of prison system. I was there against my will, I had to attend or I would be beaten, and if I kept it up, institutionalized. We were made to line up, be quiet, repeat meaningless exercises by rote. Each school year seemed to last a century, mind-numbingly repetitive and unbearably boring. And most importantly we were immersed in an environment where the most unimaginable cruelty would be visited upon anyone with the slightest physical or psychological aberration. It was the favorite sport of the herd. There were two types of social groups; the herd, and the gangs (cliques). Those who didn't want to play the game or get in trouble or beat up learned quickly that the safest place to be was in the middle of the herd, quietly seeking to remain anonymous and hidden. Those who wanted adventure played the King Of The Jungle game, in which status was strictly ordered according to who could beat who up. This atmosphere was not discouraged whatsoever; in fact the environment was structured to guarantee it. The only time adults intervened was when a physical altercation took place and they happened to catch it. (This was not an inner-city school, it was in Pleasant Valley Suburbia.) This is the formative method that shapes of the minds of our culture.
Just as there is a pyramid of needs, as we grow, we tend to subconsciously rely on the earliest and most basic lessons about reality that we learn through experience. Memories of the lessons fade quickly but the basic premises remain. Unless one undertakes the agonizing task of checking every premise, one by one, and eliminating contradictions, the basic lessons of the wolves and the sheep learned by immersion at a young age will guide a person for the rest of their life. This re-examination is not a happy process, and most of society's cultural institutions are designed to relieve the tension caused by these conflicts, the primary aim being to allow avoidance of such troubling thoughts along with provision of excuses for the resultant behavior. So, as one grows intellectually, the intellect is used as a tool to justify acting on impulse and emotion, to explain away the contradictions, to filter out unpleasant logic, to make excuses for abusive or manipulative behavior. The only choices presented to the child are to be a conformist or a criminal. The best-liked kid in class is the best liar and entertainer. The landscape is dotted with huge edifices, monuments to the most absurd illogic, the central theme being an offer of comfort through the active denial of reality, purposely disabling the cognitive faculty, and this is where one is told reposes the definition of the Good. The child who cannot accept the absurdity is still left rudderless until such time as a random search yields up a more coherent explanation.
The remnant will always be the few. It is easier to be told what to do than to decide what to do and maybe lose your life for having the temerity to do so. So much more comfortable to go with the flow. So soothing to be among the 'in' crowd, having the respect of your peers so that you can respect yourself.
All the 'protesters' I grew up with were conformists pretending to be nonconformists. They did what they did because they had an overwhelming Need To Belong. Those who really did read the propaganda the instigators put out, and who believed it and tried to practice it, ended up as your uncle described. They flamed out, clinging to their adopted idealism, left behind, self-sacrificing with nobody even caring enough to cash in on their sacrifice. Nowadays they labor in mundane jobs, bitter and disillusioned. They hold a pretty much fatalist view of society and their existence on earth. They treat the people they supposedly love in ways no sane person would ever treat an enemy, even.
No wonder part 2 is going to be about Prozac!
Thanks for another insightful article! Sorry for being so long-winded.
Beautiful man.
Each Zero Hedge Contributor now has a ZH "blog" location where you can find all their articles. Here's mine.
http://www.zerohedge.com/blog/5464
Bingo. I love it when people complain about the filthy pig sty. I ask them why they don't keep it clean. They tell me that the pigs like it. Really? So why don't pigs create those conditions on their own?
Schools are training grounds for the slave mentality, where everyone is conditioned to toe the line and conform to the machine.
Sweet on the blog storage dealy mabob.
Of course...why do you think the Federal Government has become so involved in schools...consequently setting in motion the devolution of the educational system in the wake of its intervention. At certain levels, the pressure is now also being brought into private schools...not directly by the government, but by the improperly formed expectations of parents who have moved their children from public to private schools without figuring out that the expectations at the private school would be different.
I could go on and on about schools...but I'm not worried about that now. I've seen the other side.
You may find the movie "the cartel" very interesting. It investigates public education in the US and the reasons for its failure...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cartel
Hulk,
The Cartel appears to be available for instant streaming on Netflix. Guess what I'm going to be doing tomorrow instead of working. Thank God I'm the boss or I would have fired my ass ages ago. :>)
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Cartel/70138620?trkid=2361637
It's the teachers' fault. And the unions.
Its a stunner. No wonder grades 7 and up felt like a waste of time...
Either that or the Prozac in your water dish is finally in your blood stream. :)
No no, brother Cog...there is vodka in my water dish. I'm not worrying about Prozac either for I am on the other side of it.
I don't want no stinkin' dilution. I don't want no f'd up dreams. I don't want my wave pattern dampened...until...it is martini time. And that only has a very temporary effect, short in duration. Then it is right back to the TRUTH grind.
Bring it, bitchez! Bring the pain! I can take it...[except from 3:30-5:00, Monday thru Friday.]
rich me too. hahaha
Thank you CD for your most excellent article. If only the people would spend the time to read your articles and others similar...but I'm dreaming, aren't I? I forward them, but I know that only a few will take the time. How do I know?...because I don't get any feedback on the subject (rarely). Never give up!
"The Prince" by Nicolo Machiavelli (written around 1500) gives much insight on how "they" maintain their power. "Secrets of the Federal Reserve" by Eustace Mullins and "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin gives the reader the map they use. "The Report from Iron Mountain" is interesting. Some say that one is a hoax...maybe it is and maybe it isn't...but if you read it, you shall see.
CD, I really enjoy your writing and you can credit yourself with helping me begin to understand the world around and within me. I thank you for your time and your effort.
The only credit I can possibly be given is for providing the initial spark. Give yourself all the credit for building that tiny spark into you own roaring fire. Without your heavy lifting my weak spark quickly flames out.
C.D. Your best article yet. I'm a generation older than you yet I remember reading "Toddle the Train", the children's book about little choo-choo's who jump of the tracks never grow up to be big trains. It always bugged me and I hated the story even in 1941. It wasn't until I got older did I grasp the meaning and intent of that book. Much later in college I read Spengler's "Decline of the West" and with Sarte, Camus etc the system lost me.
To me (I am a monster Jazz buff) the overwhelming influence of rock by the mid 50's (Rock is an extension of honky tonk/boogie woogie music) and the thunka thunka beat was a major turning point in this country around 1955 on. The connection? Not sure, but there is a connection. I was raised in L.A. during that time and I sensed a change in the attitudes and views of that change. Fuck it,lets go party and as Omar said --"nor heed the rumble of the distant drum"
I'm wandering-sorry. I am caught up in so many visions of the early 50's and 60's. I would like to expand on this sometime in the future. Milestones