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Slave Nation - Nature or Nurture?
Slave Nation - Nature or Nurture?
By
Cognitive Dissonance
Considering that each Zero Hedge article has a shelf life measured in hours, there is the distinct possibility you might have missed some of my recent work. Along with the more visible aspects of Zero Hedge’s recent user interface update, now there is a place for the reader to view all of a contributing editor’s work in one location. Please visit my ZH ‘blog’ (here) and see what you may have missed.
It’s remarkable the extent to which we all engage in our daily ritualistic behavior and even more so how it is carefully hidden in plain sight and perfectly blended into all we call normal. Our rituals bring us great comfort and a false sense of security while also trapping us into narrow thinking and confirmation bias seeking. And best of all, at least for those who wish to control us, our rituals feed our normalcy bias and for the most part keep us sated and fulfilled. Sated, that is, until the flimsy façade and cheap material becomes thread bare and worn out and denial finally collapses as we stand chest deep in sea water.
But that doesn’t stop the great Manufacturing Consent machine. Nope, they just floor the throttle and peg the tachometer in the red, all in the pursuit of glorious green and an increasingly productive slave nation. Remember boys and girls, consumers are created for one purpose only and that purpose is to consume. So go ahead and eat your little hearts out, then harass mom and dad for the latest transformer or anorexic doll.
You’ve got to admire it for it is brilliantly simple. If they can control the advertising message that tells us what our rituals should be, then all that is left is to supply us with the material and the means. Voila, as if by magic we now have one consumer driven slave nation idling at the curb. Now all that’s left is to beat it like the wholly owned mules we are.
I was struck with this rather unpleasant thought when I visited one of my favorite web sites and pulled up the image below. Click the link (here) to see the original and just soak it all in for a minute or so. BTW take a peek at the second image in the series, a satellite view of Hurricane Irene consuming half of the USA’s East Coast. Looks to me like an economic storm is coming.
The two people sitting on the wooden stairs to nowhere in the middle of nothing but water is an iconic image if ever I saw one, not just because it represents the full force and fury of Hurricane Irene, but how appropriate it is in illustrating the present condition of the consumer nations. What exactly do we have left after several decades of frenzied spending and mindless consumption? I’ll tell you what we have left. We have our rituals and dogma, and soon enough not much more.
Let me reproduce the caption for this image that was posted in Boston.com’s excellent ‘The Big Picture’. “Billy Stinson comforts his daughter Erin Stinson as they sit on the steps where their cottage once stood on August 28, 2011 in Nags Head, N.C. The cottage, built in 1903 and destroyed by Hurricane Irene, was one of the first vacation cottages built on Albemarle Sound in Nags Head. Stinson has owned the home, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, since 1963. "We were pretending, just for a moment, that the cottage was still behind us and we were just sitting there watching the sunset," said Erin afterward. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)”
That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? All that is left for Billy and Erin is the ritual practice of sitting on the steps to watch the sunset before fully internalizing the massive and unwanted change in their lives. And the impulse to act out this ritual is incredibly strong. Look closely and you can see that Billy is soaked up to the middle of his chest, meaning he probably waded out into 4 foot deep sea water to sit on his steps one last time. The shadows in the photo hide Erin’s wet clothes, but it appears she is soaked as well. It isn’t just salmon who will overcome so much to return to their ritual place of birth or beginning.
For those who were evacuated from their homes and have returned to find damage (or not) and for those who rode out the storm and were or are still without power, the disrupted rituals of our lives come into stark contrast when viewed from the current reality. I was without power for nearly 48 hours and I can’t tell you how many times I turned right at the end of the hall into my now darkened home office to check my email or begin a new article, only to quickly back out of the now useless room full of dead electronic devices.
At one point I felt my home had turned hostile and was no longer the friendly and comfortable place I remembered it to be. Silly rabbit, it was me who was lost and out of sorts because my comforting rituals had been removed without my consent. My home had not changed, only me. Yet the impulse to return again and again was at times overwhelming, an urge I suspect is ‘felt’ in all animals and plants at one time or another. Nature or nurture? That’s the real question here. Though I suspect it is both. The new born baby doesn’t require much coaching to find mother’s nipple, regardless of whether those babies are people, pandas or PIIGS.
In fact the tendency for humans to be severely out of sorts and thoroughly disorientated is being exploited by the ruling elite during the current shock and awe economic rape and destruction. Funny how the wealthy elite prosper during good times and bad, how the card game seems rigged in their favor and the die are all loaded. It must be in their genes because it most certainly is in their pocketbooks, the product of a centuries long breeding program I am told. Although it is exceedingly obvious that secret knowledge and understanding is passed down from father to son and from mother to daughter. Nature or nurture? That’s the real question here.
So why do we always fall for the same stupid elite pet tricks time after time, then wade out chest deep to sit on the remains of our lives just to pretend and pantomime? Why do we hand over our sovereignty and inalienable rights for the privilege of being corn holed by the same people using the same methods they used the last time? How is it that we don’t learn at least as quickly as my old dog Rover, probably the dumbest mutt that ever lived? Nature or nurture? That’s the real question here.
Nature or Nurture
I was 21 and up to no good, sitting at the bar sucking on some suds and plying my illegal trade. Out of the blue the bartender gave me some unsolicited advice that most likely saved my life and the memory of it is etched into my brain. He was 30 years my senior and had seen everything in the book, one of those guys you just didn’t mess with if you had any smarts at all, something the drunks rarely possessed. He had always seemed indifferent to me and what I was doing, probably because I was fair and honest, a rarity in my trade. Plus I never caused him any grief and my tips were usually the best of the night. What wasn’t to like about me?
It was a slow weekday night and Jake used the excuse of serving up another beer to start the conversation. Or should I say lecture. He fixed me with one of those hard stares of his and then just flat out asked me.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I was genuinely surprised and equally confused by his question. I really had no idea what he was talking about and I said as much. He just stared back at me, his dark eyes boring in which made me increasingly uncomfortable. “So this is what the hot seat feels like,” I remember thinking to myself.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. And if you don’t you’re even stupider than I thought.”
I could feel my ears going red and I was getting hot under the collar. What did I do to deserve this? But of course I instantly knew what he was talking about, at least now that he had challenged me. At first I thought it was a shake down, so I reached into my pocket to pull out some bills. But Jake quickly reached across the bar and grabbed my arm.
“No, that’s not what I want.”
Now I was starting to freak out because it was clear this guy had my number and I had no way out. He released my arm and told me to wait while he served a new customer. It was the kind of order you didn’t ignore so I waited in quiet panic. But in those few minutes I quickly assessed my situation, then calmed down a bit when it dawned on me that if he intended me harm I would already be hurting. So if this wasn’t a shake down and all he wanted to do was talk, what could he possibly say to me other than to get the hell out of his place?
Much relieved and feeling my oats for being so smart, I relaxed and waited for Jake’s return. He must have sensed my changed demeanor because he quickly pounced and went straight for my jugular.
“Do you have any idea what you’re into? Or are you just so stupid you’re blind?”
How do you answer a question like that when the person asking can take you apart, then quickly move on to the next mess? I very wisely decided to say nothing and quickly swallowed my pride. You just don’t mess with Jake unless you have a death wish, and I most assuredly did not.
“This isn’t for you and you know it. Why don’t you just get out now before you live to regret it?”
In the year or so that I’d know Jake, never had I witnessed this side of him. Normally he was quiet, though he could get a bit animated when he wanted to close and was trying to push the drunks out the door. And when he was pissed off or trying to break up a fight, he became silent and the regulars knew to either back off or prepare to be bloodied. While I knew deep down inside exactly what he was telling me, for some reason I wanted to hear him say it. So I tempted fate and asked him to explain. His answer was short and to the point and all that I needed to hear.
“You lack the killer instinct bud.”
And there it was. With a couple of blunt words and a few figurative flicks of his wrist with the Buck knife he kept strapped to his belt, Jake had sliced me from neck to nuts and laid me out on the bar to bleed, exposed to all the world and in particular to me. All my ugly self important pretentions and fanciful pretending, together with its supporting cast of lies, self deception and justifications, was laid bare in all its beautiful buffoonery. I was playing House of Barbie while the principal players were engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse. And Jake was telling me that I was in way past waist deep and the worst was yet to come.
While I wanted to believe that all would be well if I just played fair and didn’t fight; you know, by the rules (and you can bet that I carefully and deliberately constructed a false reality to convince myself that I was doing precisely that) Jake was busy cutting my illusion to ribbons and telling me to my face that at best I would be stranded on some wooden stairs in four feet of water, and he was betting I would be in the popsicle stick house when the Cat 5 roars ashore.
This was a crucial decision point for me. Better yet, this was one of those rare times when you get to see the end game before you’re in too deep and can’t back out. In effect Jake was telling me I didn’t have it in me. That I didn’t have what it takes to play with the big boys, those who either by nature or nurture wouldn’t bat an eye as they backed over my body for the third time. Jake wasn’t shining a light on anything I didn’t already know. On the contrary, he was informing me of something I’d been diligently trying to ignore, or better yet, paper over.
Sometimes angels take the form of beautiful winged nymphs and sometimes as grizzled old bartenders. I packed up and got the hell out of there, never to return to Jake’s place or any of my other usual haunts. Within 24 hours I had given my roommate 2 months’ rent to cover the lack of notice and any of the stuff I couldn’t jam into my car and I got the hell out of Dodge. The truth of his words was self evident and something only a true fool would ignore. Right there and then I decided that I had neither the nature nor the nurture and that the only sane decision was to totally and completely withdraw.
Decision Point
So how did Billy and Erin find themselves sitting on stairs to nowhere in four feet of salt water, watching the pretty sunset while pretending their lovely little cottage was still behind them? And how do we find ourselves once again corn holed by the same financial elites using the exact same method of lies, deceit and false promises which we gratefully lap up in order to support our own House of Barbie? Hey, I promise to play by the new rules so please, please, please deal me back into your rigged game. Nature or nurture? That’s the real question.
While there is no doubt that countless millions, the so-called working poor, have very little choice and must play or die, we do have a choice and we choose to play the game because we just know we will win. We’re smarter or faster or better or stronger or whatever little lie we can concoct in order to justify bellying back up to the bar for another hand of cards. We know the game is rigged and yet we still play, certain in our belief that out of all the millions of deluded fools we will win the Gold ring and safely retire with our prize. The rigged game itself is our comforting ritual which we all endlessly act out.
But wait, what’s that I hear? Is that a collective moan of piety, a self righteous cry from the peanut gallery complaining that the lying bastards have changed the rules of the game again, that now they get to keep even more of the pie while sticking you and me with the bill? Now that the elite have 80% of the chips on their side of the table and are demanding another 10%, now we complain that the game isn’t fair? Now? You mean they cheated us again? If I understand this correctly, we have rationalized and justified our own greed and self interest in order to elbow our way into the rigged game, only to complain about their egregious greed and self interest? You can’t make this shit up.
So what are our demands here? This must be a negotiation because it sure as hell ain’t a strike or a work stoppage. All of us non working poor peons and enablers are still trudging off to our office trading cubes or fiat factory floors, so there doesn’t seem to be much resistance here. So where exactly is our leverage? How does one negotiate with someone or something when the terms are hidden from view, all the cards aren’t on the table and there’s a gun to our head?
Oh, wait a minute, I get it now. We want to be unequal partners. So this isn’t a negotiation, is it? This is about the reordering of the conditions of our slavery because we don’t like the way things have progressed. We want to go back to the time when we were cut in for a bigger slice of the pie. This isn’t about overall social justice; this is about justice for us. If the working poor just so happen to make out in the deal, well then all the better. But they sure as hell ain’t getting anything out of my slice of the pie. No way in hell. Let them eat cake or get their old percentage cut from the man just like I’m trying to do.
We’ve already had the reading of the charges against the financial elite and their henchmen. So we basically understand their alleged transgressions, though there are so many layers to this 10 dimensional chess board that I doubt anyone other than those at the top really know what’s going on and who’s screwing whom. But assuming that we know just enough to be dangerous to ourselves and those around us, what’s the plan man? Because if you think about it for a minute or so there must be fifty ways to leave your master. Unless, that is, you really don’t want to leave and instead, you just want your old deal with the devil back.
You see I’ve been asking a trick question since the beginning, this nature or nurture query. I’ve been distracting you with useless information and the false hope that if you could just answer the question you could figure it all out and win the Gold ring. It has nothing to do with nature or nurture and everything to do with whether we have it in us or not. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are playing a game of Barbie when in fact we are bit players, slaves if we really want to be honest, to the high stakes game of keeps where we get to keep what we are told we can keep.
Our underlying incentive to remain captive slaves, carefully hidden from view under the false promise of a system of laws meted out by the scrupulously just, but blessedly blind, lady with the scale, comes from the implied threat of violence if we don’t do as we are told. That’s it, it’s really not more complicated than that, no fancy whistles or bells or complicated playbooks to learn, though the ‘rules of the game’ is the Golden lure that keeps us all enthralled and thoroughly hooked.
The so called capitalist economic system is nothing more than a system of slave on slave competition for the betterment of the master and to the detriment of the slave. The goal is to take more blood from your fellow slave that you spill, and the incentive is to avoid being shot or imprisoned by the guard slaves who ring the arena, all of which is draped with “Democracy is Freedom” banners for our emotional and intellectual self delusion. The best and most productive slaves are those who keep themselves and we are most certainly the supreme slave nation.
The leverage used against us is provided by us, our extorted, connived and wide eyed willing participation in this macabre dance of servitude. Our slave quarters are just nice enough, what with central heat and A/C, running hot and cold water and a TV in every room feeding us 500 ritualistic propaganda channels that only the really stupid slaves would want to run for the hills and save themselves. These conditions aren’t really that bad considering. So what if the master is demanding two more pounds of flesh. If I fight real good and I’m smarter than the average slave, it won’t be my flesh that’s taken and I might just come out of this OK.
And you know what, if those conditions are good enough for you and me, if we are OK with being a slave, then fine. Let’s all just do our master’s bidding to receive our pieces of eight, then watch our cable TV to our heart’s content. Just don’t give me any bullshit about how unfair the game is and how the cheating has gotten out of hand because it is you and me who are powering our own slavery. And it is you and me who can stop it all today by just withdrawing and walking away.
The self evident truth is that at this point we don’t have it in us because walking away just might cause us all some pain, at least temporarily. And our ritual training tells us that pain relief is just another piece of eight away. So we capitulate long before we begin. Every time I hear someone bellow in self righteous tones about truth and justice and The American Way, then demand someone else step up and free our asses, all we are doing is proving my point, that we are slaves who regularly demonstrate our slave mentality by asking permission to pee on our own graves.
Slaves do as they are told. Slaves ask for permission. Slaves are seen, but not heard. Those with the slave mentality ask their masters for their leave even when the door is wide open and the coast is clear. Most importantly, slaves delude themselves into thinking that slavery is better than the alternative. Then they convince themselves that the only alternative is certain death if they resist. The best and most productive plantation slaves are those who keep themselves.
As a nation of individual slaves we are getting real close to our own Jake moment, that point when all our lies and justifications will be exposed for us to see. Will we have it in us to do what we need to do? Will we have our epiphany, that moment of clarity recovering alcoholics speak of when they realize they have used every lie, deception and ruse to avoid the truth, that they and they alone are the source of their problems? Personally I think we have it in us, but only after we shed our own emperor’s clothes and stand naked to the world and to ourselves.
08-31-2011
Cognitive Dissonance
Special thanks to Zero Hedge's Dagny Taggart for the penetrating conversations that always lead to inspiration.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwTAXVcK1JA&feature=related
Some because their multiple prescriptions long ago killed their funny bones, and their tear ducts, and their conscience.
Reminds me of harvested Eloi.
I remember...Morlocks. Saw it on Horror Incorporated, midnight movie. Stayed with me for years.
Damn!! It's Nuture. So much for my dictionary. Milestones
I've seen it used both ways. Since I preferred the specific definition of 'nurture' for this essay, that was the way I went.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nurture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_versus_nurture
CogDis. Your best by far. There are tons of things I would like to add but it will take a little time to pull it together. Nature v Nature. My son and I had a long discussion about that very issue yesterday. Is the rising population, mainly in poor, heavily religious populations diminishing the gene pool, or is it nature because of diet and other things that is the problem.
We had better figure this out soon. It was one thing to resolve problems with clubs and stones (2001: A Space Odyssey") and nukes. Milestones
Ronin, Blade Runners, whatever - they're late.
"The so called capitalist economic system is nothing more than a system of slave on slave competition for the betterment of the master and to the detriment of the slave."
Total horseshit. We don't, and haven't had for a century or more, any resemblance to a capitalist system. Go get educated; fascvism isn't capitalism.
So I assume you missed the words "so called" in my sentence that you quoted. Because I agree with you.
Greatly enjoyed your piece, CD.
Greatly enjoyed writing it. Thank you very much.
Reading is not the same as comprehension, is it?
It is rare to see someone quote something that effectively refutes his or her own refutation.
Poetry in motion or Karma is a bitch. Take your pick. :)
Who's hand is on her right shoulder?
I think that is a towel around her neck and draped on her shoulders. Click the link to see the bigger original. It's a bit clearer.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/08/hurricane_irene.html
A towel? Still a profound image, indeed.
Intended or not, it has the potential to be a future Florence Owens Thompsonesque symbol for this time.
As a nation of individual slaves we are getting real close to our own Jake moment, that point when all our lies and justifications will be exposed for us to see.
And on this comment, I hope you are right. I really do because as far as I can tell, Jake has spoken, cut us off and banned us from the establishment. Yet, the fucking hamster wheel keeps turning and the debt slaves still want to beat the Jones'.
Maybe the Madisonurture/Madisonature Avenue programming is just that hard to delete.
+the Jakes: mine was an old badass Texan.
I think I'm just starting to wake up! Yes I believed in Truth, Justice and the American way. Went into the Army in 89 to kill commies and make the world safe for democracy. LOL The Wall went down and the USSR fell with out my help and we extend most favored trading status to Red China and I buy their crap at the local mega mart. Smedley Butler was right "War is a racket" Now lets introduce all kinds of new warfare and some old. "The War on Poverty" We lost and now we pay folks to be poor! "War on Cancer" and now healthcare is so expensive we subsidize it. The War on Terror and we give up all our rights to be safe. Hey let's gin up a little class and racial warfare. I don't really have so much time on my hands to start string folks up, Well maybe a few I'd make time for, but they ain't immigrants, Muslims or black.
I'm now reading Durant's "The Life of Greece" and I see the same old games being played, Democracy and rule of the mob. Oligarchy rule of the monied and Aristocracy rule of the Elites. Instead of being a superior American, I am beginning to see how it all works and I that while I am not special. I am unique in how I react to the PTBs. So let them destroy everything, they always do. I will keep my head down, try my best survive as the only cause I am interested in is myself and my little tribe. Yes it's selfish, no I don't owe anyone anything, and the corollary they don't me anything.
Try the book and movie "Z".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_%28film%29
Z (pronounced Zi) is a 1969 French language political thriller directed by Costa Gavras, with a screenplay by Gavras and Jorge Semprún, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Vassilis Vassilikos. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. With its satirical view of Greek politics, its dark sense of humor, and its downbeat ending, the film captures the outrage about the military dictatorship that ruled Greece at the time of its making.[2] Z stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as the investigating magistrate (an analogue of Christos Sartzetakis, who 22 years later was appointed President of Greece by democratically-elected parliamentarians). International stars Yves Montand and Irene Papas also appear, but despite their star billing have very little screen time compared to the other principals. Jacques Perrin, who co-produced, plays a key role. The film's title refers to the popular Greek protest slogan "???", meaning "he (Lambrakis) lives". The film had a total of 3,952,913 admissions in France and was the 4th highest grossing film of the year. [3]
Nice piece of writing CD.
The answer is both, nature and nurture.
I have known a person all my life who was suspicous by nature, suffered a catastrophic illness that lasted most of a decade before the age of thirty five, wiped out physically and financially but has since rebounded.
Rejects debt of any kind, and finds immense pleasure in the most simple things in life, like smelling flowers.
I observed, admired what I saw, and followed.
Replicate this nature and nurture a few hundred million times and imagine how different the world would operate.
I imagine that the "debt rejector" beings would have dominion over much, much more than the "debt enablers" all around us today.
Want to change the world? Start with yourself.
Kayman. jdrose, and a couple more commenting above get it.
Entertaining read, as always, thanks.
I agree. I preach debt rejection and my wife hates me by the way! I always thought the quasi power-couple we know (good friends) were soooo better off than my family. 38 foot boat, nice house, extremely educated teacher and state trooper respectively. When they told me their student loans were $120,000, I know the boat was $105,000, and their house tab balance I guess-timate at $150,000 before car payment and CC......I realized how well of we are with just our simple mortgage balance under $100k on a 15 year mortgage as our total debt. They are also slightly older than us, I'm 32, wife 29.
Denying the "herd" behavior has paid multiple dividends for me. When people were buying property I was travelling and having fun. While everyone is investing in stocks that haven't moved the last 13 years, I purchased tangible items and alcohol! While everyone is getting fat working 60 hours a week, I am getting in phenomenal shape working minimal. I don't even have a real job (and hold a Bachelors degree) by any amounts of the imagination! And I thank the anti-debt mentallity for it all!
My simplistic dream.......tropics, small business that pays the bills and a garden that produces 60% of my nutrients. Oh, I plan to ship the bar I have created there! Screw all this toxic, polluting items we are sold daily to encourage the rat race!
One way or the other CD, it all goes up in smoke - family, friends, hopes, dreams. Quite simple really - no need to navel-gaze.
Check out that billowing chimney out back- that no one mentions, or pretends they don't see - if you should ever bid farewell to a"dear departed" at a crematorium.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, my friend.
Only thing is to make sure you have self-respect - that you fought the good fight, as well as you could - when that final death rattle comes... 'cause if you don't, you'll sure be carrying a heavy burden into eternity - if there is one.
Hmmm.... maybe it doesn't have to "all go up in smoke" after all - at least not if you prefer being "flushed down the drain" ;)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14114555
KISS; "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" is either one of a person's core beliefs or it isn't. I have found that people who do subscribe to such a core belief are ants and NOT grasshoppers. They almost always save for a "rainy day". They rarely whine about their lot in life and rarely give to charity as their extended family is usually charity enough.
When a friend of mine could not afford to go to college, he joined the Military and got well over 5 years of education in electronics, nuclear power, and TV and Radio broadcasting. He always made lemonade! After the Military he made the most of his education by travelling the world as a service engineer working in excess of 3000 hours per year for 2 years in a row.
The point is we live in a system like Riddick in which you get to keep what you KILL! So grow a pair and grow up.
I totally agree with what you said. We didn't realize that we where slaves and I think that we will have that epiphany, I did long ago. I almost want to say that an epiphany is almost like a voice that goes off in your head and say look dummy, this won't work you have to change. As with anything, this game will truly come to an end one way or the other.
Nearly all of us have been raised with Keynesian indoctrination. Getting out of this mess will require a tremendous shift in consciousness, be it gradual or sudden.
Sudden, I feel.
Gradual ain't taking..
There's a lot of guys like Jake running around.
As that great philosopher & observer of human nature, Mudbone once said "Don't get old being no fool, lot of young wise men deader than a motherf-cker." ;-)
It was only years later and after some reflection that I realized the ultimate act of kindness Jake had extended to me.
I shall never forget those eyes. He saw right through me and recognized that I was an out of control truck headed straight for the bridge abutment. Most would just turn away and cluck about it not being their problem. Jake turned towards the disaster and grabbed the wheel long enough for me to wake up.
I often think about what moved him to do so. He never indicated he liked me and rarely bothered to talk other than social pleasantries. I used to ask "Why me", but lately I realize the proper question is "Why not".
"I used to ask "Why me", but lately I realize the proper question is "Why not"."
More than likely he saw something within you that others looked past. Many people will do this, especially when they are getting something from you. Mutually or one direction, monetary, material, affection, whatever.
I was there too, same deal. But I didn't listen like you. There were at least three people who tried to be "my Jake". But I knew better, I was smarter, faster, stronger. I had it all figgered out. I knew all the knowns, just not the unknowns...lol.
One of the reasons I have never dissed "older people" is the simple fact that they've seen most all variations of this crap before. Not knowing Jake, he could have very well danced to a similar tune before and came out the other side a little wiser and was passing it on to someone he knew would in turn pass it on to another.
He knowing of course, there is always someone tougher or meaner or more ruthless, cunning in that particular dance...always is.
Having read most of CGs stuff for a the last year or so, I wanted to respod with a few thoughts.
We are naturally social and inter-dependent but we also have the capacity to operate: think, evaluate, decide and act individually. Our dependence on society is pervasive: technology (all tools and techniques of production), concepts, language itself are social conventions or inhertances. Though they may be invented or modified by individuals, the vast inventory we encounter and depend upon is not self-invented. We are socially dependent so we have an instinct to cooperate, to herd, to want to be included and not exposed to the danger of marginalization. At another level we have a conscious interest in cooperating and organizing to accomplish tasks. If you're hunting it works well for all to have the best hunter lead the group.
In most of history it has been dangerous to be on the margins, or solitary--think witchhunts, scapegoating, or simple environmental vulnerability.
The depth of our "group instinct" shouldn't be underestimated. A truly mature person, a more or less realized person, learns to overcome this instinct and develops the judgement to choose to cooperate as needed. This potential for independence is not realized by most because circumstances don't force them to or because they simply lack the initiative, the drive to become aware and explore. They are fully invested/identified in the group and they've been adequately supported by it Anything outside the group experience is to be feared, or hated. They are quite comfy in their "Mind-forged manacles" (1) The members of the group need to see a world that affirms the group and its assumptions. It sends out signals when under stress and members crowd to the middle.
I don't see how you can have the capacity for moral action without developing the capacity to perceive independently (2). Without it you hate, believe and judge with the group and act in within its requirements. Outside the group you feel fear, anomie. The sense of self that is totally dependent on social reinforcement begins to dissolve. The person who can go through that dark valley is the "hero" as Jung would say. It seems to me that this is path CG points to in most of his essays.
Thanks for getting the wheels turning, CG.
(1) Wm Blake, "London"
(2) See Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority
Correction: In the second to last sentence "Jung" should have been Joseph Cambell. Jung called the process "individuation," Cambell wrote The Hero With a Thousand Faces, a cross cultural study of the same process.
the American dream is over. Inequality killed it.
Awesome CD if you can fuck yourself with your own 100 aliases, you asshole. Your shit is bullshit along with everything else posted here. Yes, GREECE had to ROLL xxxBillions in bonds, duh, Tyler forgot to tell us anything about it in August. You guys are assholes, and you are all 1 fucking person. Nice way to get Google Adwords to pay you...
If it is really bullshit, you wouldn't post. Why give this fuxking place your energy. You slave you.
Take a chill pill, bro :-) It's just not that important.
You sure post a lot for someone who claims to hate ZH and it's posters.
Kisses and love to you too sweetie <3
I almost missed this part "You guys are assholes, and you are all 1 fucking person."
That means that you too, are one of 'us'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBXyB7niEc0
One of us.
One of us.
One of us.
One of us.
...
Please don't suffer any longer. There is medication and counseling available for your afflictions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rett_syndrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_explosive_disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anger_management
http://www.charminghealth.com/applicability/anger-management.htm
Too funny. People that are THAT angry probably really really need a hug as well.
I believe you might be correct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hug
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_therapy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hug_machine
http://www.mariowiki.com/Group_Hug
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Looney_Tunes_Show
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL8689272M/The_Hug_Therapy_Book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_integration_therapy
My work here is done.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Looney_Tunes_Show
Cognitive Dissonance ,
we need some ACME Rockets for the Lobby Whores!
that would make almost everyone feel warm and fuzzy!
Awesome CD....
A picture is worth 1K words.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4078/4928138185_0b62e7e410_b.jpg
Untitled (Oasis), 2004 - Gregory Crewdson
GREGORY CREWDSON
Untitled (Oasis), 2004
Photograph. C-Print
A tad close to home CD. Had my own Jake moment about 30 years ago - watching my best friend nervously fingering his nickel-plated Ruger, hoping the bogey-man (the real one) wouldn't find the hole he was living in. No thanks. I was a slave then too, only I could look my master in the eye. Now, our masters are less obvious. They hide behind a screen of normalcy and they have convinced us (or at least some of us) not only that this normalcy is good, but life is unthinkable without it. Thanks for reminding me to think about it. It is still too f***ing hard to do anything about it, but I am thinking about it.
I suspect that many of us have had our Jake moments. The real question is did we heed it? And even if we did, it can be very tough not to slip back into the seductively smooth insanity that is everyday life and forget the desperation to live we felt when responding to Jake.
Most people don't wish to relive their scary moments. Sometimes we must if we are to remain mentally and emotionally free. Or at least as much as we can considering we live in a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
I am with you on this one Steelhead!
This youtube video has been on here a bunch of times before but it's worth all four minutes.
The Reality Detached American
Brilliantly done!
So why do we always fall for the same stupid elite pet tricks time after time, then wade out chest deep to sit on the remains of our lives just to pretend and pantomime? Why do we hand over our sovereignty and inalienable rights for the privilege of being corn holed by the same people using the same methods they used the last time? How is it that we don’t learn at least as quickly as my old dog Rover, probably the dumbest mutt that ever lived? Nature or nurture? That’s the real question here.
Answer? Because of the welfare state. Because when you and other mindless slaves get screwed by the predators-that-be and predator-class, and by your own stupid decisions to follow their advice (buy stocks, buy a McMansion, take college loans, ad-infinitum), they steal boatloads from those few who are smart enough to be net productive and sensible enough to live a prudent life - skim 90% off the top for themselves - then give you 10%. Why? To buy your vote, to buy your tacit support, to make you think "these guys have my back".
So, what is the real answer? For the producers to refuse to be fleeced. For the producers to stop playing ANY of their games. Find ways to be self-sufficient and/or find ways to not pay taxes (which finance the predators) and/or find ways to live life separate from the predators AND the parasites. And keep all assets in real, physical [productive] goods, and all savings in personally secured physical gold and silver.
Without producers to make everything work, predators will perish, as will parasites. But I am not optimistic. I believe mankind is too stupid to survive. Frankly, mankind is so revolting at this point, I actually hope he perishes - as a form of justice. Oh, sure, I wish the tiny percentages of "good guys" (honest, ethical, productive, individualists) could somehow "get away" to outer space or somewhere before the rest of the species perishes, but that may be wishful thinking. We're working on it, but...
As far as the "elitists/predators/banksters/authorities" go (however you wish to characterize them), I'll tell you how I've seen it since my age was in single digits. I was born. They were born. I never signed any federal or state constitution, and never voluntarily gave anyone any kind of authority over me. Therefore, in fact, and by mere symmetry and first-order (and nth-order) logic, nobody can have any authority over me, just as I cannot have any authority over anyone else. End of story.
The entirety of law and "society" and government is 100% fiction. Pure fiction. Pure fantasy. Pure predatory scam of the most infinitely absurd kind. There's just me, the universe, and everything in the universe, including other animals, some of whom appear to be human, except for their complete lack of common sense. The government, all corporations, all organizations, all "law", all "religion", all "deities", all versions of "SantaClaus", "ToothFairy" and endless other stories are... well, they just aren't. They literally do not exist, except as delusions in the minds of billions. Yet it is these endless absurd, insane fictions that totally dominate the actions of most humanoid creatures. Freaking insane!
So again, the answer (and only hope), is for the small percentage who invent, design, develop and produce real, physical goods... to withdraw their support. ALL of it, no matter the risk, no matter the hardship, no matter the consequences. Better to die if necessary than keep supporting this absurd game of predators, parasites and producers. The obvious fact is, producers don't need or benefit from predators or parasites, but predators and parasites perish without the producers. How obvious can anything be?