This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
(Conditioned) Human Nature within the Insane Asylum
(Conditioned) Human Nature within the Insane Asylum
By
Cognitive Dissonance
You will always find original articles by Cognitive Dissonance and other authors first on www.TwoIceFloes.com before they are posted here on ZH. If you wish to subscribe to ‘Dispatches’, a periodic newsletter from Cognitive Dissonance and TwoIceFloes Creations, please click here.
I wish I had a silver dollar for every time I’ve heard the phrase “It is human nature……” or some such derivative or derivation. Alan Greenspan recently popped to the surface of his personal cesspool to proclaim it is human nature to create financial bubbles, thus absolving himself of any blame for a runaway fiat candy machine. His exact words were “Bubbles are functions of unchangeable human nature.”
I will stifle the urge to flush Greenspan back down the commode where he belongs and instead focus upon the mistaken belief we can actually determine exactly what is ‘human nature’ after hundreds if not thousands of years of social conditioning and manipulation.
Our fragile egos, both personally and as a collective, have a difficult enough time accepting “We the People” are effectively influenced by ‘popular culture’, let alone that we would seriously entertain the idea we are thoroughly conditioned humans from birth. But considering we are born the purest of individual humans and spend the rest of our lives attempting to be just like everyone else speaks volumes to the idea we are the sum total not only of our lifelong conditioning, but of multi generational conditioning as well.
Where exactly is the demarcation line between ‘human nature’ and the passively conditioned consumer we have all become to some degree or another? If generation after generation of “We the Consumer” suffer under the influence of cultural, social, institutional, religious and governmental manipulative programming and outright propaganda, how exactly could we ever be fully aware of the sum total of these influences nor what humans would be like if the manipulation were removed or never there in the first place?
Humans are highly adaptive creatures and incredibly ingenious when it comes to modifying our behavior in the face of externally or internally applied pressure and circumstance. ‘Normal’ is a relative term, not some static measurement, and both the body and mind quickly becomes accustomed to the ‘new’ normal when choices appear to be limited and the herd moves to a new grazing field. But this doesn’t mean the results of social pressures and generational conditioning are dictated by human nature or that human nature guides human behavior under these extraordinarily distorted circumstances.
I remember visiting an indoor zoo several decades ago with my young son. At one exhibit there was a young man seated in a chair intently watching the caged animals, in this case squirrels if I remember correctly. A sign posted behind him informed the curious he was conducting a behavioral study and to please do not disturb. At regular intervals he would look down at his clipboard and make a notation, then return his gaze to the animals in front of him. I was fascinated not in the animals he was watching, but in what he was doing and why.
Stealing a look at the clipboard there were several vertical columns for various behaviors such as grooming, feeding, mating etc and horizontal markings indicating 30 second intervals. It appeared he was following one particular squirrel and noting what it was doing at specific points in time. It was then I realized there was a very large clock with a sweeping second hand hanging on the cage in the person’s line of sight. I supposed this data would all be crunched down later into thesis graphs and tables.
Outside the exhibit I found an employee and asked him a few questions about the young man inside. He explained that the local university regularly sent over students to conduct behavioral studies of various animals in the zoo. This data would then be compared to results of studies done in the wild in order to measure the effects of captivity and domestication. I remember saying to him, “Too bad we can’t do this with humans.” He was startled by my comment and clearly at a loss for words. I left him to stew on my thought as my son dragged me on to the next exhibit.

If the only substantial population of squirrels left in the world are all safely caged and on exhibit, with only a smattering of squirrels remaining in the wild, would this ‘condition’ eventually become the basis for a new ‘normal’? Would the caged animals be considered the norm and the few remaining left in the wild considered outliers and abnormal?
Now move this thought experiment forward a thousand years or more and imagine there are only caged squirrels left in the world, and even the institutional memory of their wild origins is lost or severely obscured. How exactly would these animals be perceived when there remained no basis for comparison? I propose that at this point any observed repetitive or predictable ‘behavior’ would be considered ‘squirrel nature’ and just the way it is.
In recent years the publicly promoted illusion of happy, well adjusted zoo animals has slowly dissolved into dust as report after report indicates many animals in captivity exhibit clear and disturbing signs of depression, neurosis and self destructive behavior. Assuming after a thousand years the captive squirrels have not committed ritual collective suicide I suspect their observed behavior would border on the bizarre and nonsensical. Yet with no basis for comparison their aberrant manner would continue to be explained away as simply squirrel nature.
While I suspect I shall assault the sensibilities and egos of many of my readers by immediately switching the squirrel analogy to that of the present day human, the similarities are too striking to ignore. How exactly are we to successfully and correctly examine ourselves when the only ‘normal’ we know is found in the boiling pot of water we presently occupy?
With no basis for comparison and any cultural or institutional memory long since lost to time or never established in the first place, combined with the deliberate and malicious distortion or outright falsification of the history of the human race in order to muddy the waters and control “We the Conditioned”, how is a person or any “author-ity” able to say with any degree of confidence that a particular observed human behavior is solely and exclusively ‘human nature’? The single minded arrogance displayed by such certainty of knowledge of the ‘self’ approaches pathological self deception.
That caged gorilla obsessively pacing inside his cage is seen as abnormal simply because we can view other gorillas in the wild and not witness comparable behavior. Similarly the obese obsessive compulsive eater shopping at Sam’s Club for a bigger bang for their food buck is seen as abnormal solely because there are other non obese humans available for comparison. As well, this specific abnormal self destructive human behavior is so relatively new that institutional memory of what is ‘normal’ has not been lost or deliberately obscured. Yet we hurry to blame the individual person for their apparent suicidal behavior and rarely look beyond the trees to see the cultural forest.
For thousands of years psychopaths have ruled the human race utilizing various psychologically damaging methods and techniques, all with the ultimate purpose of control and exploitation. The very institutions and governments we allow to exist are there solely to herd and control the masses for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. In so many ways caged from birth, is it any wonder we exhibit clear and disturbing signs of depression, neurosis and self destructive behavior?
I suspect if it weren’t for our flexible intellect and protective ego, combined with a monumental arrogance, long ago we would have participated in ritual collective suicide. It could be argued our near constant state of war is designed to ‘play’ at or ‘practice’ mass suicide in order to act as a safety valve and relieve some of the socially self destructive pressures.
While there are certainly many ‘benefits’ of war enjoyed by the minority psychopath controllers, such as economic enrichment, power enhancement and more social control, a seriously dysfunctional and neurotic population must be managed in the same way unstable chemical compounds are. Occasionally dangerous pressures must be carefully vented away or burned off lest the volatile concoction self destruct and take the psychopaths with it.
For those among us who claim that humans who are removed from these pressures still exhibit the same behavior, thus confirming the presence of human nature, I simply respond that deep conditioning can last a lifetime even after it is recognized as conditioning. It takes generational change to effectively begin the removal and rebalancing process and many generations for it to be removed completely. Ironically the psychopaths claim this very fact justifies their continued intervention and control since a domesticated animal let loose in the wild cannot fend for itself, a self serving point of view if ever I heard one.
Induced insanity is the perfect mental/spiritual illness from a social control point of view because it is self perpetuating, self affirming and can exist in isolation since it is its own energy source. The social/cultural control systems used by the psychopaths encourages mass mental illness in order to divide and conquer. It is the most effective method by which the few may dominate the many.
If this is the case, and I suspect this to be so, how exactly are “We the Insane” able to perceive anything about ourselves with any semblance of balance and objectivity. How are we able to determine what is ‘human nature’ and not just run-of-the-mill insanity? The insane nearly always believe themselves to be sane and healthy, and all others to be off their rockers. How apropos then that nearly every one of us believes we can clearly see the insanity and it is they, those, and them over there who are the problem, not me, myself or I.
Welcome to the Insane Asylum…..or as we like to say these days the ‘new’ normal.
08-10-2014
Cognitive Dissonance

- advertisements -


lol. I presume too long/boring, then. oh, well, at least Hollywood made a flick or two, with lots of abdominals shown. never mind
What about instinct? Are you saying that certain behaviors aren't hard-wired at birth? Seems odd if they aren't, given that we evolved from animals that clearly possess them.
We are discussing externally applied conditioning. Instinct, such as the tendency for the infant to suckle, is hardwired and while broadly grouped into the "conditioning" category is a different subject matter. It cannot be ignore though because some of our hardwired tendencies are directly connected to our software corruption and the process of corrupting.
I would argue that the religious impulse itself is rooted in instinct, specifically, the instinct for self-preservation.
I'd suggest it works as a counterweight to the realization of one's own mortality that springs from self-awareness.
In other words, religious thought is right there among the very first of conscious thoughts that emerged with spoken language.
So, religion has had (at least) as long as language to get established in the human genome.
Not sayin' it has, mind you. just that it could be...
Think of the implications if it were true though. Puts a whole new slant on things, doesn't it?
Keep enough sanity to effect some justice in place of, or along with suicide.
Yes, Alaric Bath. I grew up in San Diego, home of the San Diego Zoo and WIld Animal Park. I clearly remember being at the Wild Animal Park, about 20 years ago, and when we reached the Lowland Gorilla compound I looked into the eyes of the male gorilla and the shame, guilt and protective compassion for these caged relatives of ours began to overwhelm me. I could not look at the gorilla or his family any longer. I have not visited a zoo or anyplace like it, since. We in the USSA would be seeing breadlines, big time, right now, if it weren't for SNAP, WIC and EBT, the method by which the most unfortunate pay for foodstuffs. TPTB don't want us to see breadlines, since we might see for ourselves that something is deeply wrong with our nation and the people who purport to lead us. We might even begin to feel compassion for the homeless and we might understand that our own government is responsible for the economic woes which we are now experiencing. How's about a dish of Abnormalcy Bias?
The bread lines aren't entirely invisible. Every month for about ten days, around here, the restaurants and stores are full of 'them' (bought and paid for voters of the great pillagers). The breadlines are just funded at an astronomically higher level these days, thanks to the extremely high relative value of the dollar compared to the last depression.
Blissfully blind and numb is how they like us. Is it any wonder then that cannabis is finally making significant headway towards legalization?
And I too was unable to make eye contact with the chimps at the zoo. I was deeply embarrassed for the human race......and still am.
Everybody gets a trophy.
You exist, therefore you shall have. ( especially if they want your vote)
They call them participation awards. You get one for just showing up for life.
"Is it any wonder then that cannabis is finally making significant headway towards legalization?"
No mystery there - everyone that grew up smoking it is now in command...heh.
I thought flouride took care of all this.
Mrs. Cog and I have been on well water for little over a year now and are just coming out of our stupor.
<How many fingers am I holding up? (13) Who is the current president of the USSA? (Hillary)>
Did I pass? :-)
5 stars baby!
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productI...
Does it come in a concentrate so I can pour it down our well?
<Don't hate me bro...but I miss the stupor.>
Now thats funny!
The wild card is sexual reproduction. No matter what the nurturing, there are the rejectors. Human nature is not consistent. Sane is just another word, with multiple meanings. One definition is thinking and acting like other sheeple, or normal. Another definition is acting in a manner which adapts to your environment. Another definition requires that your words do not reveal different experiences not reported by a majority of others.
The word insane has many definitions, also. Insane could mean not acting or speaking as others act or speak. Insane could mean acting in a self destructive or destructive to others manner. Insane could mean not thinking how your masters want you to think.
Sanity for me means thinking for myself, rejecting anything which my thinking rejects, rejecting any lower status to others, living my life my way, and when I think it right to say you're all wrong. So many times in my life, I was told you aren't doing what normal people do, while they expected me to do what they wanted for me. I said NO for over seventy years and I don't regret it.
Thankfully there are 7 billion versions of insanity and counting. Pick one and go with it.
Personally I prefer my flavor over yours....but don't listen to me cus I'm crazy. :)
A huge majority of those 7 billion are sane or obedient as defined by their political system. Don't knock my flavor until you try it.
Ahhh...I love the old Catch 22. You should too.
(A catch-22 is a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules. Catch-22s often result from rules, regulations, or procedures that an individual is subject to but has no control over because to fight the rule is to accept it. One connotation of the term is that the creators of the "catch-22" have created arbitrary rules in order to justify and conceal their own abuse of power.)
As a psych grad, who sees through all of the "conditioning", I am happy to see that there's someone else on the same page. Only through studying, without ethnocentricity, cultural anthropology, historical sociology, law, world history, et al, can one hope to understand their fellow humans and the internal and extraneous forces which mold us one and all.
As a psych grad, who sees through all of the "conditioning"
All of it?
You sure about that?
(careful, it's a trick question)
You'll have to pry my prejudices, biases and stereotypes from my cold dead brain.
I'm glad we have writers with the wherewithal to address these good, tough questions. Nietzsche is helpful in these areas. I would only add fruit, vegetable and peyote gardens, clean water and a warm place to shit.
I like CD's articles. But this was safe. He is barely scratching the surface.
Dive into some tough ones.
Riddle me this. Why is most of the African continent ( the cradle of humanity) still 5000 years behind the rest of the world? Is it economic? Is it Enviroment? Is it social?
Maybe they're trying to preserve open space for the elephants and tigers.
(((Preserve open spaces )))
And soon to come to USSA via agenda 21. Lots of turkey's and cougars running around now. Ever wonder why they have brought back so many wild creatures. Check out the new map of USA after Agenda 21 kicks in.
I like Cog's articles too. They are anything but "safe".
Perhaps you missed some of the tough ones over the past five years. CD on Zero Hedge
I have a lion friend who would tell you it is only in the Western world that Africa is percieved as "behind" with poverty and lack of widespread technology and development. From the old school African perspective, we are insane with our rabid consumerism and narcissistic lives devoid of introspection and spiritual growth. Perhaps it is your views that are sticking to the safe ground.
I hate cold toilet seats and drafty outhouses. But maybe that's because I'm an old fart and must visit more often than you. :-)
Thinking outside the box:
A snap-on connection for the toilet seat which you keep indoors where it's warm, and take with you when needed.
As a side-benefit, the increased level of comfort will allow more time for thinking inside the box...heh.
Our real war is the spiritual war
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” This concerns any war. The visible, material causes of war explain nothing; this is a ruse of dark forces. A true warrior always fights against demons and is the opponent of demonic powers."
http://souloftheeast.org/2014/08/08/a-call-to-repentance/
You are a frighteningly unlikely fluke brought about by a game of genetic roulette.
You are also cursed with the ability to wonder why.
Deal with it.
For a long time I thought like you. I read most of the Western Philosophy canon and realised most men who thought like that went mad.
It is an evolutionary cul-de-sac, which is in vogue today simply because it provides a nice left-cover for the dark forces (I am talking about real people, not mystical dark forces) to distract people from what matters.
All you need is love.
edit: PS: look up my avatar. The original version. In 1967, he knew what was up.
You need a trip down the rabbit hole. Your knowledge, as discussed in the article, is incomplete at best. Your logical microscope of science is full of holes if you are willing to look, and not just believe on blind faith.
You are obviously a clear and deep thinker.
Having read a lot of what you posts, I find your approach to organized religion a bit of a blind spot.
We all have them, that's not a criticism, just, maybe a little nudge towards thinking a bit more clearly about it.
If I'm off base completely, apologies.
I am sincerely interested to hear what my blind spots are regarding organized religion.
I easily admit to a natural aversion to the man made forms of religion, no aversion what-so-ever to what we may find during our personal journey within. This doesn't mean I do not wish someone to practice whatever they desire in whatever form they wish. But when their beliefs are codified into laws and social practices that determine what I can and cannot do, then I have a problem. I am told I shall not harm nor impair them. Doesn't that work both ways?
I could be mistaken, but I thought I read a post of yours where you mentioned your belief of choice and it was a Christian belief.
My whole point is that the only way it can work is both ways.
"your belief of choice"
If your religion can be characterized as "your belief of choice," then you have placed yourself at the center of that ideology. That is, you are the source of what you "choose" to believe. That is akin to believing your dreams are real, ignoring that you are the sole author of all things in your dreams. It forecloses on the possibility of another "source."
The Word of God as I have read it stands unchallenged as to its veracity (to be clear, not "proven"). But its message is continually obscured and assaulted. Very few know what the Scriptures actually say (just talking what words are actually written, let alone their meaning). Yet many who have never read the words (or have simply accepted what was told them about those words) have militant conviction that they are misguided, false, etc. This is not uncommon with those brought up Catholic, as is the case with CD.
"Yet many who have never read the words (or have simply accepted what was told them about those words) have militant conviction that they are misguided, false, etc. This is not uncommon with those brought up Catholic, as is the case with CD."
Hey.....I resemble that remark. :)
I was an honest-to-God alter boy from the age of five until just before I left home who could recite the Latin mass (before they dropped it because people were dropping the church) and I actually understood what I was saying, one of the few alter boys who could. My problem (at least as told to me by various priests and sisters) was that I did read the "The Word of God" closely and I never accepted it, blindly or otherwise. I always asked too many damn uncomfortable questions.
Again I have no beef at all with those who wish to follow 'The Word of God', only with those who wish to use it to abuse and control.
No such thing as a uncomfortable question for God. I too asked every question possible and got answers ( good answers ) for them all. It really worked. Seek and you shall find.
"Seek and you shall find."
I am and I am. Thanks. :-)
Great! Then you might find this worth hearing. 4 minuts 20 seconds. I made it.
http://youtu.be/20FBvydMpFk
"Again I have no beef at all with those who wish to follow 'The Word of God', only with those who wish to use it to abuse and control."
Pretty hard to separate the two when each enables the other.
I'm a Sunday school drop-out myself, and I'm sure they were glad to see the last of me. Kid asks too many questions!
I mean, it was absurd on the face of it, and yet they expected me to believe it? You think that doesn't create a conflict in a young mind? You think that isn't some form of brainwashing just because everyone else believes it, therefore it must be true?
Glad I had the experience though. Thank you Jesus for that, because at age 12 I became a firm skeptic, since the obvious take away from that experience was to ask myself: "what else are they (church, parents, school, government) lying to me about?"
So yeah. Praise the Lord.
Was there a point when you stopped beleiving the Eucharist to be the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ or did you not ever beleive this to be true? I think of this question as only the Catholic Church has the sacrifice of the Holy Mass and our Lord truly present in the breaking of the bread. Peace.
Another duplicate comment. We have a intermittent internet connection up here on the mountain this morning folks.
When I was a very young child I had the mindless belief one has when they are told things are this way and that, and for the most part it is accepted at face value after some questions. Once I hit third grade it was all down hill from there.
The question is simply. What is 'belief'? Since most religions ultimately rely upon faith to answer certain questions, 'belief' comes down to acceptance regardless of your age. This act is neither good nor bad, it simply is. What can come from that act, the consequences and path we sometimes take when offering faith, is usually where the trouble begins.
There are hundreds of millions if not billions of people on this Earth who are happy and fulfilled in the practice of their religion. That alone speaks volumes to the power of the faithful and their faith. Only a fool would disparage that clear and powerful phenomenon. Something is going on here that must be acknowledged.
But with power comes abuse when humans are involved. Those with nefarious intent will attempt to steal, abuse or control what they cannot create or wish to share. They often do so by conflating themselves with the power they are trying to obtain in order to misdirect and control. This is where I have a problem.
I hope you will ask those uncomfortable questions again. I can't tell you how many "recovering Catholics" I have worked with that said the same things as you. Those questions are natural extensions of misguided teachings, which have eminated from many a pulpit.
Duplicate comment. Sorry.
Those so called "recovering Catholics" are often fighting a battle within themselves that encompasses far more than 'just' a religion. It is the resistance they put up that comes slaming back into them. I am at peace with my Catholic past. I am not at peace with those who did, and still do, abuse and control the faithful. I feel the same way about any public institution (government, education, corporate, non profit, the list is long) who claims high moral ground and then abuses the trust recieved.
If reading my essays for the last 4 plus years doesn't convince you I contiune to ask tough questions, particularly of myself, then you haven't been paying attention. Mrs. Cog is constantly on my case for being too hard on myself. I rarely give myself any quarter and hold myself to extremely high standards she finds ridiculous. Show me one other contributor here on ZH who is asking of themselves the things I do in such a public manner. You can't.
The discerning faithful are not controlled or abused by religious institutions. I am sorry for those who are deceived into being faithful to such institutions, but they lack discernment. They don't even ask the tough questions. For those that do, such abusive institutions will not provide adequate answers. Which is equally tragic.
If you think that making questions public in and of itself equates to being introspective, you might want to think that through. Indeed, that you want to claim a mantle for doing so ("show me another contributor...you can't") suggests otherwise. (Think about corporations that issue press releases about their 'philanthopy' and 'community service').
There's that certainty again.
Gives me the willies, it does.