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Control the Language and You Control the Mind

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Control the Language and You Control the Mind

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.

 

As is pretty common these days, the genesis for this article was a conversation between Mrs. Cog and me regarding word and phrase definitions within a larger discussion about perception and understanding. In essence the question was this; how do you think outside the box when your language and belief system have you trapped within? While I am most definitely sympathetic when someone protests “It simply never occurred to me……” ultimately only slaves are not responsible for the language they use and the thought boxes they keep.

Precisely what is it you think you ‘know’ for certain? Exactly what ‘knowledge’ do you possess which is of such certainty and veracity that it need never be seriously questioned or examined? Ultimately if something never occurred to me it is simply because I decided the softer easier way forward was to participate in groupthink and not question my ‘reality’.  I alone am responsible for my curiosity quotient or lack thereof.

Since better answers do not come without asking better or different questions, there is no one else to blame for our ignorance but us. Just because I have been trained and conditioned to ‘believe’, rather than to think, doesn’t mean I am incapable of thinking. What it does mean is I simply do not wish to be curious beyond the comforting confines of my own thought walls. Ultimately I am mentally sated and lazy when I accept not only these externally imposed cognitive limitations as mine, but then convince myself I am essentially content and need do no more when the lie, and my inner voice, says otherwise.

Knowledge, information, propaganda and belief, while all distinctly different words with dissimilar meanings, are often conflated to mean nearly the same thing. Or more accurately, the meanings and definitions are blurred, combined and contrived in order to create a controlling thought meme that is skillfully separated from reality and ‘truth’. Herein is the problem as I see it, or at least a major issue that greatly contributes to groupthink, the hive mind and ultimately the sacrifice of the ‘self’.

Let me start by rendering my opinion regarding the definitions of these words, most of which agree somewhat with common definitions, but not necessarily with common usage. I suspect centuries ago, even millennium, our ‘known’ world, that which we had ‘knowledge’ of and knew about, encompassed pretty much all we surveyed and little else.

In my opinion, and contrary to popular belief, the term ‘knowledge’ includes only what I ‘know’ or the entirety of my ‘knowing’ either through personal experience, direct observation or personal self examination……and nothing else. Anything other than this direct ‘knowing’ is simply hearsay and little more. This is contrary to the widely accepted definition of knowledge being the sum total of what we have been ‘taught’ or have ‘learned’, including all knowledge, information, propaganda and belief we acquired through education or other sources aka hearsay.

Of paramount importance here is to imply no judgmental assessment of this definition of ‘knowing’, such as right or wrong, correct or incorrect, good or bad. For example, I might find some wild berries in the woods and decide to eat them. Almost immediately I become violently ill and remain in that state for hours or even days. One might say from that point on that I know those berries to be poisonous and to be avoided. But do I really ‘know’ this to be true and correct based simply upon my experience? The answer is unequivocally NO!

The berries might easily have been quite edible while ripe, only to turn nasty after passing their peak in the same manner cow’s milk is fine for a period of time, but can then make you very sick if ingested after it has turned. We don’t declare spoiled milk poison, so why wouldn’t the same thinking apply to the berries? Or maybe the berries were contaminated by something else in the woods, such as a truly poisonous plant overhead or bird/animal droppings. There are easily half a dozen alternative explanations for getting sick from the berries.

All I truly ‘know’ about those berries is I became very sick after eating them. In reality I ‘know’ very little else based upon my personal experience and observation. In other words my ‘knowing’ does not always imply correctness or truth, nor does it mean my knowledge is necessarily false or not factual.

In our rush to judge in order to satisfy our often imagined need for certainty, sometimes we jump to conclusions and make assumption that don’t really apply. We don’t need to declare with absolutely certainty those berries are poisonous in order for us or others to avoid them. But in a paternal/authoritarian world where to be believed is to be powerful, one must speak with certainty and conviction regardless of information or knowledge to the contrary. This applies directly to our inner dialogue as well. Oftentimes we muster a false sense of certainty in order to bolster personal courage or to push something uncomfortable deep down the denial hole. 

 

Our Thought Boxes

Our Thought Boxes - Image by Rob Woodcox

Image by Rob Woodcox

 

On the other hand ‘information’ is usually purported to consist mostly of ‘facts’ and ‘truth’ and is compiled, sorted, categorized and publicized by others (who it is presumed gathered it themselves, but often do not) as possessing these qualities. Thus many claim to pass on their own ‘true’ knowledge or body of knowing to others for the benefit of mankind and perhaps their personal profit. Because of prior conditioning and cultural norms we/they actually ‘believe’ this information is part of our/their knowing or knowledge. Essentially what we ‘know’ has been twisted to mean what we have been taught.

If someone else ate those berries, got sick and then told you to avoid them, this would be considered information not of your own personal knowing. Regardless of the person’s motive who is informing you of the berries, to those who have not experienced or observed this ‘knowledge’ personally it is just hearsay, though not necessarily true or false. Consider how in the US legal system information deemed hearsay is not admissible as ‘evidence’ because its veracity is questionable and not of speakers own personal knowing. Yet we never consider applying these same rules of evidence to our own personal lives to screen what we believe we know or what we are told or taught.

The true conflation begins when we are given, and accept, information gained from outside our direct experience and observation as both ‘knowledge’, or something we now ‘know’, and as ‘correct’ and ‘true’, a state often referred to as ‘fact’ by those who are promoting their ‘truth’. If that person who ate the berries informed you they became sick and you should be careful around the berries, the information is being passed on to you with no direct bias other than that derived from their personal experience. But if that person tells you the berries are poisonous and you should stay far away from them they are claiming as ‘fact’ something they may or may not actually ‘know’.

Much of what we ‘know’ in this indirect manner (more information than you might think) is often just as suspect as our own body of knowing if not more so. But since the source of the information is often an ‘author-ity’ (someone who authors or creates his or her own veracity, genuineness or authenticity) or the information is ‘taught’ to us by another authority such as a teacher or ‘profess-or’ (someone who orally or in writing professes their ‘knowledge’ as correct and truthful) we accept their information as genuine knowledge of our own knowing rather than information that is, or at least might be, suspect or tainted.

As I discussed in my article The Science Delusion – Reexamining Our Worldview Mindset the fantastic success of materials science and its total infiltration into our daily lives has helped convince us our world is mostly ‘known’, understood and for the most part static and constant. The high degree of confidence the so-called ‘experts’ have in themselves, and we in them, along with the tremendous success basic materials science has achieved in delivering magical consumer devices and products to an adoring public, all combined with the ever greater need for specialization in our work, thought and leisure activities, have conspired to turn modern day fallible humans into demi-gods of ‘true’ fact and knowledge.

Yes, I mention specialization because in a world where on a daily basis the generalists of acquired knowledge through experience and deed are a dying species, we are forced to narrow our focus onto smaller and smaller portions of the global machine. No longer can we be a computer programmer or a machine operator. Instead we must focus our talents as a Windows “Start” button programmer or machine “Start” button pusher.

I am of course being sarcastic, but only barely so for as our world becomes ever more complex we mere humans can no longer be a jack of all trades, master of none, but rather master of one small part of one trade and jack of absolutely none. The effect this has upon our worldview is not readily apparent, but quite obvious once we recognize the forest from the trees. Our directly perceived experience base rapidly shrinks, or is never expanded for those who are conditioned directly into this brave new world from mother’s womb. Thus we ‘know’ very little other than possibly our very narrow range of ‘expert’ experience gained first hand.

This is both good and bad for those who are caught in the web because our narrow experience base requires us to depend upon others to fill in the huge gaps left over as we navigate through life. The good news is since everyone else is also a narrowly trained ‘expert’, each of us can help others navigate past every bump and pot hole in our assigned section of the road, thus no one ever has a ‘bad’ life experience. Or at least that’s the theory anyway. In practice we might experience a slightly different reality on a case by case basis. Thankfully if all else fails we can rely on the experts in government, academia and industry to smooth the way forward when life gets a bit difficult.

Now that last paragraph was a heaping helping of sarcasm, and deservedly so I might add since the above mind meme is constantly being promoted by all those who stand to benefit as the individual cedes more and more sovereignty to the group collective and the hive mind. An extremely complex organism designed to operate within a carefully controlled environment which requires narrowly trained specialists to operate and repair it is inherently unstable and prone to collapse. When this organism collapses both its beneficiary and servant (better described as its master and slave) aka the individual, collapses with it.

This doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t use other people’s information and professed knowledge as we travel our own path. Instead what we must do is treat everything as potentially suspect and fallible, especially our own knowing, because at this point it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to separate what we ‘know’ from what we have been taught. It is not just computers that suffer from the “garbage in, garbage out” syndrome, yet so many refuse to even consider many of our thoughts and conclusions are the result of corrupted programming, conditioning and ego manipulation, thus we remain swayed and controlled despite our protestations we are awakening.

 

Plugged In as a Control Device

Plugged In - Image by Rob Woodcox

Image by Rob Woodcox

 

There are those who will claim sans a sense of sound psychological ground under our feet, thus always on edge and continuously charged with a fight or flight impulse, we will be wracked with indecision and lacking in purpose and drive. And for the most part they are correct……when describing those who are not mentally and spiritually centered and have repudiated their personal sovereignty. Automatons most definitely are lost when their programming is wiped or corrupted, but a critical thinking sovereign individual is self empowered and not exclusively dependent upon external affirmation, validation and direction.

This brings us to the subject of propaganda, or the deliberate conflation and distortion of information and knowledge to control and direct thought while confirming prior conditioning. Unlike the purveyors of ‘information’, who most often are themselves unaware of their own corruption and, absent critical introspection and self examination, will impart this existing corruption upon any information they produce or acquire, thereby spreading the corrupting virus far and wide, the propagandist consciously, deliberately and with malicious intent preys upon the inattentive and indoctrinated to manipulate and feed upon their fears, prejudices and predilections.

While the ultimate goal of propaganda may be to control and direct the herd, the actual technique used is to divide and conquer the population while promoting illusionary goals and aspirations to keep the wage slave crew rowing while they bicker amongst themselves. The carrot and stick approach is particularly effective when we are conditioned to use it upon ourselves and others like us. The only condition more profitable to the corporate masters and the powerful elite than a kept slave is a slave who keeps him or herself under the auspices of freedom, liberty and justice for all.

The one common denominator among all types of slaves past, present and future is the slave mentality, ultimately defined and expressed as self limiting thought, beliefs and actions. Propagandized information serves to promote and inflame that very condition which, when combined with an underlying economic system that keeps the population striving forward while perpetually underwater, holds the slave firmly in the past or future and never settled in the present. One short leg on a four legged table is always unsettled and an enormous distraction, forever unbalanced and rarely stable other than for extremely short periods of time.

Belief, on the other hand, is a very complex subject in and of itself even without examining any specific belief. While the word ‘belief’ implies a singular conviction or principal (i.e. “I believe in God/Democracy/Capitalism/Money”) in all the cases I have examined this is far from the case. If we are discussing one specific conviction, for example a religion, it is almost always the case that while the faith might have a set of written principals or doctrine, those doctrine are rarely followed to the letter.

Instead, the ‘faith’ as practiced at the individual level often incorporates various other superstitions, traditions, beliefs and ‘truths’. Because of this condition few feel compelled to ‘follow the letter of the law’ and many afford themselves wide latitude in their ‘belief’ while still claiming to be devout, faithful or at a minimum a ‘believer’.  This applies to religion, politics, education, society, career etc.

And while the faith’s ‘authorities’ will protest otherwise in order to maintain the illusion, in practice they would prefer the flock continue to corral themselves under the umbrella of a unifying belief, thus maintaining the power of the authorities of that belief (remember, to be believed is to be powerful) even at the expense of strict devotion to, and the practice of, doctrine fundamentals. Affording the faithful flock some wiggle room by not insisting otherwise is to the advantage of all parties involved.

It really doesn’t matter what psychological method(s) we use to afford ourselves the wiggle room we desire since there are at least seven billion unique variations and counting on Earth. All that matters is for the wiggle room to be created and then occupied. The various psychological techniques to do so are taught to us as children and the skills further refined as young adults. By the time we graduate from high school we are accomplished self deceivers and ready to enter the matrix as productive liars.

While that assessment might sound harsh, it is so close to reality as to be indistinguishable from the truth. Though we claim moral high ground and declare there is either truth or not, our flexible worldview fantasy demands generous quantities of wiggle room in order to function between a rock and the hard place of reality. If we were ever to actually write down our beliefs on a piece of paper, thus exposing them to the light of day, I suspect we would be quite embarrassed by all the leaps of faith, dead ends, contradictions, cognitive dissonances and dangling reasoning we eagerly maintain when hidden within the dark reaches of our mind.

 

Mental Wiggle Room

Mental Wiggle Room

 

This is precisely why we rarely expose our ‘soft’ truths for inspection, especially to ourselves, since to do so would require us to address all of the issues above and several more which would be the product of the cognitive unraveling. One of the reasons I write, as opposed to just think, is to force myself to sort through all my cognitive conflations. When maintained strictly within the ample wiggle room provided by my mind, my ‘truths’ must only meet my low and flexible logic and reasoning standards. Simply put I lie to myself on a regular basis in order to maintain my belief system.

But when my beliefs are placed upon paper and carefully examined by others, if I am to be honest I must at the very least make a concerted effort to root out the inner deception, corruption and conditioning. Or I may maintain and increase my self-deception by finding other like minded individuals who share my cognitive distortions and preach to the choir a la Paul Krugman and tens of thousands of others.

It is the effective manipulation of our belief systems (there are dozens if not hundreds of minor variations we seamlessly switch between as circumstances and needs dictate) that enslaves us to the present day insanity. And by far the number one manipulator is our ‘self’. While everyone claims they desire the truth, in reality we want only what can be absorbed into our existing worldview framework as smoothly as possible. The ultimate propagandist and manipulator we encounter during our lifetime is our ‘self’ (inflamed by our ego) an ugly self truth we carefully avoid ever personally ‘knowing’, let along examining.

It never ceases to amaze me how outraged we become when presented with propaganda/information/knowledge/belief that clashes with our own personal belief systems, yet we accept with little question or examination similarly distorted information that confirms, conforms with or is easily folded into our beliefs. Hypocrisy begins at home and we are all hypocrites in every sense of the word.

I often say we are only as sick as our deepest darkest secrets, and many take this to mean secrets of a sexual, family or financial nature. In fact what I am really discussing is the self subterfuge, hypocrisy and self propagandizing we all engage in on a daily basis, yet keep secret from our ‘self’, our life partners and the world. While many believe what we don’t (allow ourselves to) ‘know’ can’t hurt us, the ultimate self deception, it does inflame such dissonance and discord deep within our own psyche and inner spirit that we are undeniably insane and growing crazier by the day.

The ultimate personal and group blackmail occurs not when someone discovers our secrets and then extorts us using that information, but when we keep secrets from our ‘self’, thereby exposing ourselves to outside manipulation and control precisely because we are never settled and stabilized into a state of self ‘knowing’ and acceptance. This underlying psychological and spiritual tension also contributes greatly to our poor physical health and is the root cause of much of our chronic illness, disorder and dis-ease. Incredibly not only do we often willingly accept the blackmail, but frequently we embrace it as our own rather than travel down the ultimate rabbit hole, the one we find within.

 

Inner Tension

Inner Tension

 

I am fairly certain quite a few of my readers have grown weary of my relentless and unchanging beating of the ‘look within’ drum. I suspect many feel this is a negative and unproductive view of life, that a more ‘positive’ outlook would work wonders and go far towards enabling and engaging others in self discovery and self enlightenment. My only response is the following. How can we ever possibly know what we need in order to grow and progress if we have never truly and thoroughly looked within and aired our dirty laundry?

Receiving an artificially induced feel good experience from an external source to help paper over an ugly dissonance and the emotional trauma that results can only be considered ‘positive’ in an insane asylum and truly mirrors the method society in general uses to refrain from engaging in the truly hard work of self examination.

This is not to say there is no joy in Mudville, that there is no respite from the self imposed hard work of personal growth and rejuvenation. But only in a society obsessed with distractions, entertainment and pleasure seeking behavior would more of the same be considered conducive to breaking our addiction to what ails us. In this case a little hair of the dog is not the correct prescription.

While we all seek external affirmation to validate our ‘self’, sadly a glaring symptom of our repudiated personal sovereignty and the inner insanity, true affirmation and satisfaction for successful (incremental) self examination occurs naturally and is a healing product of the hard work of self discovery.

There is nothing wrong with basking in the glow received from a job well done……as long as we recognize there is much work left to be done and this is simply a rest stop along the road of life and our journey of self discovery. One is never ‘cured’ of our insanity, at least not at this stage in the cycle, because every interaction with an insane society tends to re-infect and reassert the seductive desire to let go and be (re)absorbed into the wonderful embrace of the collective insanity.

Some good friends of ours who teach English to recent Chinese emigrants to America were visiting mutual friends this summer, affording Mrs. Cog and I the opportunity to visit with them several times. Something said during one of our visits remains ever present in my mind. While discussing the different culture in China, ‘Jim’ said not only did he ask his students to speak in English, but to think in English as well. When they successfully did so the most remarkable questions sprang from their minds, questions he had never heard before let along personally considered. It was more than cultural though because those questions were rarely expressed in English when the speaker was thinking in Chinese.

For me nothing could better illustrate how our language controls our thinking, and thus our mind, more than this simple observation. Temporarily, though imperfectly, freed from their own native language constraints, Jim’s students were free to explore the world, and their own minds, using another language they were not indoctrinated into. The results were clear and compelling and well worth remembering when we complain about ‘them’ controlling us. The act of controlling our language, and thus our minds, begins with and is aided from within. We are the ultimate propagandist extraordinaire.

 

08-17-2014

Cognitive Dissonance

 

Mind Control

 

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Mon, 08/18/2014 - 12:13 | 5109139 Mrs. Cog
Mrs. Cog's picture

Hello to you Kayman.

I now bypass shamelessly adopting words. Cog says I am the best 'word-maker-upper' he's ever met. I think he's biased since I told him he was stupid cool. At least we can find some common ground to communicate with ZH language... 'all your power tools are belong to me.' ;-)

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 20:03 | 5111808 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I have power tools you don't know about. So there!

<At least I think I do. I know they are around here somewhere.>

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:20 | 5106101 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

(Most of the rest of that book just restates, reinforces or expands upon that point)

How many thousands of years, and how little progress...

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 19:11 | 5111390 juangrande
juangrande's picture

I would suggest Love is the absence of Fear. Truth is the absence of False. Fear and False are illusory. To qualify that,  I mean irrational fear of something that may or may not exist or come into existence ( ie fear of the unknown). Fear of a rattlesnake in really close proximity is something entirely different. 

 

The knowledge that nothing is any more Holy than anything else that exists, ( ie nothing is sacred or everything is equally sacred), is understanding.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 16:11 | 5105906 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

The beauty of the controlling meme of language is the ability to rationalize and justify all kinds of nuance in language. And it isn't necessarily 'wrong' or right' so much as it is perspective.

But how does one instill some discipline within ourselves when we were conditioned and indoctrinated into a language that is THE controlling meme, along with 'money', that dominates our minds. For myself the way is to be always mindful and to speak and think purposefully. To ask this of the general population is to ask the impossible. To ask this our ourselves is quite reasonable.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:00 | 5106030 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

To go a totally different direction from science, it is useful to look at advertising.  The language used there is specifically for manipulation and control.  One thing that really irks me is "25% OFF!  You'll SAVE money!"  They're pitching it as you coming in and spending slightly less than you otherwise would for some useless junk that you probably don't need anyway as saving money.  It ties into the rampant consumerism that is destroying us.  No, if you want to save money (I would not recommend this in FRNs,) forego the shit that you don't need and actually save the money.  

 

 

OT:  This is the first year I've grown (musk)melons.  I found a cultivar that was originally developed less than a mile from me.  I just picked my first melon that was splitting open from too much water despite the fact that I haven't watered it in weeks, and OMG!  I ate a little more than a quarter of it and I feel like I just pigged out on a bag of Snickers becaise it is so rich.  The flavor was stronger than a cantelope, it was sweeter and it was a firmer, less watery texture.  People complain about the native melons saying that they're not sweet, but the place that sold the seeds specifically states that they are native to my region, which is a desert, and that overwatering them will ruin their flavor.  I'm betting that they grow them just like they would a honeydew or something.  

 

I'm hooked.  Just think of them as a very large not-poisonous berry.  

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:27 | 5106131 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I bought a locally grown watermelon the other day and it was incredibly sweat and delicious. I suspect if and when the local variety becomes over ripe it will be too much of a good thing.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 15:55 | 5105852 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

Meh..."end of the world theologies have no place in the human race."

The fact of the matter is the world grinds on...or worse we miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

Thus "words are meaningless without reference to the existence of data."

Anyone can SAY anything anyone wants to...what imports meaning is whether or not the words give relevance to objective truth (logic or the acknowledgment that item to be true must also be understood as able to be shown as shown to be untrue.). Everything else is just "toeing the Party Line" as all we end up with is who has the superior lie.

Even the ancient Greeks understood this difference and strove for at least the perception of truth in what they termed "rhetoric."

In short "draw your own conclusions but do not question me as to the reality of what I speak." Everything else is just an argument from which anyone can either agree or disagree with and proceed accordingly.

Don't even get me started on empirical knowledge. Does anyone here even know what the Periodic Table is?

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 08:58 | 5108139 ebear
ebear's picture

119 - Cognitium

120 - Dissonium

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 16:36 | 5105979 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"Does anyone here even know what the Periodic Table is?"

When I was a kid in our house the Periodic Table was the one we would bring in from the garage when entertaining a large number of guests for the holidays. :-)

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 16:48 | 5106004 New_Meat
New_Meat's picture

at home, it happened every month ;-)

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 15:32 | 5105778 basho
basho's picture

"It is the effective manipulation of our belief systems that enslaves us to the present day insanity."

No, it is your belief systems that enslave you.

When you believe you stop thinking.

When you believe you take someone elses authority as truth. Why?

You are mentally lazy.

You abdicate.

You are enslaved.

Don't believe what i just said.

Prove it for yourself.

 

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 16:56 | 5106023 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I fully agree we are enslaved by our belief systems.

But how do you move a herd? You do so by manipulating their belief system and watch them run off a cliff in pursuit of their beliefs. Most people are content to nurse their beliefs and avoid conflict with others. But convince them they are threatened by others and you can sit back and watch the fireworks.

Tue, 08/19/2014 - 10:13 | 5114140 JRobby
JRobby's picture

Smash all propaganda transmission systems.

ALL OF THEM

 

Tue, 08/19/2014 - 10:38 | 5114284 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Then I guess the alternative media goes as well. Because anyone who doesn't see the propaganda in the alternative media is just asleep as those who watch the mainstream media.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 18:15 | 5106272 Quus Ant
Quus Ant's picture

A more terrifying thought to me is that those in authority are just as much slaves of mind control as the people they dominate.  When Lloyd Blankfein says he is doing god's work he may actually believe it!  In such a scenario TPTB are slaves like the rest of us.  House slaves vs field slaves- to borrow from brother Malcolm.  Overseers still subject to the all knowing, all seeing eye of illusion.  Asleep at the wheel.  Assured in their self dilution/delusion administrating planetary dissolution.

It's comforting in a way to think the masters of the universe know what they are doing.  Then it could be hoped they might turn back from the brink.  While they may have mastery of a few magic spells they still exist within this stream of history/consciousness.

I am reminded of the famous exchange between Fitzgerald and Hemingway.

"The rich are different from you and me."

"Yes. They have more money."

Tue, 08/19/2014 - 10:30 | 5112913 juangrande
juangrande's picture

Of course! Manipulation of many for personal gain is not the forte of the aware. Conversely, the so called elite would not exist without unconscious, yet implicit permission from the majority.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 15:22 | 5105754 WillyGroper
Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:03 | 5106044 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

LOL

 

Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,1
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

Tue, 08/19/2014 - 14:54 | 5115711 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

Great song.  That was the theme song for Weeds.  Took me several episodes (like about 6 or 8) to get the hang of it.  Then I was hooked.   Interesting to see the development of little kids over the 7 or 8 year span of the show.  I did it via Netflix well after the show was done and gone.  Did a Weeds marathon one might say. Yeah, I can be drawn in to that sort of thing -- if I can see a larger theme.   It had one.  The theme song was no mistake.

Melvina Reynolds sings it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 15:12 | 5105679 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

All things in moderation, period.

I look at some of the great things that some exceptional individuals have done for humanity but fully recognize that if everyone was like them, we would destroy ourselves much faster.

Then, as a beekeeper at look at how amazingly productive these creatures can be.  We use their wax, their propolis, their honey, and they keep our fruit trees producing etc.  The hive is most definitely run by the workers as a collective.  God, what a dreadful life that would be.  There are bees who are born, simply to cool the hive by flapping their wings until they die.

More food for thought CD.  We pulled over 300lbs of honey from one hive this year.  Looking forward to a good mead in october.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 16:44 | 5105993 New_Meat
New_Meat's picture

"All things in moderation, period."

Welllllllll, I'm 'aguessin' that must and shall include so-called "moderation" don't cha' know?

- Ned

[and some ass-face really destroyed the terminator ",period."]

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 01:30 | 5107550 Dave Thomas
Dave Thomas's picture

I can't up vote New_Meat's hypothesis so I'm posting hear donthcha know. Here Here sir.

 

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 14:40 | 5105622 HughK
HughK's picture

Specialization is for insects!

Great article!  I especially appreciate the part on the drawbacks of specialization.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

-Robert A. Heinlein (from Time Enough for Love)

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 15:27 | 5105771 reddweb
reddweb's picture

jack of all trades :) The idea is to practice non-attachment, not non-specialization. This thing is beaten to death in old hindu/buddhist cultures, then along the way, all those non-specialists (generalists) got slaughtered by specialists (zealots of particularly peace loving religion). Sometimes trying to be too-much of a non-specialist , too soon, makes you (or an entire society/culture) sloppy/slumber. It takes skills of a specialist to practice the skill of non-specialization. 

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 14:42 | 5109943 Trogdor
Trogdor's picture

I'm much more a fan of being a generalist with a few areas that I'm pretty darn good at ... kind of a hybrid :)

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 17:14 | 5110739 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

And for me those few areas that are pretty darn good sort of rotate among the spectrum. If I haven't wired electrical outlets, breaker panels or a house in a while, once I tackle the job and polish the old skills, that it suddenly becomes my bestest goodest thing at the moment.  :-)

Tue, 08/19/2014 - 13:50 | 5115353 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

That's because living in the moment, and relishing it, is all we have.  The past and present don't exist right now.  But then, I'm preaching to the choir....    I know you've heard this one, but here goes:  When we have one foot in the past and one foot in the future, we are just casting a shadow on today.

Tue, 08/19/2014 - 14:49 | 5115689 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

And pissing in the wind.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 16:17 | 5105911 Atticus Finch
Atticus Finch's picture

I think it was Toffler, the author of Future Shock circa 1969, who wrote that specialization equals extinction. In that, the specialist is eliminated when the next specialization comes along. C++ replaced by C Sharp. Specialist must dissolve themselves into the next incremental specialization or be removed from the food chain. The rapidity of change is occurring in minute divisions of specialization. It is nearly impossible for the generalist to keep up, because the miniscule changes in the tools changes the possibilities achievable in the general approach.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:48 | 5106213 NidStyles
NidStyles's picture

Specialists can not keep up because their field merges with another one, because realistically that is all innovation really is, the branching and merging of fields to solve problems.

 

A generalist does not have the issues that the specialist does as technologies innovate and evolve.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:59 | 5106245 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

A specialist cannot see the forest from the trees. The generalist cannot see the trees from the forest.  :-)

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 01:32 | 5107553 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

One may consider that the extrema are not optimal.

 

Fortunately specialization and generalization are just extrema on a spectrum.

 

When one operates, pragmatically, in the optimal realm then one can become creative and realize much more than those whom are restricted to the false paradigm of the Hegelian Dialectic.

 

Continue to optimize your thought process and void yourself of any and all Logical Fallacies.

 

; - )

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 20:02 | 5106553 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
- Phillip K. Dick

"Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the
world." - Arthur Schopenhauer

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 18:28 | 5106324 Quus Ant
Quus Ant's picture

Good thing in reality we are neither. 

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:42 | 5106189 reddweb
reddweb's picture

everything is a skill (from human mind perspective) and it has a certain way (perfection) to it. Being a cat takes a cat, being a lion a lion. Being Happy a happy person, a bigot a bigot. Human life is a gift to experience and explore nature in all its glory. This is possible only with the practice of non-attachment. Anything less, is limiting. Once you feel you have it down, you are already lost. Since this whole mind thing is like a maze, its prudent to practice "good stuff" (happy, empathy, no-hate love, etc.etc) with awareness.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 17:00 | 5106035 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Simply put, exponential equations are a real bitch...

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 14:39 | 5105621 0b1knob
0b1knob's picture

Double plus ridiculous verging on thought crime.

Room 101.

Sun, 08/17/2014 - 19:25 | 5106475 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

Most people's brains are filled with unthought thoughts.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 06:33 | 5107792 free_lunch
Sun, 08/17/2014 - 21:08 | 5106679 Enslavethechild...
EnslavethechildrenforBen's picture

Hitler didn't exterminate them, we the people did. We didn't have a choice, they were literally starving us to death. Once we stopped the parasites from intercepting the money flowing out of the printing press, we started to prosper once again. Suddenly we had money like before, as if they had never taken the money printing press away from us. Buy they did. So we had to do it. And we would do it all over again. And we will. But this time, it's going to be global.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 23:44 | 5112838 HughK
HughK's picture

Whoa! This got seven up arrows and three down arrows (including mine)?

ZH commenters, he's advocating another Jewish genocide.  WTF?

Enslavethechild, you are mostly responsible for the problems in your life.  Obsession with blaming Jews or any other ethnic group for your problems, or the problems of society is pitiful; but it's also dangerous, so please take a hike, until you get your rabies problem cured.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 23:41 | 5112834 juangrande
juangrande's picture

Is there anything more limiting than victim mentality?

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 07:07 | 5107828 FightingtheFed
FightingtheFed's picture

I believe the Parasite has a little firmer control on its host today than it did back in the 1930s.

 

Regardless wishful thinking.

Mon, 08/18/2014 - 16:57 | 5110682 Boris Alatovkrap
Boris Alatovkrap's picture

NO ONE is control Boris usage of language. Boris is free. You are come work for Boris in Minsk!

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!