This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

A Kept Culture

Cognitive Dissonance's picture




 

A Kept Culture

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. Please stop by and take a look. If you wish to subscribe to ‘Dispatches’, a periodic newsletter from Cognitive Dissonance and TwoIceFloes Creations, please click here.

 

My thinking on a variety of subjects has changed over time and I expect my understanding will continue to evolve as new information, knowledge and propaganda enters my orbit. Contrary to popular belief this is a good thing because it means my mindset is not as static and rigid as some, though it is most certainly worse than others.

One of the great questions of the ages is why we, and by ‘we’ I mean anyone other than ‘they/them’, tolerate the abuse we receive from the hand of our masters. While the mistreatment is most often handed down on an individual basis, “We the Abused” outnumber the abusers by at least 10 to 1. And I count among that ‘1’ all those who enable, support and carry out the abuse. So why do we tolerate something we can clearly stop if we so wish?

Earlier on in my ongoing awakening, a never ending process of self reflection and discovery, I would sometimes use the derogatory term ‘sheeple’ to describe both a people and a condition. I was grasping for a simple all encompassing answer to a complex problem, and believing that the vast masses were blissfully ignorant while passively grazing upon an array of consumer goods satisfied my need to understand what to me at the time was incomprehensible.

This is not to say some are not exactly as described. In fact at one point in my life I fit the bill perfectly, totally consumed in my naval gazing and mostly oblivious to not only my own lot in life, but those around me. As a single parent raising my boy alone for seventeen years, I was righteously indignant if anyone dared to question my focus. After all, I was doing it for the child(ren).

But deep down I knew that at best my explanation was inadequate and at worse deeply flawed. While at several points in my life I was a ‘sheeple’, the description did not fit all my situations all the time. I lived in, and existed within, a far more complex world than could be described using simple concepts and ideas. Like a broken clock I was on the rare occasion quite accurate, but for the vast majority of the time I was dead wrong. I suspect my view was biased by familiarity both with myself and others who fit the description. But more importantly, it was comforting to believe I understood the problem and that I wasn’t ‘it’.

So I continued to search for an answer to THE question, though this time I was more thoroughly grounded after recognizing my desire for a simplistic answer and my need to absolve myself from blame or culpability. This self examination and understanding led directly to my explorations into denial, both of the self and of the collective.

This seemed to make more sense to me and quite frankly still does as a significant contributor to this issue. Denial is infinitely customizable, scalable and adaptable. One can be in total, partial and minimal denial about a subject or subjects and our denial can ebb and flow as circumstances and conditions, including our anxiety and fear, dictate.

We are never completely denial free unless we can claim to have cleared all the Cognitive Dissonance cobwebs from the mind, an assertion I would not make since I stumble across, and become entangled within, new ones on a reoccurring basis. If anything as I continue to grow I find more, not less, though they are increasingly more subtle and nuanced.

But while denial more completely describes the present state of the human condition, it still falls short of encompassing the infinite variety of daily life within the Insane Asylum. How does one cope with being in a near constant state of loss and grief, of borderline depression, while still ‘functioning’ on a day to day basis? In many respects we are endlessly circling the five stages of loss and grief so nicely described in the Kubler-Ross model, yet clearly on a higher, more complex, level of existence because it encompasses both the individual and the collective.

 

JFK Funeral

The JFK Funeral - Collective loss and grief

 

An example of the individual/collective loss and grief dynamic in play was the days and weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Words fail to adequately explain what the nation on all levels experienced at that time. There were few, other than the very young, who were not emotionally moved either directly by the loss or by the collective pall the country entered immediately afterward. As a child of seven years, while I did not understand what was going on, I was definitely moved by the emotional trauma others were dealing with at the time.

However, Kubler-Ross describes a onetime devastating loss or the recognition of an impending loss and the process of navigating that loss and grief, while I am seeking an explanation of a never ending existence within the loss and grief process because the ‘loss’ relates to, and is an integral part of, our daily living. I am speaking directly to the psychological and emotional consequences of the overall condition of our existence rather than onetime events that disturb our existence.

I suspect using the term ‘loss’ is inaccurate or incomplete, at least in the literal sense of the word. While a Lion captured in the wild and then confined to a cage at the zoo ‘knows’ what it has lost, a lion born into captivity never really is aware of a ‘loss’. But both lions may still suffer from the same neurosis which springs from the sense, the knowing, that something not quite definable (and more importantly unchangeable) is wrong.   

It is my supposition that “We the People” also suffer from the same loss, the same trauma, as the captive born lion does, an inner ache and a growing awareness that something is very wrong with the world and our life within it. Because the reality we live within is the only reality we know, most of what is wrong is not readily apparent to the majority of us since this is just the way things are and everyone else lives more or less the same life as we do. A failure of our imagination is partially to blame for the sense we all have of being trapped with nowhere to go and no way to change.

The other day Mrs. Cog used a term to describe a fictional character from an old movie. She said the character was a ‘kept man’ and I instantly understood what she meant, though it would not have mattered if she had said ‘kept woman’. In so many ways the relationship between the ‘keeper’ and the ‘kept’ is remarkably similar to our ‘kept culture’ and the basis for our dour outlook and sense of impending doom and depression, even if it only lingers under the surface of our awareness. Let me attempt to further explain.

There is always an implicit, and often an explicit, agreement of understanding between the keeper and the kept that pretty much spells out the duties of each party as well as the rewards and benefits of the arrangement. With regard to our kept culture, on a broader scale the general terms and conditions of the agreement are spelled out in grade school, then further defined and refined in college, while the specifics of each situation are expressed by each employer/benefactor. Here is what you ‘do’ and this is your ‘compensation’ for doing so.

While most, if not all, of the power remains in the hands of the keeper, it is to the benefit of both parties that an illusion of equality is inferred between the keeper and the kept in order for the kept to feel they have ‘agreed’ to, and are ‘willing’ to, fully cooperate with the keeper to fulfill the terms of the agreement. You catch more flies (and keep more kept) with honey than vinegar. But make no mistake about it, this agreement can only be abridged or fundamentally altered with the consent of the keeper and not by the kept, thus demonstrating where the real power resides.

On those occasions when the kept strays beyond the boundaries laid out in the agreement or angers the keeper, it is then that the power carefully hidden from view and veiled behind propaganda, public protocols and cultural ritual is exhibited in a manner that leaves no doubt who is in charge. Just as the keeper may afford the kept a credit card or regular cash disbursements in order to further the illusion the kept is free and independent, those liberties can and will be quickly rescinded if for no other reason than as a reminder of who holds the power in the relationship.

 

To Protect and Serve.......Whom?

To Protect and Serve......Whom?

 

So too the power of the state, its sharp edges deliberately smoothed by propagandized historical storytelling and mass media assurances, is obvious to anyone looking down the barrel of a gun or being summoned to court. There is no doubt which party is expected to submit when the keepers of the peace and the purse pull you over or summon you for an audit. Ultimately the authority of the keepers is derived from the threat of force, though it is in the best interest of all parties involved to keep this fact carefully obscured behind a thousand sheer veils.

On the surface it would appear the participants never change in these agreements until death do they part. And for some this is the case. But what helps cement the illusion of freedom for the kept, and magnificent benevolence of the keepers, is the seeming ability to change the conditions of the agreement, with each able to leave in order to form a more perfect union with another kept or keeper. But while individual conditions and connections may change, the overall framework remains the same.

This is similar to a formalized agreement between a players’ union (for example the NFL Players Association) and the sport’s organizing consortium (i.e. the National Football League) which outlines the rules that govern the overall relationship between players and league (the Collective Bargaining Agreement). This enables both parties to negotiate everything and anything so long as it follows the general rules and regulations of the governing agreement. So too, the kept and keeper may both change lovers at will so long as they do not switch roles or do anything else that violates the governing agreement parameters. In some ways the keeper is just as constrained as the kept.

Of course the keeper retains a greater degree of flexibility with regard to timing, selection and opportunity, whereas the kept may not overtly ‘select’ a new keeper, but must ultimately be selected by the keeper. The kept may burnish his/her resume (appearance, social and sexual skills, education and training, athletic ability) to increase desirability. But with the market flooded with available (read cheap) kept individuals, ultimately the market is controlled by the keepers. In practice a keeper keeps more than one and often dozens, though there may be a favorite the keeper returns to time and time again.

So while there is some degree of certainty for the kept so long as they remain productive and compliant, there is still a good deal of risk realized from being kept, and most of this risk is arbitrary and unspoken. Needless to say this creates a smoldering sense of anxiety within the kept and over the long term contributes greatly to their neurosis. Essentially being kept is simply another form of slavery, one driven mostly by the willing participation of the kept in service to the keeper. Thus we witness modern day plantation living in all its glory and profit.

 

Future Apple HQ

The future Apple headquarters - Modern plantation living

 

I could go on and on with further examples of how “We the People” are a kept culture, including an in-depth exploration of the psychology underlying it. But why take all the fun out of it by rubbing our noses in our own excrement. The fact remains we for the most part willingly participate in our own slavery because the perks are too good to reject and the pain is not great enough to compel us to shake off the chains that binds us to our own servitude.

While I certainly understand how powerless the kept believe we/they are, and by extension how powerful the keepers remain, this is all an illusion designed to keep the kept (and in many respects the keepers themselves) mesmerized, seduced and sated. The powerful impression of system rigidity and momentum serves to maintain the status quo.

We rarely consider casting off our own chains because we consider our binds tied to everyone else’s and the system itself, thus exponentially complicating the problem in our minds. We conflate our personal condition with the overall systemic condition and vice versa, thus perpetuating the illusion with very little energy introduced to actually change our lives. After all, you can’t fight city hall……right? The funny thing is you don’t need to fight city hall to reformulate your ‘self’, just the desire and courage to do so.

If ever there was a perpetual motion machine invented, it is the social ‘agreement’ I just described. The small amount of energy introduced from outside the closed loop system to keep it churning is minor compared to the amount self produced by the active participation of both the kept and keeper as well as that generated by the ever evolving parameters within the much larger collective governing agreement. This energy, whether internal or external, is expressed primarily as emotion and when multiplied by 325 million, or 7 billion, is quite frankly the most powerful man made force in the universe.

While we blame the keepers for our kept condition, it is we who are ultimately to blame for our slavery primarily because we expect that we must change the world when all we need do is change ourselves. I often ask those around me, “How do you eat an elephant”, a seemingly impossible task. The answer is, of course, one bite at a time. But in order to do so we must be brutally honest with ourselves and recognize our contributing role in the collective farce and the personal conditions we must change if we are to slip the binds that tie.

The perks that come with being kept will not survive the breaking of the keep. And it is our denial of this fact that greatly contributes to the power of the keepers and of our being continuously kept. Pain must be endured and several steps back must be tolerated, even encouraged, if we are to eventually move forward. Centuries of prior collective experience and memory cannot be erased in days, weeks, even months. Nor can we expect others to blaze the trail if we are unwilling to walk the path, alone if necessary. Stop waiting for others to start the process and take your first bite of true freedom.

 

11-02-2014

Cognitive Dissonance

 

As the kept, there is no possibility of an exit. Only a promotion to house slave.

No Exit

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Sun, 11/02/2014 - 20:07 | 5405100 Direct Democracy
Direct Democracy's picture

PHD - a person who learns more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 17:48 | 5404753 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Often, but not always, it is the ultimate mark of deep conditioning.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 19:59 | 5405078 Reaper
Reaper's picture

You get the degree because you learn what is the prescribed thought in the classes. You defend your thesis before professors who wish to be flattered by your imitations of their thinking. A great thesis would rebuke all your professors profess and replace it with a better "truth," which they would reject. A PhD is given for attending classes, paying in cash or services, perseverance in repeating the dogma.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 22:05 | 5405436 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Spot-fucking-on.

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 01:00 | 5405827 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

Hmmm.

'PHD'.

Post-hole digger.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 18:30 | 5404869 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

Close, but not exactly correct. Academics by the nature of their profession are focused individuals who have to become experts at what they do. Expertise requires practice and repetition (deep conditioning, if you will). It is this over-learning that often results in what neuroscientists call, "Einstellung", a habit of creating a deep rut in the neural pathways that is great for recalling what they already know, but hitting a dead end - giving incredibly bad results - when faced with anything new.

It's one of the reasons I keep trying to learn something completely different, whether it is physical or intellectual, to what I did at uni.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 19:09 | 5404961 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Its a great point about academia, I'll preface this by saying there are some very smart people within it and for the most part have their chosen field down pretty well pat. 

But how that relates to different disciplines is where the rub comes in, its not just a mocking gesture on my part when I laugh at them when they announce "This changes everything we thought we knew!" because they all can go off half-cocked in one direction based on guidance from just one or two, who may or may not have the complete picture, without ever cross referencing any other or dismissing all others based on ego.

Simply saying one has a PHD in X so therefore should be unquestioned in his proposal/theory is not sufficient to let what they say sway public policy or perceptions, a Dunning-Kruger Effect of elitism if you will. Listen yes. Act, not necessarily.

This is how theories like eugenics become real life nightmares only recognized as such generations later.

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 08:45 | 5406206 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

.

This is how theories like eugenics become real life nightmares only recognized as such generations later.

 

This is an intriguing example for you to choose nmewn. I would have thought global warming. Or ecofuckingnomics.

 

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 21:55 | 5409087 nmewn
nmewn's picture

;-)

Well, I gotta shake it up every now and then...lol.

I guess I first became interested in the "theory" (junk science really) not for some master race or breeding out disease reasons but because elites are always (at least it seems to me) trying to impose some grand design on the populace, playing God. Whether one believes in God or not is beside the point I'm trying to make, so let me start over.

Their ego is such that they believe they can control nature itself, a very dangerous mindset in my estimation, whether done with the best of intentions or not.

It was a travesty what was done to Carrie Buck and all others by the state, that is supposed to (theoretically) protect them. People are not animals to be experimented on, we are much more and what we think we know now is often times not even close to the truth when looking back on it in the future.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 17:15 | 5404679 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I have zero PhD's. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. ;-)

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 03:39 | 5405987 capitallosses
capitallosses's picture

I think I stayed there the same night in the next room, but I couldn't get any sleep because you snored obnoxiously all night. But I did learn about the meaning of life while staying there.

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 09:34 | 5406304 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"Impossible! I have never heard myself snore. Thus I do not."

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 17:38 | 5404726 Mrs. Cog
Mrs. Cog's picture

lol

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 16:53 | 5404631 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

So not creepy!

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 16:08 | 5404554 blindman
blindman's picture

coincidentally .....
02 NOVEMBER 2014
Raids On the Unspeakable
.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2014/11/raids-on-unspeakable.html
.
""ONE OF THE AWFUL FACTS OF OUR AGE IS THE EVIDENCE THAT THE WORLD IS STRICKEN INDEED, STRICKEN TO THE VERY CORE OF ITS BEING BY THE PRESENCE OF THE UNSPEAKABLE. THOSE WHO ARE SO EAGER TO BE RECONCILED WITH THE WORLD AT ANY PRICE MUST TAKE CARE NOT TO BE RECONCILED WITH IT UNDER THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT: AS THE NEST OF THE UNSPEAKABLE. THIS IS WHAT TOO FEW ARE WILLING TO SEE." THOMAS MERTON, RAIDS ON THE UNSPEAKABLE" jca

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 15:57 | 5404529 no more banksters
no more banksters's picture

"Despite the huge power of this system, anything that is fed from a growing inequality is doomed to collapse, and this system relies on the growing inequality which brings dangerous imbalance. It looks like this system is trapped into a spiral trajectory towards destruction."

http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/11/revolution-evolution-or-revol...

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 15:29 | 5404465 The Most Intere...
The Most Interesting Frog in the World's picture

"But make no mistake about it, this agreement can only be abridged or fundamentally altered with the consent of the keeper and not by the kept, thus demonstrating where the real power resides."

Um, to play devil's advocate on this one.  I don't believe the author has gone through a divorce and child custody proceeding with a plaintiff that does not, and in fact, refuses to work.  Clearly, 100% of the power resides with the kept.  This is accomplished through threat of asset confiscation, jail, bankruptcy and attempted public humiliation.  The keeper has no power.

Or, really who is the keeper, the taxpayers?  Or, government employees?  It is the taxpayers that are the keepers, the government employees are kept.  This is accomplished through threat of asset confiscation, jail, bankruptcy and attempted public humiliation.  Hmmm...  where have I seen that before?  The keepers have no power.

While I understand the premise of the article, IMHO, I think the author has it backwards.  So, make no mistake about it, any agreement can only be abridged or fundamentally altered with the consent of the kept and not of the keeper.  


Mon, 11/03/2014 - 15:31 | 5407668 juangrande
juangrande's picture

You are correct fundamentally. The kept have created the cage they are kept in. The kept have the power to destroy the cage. The kept, at this point, have no clue they have the power.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 17:24 | 5404701 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

I'm going to disagree with you both, and say that the keeper/kept dynamic in fact dis-empowers BOTH. It is a dysfunctional relationship, and though it might provide some short-term benefits to either, in the end they are both dependent on each other, thus LOSING their power to exist independently.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 17:59 | 5404775 The Most Intere...
The Most Interesting Frog in the World's picture

IDK, I agree that "the keeper/kept dynamic in fact dis-empowers BOTH."

I cannot agree that, "in the end they are both dependent on each other". The kept is dependent on the keeper.  

In the end, the keeper loses their power to exist independently via force.  The kept has power only through the use of force.  This is the ultimate point I am trying to make.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 18:37 | 5404884 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

Yeah, but don't let yourself be limited in what you see as 'dependence'. While it may seem like the it is the welfare recipient who is dependent because he gets an EBT card, those 'keeper agencies' are in fact dependent upon the elaborate financial construct they have built around the giving of EBT cards to folks like him.
The dynamic exists. Whatever 'benefit' either side might be getting, it comes at the expense of their independence. This will manifest to each according to his circumstances, which may make it seem like two different things. But you have to see beyond the particulars to the underlying pattern.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 15:48 | 5404506 Rememberweimar
Rememberweimar's picture

Once we the kept by the kept for the kept decide to withdraw our consent to be governed by others then the paradigm will change. Not until then.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 16:57 | 5404638 The Most Intere...
The Most Interesting Frog in the World's picture

No, the kept will themselves, or through their intermediaries, imprison or kill you the keeper if you do not continue to keep them in the lifestyle in which they are accustom, period.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 16:13 | 5404570 huntergvl
huntergvl's picture

... Not until then? ..... NOT EVER.

There will be no time when the kept, collaborate for their own greater good. The most they can hope for is to exchange one set of keepers for a different one. We also know historically that if by some chance the kept do instigate change, the replacements are usually more cruel, more vicious, and more fascist.

Only a few times in history have the downtrodden risen up for the greater good and instigated change. Far more often, almost to the point of being the rule, those in power ruthlessly put down any uprising and use the event to become even more totalitarian.

The solution is to be one of the haves and work against the have nots. Any other path is rife with hypocrisy. Resources have never been equal and wealth will always reside in the hands of the few.

Just be one of the few. Simple.

The human species is reaching a climax of evolution. Our intellect, self awareness, and 'progress,' allowed us to expand and flourish, but will also be the foundation for our extinction. Progress is an illusion, there is only the quickening towards extinction.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 21:23 | 5405314 petero
petero's picture

huntergvl >> "There will be no time when the kept, collaborate for their own greater good. The most they can hope for is to exchange one set of keepers for a different one. We also know historically that if by some chance the kept do instigate change, the replacements are usually more cruel, more vicious, and more fascist."

I agree with your premise but there is an alternative that leads elsewhere.

As long as people believe they need to "collaborate" with others in order to defeat their keeper by building their own more powerful group, they will only become the new keepers, if successful, and perpetuate the abuse. Power corrupts no matter who holds it.

As long as people believe that "collaboration" amongst themselves requires a heirarchal structure with some individuals ?leaders? having more power than others there will always be keepers and the kept.

The alternative is free individuals all working towards their individual goals without relying on a heirarchal structure of keepers and kept.

Individuals working towards their own goals doesn't rule out co-operation among free individuals. We are all more alike than dis-similar and group effort has obvious benefits which cannot be denied. "Collaboration" is achievable without structured hierarchy. An organizer of a specific undertaking, with no extra perks, or power to force compliance is a healthy alternative 'leaders', and just as effective in accomplishing complex goals. Some societies have even rotated all individuals into such positions in order to build character and confidence.

We have been taught that individuals all doing their own thing without hierarchy leads to destructive anarchy. We have been taught to fear each other so that we feel we need to be protected from each other by our keepers.

There is much conflict between individuals within our society but almost all of it is artificially introduced by our keepers to keep us fearful of unruly individuals. These multitudes of conflicts are purposefully created by our keepers through introducing 'Truths' and conditioning in us the need to defend them. Introducing different truths to different groups all intent on defending their "taught" truths creates all the conflict needed to keep the keepers in power.

The nature of truth is what we need to understand if we hope to live an alternative to being a keeper or a kept.

There is no one truth. There are as many truths as there are cognizant individuals, and each truth is as valid as any other.

Truth becomes destructive when we give up the power of controlling our own truth to someone else who convinces us their truth is a better one than our own.

Giving up our own truth gives others power over us.

Also believing our own truth is more valid than anyone else's truth causes conflict between individuals.

Being taught to believe we have the right to force our own truth on others causes the destruction that our keepers use so powerfully.

Once we realize that deciding for ourselves which truth we want to explore, as individuals, empowers us to do whatever is necessary to determine our own future, we become free to act as we individually determine.

If our chosen truth includes no longer desiring to be a keeper or a kept, it soon becomes obvious what we need to do to accomplish that goal.

If our chosen truth includes goodwill and cooperation with other individuals, that also will manifest in our lives.

If we do not feel we need to prove other people's truths as being wrong because they are not the same as our own, the largest motivator for conflict is greatly reduced. Yes there will still be those determined to force their own truth on everyone else, but if you aren't reliant on them for survival the world is still a big enough place to avoid them most of the time. If enough individuals go their own way, the keepers will find themselves powerless one day.  

My personal belief is... even if I lose the struggle to be free, the attempt to accomplish this goal is worth far more than any consequences the attempt might cause.

One last thought....

Our Keepers have made us believe that "Money" is one of the most powerful TRUTHS. Money only has power over us as long as we desire what it can bring us and believe the only way to get what we desire is through having money.

Once we realize that there are many alternatives to money, in order to create things, and better our lives, even cooperatively, our society will fundamentally change.

Money is the card up the sleeve of the keepers that cheats the rest of us out of the returns of our labor. If we desire a better life we need to step out of the rigged game.

The above sounds unrealistic and idealistic but logic suggests it is what is required to create real change. My own truth is that if I want to live my own truth I need to tackle my reality no matter how impossible it seems to achieve what I desire. Without such determination I will not live my own truth.

 

 

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 21:39 | 5405361 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"Individuals working towards their own goals doesn't rule out co-operation among free individuals. We are all more alike than dis-similar and group effort has obvious benefits which cannot be denied. "Collaboration" is achievable without structured hierarchy. An organizer of a specific undertaking, with no extra perks, or power to force compliance is a healthy alternative 'leaders', and just as effective in accomplishing complex goals. Some societies have even rotated all individuals into such positions in order to build character and confidence."

You are talking about teaching as opposed to ruling. What a scarce and valuable concept these days. Only someone self assured enough not to be worried they are giving away the store would be so brave as to teach someone else how to build and run their own store. Artificial scarcity does wonders to create the conditions under which we compete rather than cooperate. The solution is learning new ways. The problem is forgetting the old ways.

How has the rehabilitation of your cabin in the woods progressed? I suspect you are done for the season and back home snug as a bug.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 23:06 | 5405621 petero
petero's picture

Cog>> You are talking about teaching as opposed to ruling.

For me it boils down to common sense.

Which is more amenable to 'individuals' prospering?

A society where some are doing well, while others are struggling and starving?

or

A society where everyone is prosperous and doing well?

Even though an individual is 'free', and prosperous, it is to their benefit that all other individuals are also free and prosperous. If they aren't they will soon covet your good fortune and conflict will arise. This is the lesson our keepers haven't learned.

Sharing your good fortune, be it knowledge or durable goods, with others will better your own life as well as theirs.

RE cabin... Although I got a lot done on the cabin this year it wasn't as much as I hoped for, mostly because of weather. This has been one of our wetter years and we will probably see 20 feet of rain this year.

I did upgrade the mooring for my boat to the point where I can get in and out in pretty much any weather year round. The ocean gets extremely rough there especially in the winter and the terrain is very rocky and steep. There is no chance of getting a rough water capable boat out of the water so the mooring has to be substantial enough for a boat in the water to survive substantial storms.

I can now also pull the boat in to shore as needed to board it instead of having to put a smaller boat into the water or swimming out to the moored boat.

No micro hydro yet but I've got a basic electrical system together enough to power lights, a small fridge and satellite communication. I've learned a lot about recovering dead lead acid batteries in the last year and have a 6kw inverter with a large, free, battery bank that can run the place for about two months at a time and then can be recharged by a small generator for about 12 hours.

I'm doing a test this winter with a couple of powerful solar panels to see if I can generate enough power in this climate to make solar worthwhile.

Hopefully micro hydro next year. I scrounged the 600ft of pipe necessary for the system but it is bulky and too heavy to bring out in my boat. A logging company will be heli logging in the area next spring and it looks like they will fly the pipe out for me.

Life is great here and I'm still enjoying every moment.

Peter

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 08:48 | 5406210 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"Life is great here and I'm still enjoying every moment."

Wonderful! So few can say that and actually mean it.

Mrs. Cog and I are entering our second winter here on the mountain. While we are prepared for another tough one we both are very happy up here. What we gave up, and continue to give up on a daily basis, pales in comparision to what we have gained.

Just the clear starry nights are a joy to behold. Since I service the external wood stove boiler at least twice a day, one of those trips are usually at night. On clear nights I get a crick in my neck as I behold a magnificent sky unspoiled by light pollution.

I have noticed the winter star patterns are returning. I welcome back my old friends after a six month absence.

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 09:44 | 5406328 new game
new game's picture

nice, i saw those friends the other night too. also during these night time outings it is fun(for me) to listen to the night crew moving about in the woods. worth an imaginary scare or two. most is just our minds running askew, hence the fear of darkness.

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 10:27 | 5406483 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

The night time sounds always sound huge up here on the mountain.

Sometimes I can't help but laugh at myself when I trek down to the wood stove with my flashlight. It only illuminates where I am going and not where I have been. Sometimes when I hear something large crashing around in the woods I shine the light towards the sound. Only later do I fully recognize danger can also be behind me where no light, nor eyes, shine.

Time to grow a second set of eyes for the back of my head.  :)

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 10:48 | 5406552 Mrs. Cog
Mrs. Cog's picture

No worries pumpkin, I've got your six. :-)

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 11:26 | 5406717 new game
new game's picture

yes, the sound is always scarier where we can't see. try leaving the flashlight off til to the task. your night vision can be trained-exercise thoose eyes to see in darkness. a great book to read is the tracker. (read twice!). you will not be able to set it down once you start. he wrote how he overcame the spirits of darkness. how true for me. embrace fear and discover more of yourself, it is very challenging and can be extremly rewarding...

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 11:32 | 5406746 new game
new game's picture

my favorite pumkin is my s and w (well worn-outside wood panel)mod 19, just enuf but not too much :)

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 19:30 | 5405004 Rememberweimar
Rememberweimar's picture

You sound like a pretty aggressive predatory criminal. Do you have an arrest record?

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 15:51 | 5404503 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Actually I did go through a divorce and custody fight. I won the right to raise my son and for my ex-wife to pay child support, an order she ignored for well over 7 years by simply not working and living off others, including the state via welfare. The courts were not interested in jailing a woman for non-payment, though if the situation were reversed I would have been quickly locked up.

This does not invalidate my supposition. Ultimately we are all our brother's keeper. It is not strictly a rich/poor dynamic, but more like a Mandelbrot pattern repeated down to the smallest example. The keepers are themselves kept by a high echelon of keepers and so on and so on. This plays out going up and down the rungs of the socioeconomic ladder.

This is the premise behind my "Personal Sovereignty" series, that ultimately we must be solely responsible for ourselves before we can ever begin to withdraw from the system.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 18:55 | 5404938 delacroix
delacroix's picture

that ladder goes deeper into the structure, well beyond socioeconomics.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 21:13 | 5405288 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Agreed.

The challenge in writing both my articles and leaving comments under my articles is to keep them short enough to maintain attention while long enough to cover the subject well. It is always a losing battle.

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 09:38 | 5406312 new game
new game's picture

helpfull hint;try to purge always and never from your vocabulary.

is just isn't true(or very rarely in real life)...

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 17:10 | 5404668 Yes_Questions
Yes_Questions's picture

 

 

The Keeper/Kept dynamic is not well characterized by applying a Taker/Giver dynamic as a comparison.  The concept becomes confused by a lower level of thought and invites anger into the discussion.  It keeps the Kept in their prisons, is the product of Fear Pornographers and serves to protect the status-quo. 

 

The Kept are best characterized by their fear responses to perceived threats.  By submitting/agreeing to fear, the Kept agree to a subordinate position of control to the Keepers.  

 

the trick is to be neither Kept or Keeper, but free instead.

 

my $0.02

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 21:15 | 5405295 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Interestingly both the keepers and the kept always have someone over and under them. So while I may be kept, there is someone below me I am keeping. Same with the keepers. The boss has a boss who has a boss and so on.

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 09:05 | 5406217 ebear
ebear's picture

Keepers and kept seems to me too narrow a definition.

I prefer this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiosis

and in particular, this:

 

Symbiogenesis

The biologist Lynn Margulis, famous for her work on endosymbiosis, contends that symbiosis is a major driving force behind evolution. She considers Darwin's notion of evolution, driven by competition, to be incomplete and claims that evolution is strongly based on co-operationinteraction, and mutual dependence among organisms. According to Margulis and Dorion Sagan, "Life did not take over theglobe by combat, but by networking."[41]

 

As above, so below.

 

 

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 09:32 | 5406301 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

An excellent term to describe the human condition. Then again.....the words kept, keep and keepers can be combined in all kinds of interesting and nuanced ways.

I am a propagandist that strives to entertain as much as inform. Just ask Banzai7 about that formula. :-)

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 09:37 | 5406308 new game
new game's picture

and talented at that :~)

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 16:48 | 5404627 The Most Intere...
The Most Interesting Frog in the World's picture

I'm happy for you that you got rid of the bitch.  Me, I haven't been so lucky, been trying to gain custody for some time.  Not sure what state you live in but a nutsack in the state I live affords you a 10% chance of victory and only if the mother is one of mentally ill, an alcoholic,  or a drug addict combined with beating the shit out of her children.  It already cost me $90,000 in attorney fees for the initial fight, now another $25,000, and according to my attorney, another $40,000.  All that would seem like alot until you compare it to the over $600,000 in support payments already shelled out, loss of about 60% of net worth (alot of money) in the divorce and staring down the barrel at another $300,000 of support payments over the coming years.  Al of this money should be going directly to support my children and towards their educations, but it is not.  95% of it is siphoned off by the mom, the courts and the attorneys before they get clothed and fed.  The "kept" require the law, threat of prison and, if need be, weapons to maintain "the lifestyle they have become accustomed to".  If I tried to flee there is no doubt you would find me pulled over by some punk cop laying face down with a boot on the back of my neck and a .40 Glock pointed at the back of my head.

And if anyone wants to attack me or others in this situation by calling me "deadbeat dad", fuck you!  You have no idea what you are talking about.  I have worked very hard to support my children and will continue to do so.  The problem is I have to support, and pay the legal fees of, the un-working.  

And I suggest you take a trip to Washington DC and drive around the neighborhoods for a while.  Check out the prices for real estate, now the most expensive in the country surpassing New York recently, and the lifestyles, which are second to none.  Then tell me who is being kept. 

"that ultimately we must be solely responsible for ourselves before we can ever begin to withdraw from the system."

 

I presume that this is theoretical in nature and something to strive for as a society?  I have no disagreement if that is the supposition.  However, to say that individuals in our society are responsible for themselves, and that those that are most responsible, will somehow withdraw more from the system is stretching it, a lot.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 20:41 | 5405192 Lumberjack
Lumberjack's picture

The state loves to cash in on the misery of others. You must live in Massachusetts.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 21:36 | 5405360 The Most Intere...
The Most Interesting Frog in the World's picture

Great guess, very close.  In Mass no way I would have been able to keep my heart lungs and liver.  They'd a been like you'll be fine and besides, the attorneys need to be paid.

Sun, 11/02/2014 - 20:09 | 5405108 Miffed Microbio...
Miffed Microbiologist's picture

Your anger is understandable. I once had a conversation with a dear friend,my kindred spirit if you will. We both shared similar stories of a devastating childhood filled with damage, psychological as well as physical. The major difference was I was taken out of my torment by my husband who married me at 22 so I could escape. He had to go it alone. He made the comment to me that women have the advantage because they can be "rescued" whereas men will never have that fortune. Society expects them to solve their own problems without an easy out.

This troubled me for the longest time. His point was valid and I struggled with the guilt of the simple unfairness of this. Over time I realized I really wasn't "rescued" by my husband. It was only geography. The damage was inside me and where ever you go, there you are. My husband had to live with a very troubled girl for 20 years vacillating from severe depression and anger. He could not rescue me from this. But he did one thing. He stayed. He endured. And over time, he watched me climb out, all the time being as supportive as he could but realizing it was my own journey. He could not help but just witness the process. I am so thankful he gave me the gift of his presence and grateful I can be a loving kind partner now he deserved for so long. The last 10 years have been a time of reparations. We can look at the terrible hurts we had done to each other, see each other's point of view at the time and forgive. This has been a monumental gift.

The only challenge that remains is forgiving my parents for the abuse, especially my mother. She is dead now and I had hoped I could let some of it go. Sadly, so much of the hatred remains. I do at times have a little bit of empathy and I am trying to built on this but I am frustrated it is so fleeting. Sometimes I feel kept by this anger. It has me by the throat and won't let go.

I am saddened by you situation. So unfair. I hope you can find a way out from the anger and find someone who loves you and be a friend during these dark times. Sometimes having someone who cares as you walk the journey can make all the difference. You will be in my thoughts. Best wishes.

Miffed

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 00:11 | 5405740 Buster Cherry
Buster Cherry's picture

Now that was a burst of sunshine I rarely see here.

I enjoyed your story and hope my wife loves me at least a fraction of what you described of your husband.

Mon, 11/03/2014 - 09:33 | 5406302 new game
new game's picture

miffed. thanks so much for sharing that. i can totally relate to some of the stuff. my parents did the best they thought was right. aside from that they had their shortcomings. my(our), task in life is to break that chain of bad traits (anti-soc, narsascissim-sp?and histrionics) as behaviors. that is the forgiveness i hang on to...

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