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The Death of Hope and Belief
The Death of Hope and Belief
By
Cognitive Dissonance
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As much as we would like to ‘believe’ we are all clear headed, logical individuals who only deal with verified ‘facts’ while shunning hearsay, rumor, ‘hope’ and ‘belief’, the reality is to some degree or another we integrate all of the above, and so much more, into our personal cognitive operating system. The tendency when reading such a statement is to immediately emotionally trigger, become annoyed or even angry, and then listen to that soothing inner egoic voice as it assures us we are not the one Cog is looking for.
Regardless of whether we attribute this cognitive juxtaposition to raging ego, genetic predisposition, normalcy bias, cultural conditioning or simply denial, critical thinking, if ever truly deployed, is often limited to those times when we ‘believe’ it is in our best interest to think outside the box. But even then, our effort is severely limited by the tendency to hold on tightly to the comforting handrails when venturing into foreign territory.
Try as we might to convince ourselves otherwise, hope is just the ugly stepchild of belief, interchangeable and indistinguishable, especially during periods of high emotional stress and cognitive fight or flight. Naval gazing, pretty much all we see when engaging in hope and belief, is the ultimate human blinder and the chains that bind.
Once we accept something as ‘true’, essentially a non specific condition arrived at with minimal critical thinking and even less logical reasoning, rarely if ever do we revisit the subject to check our premises. And why would we since we ‘believe’ what we want and not what is actually there. Since the only unchanging ‘truth’ throughout the universe is that change is constant, ‘We the People’ often hope our beliefs still hold true………assuming we honestly question our beliefs in order to discover if they ever rang true.
Often we pig pile falsehoods, misconceptions, hearsay and the ‘trusted’ opinion of authorities and acquaintances on top of each another and call the resulting mishmash our opinion, a cleverly encrypted carrier signal demonstrating the true genesis of our underlying hope and belief. While we bitterly complain about mainstream media reporters all repeating from the same contrived script, we might just be the most egregious of all serial repeaters. After all, it takes one to know one.
Since so few of us have the actual courage to walk the path alone and be truly contrary to the dominant groupthink, why then would we expect ourselves to take the first step and think deviant thoughts in blatant opposition to the consensus of the hive mind? Even when we finally do break from the majority, both exhilarated and frightened by the audacity of hope that personal salvation could be found elsewhere, we immediately seek out the comfort of the nearest like minded minority.
Nothing soothes the savage ego beast quite like collective affirmation and psychic reintegration into a colluding collective. Our desperate attempts to be perceived as unique and special in the eyes of our fellow herd members is the egoic trap that keeps us chained to false hope and belief and all its various complications. Only the strongest among us willingly withstand the pain that springs from self isolation. Knowing this to be the truth, how can anyone declare themselves original thinkers, free from significant cognitive influences and meme traps?
I will be the first to admit I hold no original thought, only slightly unique word constructs and voluminous regurgitations. But contrary to consensus thinking, ‘knowing’ this is not a deficit but in ‘fact’ a valuable strategic asset. I am content in the knowledge I will most likely not blaze new cognitive ground, but instead simply follow faint trail sign left by many others before me. Knowing this, and being settled with it, I can then busy myself with the recognition and disarming of my ego. In the process I might possibly gain some personal insight and enlightenment, a perfect example of winning by not playing.

Even Shifting Sands can be Settled
We are our own worst enemy simply because we self identify with our ego, the ultimate slave master. If we were to recognize and then fully embody this ‘truth’, suddenly the mind and spirit soar to heights unimagined but easily attainable. Completely ignorant of our enemy, in a cognitive judo match with our ego we are the perpetual white belted novice pitted against the black belt sensei. The only way to win is not to play at all because the egoic sensei knows us so much better than we know ourselves.
Since few will actually withdraw when their ego is egging them on, all the sociopaths need do to manipulate and control us is to remotely leverage the power the ego already commands. And that power is exercised primarily through our mostly false hope and belief. I often say we are only as sick as our deepest darkest secrets. How better to control us than by accessing those secrets via the ego and leveraging them against us, sort of spooky blackmail at a distance.
While there are always exceptions to every rule, one merely needs to examine the mindset of both the children and adults of any household to discover where many long held and cherished ‘truths’ (aka ‘hope and belief’) are formulated before going forth to multiply. Born of pride and prejudice, fired in the crucible of stereotypical hatred and ignorance, then cemented firmly in place via constant repetition and familial affirmation, for the most part we are the product of our upbringings, be they the good, the bad and the unimaginably ugly. It really doesn’t matter if the propaganda we integrate when young comes from mother dearest or fascist Fatherland. In practice it winds up being a toxic stew of both.
Particularly with regard to personal relationships (and make no mistake about it, our cultural ‘hopes’ and ‘beliefs’ are extremely personal in nature) rarely is logic or reason employed when rushing out another label carefully disguised as knowledgeable fact. All this is done to demonstrate our steadfast conviction in truth, justice and the American way less we appear weak and indecisive to our fellow egoic slaves. Believe what you want, but never let them see your sweaty indecision. Labels are the lazy man’s prodigal thinking, the more derogatory the better to feel superior while fanning the flames of self righteous indignation or despondent victimhood.
But alas hope springs eternal, especially for those of us who are a product of our rigid belief system and the certainty we are the exception to the norm, therefore we alone can see what no one else is able to behold. Banishing all doubt from our mind, steeled with the singleness of our purpose to bestow upon those poor unfortunate others not blessed with our insight, we echo each other when declaring the utter ruination we’re all headed towards. Endless doom porn is such an aphrodisiac that I’m a bit surprised we aren’t all walking around permanently aroused. On second thought, maybe we are. After all, there is an ever so fine line between titillation and terror.
Even those who have lost all faith in the ability to correct the present state of affairs and are simply awaiting the ‘inevitable’ collapse and re-set, still retain hope and belief that once the collapse is complete and the debris has been cleared a new beginning will emerge. Thus it is indirectly but clearly inferred those most responsible for the Empire’s fall will be purged from the system, paving the way for sanity to return and a new era to follow, a renaissance if you will, a cleansing of the filth, decay and corruption that rejuvenates the mind and body politic.
Seen from this perspective, how can anyone claim this isn’t unadulterated hope and belief, especially when thousands of years of history indicate this will not be the case? Of course, if our history is manipulated and altered to deliberately keep us lost in the historical wilderness, how can we learn from our ancestor’s mistakes if we do not question our historical premises? At some point during our maturing process we really do need to take personal responsibility for our hope and beliefs and everything they intersect. I guess this explains why so many remain childlike in thought and deed.
I have argued time and time again a very simple proposition, that we support the system even when we claim to oppose it. Direct opposition, often expressed as personal polarization, tends to increase the support we lend to the system by playing into its strength in much the same way those we claim are deaf, dumb and blind mindlessly engage with the system. Being polarized pits “We the People” against each other, leaving us all exhausted and discarded on the side of the road.

Exhausted and Discarded on the Side of the Road
The opposite of support is not to oppose, though any competent dictionary will claim otherwise, but instead to withdraw and withhold. The insanity will wither and die on the vine only when there is little active participation of any kind. And by this I do not mean apathy, a sucking psychic nothingness of total cognitive and spiritual disability. Instead I speak of an active and purposeful redirection of our power and spirit away from the psychopathic parasites and towards creating our own healthy and self enabling reality.
We are desperate to believe ‘they’ alone control us in order to absolve us from personal responsibility. It is our blindly proffered hope and belief which nourishes the sociopaths who then peddle their insanity, the ultimate symbiotic codependent dialectic speaking louder than words ever could.
‘Believing’ ourselves powerless (because we want to be) we blithely and blindly empower those whom we ‘know’ are already powerful (because we want them to be). Conceding defeat before the blade is even drawn, the battle is over before it ever began. One must admire such brilliant tactics, so Sun Tzuesque even he would stand in awe of the majesty of such total and complete self defeatism. Then again, it is the only way the few can control the teaming masses and still reap the rewards of the plebs ever increasing productivity. Welcome to the new slave plantation.
The system as presently constructed thrives on mindless zombie consumers and disgruntled malcontents/disaffected souls (as well as everyone else in-between) because what is most important to the perpetuation of the system is not actually physical in nature. The sociopathic system controls us not by subjugating our physical bodies, bound as they may be by their fictional fiat chains and by their threats of fatal force. Rather their power is derived from our ‘belief’ in those chains and guns and their declared divine right to use them.
Instead, or maybe I should say in addition, what feeds them is a mental, emotional and spiritual energy which springs from within us (metaphysical some might say) a concept so far off the radar screen of the average person who ‘believes’ the only energy that matters is petrochemical or thermonuclear in nature, that all other possibilities are dismissed outright. Our false hope and beliefs, which perpetuates and propels our utter blindness to nearly everything else that is possible, exposes our vulnerable Achilles Heel as we travel the road to perdition.
Many years ago when I first attempted to apply critical thinking on a consistent basis, the best I could come up with was to minimally recognize the very denial I employed to reject the notion I was in some respects complicit. I began to recognize my denial was the chain that bound me to all my impossible situations. Because I believed myself the victim rather than an enabler, clearly I wasn’t the problem. Therefore I would make no effort to withdraw since that would solve nothing and only hurt myself in the process.
It was only some time later, during deep conversations with a more aware and enlightened friend, that I came to see my false hopes and beliefs were actually anchor stones around my mind and spirit, deliberately harnessed by outside forces to hobble and weaken me. It was then I remembered a mindlessly repeated Latin phrase from my childhood days as an altar boy/server. Recognizing it as ‘truth’ I accepted and embodied it using the strength of humility rather than the constraint of self righteous piety. “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” Through my fault, through my fault, through my very great fault.
We are witnessing the blooming of unprecedented sociopathic evil in the present day that is quite frankly unimaginable, therefore ‘unbelievable’ to the average sleep walker, let alone those of us who claim clarity of vision and mind. And as we all know, anything unbelievable is considered not ‘real’ or ‘true’ and thus there is nothing we need to do about the non-thing. This is how we bargain with our hope and belief in order to minimize the threat and therefore our need to become involved.

Hiding Behind the Mask of Hope and Belief
In the interest of clarity the term ‘evil’ is not used to infer a religious connection of non divine intervention, but simply to describe something thoroughly and dangerously alien to nearly all by using a term commonly understood as terrible and ominous, all powerful and consuming. Left speechless otherwise, when covering new territory one must occasionally employ old words to describe new worlds. The trick is to take ownership of the words rather than succumb to the propagandized version of them. Either we (re)make our own reality or we live in someone else’s.
Once finally recognized for what it truly is, the evil of the sociopathic perpetrators is obvious and self evident. Which then begs the question; if I go along to get along, what does that make me? What if I am not actually forced to participate, but instead see it as simply in my best interest in order to survive? From that point of view the road from rags to riches, modern crony capitalism at its best, is the path of least resistance and greatest self interest. If this is the path I follow, how am I superior to those I claim are the problem?
Regardless of whether I recognize the lead psychopathic dogs as evil or inspiring, what is my responsibility when stepping on those below in order to gain advantages from above? Do I declare it a dog eat dog world simply to get in the first and last bites? What is ‘evil’ other than maximum self interest run riot? Just because I tithe ten percent doesn’t wash my hands clean of the blood.
In the ultimate act of victimhood we solemnly declare force majeure via evil doer, which neatly absolves us of any responsibility for the state of current affairs and our supposed ‘coerced’ participation. When viewed with hope and belief, material science completely and competently explains all there is to know about how the physical and metaphysical world ‘works’. Confidently assured that our present paradigm is just human nature, there is nothing left to do but wash our hands of the entire affair and bunker down to await the global blast and follow-on shock wave.
And there is no doubt some will be crushed under the falling fiat landslide, thereby lending perceived credibility to the idea bunkering is the best and only option. However, dug in deep like a tic while screaming at the computer monitor about some anonymous asshole commentator whom we claim knows nothing only perpetuates our support for the system. Do our childish minds really think those whom we blindly empower will scurry away like cockroaches exposed by the refrigerator light and leave us be after the fall? Really? Are we serious?
The playbook employed against us is thousands of years old and consists of one simple rule. Leverage the plebs’ hope and belief against them time and time again. When the cycle ends in a flash of self-immolation, start it up all over again with fresh actors and a whitewashed stage. Rinse and repeat endlessly because no matter what, the mind memes deeply implanted within the survivors of the present generation spawns the next generation, creating new zombies needing only small adjustments to fit the present day circumstances. WE are the problem, an insight glaringly obvious since our children become part of the next problem and we raise our children to be little replicas of us.
Only when patently false hope and belief are thoroughly uprooted and destroyed, then replaced with awareness of our personal responsibility to be honest with ourselves in all our affairs, will these self destructive cycles come to an end. I am not suggesting the reader is responsible for all that is wrong with the world today nor is it his or her responsibility to fix all of it. But I am suggesting we are responsible for cleaning up our own house.
Once we begin this process we quickly discover we have been carrying around dozens of pounds of needless cognitive and emotional weight, a needless burden which has obscured our vision and understanding from birth while leaving us cognitively impotent, emotionally immature and growth impaired. As individuals we cannot change the world today. But we can change ourselves, and in so doing we plant the seeds that will change the world tomorrow. It all begins within.
03-29-2015
Cognitive Dissonance
Blind Hope and Belief (Collective Self Portrait)

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http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2015/03/at-center-of-our-being-...
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30 MARCH 2015
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Harbor Lights
“At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will.
This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely."
Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
"There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney, and go along their way. Look here, now, what must be done? Must one tend that inner fire, have salt in oneself, wait patiently yet with how much impatience for the hour when somebody will come and sit down near it-maybe to stay? Let him who believes in God wait for the hour that will come sooner or later."
Vincent Van Gogh, Letter 133
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Graham Parker - "Between You And Me" 1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OASHzUCWuI
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" all i knew were the lights in the harbor.
all i saw was a flash in my head." g.p.
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thanks c.d/ms. c.d. .
The great awakening is just starting. Bit by bit people are starting to place more focus on their knowing and less on their beliefs. Inspite of all the conditioning.
Not long ago if I told people that inflation is theft. It would requier an explanation. Now it gets nods.
If one spoke of spying? Tin foil was the retort. Now they will give back the address.
Corruption at all levels? Nobody with a brain argues it any more.
One amazing thing is starting. Insults are not working in debates as they did just a few years ago. More people are demanding real answers. If you listen carefully you can hear them calling BS and its getting louder all the time.
"Only when patently false hope and belief are thoroughly uprooted and destroyed, then replaced with awareness of our personal responsibility to be honest with ourselves in all our affairs, will these self destructive cycles come to an end."
In other words, these self destructive cycles will NEVER come to an end. Unless, that is, humans stop being humans. This is our nature. This is what humans do.
I beg to differ. This is what conditioned slaves do.
If a rat is trained to run a maze, then the next 6 generations of that rat are also trained to run a maze, would you then say it is rat nature to run a maze?
Cog, let me ask you this: do you find hope in anything external to yourself? Hope in something better is all we have some days. What do you think should keep a strictly responsible, self-dependent mind from sliding into nihilistic oblivion? What's more, why do you think we have this unquenchable need to accept external care and authority?
I have great hope in many things. As well, I also harbor 'belief' in many things which can't be 'proven' or quantified. But I do attempt to avoid false or self deluded hope and belief.
When trying to pull back the illusion there are often many times when we cannot 'know' everything for a variety of reasons. It is then we substitute in beliefs, hearsay and rumor. That in and of itself is not 'wrong' if while doing so we understand this is what we are doing and continue to search for more information. However when we do so and then accept it as full and final 'truth' is when we veer off into self delusion and false hope and belief.
I think it is mostly due to generational training and conditioning over thousands of years. But I suspect the root need arose from an ancient catastrophic world changing event that is documented in every culture's myths and legends the world over. It's a fascinating subject in its own right. The study of comparative mythology brings out many root similarities between all the seemingly different ancient cultural stories.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/
There are no original thoughts, only original ways of organizing unoriginal thoughts to accommodate particular situations.
I do have a question when you say the death of belief. When you say belief do you mean the religious belief? I ask this because belief in ones ability to overcome any circumstance has nothing to do with religion but of confidence.
Quick example. As one who tries to play golf belief in ones ability to make a proper shot under stress is directly related to ones commitment of practicing your swing and the mechanics related to the situation so as to have confidence in what you are doing.
When I don't have confidence, I don't have belief in my ability to make the shot I want. Let alone keep a clear mind. One bad shot leads to another due to a lack belief in my ability and preparedness to make the shot.
However if I have been in a specific situation that I am prepared for I have a belief that I can make the shot I need to due to proper preparation. That is to say that belief is confidence that is created by ones accumulation of knowledge and experience as to give you the mental strength to believe in ability to complete the task with confidence.
I do find myself saying I hope I make this shot when I'm not playing well or on a new course that I'm unfamiliar with. I also find myself saying I CAN make this shot when I'm playing well or have been in a certain situation that I have had plenty of time to practice, I.e., the sand trap.
I will say this about belief as it pertains to religion. The teachings in religion are the knowledge necessary to meet the challenges of the physical life
Which gives one the confidence to deal with these challenges without falling into the trappings of the human condition that leads to the evils we see everyday.
Careful. There is every difference between a belief in a Creator and our desire to please him and the religions of the world that have cropped up to show us how we should direct that desire. One is freedom, the other is often just control.
"Only when patently false hope and belief are thoroughly uprooted and destroyed, then replaced with awareness of our personal responsibility to be honest with ourselves in all our affairs, will these self destructive cycles come to an end."
So...never.
Or at any rate not till our masters either develop robots able to kill us all and replace us at any task our masters need done, or they start a nuclear war and drive us into extinction that way.
Yes, most people prefer to feed the crocodile in the hope they'll be the last eaten than try to kill him. That's because they're afraid of the crocodile. It's a lot bigger than them and, nowadays, there's effectively nowhere left to run from him.
Being afraid of our masters isn't cowardice. It just means you're normal. Our masters are truly dangerous people who will not think twice about killing any person or wiping out any group they consider to be a threat to their rule, confident, for good reason, that they are above any human law and nobody will ever hold them accountable in this world.
The really surprising thing is that anybody stands up to them at all.
"Do our childish minds really think those whom we blindly empower will scurry away like cockroaches exposed by the refrigerator light and leave us be after the fall? Really? Are we serious?" --
No, there will be blood, there always is. Power and control are never given up, period. Even more important, absolute power, corrupts absolutely. This is why an active community is so important. Everyone needs to be involved... this is how our farming co-op works in a nutshell... Very productive, we all benefit from it and are prepared for what is coming.
Sadly you, my friend, are the exception and not the rule. From our many conversations I have discerned you not only have strong opinions, but a strong constitution. You are not afraid to put your back into anything you find has value. Including the value to you of something larger than you. In other words, you can contribute to the greater good secure in the knowledge you will receive what you require....which may not always be an 'equal' share.
You do not suffer fools well....but you will tolerate, and even befriend, a fool who is still willing to shoulder his or her burden. You know action speaks so much louder than words and are not afraid to put into action your own words. A few hundred years ago they had a phrase to describe you. A hard, but fair, self made man.
Thanks for the feedback LoP
CogDis- thank you for the brain food. You are quite a compelling and thoughtful writer. Was getting worried you gave up as I haven't seen you post or contribute lately. If I missed them please forgive me. Glad to see you still here.
I wish the Tyler's would employ more contributors who do a full view analysis about the issue being discussed as you repeatedly demonstrate. Thank you for the perspective and the smile on my face.
Have a great day to you, the mrs., and yor cat.
You leave the Mrs. out of it. The cat, though, is perfectly fair game. :-)
Point of order. Tyler and ZH does not 'employ' me if you are speaking monetarily. There is zero compensation involved in contributing to ZH. At least for me. I cannot speak for anyone else.
If by 'employ' you mean encourage, entice or request more contributors to write 'a full view analysis about the issue being discussed', there is absolutely no interaction of any kind between myself and anyone at ZH. I have not had an email conversation with Tyler in nearly 5 years. I don't even know if I still have that email address. I am a free bird and write what I wish to communicate with no interference what-so-ever from ZH. I suspect the other contributors follow the same path....though once again I have no way of knowing for sure.
My writing is most certainly not for everyone. In fact it's not for most everyone. I tend to beat to death most subjects and endlessly repeat myself from article to article. I try to avoid giving people answers since I think each of us requires different answer to similar questions. But I do tend to discuss the answers I have come up with, all while being careful to avoid claiming my answer is THE answer......other than the need for everyone to look within.
One man's brain food is another man's psycho-babble. There are always a half dozen comments under my articles telling me precisely that. I always get a kick out of those who claim my piece is too long and thus was not read.....only to then tell me how what I just wrote is wrong, wrong, wrong.
In effect what I do is expose myself to the world and wait for more intelligent people to chime in on the comment section, hands down and undeniably the best part of my articles.
Thank you for stopping by and leaving your mark.
Employ was probly the wrong word to use. Wasn't insinuating anything. I had a conversation with you a while back when I had a dust up with HH about who contributes and so forth. I was taking a dig at the Tyler's, and a few others, who seem to post questionable contributors who have a specific agenda to disinform rather than fully infom.
Also I was just wishing all of you a nice day, wasn't saying anything about Mrs. Cog.
Mrs. Cog has instructed me that all jokes MUST be followed with a LOL and not just a smiley face. I have been warned by the boss. lol :-) lol :-)
I do remember the conversation with you and didn't seriously think you were saying anything other than what you said. There are times when I am speaking to a bigger audience than 'just' the person I am replying to. This was one of those cases. I don't wish anyone to think I am a paid contributor and some people might think 'employ' meant paid.
While I tend to agree that Tyler should invite others such as myself to contribute to ZH, he has a big enough problem maintaining credibility with 'mainstream' on his own without inviting more Cogs into the mess. Personally I think he took a huge gamble on me when he invited me to contribute and still does. But I am grateful he did.
Sorry about my dry humor on display above. lol
Cog's impression after five years + on ZH is that a smiley face at the end of comment lets people know that he is attempting humor. Like a temporary get out of jail free card he can say anything then claim... well I PUT a smiley face on the end! lol And like the rabid Cog fan that I still am, I usually let him get away with it. :-)
Have a great day too SS.
You see obscenity in everyday motions on the part of those (in places of influence and control) entrusted with the mission,
but implicate the ego of the common man.
You are a de facto apologist then, and an enabler.
Call me a Dreamer, but not the Obama kind. I dream of Legislation or National Referendum that would Put Neocons and their US Congressional Brothers above Ground in any Massive War on the USA, any Nuclear Strike, and Any war in Europe that ends up being a request for US Citizens to Fight in Europe.
Work in progress for Averting War.
- I guess I just have one main idea so far
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- Teeth's War Responsiblitity Resolution -
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World War Resolution from People to the Funders of War, Weapon Funders, Our US & EU Leaders (Congress & Parliament), Central Bankers, Diplomats, Negotiators, State Department Executives, and those that take Political Contributions from War Profiteers:
- Pass Legislation to Make State Leaders, Diplomats, and Banking Executives & their Families stay outside of Bomb Shelters, Underground Bunkers, and lose their seats as Leaders or Private Banking Executives... in the Event of Massive Invasion, Massive European War or Nuclear War.
- Banking is power, Secret Banking is power, Shadow Banking is power, Foreign Investors are power, we all know this, and we know Political Figures have a Hidden Agenda they take from the Very Wealthy & Powerful
This is the only way to make big money people Responsible for going to war.
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- Teeth's War Responsiblitity Resolution -
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Cogs stuff is always good to me. I can't read all of it.
Growing up in the 60's .... we were surrounded by all these "Revelations" about "ourselves" and getting in touch with "ourselves" .... when I was younger ... it was this constatnt internal adherence to passionate sensitivity .... to let nothing go by without an exhaustive self re-examination as if I were somehow channeling the universal innner voice harnessing all of it energy and able to extrapolate the inner universal voice that would hoist me to the upper most parts of Maslows self actualization ....
Cog as ever is that Budda/Maslow quest ... I too have come to realize my own inward vanity in my seeking ..... I believe Michner in his book about Spain and all the history of relgion or Isamov brief summary on history gave something ....
Michner made me aware of the virus of relgion ... and so to with it the vanity that we all can be pulled into by ego.
Cog offers us that wonderful victory that realizing we may have never had an original thought of our own .... gives us that certain sublime understanding that what we think we are is illusion and external forces of universal hypnosis.
We grew up in a fiat currency bubble and with it all the delusions that went with it. As things unravel, the onion peels back layer after layer .... there is "nothing new under the sun" ....
I guess hope comes from learning about our own vanity and that somehow .... we become more sober ... letting go of the flesh .... and embracing or synthesizing with all orbits ....
I'll struggle to comprehend quantum physics over this PHILO-PSYCHO BABBLE any day.
This sort of thing ain't for everybody, and everybody is not expected to agree nor comment in depth. Respect for the work and Cog's willingness to share should, however, be for everybody.
Well, there's work (e.g., Carl Jung), and then there's rambling, which also takes work, but there is a difference...profound in this case.
If Cog's offering had been as dense and expositive as Jung or William James all we would have read in the comments is about how long and boring it was. There has to be a digestible version suitable for the audience.
Two truths about me:
1) I am what I do. Nothing more, nothing less. What I believe, hope, think, intend, understand, hate, love, want, dread, etc make no difference at all. I am what I do.
2) I am alone with my creator. Other people and things come and go. Only I, alone with God as I understand Him, remain with me from birth to death.
Maybe that is true for every animate and inanimate thing in the universe. Sand is as sand does. Dogs are as dogs do. Power is as power does.
The Power of Forgiveness - The Dalai Lama at the University of Limerick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oZYN9BSqsE
Ah come on Cog...
Ms. Cog has a lot to do with this huh?
Love is always the right path. You're inexpressibly blessed to have God's most heartfelt gift to us (Women) er..A Woman, (sorry) as a clearly benevolent WMD (Woman of Mass Delusion).
It's a good thing.
Enough sincere, genuine LOVE really would cure all that ills us.
:-)
Like many things in the world, "You can recognize them by their fruits."
A fool and fools are those that continue to eat the putrid fruit of tyranny's decaying tree hoping to find a sweet one, but only poisoning themselves in the search.
Tyranny's tree only bears poverty, misery, death, and lies. Cut the tree down.
The banksters need to repay us.
I have been dying to ask this question of you since I saw your 'tag' line many months ago......"The banksters need to repay us".
How are they going to 'repay' us? In what currency? Won't repaying us mean they just print up more money, thus debasing the currency by the exact amount we are 'repaid'? How is it determined what is 'owed' to whom?
Or are you speaking about a different type of 'repayment'?
@Cog Who really owes who, and repayment, is based on where the banksters' loan-money actually originates. The idea is to subtlety undermine the mindset that underpins the banksters debt: that it is you, us, that owes them. To change people's, American's, mindset about the banksters' fiat-debts, amongst other things.
The tag line itself is more about getting people to think, ponder the idea that the fraudulent-reserve banksters actually owe us, and not we them.
You understand how fraudulent-reserve banking works, but for those that don't:
The banksters steal their customers' deposits. That is the banksters' theft number one from the people.
The banksters then counterfeit into existence fiat money based upon the stolen deposits. That fiat is then loaned out (fiat-debt) into the economy where it is traded for real goods and services. Since this fiat-money did not come into existence from real production, but by counterfeit, the goods and services it is traded for are stolen. This shows up later in price-inflation. The banksters then hold claims by way of their counterfeit fiat-debt on real goods and services. That is the banksters' theft number two from the people.
The fiat-money also causes capital malinvestment booms and capital destroying busts. Overtime, returns on capital and labor are lowered which leads to an increasing loss of opportunities in an economy. Lowered and/or destroyed returns and opportunities on labor and capital is the banksters' theft number three.
The fiat, being cheap to the banksters, is then used to purchase and divert government from justice. Government is then morphed into a massive fiat-debt consumer, and is also pressed into service as the banksters' fiat-debt protector and collector. The subjugation of Liberty, tyranny, and its associated poverty, misery, death and lies, is the result. Liberty and comfort are the banksters' fourth theft from the people.
With their violence-puppets, government, the banksters can then manipulate fiat exchange rates and so forestall the price inflation that would normally rake an economy in the wake of their fiat printing. Fixed exchange rate enables the banksters to export their fiat lucre as cheap capital. This cheap capital is then paired with cheap labor to artificially boost overseas productivity rates at the expense of true productivity here at home. The destruction of capital and production here is the banksters' fifth theft from the people.
Ultimately, when the whole thing inevitably collapses, the banksters come with the backing of their government leviathan to take and gather the collateral attached to their fiat-debts. This is the banksters' sixth theft from the people.
Additional thefts from the people are time, civilization, community, imposition of fascism, etc.
So, when one borrows some of the banksters' fiat, it is really that person's, his neighbor's, and the rest of America's stolen wealth, opportunities, civilization, community, and future being loaned back to him, with usury attached.
Like a mugger loaning you the wealth from your wallet, it is he that owes you, not you him.
As for repayment: The first step is to Stop paying on their fiat-debts. As for settlement on the debts the banksters owe us, gold, silver, and/or heads will gladly be accepted.
Of course no one here cares, but having thought about, and wrote about it here on ZH, I can talk the hell out of it to the sheeple, and the rest--face to face. Hashing out ideas and language to grow myself as a radical for the Restoration of America, the Constitution, and the Constitutional republic.
Sincerely, and the banksters need to repay us.
I do appreciate the in-depth and thoughtful reply. I now understand the thinking behind your tag line. Good luck spreading the counteracting/antidote mind meme. Every little bit helps. If each of us were to devote 15 minutes each and every day reaching out I suspect some minds would open and others would at the least be disturbed.
@Cog
Thanks for asking, and reading my ramble.
Keep on shaking the cages with your great thoughts, articles, and prose.
The banksters need to repay us.
@cognitive - agree but after the following summation reckon we get an answer.
If a banker was to offer you a million dollars would you accept or refuse?
We should refuse because they can create many times more than that rendering any gift worthless.
Some would say take it and spend it, go on be my guest you just returned it to the banker and you got a few extra trinkets.
There is only one repayment that can be made if we just throw fiat out of the window.
If anything now all fiat should be outlawed and only asset backed currency allowed. The fiat system grows greed because if a chicken was worth a dollar I would love to see an elite try to control 60 billion chickens. The currency system and especially fiat allowed those who control the trade = banks to gather vast wealth and easily move this for their own advantage. Any asset backed transaction means moving an object even a gold bar and starts to become more difficult.
YOU CAN ONLY OWN WHAT YOU PHYSCIALLY AND NOT VIRTUALLY CONTROL, the result of evolution fron barter to the non asset based fiat trade.
I'd settle for a flurry of nail-gun "accidents"....
Save the nails for the rebuilding. One last trip to the hot tubs for them, hold the chlorine. ;-)
By having to clean up their mess?
Well, yes. Yawwwn. Even though I too enjoy pretending that I might actually know something, I also know that the only thing I do know, or can know, is that I know nothing and, just like the rest of my species, cannot know anything any more than any leaf on any tree, or any blade of grass on any lawn can know anything. All is fantasy, all is illusion, but still, it's great fun pretending it isn't so, why not?
Okay. Tell me something you "know". Anything.
I'm not sure whom you're speaking to, but I 'know' you just replied to yourself.
When I do things like that Mrs. Cog fears my senility is beginning to show. I quickly become indignant and loudly assure her I 'know' its just Alzheimer's. :-)
How do you know I replied to myself? You have no way to "know" that. You have no idea even of who you are or what you are. Are you a person sitting in a chair at his computer or are you a few tiny bits of matter swirling through space held together by energy, whatever that is, or are you something else entirely? You don't know and I don't know so, if we don't even know what we are in the most basic terms, how can we know anything else?
Hint: We can't.
If all is illusion, if what we "see" is simply energy in the form of light reflected off of energy in the form of, well, whatever it is we imagine we "see". If what we think of as "reality" is merely a magician's trick, slight of hand, smoke and mirrors, illusion then how in the world can we ever "know" anything?
You can make all the jokes you want about alzeimer's or senility in a snide and belittling way but you may only be demonstrating how little you really know.
Lighten up dude. Humor goes a long way if you let it. Loosen up that chin strap and kick back.
And I was belittling myself in a self depreciating way. But of course you don't 'know' that, now do you?
I'm light, I'm light and, trust me, not many posters on this site view the world with as much humor as I do. I do see the absurdity of it all.
"Immanentize the Eschaton"
Eric Voegelin
The BORG.
Music is your only friend .... until the end.
Cog, I think this is your best work yet (at least that I have read).
I like the way that you challenge us to deal honestly with our complicity. I think our reaction to complicity is similar to sheeple's reaction to doom and gloom: "I dont want it to be true therefore it can't be true." The first step in our grieving/healing process, being will to see what is, even when it is unpleasant and doesn't fit our programming and when there is no simple course of action to remedy, is also our third step and fifth step, ad nauseum as we peel off the layers of the onion.
You remind us to not stop wrestling with and pushing through our cognitive dissonance, thanks for that.
The struggle I am personally doing laps around is this:
1) I have found a peace in focusing on the opposite of complicity, doing my duty to learn to be a producer, to raise kids who can think for themselves, to work towards zero input resillient homestead, to optimize local community relationships and tune out the state and nation capital distractions...but oddly that approach leaves me feeling guilty...
2) What good is 1 when the accelerating macro conditions (WWIII) and the relentless pursuit of the sociopaths utopian top down control grid (Agenda21) render my plans and preps little more than a weekend get-away or hobby, to be quickly and easily brushed aside by the stroke of an (imminent domain) pen or the use of some advanced technology at their disposal (but not at my disposal).
3) But even my most optimistic mental gyrations can't produce a good outcome based on a plan birthed out of reaction to thinking about #2, so I think about what is within my sphere of influence and I am squarely back at #1...
I typically fall back on my "belief" in the categorical imperative (or the golden rule form), as a pattern for revolving all this dissonance and I place my "hope" in the idea that virtue is its own reward (and hoping to hear "well done, good and faifthful servant" when this life is through.)
Categorical Imperative: Kant - "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction."
You have me thinking about my reply. Hold please. :-)
You said "The first step in our grieving/healing process........." and it, more than anything else, is the meat of the matter.
In my opinion ultimately many here on ZH, and everywhere else non mainstream thinking is discussed, are suffering from shock and cognitive dissonance from the growing revelations of how completely criminal our system has becomes over the last few decades. Worse, many are caught in the loss and grief cycle and are so indignant and self righteous they cannot, or will not, proceed to the healing stage. So many of us are caught in the Twilight Zone.
The most difficult part of this process is accepting what is, and has been, as well as our part in it. That does not mean we do nothing about it and just accept continued beatings. But unless we move ourselves towards self healing we are ultimately fighting ourselves and are effectively neutralized.
"If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation." —Lao Tzu
Spot on. Thanks.
Very good work Cog. Worth the time and effort.
Why does a dog do what dogs do? Why does a cat do what a cat does? Why do birds do what birds do and ants what ants do? It is there nature. Why does man do what man does best; self destruct? It is the revelation of his inherit nature apart from His Creator.
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Man's problem is not difficult to observe; it is most difficult to admit and more difficult to turn from it; yeah impossible to turn from on it his own.