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Guest Post: How To Think Like A Mad Man, Find Your Edge & Risk Little For Lots
Submitted by Thomas Gresham of Gresham's Law
How To Think Like A Mad Man, Find Your Edge & Risk Little For Lots
The enigma that is eccentricity can be unravelled by grasping of this single statement; that which you perceive is both a matter of the object of your perception (in this case; the eccentric person) and your apparatus of perception. Eccentricity, then, is as much a quirk of the popular mind as it is of a particular person. So with the assumption that you seek creativeness and intrigue — here’s how to think eccentrically, find your edge and risk little for lots.
Eccentricity over the ages. Click to enlarge.
‘How to think’:
It may sound peculiar that contrary thinking is required to achieve creative thoughts… This, however, becomes self-evident when we realize that thinking the way someone else thinks results in mimicry — a “copy-cat” requires the minimum of creative thought… Therefore, the inference is that to achieve any creativeness, some change has to be made. From this, it stands to reason that the optimum in creativeness must approach the maximum change… and the maximum change must be close to the opposite.
— Zuce Kogan, Founder of the Creative Thinking Institute
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Rid Yourself of Nebulous Terms – Define, Redefine & Refine.
Unless you’re an orator or something it’s highly likely that nebulosity is your enemy. If you speak and think in vague terms, then simple, logical deductions are likely to evade you. But since life involves doing one thing or another, chances are that you’ll default to linking concepts in the ‘default’ way — the way suggested by the crowd. In that case it is likely that the succession of vague, emotive images will govern your action.
The power of words is bound up with the images they evoke, and is quite independent of their real significance. Words whose sense is the most ill-defined are sometimes those that possess the most influence. Such, for example, are the terms democracy, socialism, equality, liberty, etc. whose meaning is so vague that bulky volumes do not suffice to precisely fix it. Yet it is certain that a truly magical power is attached to those short syllables, as if they contained the solution of all problems. They synthesise the most diverse unconscious aspirations and the hope of their realisation.
— Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd, A Study of the Popular Mind
Since eccentricity involves a capacity to deal with reality in a supposedly ‘odd’ manner and since the crowd deals mainly in vague images, one clear way to surpass them is simply to define the terms in which you speak and think.
This can seem daunting — especially at first. However, since the crowd remains ever-ponderous and dogmatic, it takes but a very small amount of clarity to achieve oversized gains. One need not plan out the redefinition of one’s entire vocabulary — just start with one concept that you use a lot in your daily life. I expect that the incentive gleaned from the initial reward will be enough to prompt further redefinitions and refinements.
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Allocate All of Your Available Resources Contrarily.
Contrary allocation of capital seems to be well-acknowledged as a key to success in certain investment and entrepreneurial communities. However, it also seems to remain compartmentalized as a theory about allocating capital and capital only – I say that if you wish to reach the honourable status of the ‘Mad Man’, it is prudent to apply this theory to all of the resources at your disposal:
Everything that should be managed lies here. Click to enlarge.
The truth is that you should allow your mind ruminate contrarily for more than just your money – but also for your time, energy and your attention. The integrated eccentric is he who doesn’t give up in any of these fields.
Whenever you are next faced with a seemingly trivial matter (such as whether or not to read a newspaper, take a taxi or express interest in an uninteresting matter) allow yourself to consider what the ‘common way’ is and just try the opposite.
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Adopt a Kantian Distaste for Intellectual Discussion & Stop Checking with Others.
Sometimes, if not most of the time, it is quite unnecessary to acquire the opinions of others before you act. Yet nevertheless I see a strong tendency for people to check and verify trivial and non-trivial matters with one another. This brings about two serious hindrances to the wannabe wacko; 1) it forces you to adapt your language to that of someone that is probably confused and using nebulous terms and 2) it will likely introduce unneeded emotions into your mind.
In order to acquire a sense of creativity I suggest that you act before you tell others about your actions and – in particular – adopt a Kantian distaste for intellectual discussion:
By and large Kant, unlike Socrates, avoided the company of philosophers and philosophically minded fellow citizens. He did this not because of any conviction that philosophers as a breed are inevitably frivolous or consumed by the need to prattle on about their most recent publications; some are, to be sure, and these one would seek to avoid in any case. He was certainly aware that in his field of study there existed colleagues with whom he could talk about bank accounts, ball games or battle plans. But philosophyers tend to talk about philosophy. And even if such talk is motivated by infinite charity and fraternal goodwill, it provokes some response, comment or counter-arguement to the ideas and theories presented. In print the same arguments have quite a different impact; they can be simply registered without requiring an immediate response, or can be interpreted to suit one’s frame of mind, and as a last resort a page can be turned and a book can be closed. But in conversaation courtesy demands that the addressee react and relate himself. And this, in Kant’s view, is a dangeerous exercise and one that certainly lacks the productive element that Socrates may have found in it. Philosophyers, or so Kant thought, work best in isloation…
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Test Your Revelations in Small Ways. Proceed to Fail Small & Win Big.
So by now hopefully you’ve defined at least one term that has significance to your life, considered allocating your time, attention and money contrarily and considered doing something big without checking with anyone at all. Chances are that you may have thought of something interesting. The default consensual reaction is to elaborate a plan in a manner that requires significant resources (be that money, time, energy, attention or whatever else). I urge you to take a step back and consider how you might test it in the smallest possible way.
I’m always astounded by the degree to which people attempt to impose the property of permanence upon themselves. [facepalm] Why oh why? [/facepalm] Permanence through life is most frequently a large and onerous speculation — and indeed a type of speculation that is likely to be unattainable due to the ever-changing nature of each and every living individual. I suggest that if you wish to maintain your newfound eccentric temperament and demeanour, then risk little, lots rather than lots, little. If you risk little, lots you will not suffer the emotional turmoil that accompanies a large drawdown – and if you’re thinking contrarily you’ll likely be risking little for lots. -
Acquire Refined Senses of Ignorance & Stubbornness
The final step to eternal quirkdom is to maintain both a refined sense of ignorance and a refined sense of stubbornness. In the first instance, I should define my terms:
By ignorance, I mean a lack of knowledge. By stubbornness I mean an unwillingness to move from one’s intellectual position.
The former ‘sense of ignorance’ is merely a sustained application of point 2) about properly allocating all of your resources. By carefully selecting what enters your mind, you can maintain a temperament where you decide the content of your ignorance (or more precisely the content of your non-ignorance). This term – most commonly used as an insult – is in this sense quite neutral. We all must be lacking in knowledge (since we are not beings of perfect intelligence). Acquiring a refined sense of ignorance is merely rejecting the notion that the crowd should determine what you are not to ignore (and to be sure that determination is perilously nebulous anyhow!).
The latter ‘sense of stubbornness’ is merely the unwillingness to forego logic for the vague images of the crowd. Once again – it is a rejection of the crowd’s vague concept of when you should and should not give up your intellectual positions.
Recommended Reading:
[Full Disclosure: We adore these books and suggest them to everyone we know — but be aware that the links on the left are affiliate links. If you would rather not pass affiliate credit to us then feel free to use the links on the right.]
- The Art of Contrary Thinking – Humphrey B. Neill [or here]
- The crowd a study of the popular mind – Gustave Le Bon [or here]
- The psychology of revolution – Gustave Le Bon [or here]
- English eccentrics and eccentricities – John Timbs [or here]
- The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker [or here]
- Instincts of the Herd in Peace & War – Wilfred Trotter [or here]
- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions – Charles D. Mackay [or here]
- The Laws of Imitation – Gabriel De Tarde [or here]
»
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You've inspired me to launch a blog the exact opposite of zerohedge. infinitelong. on a short enough timeline, everyone survives.
You are too late. You just described the monetary policy of the entire western world.
How bout Ted Kaczynski?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unabomber
Visit the "Crime & Punishment Museum" in DC, lots of eccentric folks in there including the above.
Now everyone is gonna try and be eccentric. As if we don't have enough assholes already.
The rich are eccentric
The poor are crazy
Assholes are assholes
Eccentric. Like a gear that moves differently. Word saya it all.
Society and contorllers want a "fit", "linear" world. Mis-fits are eccentric.
The more you "fit" the faster you can be moved.
A wobbly wheel get's left behind or forcibly balanced.
I'm wobbly and so should you be.
ori
/where-do-we-fit/
I would love to be left behind in a world going straight to hell.
Precisely Decolat. Precisely......in a slightly imprecise way of course! ;-)
ori
I'll just pop in here and add four of my favourites as well, useful in any time.
The book that started me off (gettign wobbly) was
Jonathan Livingston Seagull. And by the same author... Illusions.
Nice list Malikai.
ori
We were born that way. Exposure to other free minds kindled the fire.
Eccentric wheels, (ie a circle with two axii, one centrally located, and one offset) are neccessary to either produce reciprocating motion, (example, a mowing machine) or to reduce reciprocating motion (ex: a steam engine drive wheel).
So, in certain cases, eccentric wheels are absolutely neccessary. Apply these facts to sociology or economics as you please. When do we want smooth, rotary motion to be transformed into up and down motions, or vice versa?
Nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
All that math and the poor guy couldn't figure out the bankers were the problem, not the industrialists.
I'm sure bankers love the anti-industrial narrative... keeps focus off of them. I'm sure that they fund and support it through various nebulous organizations and "charities". Not to any sort of tipping point, mind you, just enough to keep people corralled.
Yeah, my dad's favorite.
His brother ratted on him to the police, just like Luc did to his (criminal lawyer) brother Roger.
On a long enough timeline, everybody will meet a con man, as we all know.
The funny part of it is that in North America, most will be fucked by their wifes.
(You read that right)
IF YOU'RE RICH YOU'RE ECCENTRIC, IF YOU'RE POOR YOU'RE JUST PLAIN CRAZY.
Eccentricity is not needed for contrarian thought, the
outside world might consider you eccentric but that`s not
what one should strive for.
I knew an artist who invited a large crowd to his
birthday party and did not show up himself. Just to make
a point about his supposed eccentricity, to show off
he is sooo different, his main asset as a mediocre artist.
That's not eccentricity, that's narcissism.
I know a man who did that. But he was no artist, so we just called him a douche.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH4vuFrZuTs
(Almost) Rich eccentrics : Case no1, doctor Turcotte and his blondie wife, doctor Gascon.
Turcotte, at his trial : "I killed my 2 kids, stabbing them over 65 times with the knife"
(Watch the crazy chick on the link. Is she looking at you the very same way?)
Plus une putain fait la belle, plus elle a de client... - http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/justice/326785/guy-turcotte-est-reconnu-non-criminellement-responsable-du-meurtre-de-ses-enfants
+1 for your handle. +1 for you avatar. After a good laugh, I finally got to your comment. Total of +3
i'm very long silver
Excellent
Eccentricity is something that all the great minds of our lifetime possess! But Jim Cramer is the worst side of eccentricity! He is eccentricity combined with douchebaggery!
cramers fucking with peoples money and lives,,,,,he's actually a complete psychopath
Cramer is not eccentric; Cramer is status quo douchebag acting the fool to get the moron investing sheeple to "pay attention" since they need fucking clowns popping out of boxes and hitting themselves in the head with honking hammers to notice which fucktard thinks which fucking turd to invest in.
I agree. Cramer is the epitome of bourgeoisie.
This sounds kinda fun. Where do I find this "Cramer" you speak of?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6JaHSI4Tc8
"infinatelong" ... A.k.a "MSNBC"
I think rawdoglet started an anti youtube site http://www.breakthewrist.net/
an anti-hedge... mehhh, that seems like every other trading site..
also on the rawdoglet note he professed his love for stellaconcepts!! lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx3ZlbFATPQ&list=UUW7v9Mzm2x_2lxgdqjoIJTA...
I don't think you are contrarian enough if you launch the blog as response to other blog.
When I'm looking to spark fresh ideas from outside the box....I go down to the river and get 'Luv'd Up' by some "Sy-reens"...then take a long nap.
I know it'll work eventually....when I'm finished with being an under-achiever.
Shrooms, bitches! Use them at turning points in your life to slough away all that does not matter, get some outside perspective, find your piece of the puzzle. It will all make sense. If everyone tried them just once, so many evil plans would fail due to an inability to herd sheeple. This is why they're illegal.
True for all mind-altering substances (natural ONLY) NWC. Reality is quite different from what we are made to believe it is.
ori
Thanks and true. Acid is real interesting stuff but full of potential black swans which vary by person. So a lot of people are lathering up with steak sauce and running naked through the Lovecraftian Serengeti. Sooner or later, shit happens. The horror stories aren't just propaganda- I think every trip drives you subtly nuts. Sometimes not so subtly. Despite all this, I think the first couple trips cure more insanity than they cause and the world would be a better place if everyone got their questions sorted and then got one phone call to God. Just don't keep chasing that experience. You'll go nuts trying.
As for synthetics in general, half the time you don't even know what you're getting or what byproducts are in it. Not to say natural=good either. Do your homework (starting with erowid.org). Find a hippie or a shaman. Get all the crap out of your system first, both physically and mentally. No weed, no caffeine, no meds, no other psychedelics in the past month, no psycho partner, no Iraq.
I think we will see a lot of Ayahuasca healings after this shit is all over.
Yah. On my last acid trip the black swans were circling, circling, and then bam! Away went the ice fishes into a frying pan full of clouds and pink slime where Katy Perry wore her fur in the most attractive shade of ...lampstands with the gas on and burning full of tigers...
True the first couple of trips were the greatest experiences of my life. The next 100 trips confirms the law of diminishing returns. Not to mention going a little batshit crazy......
Amen.
Squeegee your third eye - BH
(note, nothing wrong with substituting psilo with ergot based medicine)
It seems that I do not require mind altering substances, except in the case where I need to understand the generally agreed reality - in which case I drink savagely until I can barely remember my name.
I am often derided for my refusal to believe anything - anything at all, including physical reality, god or his non existence. Actively preventing the mind from forming beliefs (and therefore admitting to anything as fact or truth) requires constant vigilance, because beliefs are simply mental shortcuts and our mind exerts an effort for economy at all times.
A belief is a way of saying "OK - I now 'know' the answer on this topic, it no longer requires revision, challenge or examination." A belief also creates a filter in our mind which prevents the careful examination of any evidence or data which challenges the current belief - thus robbing us daily of vast amounts of good information. Beliefs may arise from economy of thought, and a desire for practical action - they are however our own greatest enemy in fully understanding our environment or ourselves.
Understanding something does not require beliefs, nor facts, nor truth - but rather it requires observation and a theory constructed from evidence, and it is understanding things that allows prediction - to my understanding; in all recorded history, believing in something has never forced that something to deviate from its own internal properties (or lack therof).
Where they say 'fact' I say 'data, evidence, observation, record or calculation', where they say 'known', I say 'observed or recorded', where they say ''truth' I say 'theory', where they say 'belief', I say 'misguided fool'.
You are not going to be good proles if you read this, comrades.
All of the quotes in the infographic sound more like common sense than eccentricity to me.
For example, no cure, no pay for medical. What is so ground breaking about that idea?
When I worked as an automotive technician, I got to "eat" a "comeback" or rework if I did not correct the problem I was to have repaired the first time.
A customer, a doctor no less, was irate with me about not repairing a problem to his satisfaction, and fortunately, my shop foreman asked the doctor if he diagnosed his patients correctly every time when I was hauled onto the rug.
That was the only time I got a write up working at that shop.
it is not a lie, if you believe it
George!
"Unless you’re an orator *or something* it’s highly likely that nebulosity is your enemy."
Or something.
Eccentricity...what's that?
WB7,
It is you, thankfully. A genuine eccentric doesn't realise that he or she is eccentric. Only pretenders presume to be so.
at least he has a sense of humor!
Bwahaha.
Well played, Banzai.
At last, a direct invitation to open Pandora's Box here!(OR -How to be a contrarian's contrarian)...
There can be no doubt this space is a hotbed of gold hoarding libertarians - whose default bias(and I include myself here) is to purposely wish away the notion that there is anything more than a smattering of AU left on the surface of this earth(ORI's 3 olympic swimming pools reminder of the other day), and that all of our problems in getting gold to find it's 'natural' price are related to a paper market scam run by the usual suspects on Wall Street or City of London.
Therefore, it seems all question of whether there is possibly a huge amount of 'black gold' out there, backing the nefarious schemes of the serial shysters to a much more dangerous degree than even the paper scam is to be ignored, suppressed, scoffed away, etc., etc....I've yet to see an intelligent discussion of this matter on ZH, and ORI's mention of it Saturday reminded me of that fact. Zero response, xcept for the usual stock 'there never was,' or if there was, it's long gone.' What does long gone mean anyways?....it just vaporized like an MFG customers' savings? Gotta go somewhere!
So here's my contribution to eccentricity, a la ZH style....we're overdue for a good discussion of what if all of the Nazi, Black Eagle, Yamashita, and so on gold is really out there, being slowly melted down and laundered into circulation by a cabal of banksters, governments, con men and mining operatives, and we all stand in danger of being played forever, like poor mining stock bagholders, unless we creatively account for all the possible black swans that can impede real price discovery even after the inevitable bankruptcy of the paper ponzi.
Here Here!
My personal opinion is that Barrick Gold is the single biggest conduit for misdirection of gold's natural trajectory: even ZH culture hero Feteke called it a gold laundering shop...though for not quite the right reason, in my opinion. And Feteke knows the Beast as well or better than anybody, having had his own hide singed by its fire! Time to dredge up ALL the pond scum hiding in the BUSHES with the MUNKees and KhasHOGGis!...
it springtime...and now that we appear to have been liberated from a least the worst of the PM threadjackers at last, let a thousand contrarian ideas bloom!
An interesting thought expiriment. I too believe (as part of your hypothesis) that the TPTB have a few more tricks up their sleeves. But I did not buy PM's to get rich - only to make it to the other side with something intact. I care not how much up or down it goes. Food, ammo, hard assets, are and have been on the shopping lists.
It was all going well until that damn boating accident.
But, +1 for the thoughtfulness and contrarian thinking.
Cheers.
Agreed, the hoarder mindset is something to be legitimately poked fun at; there's nothing worse than goldbugs hoping for the world to end so they can finally play Croesus!
But anyone remotely aware of the bankster klepto\kontrolfreak mentality can truly imagine that they plan not only to suppress the price of gold-silver forever, but to crush anyone planning to be stay free of their plans for total domination....and one of the ways to do that is to keep PM's from playing their natural role as a hedge to hyperinflation...so the concern many of us have is not getting rich, but keeping one's head above water, in a world where lifejackets may be outlawed!
http://youtu.be/nnQ7oszKZ60 [Palladium\Weather Report]
As an anarchist, I never poke fun at opinions held by others that do not infringe upon my own rights.
As a Makhnovist, I find that anyone who can't handle a little fun pokin of their position is seriously up to no good....and almost always tryin to steal sumpthin or other!
Well said all around Joyful.
Without an open mind, you live a closed life. And with a mind-set, you go only one way, with a mind-flex... change is natural.
May a thousand contrarians bloom in deed and word.
ori
Good to see yu back ORI...along with the lightening vibrations perceptible here lately. Keep on pushin them buttons!
Monarchy and gold standard not likely to be re-instated.
Yet that does not validate playing the devils advocate , taking the opposite position , praising the
endless dilution of votes and fiat money worth while.
That's right. Many of the PM hoarders are in fact little Napoleons dreaming of conquest and building a fiefdom where they are king after the collapse of civilization. Nothing but escapist fantasy.
I recently watched the Netflix bio of Dr. Bronner (soap product label rant fame). Some of his German relatives thought all that talk of 'collapse' would blow over. Bronner and his family fled. Some extended family stayed.
At some point, Bronner received a postcard in America from relatives that later perished. It simply read, "You were right".
Bronner was an eccentric, getting a huge business boost from hippies in the 60s. One long-time employee tells of her first day at work when she was sent to the rooftop where Dr. Bronner was sunbathing naked and she was invited to join him.
Eccentric, but not crazy, Bronner had a 5X salary max gap policy from the lowest paid job to the top. Year-end bonuses at the time of filming were $10K-$40k for all workers. That buys a lot of soap and loyalty.
Hey, Don't forget us Silver hoarding libertarians.
That is by far the most important question, "What are TPTB PM hoarders going to do with all their black PM's?"
Xactly silverdragon, squire - it's that unknown what gives me a reason for not kicking myself too hard for having hedged my AU with AG...precisely at the wrong moment last year...we just don't know what their plans are, cept that they will bode ill for the rest of us.
Personally I regard them as so juvenile in character as to be less concerned with how much they have than making sure nobody else has any. For all it's bowlderizing at the hands of radical feminist re-interpreters, the concept of "hegemonic masculinity" is still pretty untouchable as a way of explaining socialized male behavior as evinced in the ruling classes. see -
http://works.bepress.com/mdonaldson/4/ = [Snakes and Leaders: Hegemonic Masculinity in Ruling-Class Boys’ Boarding Schools]
I'm not big on psychology and so on, but it may indeed come down to compulsive behavior related to improper toilet training after all! - http://youtu.be/p2uoLafv5c0 [Conference of the Birds\Circle] - May we all one day become Trobriand Islanders!
The whole world will abandon gold with relief if they can find a reliable currency, in other words an honest government.
They did it with the American dollar when it was convertible to gold, 1935 - 71, and found it so convenient they were reluctant to change even after 1971 and only now as the dollar is collapsing is the world moving on.
If there was an honest government that issued an honest currency, and did not swindle their own people with inflation, the world would reckon that currency better than gold.
Other example from the past: the British pound, the Swiss franc.
Eccentricity is the normal state for every child, and it is schooled out of them because society requires conformity.
Creative and constructive eccentrics are rare, and priceless. That is far beyond the nature and nurture of most people, and it cannot be taught or bought. It's interesting that the modern age produces self-help verbiage like this article and other commercial means by which the dullest seek to define the brightest.
The world needs ditch diggers and office jockeys, not creative types prancing around doing whatever they feel like. We've got Portland Oregon for that.
But seriously though, the public education system is exactly what you describe, 12 years of behavioral modification combined with the inculcation of just enough knowledge to be a useful worker. This is by design. The compulsory education system is a product ove the industrial revolution and the capitalists of that era.
Did George Costanza write this post?
Prof Alan Bloom on his, "Closing of the American Mind"
"I was very concerned that critical thinking seemed to be far less common in my students in the late 1970's. Upon a lengthy examination of the problem I found that critical thinking was being replaced by a condition called Moral Relativism. It turns out that moral decisions actually requires one to make choices, and making choices requires one to engage in a great deal of rational thought and the use of critical thinking to arrive at decisions.
But the prerequisite for proper Moral Relativism is that it requires no critical thinking whatsoever. In this emerging worldview, nothing is morally unacceptable so there is no need to actually go around and think about things, which of course, is the line of least intellectual resistance and probably one of it's greatest appeals. They see attempting to make moral decisions as not only rude, but in their mind, consider it a futile endeavor because any choice would be the result of observer bias contaminating the process anyway.
Armed with these insights, they firmly believe they are enlightened and totally open-minded as they can easily shrug off the acts of a serial killer. They only have one great exception, and that is, no one is ever, ever allowed to challenge or disagree with their worldview. In this, they are absolutely Absolutists of the worst sort, often driven to great hostility and a violation of the peace to exclude all other views as inferior since theirs boasts that it does not require a man to think.
This is what I have come to call the Relativist Paradox."
(hilarious. I found this excerpt on another site that was trying to explain where our current crop of world leaders came from)
Good one, thanks.
Reminds me of my Ex. Wife and her gaggle of relativist hags I call "The Coven".
Sounds like a good reality show.
Too many 'contrarians' around these day for it to mean a damn thing.
It's a dog chasing its tail.
Beg your pardon?
since that each person is unique, both in personality and BEing, and is also "human" is something i see as "given", the "enigma of eccentricity" doesn't exist for me
complete miss!
C'mon now slewie, you have some fine eccentricities that I appreciate.
Misplaced repy to Teddy Kazbo rants:
Okay good so he was good at math. Computers started being funcitonal around that time. Computers do math. Teddy boy turns luddite because 'puters will eventually do math better than any organism could. Life and reality are bascially just physics with some smatterings of its probability side. Teddy boy turns luddite because humans become effectually irrelevent for pretty much everything. People are near unanmiously machine appendages at this point with TV and the stupid-NET. Drone network coming online along with NSSA[s store all shit facility. Hmmm.... Need to get them engineers under control. All power comes from barrel of gun... who built the damn gun? And why don't oil producers come up with some chemical chain reaction to destroy oil fields so the whole issue of developing or not developing da bomb becomes irrelevent? Partial ecnomic suicide maybe, but what the hell.... beats a bullet in the head.
The internet is nothing but a giant spy network for the Five Eyes of Echelon (US/UK/CA/AU/NZ). Ted Kazynsky had the right idea. Technology is not going to bring man kind anything but misery because the innate human archetypes have not changed throughout history. There are still many tyrants walking among us that are actively deploying modern technology for the purpose of dominating their fellow man. These control freaks want to track and control every aspect of existence.
I wish I could disconnect and live without these networks to rob the New World Order of my data and retake my freedom, but I can't. I literally cannot imagine life without the internet. It is such a part of me that we are inseparable.
Now I need a drink, or two.
And a Woman.
And some tobacco.
Mr. Gresham,
Thank you, enjoyed the article.
Not enough eccentrics in the world, or at least, appreciated.
Comparing Nietzsche to Scrooge McDuck?
Fuck you.
I agree that it's eccentric - to say the least - to somehow try to link Nietzsche and McDuck ... an actual person with a cartoon character!!
Actually the whole essay is eccentric - to say the least - because none of the illustrations depict philosophers. All are/were ideologues, including Nietzsche.
Pity that the author has not bothered to clean his own nest of unexamined terms.
Some 30 years ago I enrolled in Philosophy 101 at the University of Western Australia and, at the "welcoming lecture", the head of department (Professor Graves) said that no one really knows what philosophy is, so I thought, "If you don't know, then how come you claim to be teaching it?"
Similar happened during the "welcome" to Anthropology/Sociology, when it was said, "We don't really know what society is."
So I worked it all out for myself and, believe me, you don't want to know.
Stay comfortable with slogans to do with 'democracy', 'society', 'the nation', "We the people" and so on.
That dreadful woman, Margaret Thatcher, got it right and for all the wrong reasons, "There is no society, just individuals out for their own self-interest."
Just recently I read that she regrets ever having gone into politics ... she now wishes that she had looked after her family. Too fucking late, including for millions of other families she helped to destroy.
BTW she was a great fan of Ayn Rand - another ideologue - who Ron Paul worships, along with Alan Greenspan, the erstwhile Milton Friedman and just about everyone who has caused this this current state of affairs.
Oh never mind, the world is totally fucked, as Socrates knew over 2000 years ago.
If you want to know what real philosophy is, then go struggle with Plato, Descarte and David Hume, who awoke Kant from his "dogmatic slumbers".
I have been there and done it.
I think Nietzsche's "Human, All Too Human" qualifies as philosophy by any standard. "The Anti-Christ" and "Beyond Good and Evil" would fall into the ideologue territory you are talking about. And Zarathustra is more an epic poem than anything else.
I appreciate Nietzsche's discussion of the things that other thinkers overlook, like how a climate can affect a man's thoughts and outlook on life. The importance of diet and regimen. The simple things that other "deep thinkers" seem to find beneath them, but which have more of an impact on us than we care to admit. So much of our thinking and outlook on life is controlled by our environment and biochemistry.
I am reminded of the motivational poster showing 3 normal dinner forks and 1 that is horribly bent out of shape such that it would be unusable for eating.
Just because you're different doesn't mean you're special or useful.
You are not special, you are the same decaying organic matter as everything else.
http://motivationalgenerator.com/motivational-posters/popular/35008-can-...
I've always maintained, if you're poor you're labelled mad. Only the rich get the eccentric label
how can you tell if someone is truely eccentric or just pretending?
perhaps they go to their mundane jobs throughout the week and then on weekend become serial rapests. Eccentric for just criminally crazy or pretending to be eccentric because they read somewhere that eccentric people are more successful?
hmmm, I've accomplished the detais of this article by the time I was 14. I'm over 30 and have tried for about 2 years to do the opposite (on reflection as merely another grand example of my auto-contrarianism.) I can not honestly say that there is any inherent benefit either way. But I certainly like knowing where my thoughts come from and what I do with them. On the flip side, I am largely unintelligable to someone who does not listen (and as such, give thought to) to every word, which, except when speaking in formal turn, and sometimes even then, is most people.
Stop watching TV for 10 years and you'll seem as alien to your fellow man as they seem to you.
At nearly 69 I can say that your future experience will remain the same, i.e. you will remain unintelligable until your dying day.
But I daresay you cannot give up, any more than I can.
BTW have you read "The Republic"? In it Plato describes nearly everything going on today.
Nothing new under the sun!
Depends on which sun you're under.
Don't assume we're all at the same beach.
here is what you need to do to cut out all the crap.
let the word out that you have passed away.
hold a wake at a reputable funeral home. when
people have arrived and start the mourning you
open the casket and sit up. say surprise !
do this and spread great joy!
Reminds me of the student who asked a Zen master what ultimate truth is. The Zen master took off his shoes, and put them on his head.
mind, body and sole!
Yup, enlightenment is at hand.
I think we start should start a movement to remove Scrooge McDuck from the lexicon. His name implies that persons of Scotch ethnicity are cheap.
I do however applaud his lack of genitalia as it renders him gender neutral.
This is essentially THE key for any winning poker player. Small hand? Small pot. Big hand? Big pot.
I don't give a damn about a bad reputation.
I was discussing with my colleagues over lunch about how a world would be without any regulation or corporate penalties. Instead, individuals within corporations would be criminally liable for each item sold that would harm anyone.
My colleagues were not impressed at all.