Friday, February 1, 2013
Some Things NEVER Change
20/20 Intuitive Hindsight or Oh, That's why it happened.
I was just reading a copy of Pentacle
and a paragraph in the editorial caught my attention:
“I've noticed a worrying trend in
recent months. It seems that a number of conferences, moots, events
and Balls have been canceled through lack of interest, poor ticket
sales, or just the 'feh factor'. This is a fairly recent phenomenon.
Fifteen years ago there were only a few conferences or events where
Pagans could meet and discuss together.”.........
“That is something else that seems to
be creeping into Pagan Spirituality – Consumerist Paganism. People
wanting the Path or Tradition to mould round , rather than invest the
time and energy in understanding their place within it. Further to
this, when people are asked to invest time and effort, they flounce
off citing they are now 'Traditional Witches' or whatever this week's
special spiritual offer is....and sod the nasty Wic(c)cans. I'm too
good for them anyway. Oh well in the end someone else provide
entertainment and mental stimulation for you.... won't they?”
Well, maybe two paragraphs.....
Imagine my shock when I looked at the
cover and discovered the date of the magazine was Samhain, Winter
2007.
Now I wonder if the projected reasons
for the decline in attendance were everything we thought or were the
truly psychic beginning already to pull back for monetary reasons
sensing the crash of the world economy in 2008. Were we really taking
the criticism too hard and canceling things in a pique or was the
Universe giving us a nudge to back off and save our resources?
So, I looked back at my own life as I
tend to live by my intuition and that is, of course, how I make my
living.
In 2007, on a fairly nice evening I
opened the mail to discover my favorite dealership was having a sale
on vehicles. I didn't think they had commercial vans like I was
looking for but I carefully typed in the website as the name is VERY
hard to spell and I still don't have the hang of pronouncing it, and
up popped two pages of vans.
I chose the one I thought was the best
and started to type in a request when the hours and map came up and I
muttered, “What the Heck?” It seems I didn't go to their web page
when I typed in this very hard to spell name, Lou Bachrot.com...just
butchered it again....I went to OffLease.com. Now, if you can see any
possible similarity between those two names, you need help. But,
there was the van I wanted at the price I could afford so I dragged
George three quarters of the way into the next county, got directed
to furthest end of the 40 acres (it seemed that way), climbed over a
few cars and discovered the van I wanted was trashed, needed four
tires and generally was a total disappointment. While perusing the
remaining vans, most of which were in the same condition being recent
rejects from various county projects, I happened upon a pristine van,
with new tires (tires are expensive) and I drooled but I had been
warned if the papers weren't on the dashboard, it was sold. The
dashboard was bare. Finally after circling it several times I decided
there was no harm in opening the door and there on the floor lay the
papers...it was bit more than I planned to pay but it was in warranty
for another year and I flew to the office...this time really climbing
over cars....and bought it. One week later, all car loans were
suspended and you couldn't get financing for a car if you were the
Donald. I even had a low interest loan!
Within weeks, my readings all started
to say, pay off debt, don't take out this refinancing or any loans
and start putting at least 6 months money aside. People's jobs
suddenly started looking iffy when they had been employed their
entire lives and had sterling resumes. I almost thought the cards
were going crazy but I dutifully read what they said and started
taking their advice. I was about the only one who did. By the fall of
2008, the cards were coming up dismal, I was cutting back on
everything and no one was listening to me, as usual. I think you know
what happened.
The issue of the magazine is right in
line with my life. I bought my van in September of 2007 and though I
had bought it to attend in state events as a vendor, I just couldn't
seem to part with the money the events would have cost. Information
slowly trickled back, when people started telling the truth, that
they had lost money on the events. Events disappeared that had
existed for years. Even the huge commercial/professional events took
a hit. This was all in 2007. By 2008, there were few if any events
scheduled and the rest is history.
Now when you consider the economy was
riding a false high, people were flipping house like flapjacks and
making loads of money and the Secret was to visualize money falling
out of the sky and it would, why did people start pulling back in
2007? There was absolutely nothing in the news or the economy that
would explain to the average person, it was time to stop and get off
the merry-go-round. Yet, the truly intuitive jumped ship. The only
possible answer is they sensed something no one else did. Since
hindsight is 20/20, it now seems obvious, the fault really didn't
belong to the providers or the consumers in the above paragraphs. The
fault was a crumbling economy to come and, thankfully for the
providers, they dropped anchor before the ship sailed into the
sandbar.
So, the next time someone tells you
that you are just too sensitive, say, “Thank you.” It might just
save your economic future.
However, taking a look at the second
paragraph, that is something to discuss and really finally put the
blame for it squarely where it belongs: The Infamous Simplistic Think
It and It Will Manifest out of thin air..... If it was really that
easy, do you think occultists, Druids and magicians would have spent
lifetimes studying and spent fortunes acquiring books and information
and objects? Do you think most would have died in poverty when wealth
was that easy to manifest? Come on...use a little common sense. They
would have stumbled over it in the first week. When everyone is
making money it's easy to make money circa pre 2008...Now try it
after 2008 and see if it works or wonder why this wonderful intuitive
metaphysical secret of the ages didn't protect you from the
fall......
This eclectic nonsense makes about as
much sense as thinking you can take a toaster, a microwave and a
refrigerator and make a car. You might start by noticing none of them
has wheels. Now, you might be able to take a car and install a
toaster, microwave and refrigerator in it...in fact I think one of
the stretch limos even has a hot tub...but it doesn't work the other
way around. In other words, you need to learn one system and learn it
well before you start grabbing bits and pieces and incorporating them
into your practice.
True, I am Druid and I have been
studying ceremonial magic(k) since I was 16. I think I spent my
entire allowance with the Mystic Arts Book Club every month until I
found Triad for supplies and then I had to get a job. Thank you Eagle
Army Navy for making me the Druid I am. Without that pay check I
would never have had Anna Riva's original Power Oil and a better job.
You see, pretty much every job I ever held had a single purpose to
bring home a paycheck so I could buy supplies and more books.
Conferences were a luxury item, I chose carefully and went into debt
to attend. Until someone would discover my expertise might actually
be greater than the presenters, I soaked up every ounce of
information and nuance of practice I could. Nothing was ever wasted
and I was more curious as to how people reached the conclusion they
did than the actual conclusion.
You might want to read that last
sentence about ten times because the process in magic(k) is a
thousand times more important than the desire. It is a lot like
learning to drive a car. First you learn the road rules so you manage
to get on the right side of the two lane highway and stay off the
sidewalk. Then you have to learn what the key does and each pedal.
For a long time, you clench the steering wheel, can't drive a
straight line and ding things parking until finally, it becomes, with
a lot of practice, a reflex. But when you change cars there is a
period of adjustment before you easily drive the new one. You become
reluctant to change cars. Still, if you grab the cell phone, the
reflex goes down the drain with the distraction and you are picking
yourself out of another car's rear. Now do you see why starting with
an eclectic or a simplistic framework will crash and burn.
Perhaps a lot of people were misled
simply because the people who they investigated appeared to be
creating magic(k) with a simple flip of the switch and they never
bothered to spend the time and effort to look at all the wiring
behind the curtain. Or maybe they deliberately misled thousands of
people making their first step into the metaphysical for the simple
purpose of putting them off it and making them furious at anything
metaphysical for a generation or two? I'm sure time will provide the
answer and karma will provide the reward. Karma always does.....Just
remember, forewarned is forearmed.
Friday, January 25, 2013
You can't stop the world and get off.
My mentor in psychology used to say there are only two types of people in the world, watchdogs and bird dogs. The watchdogs bark at everything new and not within their narrow experience. The bird dogs are rarer, and when you send one of them out to retrieve something, you can never be sure what they will bring back.
He was half right. There are two more types.
I had a vision today of Boehner arriving at his mythical pearly gates. The tired old sage at the gates asks him what he was done in life. He begins telling him how he prevented a president from doing anything for 4 years and the old sage interrupts him and asks again what he has done. This goes on for a while and finally the sage says, "Yes, but WHAT have you DONE?" Boehner finally breaks down crying and screaming, "I don't understand the question."
And that is the pity of the situation....he would never understand the question.
You see the other two types of people are doers and preventers. Yes, that is a new word I made up.
Preventers are easy to find. Their normal domicile is within gated communities where they get to have 14 shrubs, two trees, grass exactly 2 inches high, and a house of the allowed color. Their goal in life is to prevent anything from changing or not fitting into their perception of how it should be. Their perception is shaped by what they are told by some authority figure like a politician, preacher, the TV or real estate agent. Preventers have a rule book about 10 times larger than the Encyclopedia Britannica but all the rules boil down to one, don't change anything. If it doesn't work, don't change it because it is comfortable, sort of like the person who after 10 years of listening to the kitchen sink drip every night finally changes the washer and now they can't sleep. There is no evidence, even death, that can stop a Preventer.
In a drought with severe water restrictions making it impossible to keep a lawn green, they will fine their fellow Preventers because the grass is dying even though it is totally out of their control and their fellow Preventers will actually pay the fines without question, blaming themselves for the lack of water. After the Hurricane Sandy hit NJ, homeowners that the local government refused to allow to return home were fined for not being able to demolish their homes they couldn't get to...Yes, Preventers often redefine insanity and they totally accept the absurd to keep things in their mind the way they were. The hurricane didn't happen. The homes weren't destroyed because the Government refused to shore up the levies. It just didn't happen. They are the three monkeys in one body with a new twist: see nothing, hear nothing, speak volumes....
That is the catch: the way they were not the way they are. Preventers live in their conception of the past which may have no basis in reality. Everything and every person is fitted into what they perceive as their past experience. Unfortunately, their perception of a past experience may vary widely from reality. They are very good at rewriting history and actually believing what they wrote is real.
Doers on the other hand have one simple way of life. They see a problem and they start working on fixing it. Then they attempt to find a way to prevent future problems of that kind from occurring by improving the existing things. Doers are artists, dreamers and creative people that embrace change and are curious about the future.
Preventers do not want to think about a future except one in which everyone else is in chaos and they are safe in their little world of the manufactured past where nothing has changed. It serves those others right for changing things. They deserve to suffer. Preventers think they will survive when history proves they are the first to perish...but they rewrote that part.
Preventers are easily manipulated by anyone who appeals to one of their perceived rules. They are single issue voters without the ability to look at where the entire platform is taking them because that would require looking at the future and the future is scary.
Someone says the government should be fiscally responsible and they think, I pay my bills and budget my money, the government should do the same thing and jump right on board with people who run up the biggest bills on credit in the history of our government. They never look at the history (because they rewrite it match their perception) in a situation.
Preventers are stuck in the now with a rule book and no sense of what could be. Rather than perception they embrace repetition. If it was good enough for my parents, it's good enough for me and I will vote and live that label.
Doers are curious about what something is and will spend time and go to great lengths to investigate something in order to understand it.
In their fear and just plain laziness, Preventers label everything: end of story. The bad news is they actually trust these labels will prove to be true.
So what happens when through no fault of their own, a Preventer is dragged into reality? They will do anything, destroy anything, kill anyone, and even self destruct to avoid facing a world that doesn't match the world view they have created.
A Doer simply adapts.
So the question you need to entertain today is, if you recognize yourself as a Preventer what are you going to do about it. The world is changing so rapidly you will have to face a place that resembles nothing you are used to and an arsenal of assault weapon and 3 years of dehydrated chemicals labeled food isn't going to stop anything. When you crawl out of the hole, the world will have changed.
You see, change in inevitable. Atrophy is death.
You can't stop the world and get off.
You really are in the minority.
He was half right. There are two more types.
I had a vision today of Boehner arriving at his mythical pearly gates. The tired old sage at the gates asks him what he was done in life. He begins telling him how he prevented a president from doing anything for 4 years and the old sage interrupts him and asks again what he has done. This goes on for a while and finally the sage says, "Yes, but WHAT have you DONE?" Boehner finally breaks down crying and screaming, "I don't understand the question."
And that is the pity of the situation....he would never understand the question.
You see the other two types of people are doers and preventers. Yes, that is a new word I made up.
Preventers are easy to find. Their normal domicile is within gated communities where they get to have 14 shrubs, two trees, grass exactly 2 inches high, and a house of the allowed color. Their goal in life is to prevent anything from changing or not fitting into their perception of how it should be. Their perception is shaped by what they are told by some authority figure like a politician, preacher, the TV or real estate agent. Preventers have a rule book about 10 times larger than the Encyclopedia Britannica but all the rules boil down to one, don't change anything. If it doesn't work, don't change it because it is comfortable, sort of like the person who after 10 years of listening to the kitchen sink drip every night finally changes the washer and now they can't sleep. There is no evidence, even death, that can stop a Preventer.
In a drought with severe water restrictions making it impossible to keep a lawn green, they will fine their fellow Preventers because the grass is dying even though it is totally out of their control and their fellow Preventers will actually pay the fines without question, blaming themselves for the lack of water. After the Hurricane Sandy hit NJ, homeowners that the local government refused to allow to return home were fined for not being able to demolish their homes they couldn't get to...Yes, Preventers often redefine insanity and they totally accept the absurd to keep things in their mind the way they were. The hurricane didn't happen. The homes weren't destroyed because the Government refused to shore up the levies. It just didn't happen. They are the three monkeys in one body with a new twist: see nothing, hear nothing, speak volumes....
That is the catch: the way they were not the way they are. Preventers live in their conception of the past which may have no basis in reality. Everything and every person is fitted into what they perceive as their past experience. Unfortunately, their perception of a past experience may vary widely from reality. They are very good at rewriting history and actually believing what they wrote is real.
Doers on the other hand have one simple way of life. They see a problem and they start working on fixing it. Then they attempt to find a way to prevent future problems of that kind from occurring by improving the existing things. Doers are artists, dreamers and creative people that embrace change and are curious about the future.
Preventers do not want to think about a future except one in which everyone else is in chaos and they are safe in their little world of the manufactured past where nothing has changed. It serves those others right for changing things. They deserve to suffer. Preventers think they will survive when history proves they are the first to perish...but they rewrote that part.
Preventers are easily manipulated by anyone who appeals to one of their perceived rules. They are single issue voters without the ability to look at where the entire platform is taking them because that would require looking at the future and the future is scary.
Someone says the government should be fiscally responsible and they think, I pay my bills and budget my money, the government should do the same thing and jump right on board with people who run up the biggest bills on credit in the history of our government. They never look at the history (because they rewrite it match their perception) in a situation.
Preventers are stuck in the now with a rule book and no sense of what could be. Rather than perception they embrace repetition. If it was good enough for my parents, it's good enough for me and I will vote and live that label.
Doers are curious about what something is and will spend time and go to great lengths to investigate something in order to understand it.
In their fear and just plain laziness, Preventers label everything: end of story. The bad news is they actually trust these labels will prove to be true.
So what happens when through no fault of their own, a Preventer is dragged into reality? They will do anything, destroy anything, kill anyone, and even self destruct to avoid facing a world that doesn't match the world view they have created.
A Doer simply adapts.
So the question you need to entertain today is, if you recognize yourself as a Preventer what are you going to do about it. The world is changing so rapidly you will have to face a place that resembles nothing you are used to and an arsenal of assault weapon and 3 years of dehydrated chemicals labeled food isn't going to stop anything. When you crawl out of the hole, the world will have changed.
You see, change in inevitable. Atrophy is death.
You can't stop the world and get off.
You really are in the minority.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
UFO's, Murray and Facebook
I did a lot of bouncing around Facebook tonight, catching up with old friends and annoying the radicals, and checking out some happenings. I have a pretty wide reach with information and pages. I have discovered no one reads the articles they link to except for a few of us. I have also discovered Facebook is very dangerous place for anyone who is doing anything good.
I have seen in the past couple of months, 4 humane organizations shut down after getting on Facebook. It doesn't matter what kind of animal or fish is involved. All the animals in their care were killed by the governmental animal control after someone happened onto their page and started filing complaints. Often the person wasn't even in the same state.
I have seen several people posting about their homestead experience who are now out of a house and home for the holidays, put off their land and their animals killed, too.
Some of my friends just posting interesting pictures of UFO's have been attacked viciously for no reason. A few are suddenly finding they are being harassed by one or more government bodies. Life is getting very difficult for them but when you are in a field that often finds your fellow researchers dead in odd circumstances, they are perhaps better capable of taking care of themselves than other people on Facebook.
Undoubtedly Facebook has been a boon for Law Enforcement, particularly the child porn and pedophile division. That is why I cringe at some of the photos I see people publishing. Tonight I saw a proud parent post a picture of their son's swim team in wet bikini suits that I am sure had several pedophiles drooling. I only hope there isn't enough information to allow someone to track down that eye candy but I am probably hoping against the odds.
I read a heartbreaking story of someone whose life and that of a friend has been pretty much trashed because of a picture posted in bad judgement. No apologies were accepted. No one even stopped to think this person may have children to feed or how it was going to affect her relatives. No, they simply ruined her life and that of another person.
There are a lot of people out these that think this is some sort of reality show. They can destroy another person and change the channel. The people on Facebook are not real to them. They have no remorse or even compassion and they wander through public pages and look to find someone to attack. The really bad thing, they have found this garners them the attention they crave. One site managed 3,000 followers attacking some poor hapless person who probably had no idea there was a problem with a picture. They took it down but they didn't understand that once you publish something on Facebook and remove it from your timeline, it isn't gone. It is on everyone's wall and they can share it. It still exists after you delete it.
I am sure one poor person had no idea that his cell phone number was public to every person friended or subscribed to his page. I've picked up a few whack jobs playing of all things: Farmville. Can you get more benign?
Now that the election is over, all the whackoes who got off on attacking candidates and getting a big thrill from finding other whackoes to agree with them, no longer have targets. They can't get attention without a target and my friends, you are now in their crosshairs. It can be as simple as you have loved ones and they don't, a home and they don't, a lizard and they don't....I used to know someone that if we were sitting in a restaurant she would be making derogatory comments about perfect strangers and their hair or clothes. Really, what is that except jealousy and trying to show how superior you are? I am sure she has a ball tearing people down on Facebook and she is on Facebook.
As for me, I have a lot to do in the next few months and I am getting off Facebook except to play Farmville for relaxation. So if you don't hear from me, it's because I really am not here. I can access Farmville without ever going on Facebook though it may show I am on. It just isn't worth my time and energy to see perfectly good people destroyed by other people to get attention.
I have seen in the past couple of months, 4 humane organizations shut down after getting on Facebook. It doesn't matter what kind of animal or fish is involved. All the animals in their care were killed by the governmental animal control after someone happened onto their page and started filing complaints. Often the person wasn't even in the same state.
I have seen several people posting about their homestead experience who are now out of a house and home for the holidays, put off their land and their animals killed, too.
Some of my friends just posting interesting pictures of UFO's have been attacked viciously for no reason. A few are suddenly finding they are being harassed by one or more government bodies. Life is getting very difficult for them but when you are in a field that often finds your fellow researchers dead in odd circumstances, they are perhaps better capable of taking care of themselves than other people on Facebook.
Undoubtedly Facebook has been a boon for Law Enforcement, particularly the child porn and pedophile division. That is why I cringe at some of the photos I see people publishing. Tonight I saw a proud parent post a picture of their son's swim team in wet bikini suits that I am sure had several pedophiles drooling. I only hope there isn't enough information to allow someone to track down that eye candy but I am probably hoping against the odds.
I read a heartbreaking story of someone whose life and that of a friend has been pretty much trashed because of a picture posted in bad judgement. No apologies were accepted. No one even stopped to think this person may have children to feed or how it was going to affect her relatives. No, they simply ruined her life and that of another person.
There are a lot of people out these that think this is some sort of reality show. They can destroy another person and change the channel. The people on Facebook are not real to them. They have no remorse or even compassion and they wander through public pages and look to find someone to attack. The really bad thing, they have found this garners them the attention they crave. One site managed 3,000 followers attacking some poor hapless person who probably had no idea there was a problem with a picture. They took it down but they didn't understand that once you publish something on Facebook and remove it from your timeline, it isn't gone. It is on everyone's wall and they can share it. It still exists after you delete it.
I am sure one poor person had no idea that his cell phone number was public to every person friended or subscribed to his page. I've picked up a few whack jobs playing of all things: Farmville. Can you get more benign?
Now that the election is over, all the whackoes who got off on attacking candidates and getting a big thrill from finding other whackoes to agree with them, no longer have targets. They can't get attention without a target and my friends, you are now in their crosshairs. It can be as simple as you have loved ones and they don't, a home and they don't, a lizard and they don't....I used to know someone that if we were sitting in a restaurant she would be making derogatory comments about perfect strangers and their hair or clothes. Really, what is that except jealousy and trying to show how superior you are? I am sure she has a ball tearing people down on Facebook and she is on Facebook.
As for me, I have a lot to do in the next few months and I am getting off Facebook except to play Farmville for relaxation. So if you don't hear from me, it's because I really am not here. I can access Farmville without ever going on Facebook though it may show I am on. It just isn't worth my time and energy to see perfectly good people destroyed by other people to get attention.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Who is it alright to kill this week?
One thing you need to understand is that governments, corporations, religious leaders and politicians employ well trained people to alter your opinions, to change the way you see things and to change your very core values to benefit them.
You need to understand there are two sciences: psychology and sociology.
Psychologists work with the individual and changing their behavior and thought patterns.
Most of you think sociologists direct needy people to social programs and that is truly the face you most likely see. But, there is another side you don't see or hear about. Sociologists study societies or large groups of people. They, like psychologists, learn to manipulate group opinion, values and morals.
A huge push came after WW2 to study how to manipulate large segments of society without them noticing they were being manipulated. They had watched how successfully Hitler had convinced normal, moral people to persecute and kill their friends. They wanted to know how you could change an entire nation's morals and it wasn't to protect you.
You are most familiar with advertising. You probably are familiar with the cute little skulls in the ice cubes in the alcohol ads.
Psychologists determined most drinkers were risk takers, adrenaline junkies and to put it mildly, tended to have a death wish. So, advertisers placed death imagery into alcohol ads knowing it would subliminally, below the level of conscious perception, appeal to risk takers, adrenaline junkies and people with a death wish. It was really simple and pretty straightforward except the people buying more and more alcohol didn't know they were being manipulated. Every bar in the country went with low lighting and red decor because psychologists discovered rats would drink more under low wattage red lights. Rats actually do not like alcohol and won't drink it unless forced to but under red lights, they were real little boozers. It worked very well. One could easily argue that presenting your product in the best possible light to sell it shouldn't be illegal, but there is a big difference between that and what was being done. As long as the bottle of booze is sitting on the counter and the person is telling you how great it tastes and how wonderful it will make you feel, that's straightforward. You can get up and walk away. You can make a decision. But when you don't know you are being manipulated at a level below your consciousness, is it moral? Is it just plain fair?
Manipulation can be very subtle and you are going to get very offended by what I am going to tell you next. However, you might want to let it settle a bit in your brain before you burn me at the stake because you are the one on the receiving end of this manipulation.
If I were to say to was alright to kill someone because of their color, you would scream to high heaven and your main argument would be that color has nothing to do with a person's worth. You would be 100% right.
Now, if I were to say someone should be punished more heavily for killing or assaulting a cop, you would say: absolutely.
Read what I just wrote a few times and see if you can see where you were nicely manipulated.
Okay, I'll explain. You have just said that a person putting a uniform on is more valuable than say a surgeon because you are going to deliver a greater punishment for the same crime based on who the victim is. That makes the person in that uniform better than everyone else in society. You have just given up your worth, your value as a human being to a symbol: the uniform.
Now I've heard the argument that they risk their lives for us, but the funny thing is, theirs' is not the most dangerous occupation.
The most dangerous occupation is fisherman and related jobs in the fishing industry. They have the more fatalities and injuries per year on the job! On average they make 12.30 an hour and have little to no benefits and no retirement plans. Number 2 is logging workers making 3.00 an hour more. Number 3: aircraft pilots and flight engineers. Number 4 is your local garbage and recycling handler. Those garbage trucks are killers. Number 5 is a no brainer: roofers. Number 6 is iron and steel workers. My uncle worked in the steel mills. Fatalities and injuries were a weekly thing. Number 7 is agricultural, ranchers and farmers. Them little doggies have sharp horns. Number 8 is drivers, sales workers and truck drivers. The more time you spend on the highway the higher your odds of someone hitting you. Number 9 is anyone working with electricity, installers and repairers and Number 10 is Taxi drivers and chauffeurs.
The police and military didn't even get on the list.
However, if you off a fisherman, you just get murder one and if your smack him is just plain assault and battery. Do the same thing to a cop and it is the death penalty and assaulting an officer can be nothing more than touching them.
Now, is the average cop or soldier better educated than the average person. You know the answer is no. So why did you just value their life higher than the poor trucker who delivers your food to the grocery and the man out there sweating picking up your garbage? You think nothing of flipping the bird at a trucker but you want someone who does it to a soldier tried and convicted of treason and I guarantee you, if you flip the bird at a cop you will be arrested for assault and battery though you never got in touching range of this person.
You have been conditioned to accept their authority over you as absolute. They are untouchable. They are better than you or anyone else. Their life is worth more than your child's life. They cannot be disobeyed. They can no longer be questioned.
And now, hardly a week goes by some poor unarmed idiot gets shot by a cop who felt threatened. Old ladies fleeing intruders in their homes are shot multiple times and killed because they didn't have their hearing aids in and couldn't hear the cop telling them to stop. She was in her nightgown. How much of a threat is a senior citizen in a nightgown? But you accepted it. She did not stop. You accept that if you do not obey the order of a person in uniform instantly, no matter what that order is, they have the right to kill you.
So folks, who IS it alright to kill this week? The answer is: YOU.
Don't believe me?
Then explain to me why you go to the airport and allow a person in uniform to feel you up, humiliate you and even detain you when that person is not even a policeman? They are private security guards like the old man walking the beat in shopping center. They are not trained in any avenue of law enforcement. They are the person or pervert next door putting on a uniform and you have been conditioned to obey the uniform without question. You should be very, very worried about now.
You need to understand there are two sciences: psychology and sociology.
Psychologists work with the individual and changing their behavior and thought patterns.
Most of you think sociologists direct needy people to social programs and that is truly the face you most likely see. But, there is another side you don't see or hear about. Sociologists study societies or large groups of people. They, like psychologists, learn to manipulate group opinion, values and morals.
A huge push came after WW2 to study how to manipulate large segments of society without them noticing they were being manipulated. They had watched how successfully Hitler had convinced normal, moral people to persecute and kill their friends. They wanted to know how you could change an entire nation's morals and it wasn't to protect you.
You are most familiar with advertising. You probably are familiar with the cute little skulls in the ice cubes in the alcohol ads.
Psychologists determined most drinkers were risk takers, adrenaline junkies and to put it mildly, tended to have a death wish. So, advertisers placed death imagery into alcohol ads knowing it would subliminally, below the level of conscious perception, appeal to risk takers, adrenaline junkies and people with a death wish. It was really simple and pretty straightforward except the people buying more and more alcohol didn't know they were being manipulated. Every bar in the country went with low lighting and red decor because psychologists discovered rats would drink more under low wattage red lights. Rats actually do not like alcohol and won't drink it unless forced to but under red lights, they were real little boozers. It worked very well. One could easily argue that presenting your product in the best possible light to sell it shouldn't be illegal, but there is a big difference between that and what was being done. As long as the bottle of booze is sitting on the counter and the person is telling you how great it tastes and how wonderful it will make you feel, that's straightforward. You can get up and walk away. You can make a decision. But when you don't know you are being manipulated at a level below your consciousness, is it moral? Is it just plain fair?
Manipulation can be very subtle and you are going to get very offended by what I am going to tell you next. However, you might want to let it settle a bit in your brain before you burn me at the stake because you are the one on the receiving end of this manipulation.
If I were to say to was alright to kill someone because of their color, you would scream to high heaven and your main argument would be that color has nothing to do with a person's worth. You would be 100% right.
Now, if I were to say someone should be punished more heavily for killing or assaulting a cop, you would say: absolutely.
Read what I just wrote a few times and see if you can see where you were nicely manipulated.
Okay, I'll explain. You have just said that a person putting a uniform on is more valuable than say a surgeon because you are going to deliver a greater punishment for the same crime based on who the victim is. That makes the person in that uniform better than everyone else in society. You have just given up your worth, your value as a human being to a symbol: the uniform.
Now I've heard the argument that they risk their lives for us, but the funny thing is, theirs' is not the most dangerous occupation.
The most dangerous occupation is fisherman and related jobs in the fishing industry. They have the more fatalities and injuries per year on the job! On average they make 12.30 an hour and have little to no benefits and no retirement plans. Number 2 is logging workers making 3.00 an hour more. Number 3: aircraft pilots and flight engineers. Number 4 is your local garbage and recycling handler. Those garbage trucks are killers. Number 5 is a no brainer: roofers. Number 6 is iron and steel workers. My uncle worked in the steel mills. Fatalities and injuries were a weekly thing. Number 7 is agricultural, ranchers and farmers. Them little doggies have sharp horns. Number 8 is drivers, sales workers and truck drivers. The more time you spend on the highway the higher your odds of someone hitting you. Number 9 is anyone working with electricity, installers and repairers and Number 10 is Taxi drivers and chauffeurs.
The police and military didn't even get on the list.
However, if you off a fisherman, you just get murder one and if your smack him is just plain assault and battery. Do the same thing to a cop and it is the death penalty and assaulting an officer can be nothing more than touching them.
Now, is the average cop or soldier better educated than the average person. You know the answer is no. So why did you just value their life higher than the poor trucker who delivers your food to the grocery and the man out there sweating picking up your garbage? You think nothing of flipping the bird at a trucker but you want someone who does it to a soldier tried and convicted of treason and I guarantee you, if you flip the bird at a cop you will be arrested for assault and battery though you never got in touching range of this person.
You have been conditioned to accept their authority over you as absolute. They are untouchable. They are better than you or anyone else. Their life is worth more than your child's life. They cannot be disobeyed. They can no longer be questioned.
And now, hardly a week goes by some poor unarmed idiot gets shot by a cop who felt threatened. Old ladies fleeing intruders in their homes are shot multiple times and killed because they didn't have their hearing aids in and couldn't hear the cop telling them to stop. She was in her nightgown. How much of a threat is a senior citizen in a nightgown? But you accepted it. She did not stop. You accept that if you do not obey the order of a person in uniform instantly, no matter what that order is, they have the right to kill you.
So folks, who IS it alright to kill this week? The answer is: YOU.
Don't believe me?
Then explain to me why you go to the airport and allow a person in uniform to feel you up, humiliate you and even detain you when that person is not even a policeman? They are private security guards like the old man walking the beat in shopping center. They are not trained in any avenue of law enforcement. They are the person or pervert next door putting on a uniform and you have been conditioned to obey the uniform without question. You should be very, very worried about now.
Friday, November 9, 2012
By Soul and Soil We are Connected
How do you describe a feeling, a
sensation? Words are inadequate to describe the connection between
you and those who came before you, those who share the building
blocks of your body, psyche, soul and the land that spawned you.
I had arrived in Scotland at 9 PM and
found it pitch dark unlike the city I live in here in the USA. It was
cold and we ran from the bus to the hotel for more than one reason.
The bus engine was about to throw a bearing and even at the lowest
idle, it can go right through the engine and any nearby bodies.
The hotel had kept dinner hot for us
though for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was, just that
there was an awful lot of it. I trudged up to my waiting room
expecting to spend a night under my coat on a hard bed reminiscent of
so many foreign beds that have sought to make my nights a misery.
Much to my surprise, I found a spacious room, really hot water, a
real heater and a soft bed. Scotland definitely had England beat or
perhaps the contest wasn't that fair as my bed and breakfast was
owned by Colombians.
The next morning came early and they
stuffed us to the point we lucky ladies with purses were stowing a
hearty lunch in them. If you had food left on your plate, you got the
evil eye. Then it was on another bus and the prerequisite castle.
That island is littered with the darned things. Generations must have
spent lifetimes building nothing but castles and at this point, they
really did all look alike.
But they weren't alike. The English had
kennels and displays of leashes and collars. The Scots had a
graveyard honoring the dogs that died protecting their owners. They
had monuments to their dogs. The English had stained glass ceilings
depicting the crest of every royal family, pretty novelties to remind
us of our station. The Scots had monuments and memorials to the men
who died in their wars, every day men forced to be mercenaries after
the royalty of the English starved the country economically into
servitude. No, this castle was not like all the others. It was a
memorial to the memory of the struggle of a people to survive.
After a good time during which no one
bothered to herd us about but left us to find what each needed to
see, we returned to the bus and headed toward the town square for
some shopping and lunch after which we could find our way back to the
hotel. Naturally we were nervous as we Americans simply were not
prepared for how small a major city like Edinburgh really is and
wanted maps, detailed instructions and preferably someone to hold our
hands. We were assured anyone could point us in the right direction
and if we got on the bus going the wrong way to just wait and it
would circle around to the right direction and leave us off at the
hotel. What we didn't know was there was only one main street with
shops on it and it wasn't that long.
As for me, my memories were blurred
with my vision as I watched the tourist traps whiz by and tried to
memorize the way back to pick up trinkets for stateside friends when
I felt the bus lurch to a stop. I braced myself to exit as I am and
have always been the outsider. No one ever looked like me where ever
I lived. I expected the curious stares and sneers. I expected to be
last one waited on, the last one admitted and the last one trusted.
That is the life of one who simply doesn't belong in a big way. I had
learned my lessons well, lifted my chin, smiled and stepped half way
off the bus only to freeze on the bottom step. Everyone looked just
like me. The next person in line finally gave me a gentle shove off
the bus and I stood on the narrow sidewalk, completely disappearing
within the thong of locals. I wandered a bit, completely amazed at my
new anonymity until the lure of shopping was too much and entered my
first shop.
Everyone wanted to help and quickly
shunted me to the proper clan tartans though I had not managed a word
as to what clan I belonged. Until I opened my mouth, they had no idea
I was not an out of town cousin on a shopping trip. A few blocks away
I was welcomed into a local restaurant for a lovely lunch amid the
locals. Finally I found a suitcase and convinced a Japanese store
owner I wasn't a local but a pretty savvy American, so he could cut
the crap and give me the best price on the cheap suitcase he was
trying to sell as top of the line. I think he said he'd rather deal
with the cheap Scots, but I cut my bargaining teeth in Latin American
markets.
I sat in the park for a while just
looking at the people, each could have been my brother or sister, and
marveling at everyone smiling at me and saying hello. I belonged. I
wasn't an outsider. This was where I came from at my most basic
genetic level. These were my people.
I discovered the bus trip to the hotel
was a whole 3 blocks I could have walked but they were accustomed to
Americans being weaklings. It was cold and I admit I have never felt
colder and I have been at the top of Andes in the winter, but the
chill filled me like an old friend I had not seen in a long time. As
night fell, I sat in my windowsill and looked out at King Arthur's
seat...a low hill by Scottish standards but I had been guaranteed, a
climb I probably couldn't make. I was raised in West Virginia part of
my life. I already knew distances in the mountains are deceiving. I
had carefully opened the window to take advantage of lazy wind that
doesn't bother to go around you, but cuts right through you, as I had
been told. The chill spread through every inch of my body and my
blood sang with a song older than my body as my soul called to the
mountains, lochs and heather and they answered. We were one and I was
home.
It was this feeling I recalled today in
the chill of an early autumn in Florida as I read the newspapers. The
Latino vote had shifted to at least 67% for a president that didn't
insult them by trying to wear brown face on their TV channel. But as
I read the article I came to the Cuban vote, barely hitting the 50%
mark as old men still fight a lost battle with a ruler, 50 years
older and just as strong as the day I stepped off the two engine
plane into a sweltering country, palm trees everywhere heavy with
coconuts, and people speaking a language I barely understood having
picked up my smattering of Spanish in Mexico. My mother was clinging
to my hand, scared to death of the line of men with rifles held at
ready hand as we walked to customs and then, they took her pound of
coffee. Yes, they took her coffee and explained, we grow it, we have
much better than Maxwell House here and anyway, you can't bring food
into most foreign countries. She was livid but they had guns. They
let her keep the coffee pot. Even a Latino man with a gun knows
better than to push a red head too far.
This was my home for the next almost
two years. There were orchids, something we had never seen before.
Lizards abounded everywhere unafraid of humans and reducing my mother
to squeals. I think they deliberately tortured her. Birds sang in
strange songs. Everything grew with a lush vengeance. During the
rainy season, the water fell in torrents at 3:05 PM to 3:35 PM every
day as if Mother Nature had a wrist watch accurate to the minute.
Then the steam rose and it was almost as if the rain was falling back
up into the sky. By dusk, it cleared and everything prepared for the
cooling breezes as it dried, and preened and paraded its newly
cleaned colors. A whole new world of insects came out. Spiders as big
as dinner plates stalked their dinner which could one of the
multitude of peeps or tiny frogs and toads that came out to sing in
the abundant puddles and pools. With little ambient light from the
city of Havana, the stars papered the sky like a child gone mad with
glitter and the night blooming flowers perfumed the air. There was
always music somewhere. Someone was singing and someone was dancing
as the old men traded their dominoes to assess the young women
seeking true love under the watchful eyes of their grandmothers or
aunts. And then there would be quiet except for the calls of wild and
occasional drumming and sleep came easy until they started shooting
at me, anyway, it was nice while it lasted. The whole island had a
perfumed smell to it. The humidity clung to your skin but didn't
really wet it and make you uncomfortable. Everything moved a slower
pace because life went on and was more important than time, business
or politics.
And because of old men and old wounds
and older stupidity, generations have not and will not ever know what
I felt in Scotland on my 40th birthday. They will never
truly feel like they belong. They be a demographic on someone's
chart. They will be disconnected from the land they live in always
feeling a bit out sync with everything around, yearning for something
they cannot describe and knowing for certain it is missing.
My only question to those old men
keeping hatred alive and voting against their own best interests just
to find someone willing to pay lip service to waving a saber around
is: Is it worth it? Is it really worth it? Look at your
children and your grandchildren who will never know their native soil
and many of their relatives, think of the children born and the
parents buried and answer that question with your soul. Is it worth
it? Is hatred ever worth it?
Thursday, November 8, 2012
The Failure of the American Business Economy: Hubris
Hubris is a word you may not know the definition of and I will eventually define it, so be patient.
Why is the American business world failing? Is it the huge CEO salaries and bonuses that have created a top heavy economic model where the top 1% hoard more money than anyone can spend in several lifetimes, taking that money out of circulation and starving the economy below them? The answer is probably very likely, but have you wondered how it got that way? How did we become a 3rd rate or less manufacturing based economy from the top of the food chain in just a generation or two? Could the answer to both those and more questions be the same: Hubris?
George came in and had been watching the day after summation dinner with the Republicans as the top dogs discussed why Romney/Ryan didn't win. They were brandishing such reasons around as: (1) improper branding, (2) publicity didn't properly insulate him from the accusations (3) yada-yada-yada-braf.... At no point in time did anyone simply say, we nominated two lying, idiots for the office of president running on the same old policies that got the country in this mess and few people were fooled. However, the American people have already pointed that out.
So, one might ask why no one at the top seems to see that.
It seems the man (and it always is a man) at the top cannot make a mistake. If his grand new product fails, it wasn't properly branded and introduced. No one ever says it was a bad idea and no one wanted one of them. If his economic policy fails, accounting must have made a mistake. If his employment guidelines fail, the American workers are lazy dolts. If his products fail in every sense, the workers aren't putting them together right. Heads will roll and they are always the rank and file. Bonuses will be given at the top no matter how many failures. The saying too big to fail should be too high up to fail because apparently CEO's are actually gods and cannot fail.
Why on earth do we, the lazy dolts, accept this travesty of logic?
It comes from a simple psychological concept introduced some 50 years ago. You know it now under the headings of "no child left behind" and other names. Put simply, children were rewarded whether they actually succeeded or not. Everyone was getting a star. Everyone was passing the grade. It seems to have slipped everyone's mind that some children were not ready to pass because at almost a 100% rate those children not ready to pass were immature males who had been made that way by over indulgent rich mothers with nothing else to do.
When you work, you clean, you cook, you wash and you have no help and more than one kid, the concept of spoiling and protecting one goes right out the old window. You don't have enough time. However, when the little darling is your meal ticket by carrying on the family name and legacy, you are going to wrap him in plastic bubble wrap and destroy any teacher that says he just isn't smart or mature enough to pass the grade.
Our problem is, they never got smart enough or mature enough to pass the grade and they are running things now. The fact that Romney didn't win can't possibly be Romney's fault. I keep flashing to the image of John Bohner with tears running his face because he didn't get his way...he is the Speaker of the House, not a 2 year old! Grow Up! You blow it, you take the fall, just like the rest of us. The fault REALLY is YOURS!
This insanity flows through all of American Business and Politics. THEY CAN NOT FAIL! Therefore, when we are out of work, being foreclosed on and don't have enough food to eat, they can't even conceive of the problem because THEY CAN NOT FAIL! This simply cannot happen. They have a permanent safety net. We must have one, too. Unfortunately, we can't find it.
When I was in psychiatry, I quickly noticed a disturbing trend. It was called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it was skyrocketing. This disorder is not just a disease of the military. It affects huge numbers of "survivors" of traumatic events. When I grew up, there was the Korean War and WW II. Some men returned with this problem, but most did not. Now I was seeing most returning with it and it was spreading into the general population like a wild fire. So, I looked at the family histories of this disorder and it wasn't hard because the families were usually sitting in my office crying. It was then I saw the pattern. The closer knit, more supportive the family, the worse the condition and the more the sufferer was pushing them away. Those of us who grew up in the take care of yourself universe and don't expect us to bail you out world didn't get PTSD.
When the support mechanism the person had been conditioned to expect, Mommy and Daddy bailing them out and taking their side, failed in an accident or war, the person was first lost and traumatized, then angry that these people didn't show up and fix it and then angry at the entire world for letting them down. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Now, everyone is supposed to do it for you as you reap the rewards if you come from the top 53%.
The model of free loading welfare recipient (though false) is easily inserted into the psyche of the average American to replace the model of a hard working poor person who needs help with their struggle because EVERYONE HAS A SAFETY NET. No one can fail or be left behind. These people are just to lazy to use it.
After all, you attract and create your own reality. Yes dear metaphysical friends, you, too, have been duped by a well organized, psychological con game whose purpose is simply to bilk you out of the last penny and vestige of freedom you have.
News Flash: THE CEO'S FAILED. THE POLITICIANS FAILED. EVERYONE FAILS SOONER OR LATER.....It's how you learn and grow. Unfortunately the first two groups get paid billions of bucks to fail. Trust me....you won't be getting a check when you fail.
Why is the American business world failing? Is it the huge CEO salaries and bonuses that have created a top heavy economic model where the top 1% hoard more money than anyone can spend in several lifetimes, taking that money out of circulation and starving the economy below them? The answer is probably very likely, but have you wondered how it got that way? How did we become a 3rd rate or less manufacturing based economy from the top of the food chain in just a generation or two? Could the answer to both those and more questions be the same: Hubris?
George came in and had been watching the day after summation dinner with the Republicans as the top dogs discussed why Romney/Ryan didn't win. They were brandishing such reasons around as: (1) improper branding, (2) publicity didn't properly insulate him from the accusations (3) yada-yada-yada-braf.... At no point in time did anyone simply say, we nominated two lying, idiots for the office of president running on the same old policies that got the country in this mess and few people were fooled. However, the American people have already pointed that out.
So, one might ask why no one at the top seems to see that.
It seems the man (and it always is a man) at the top cannot make a mistake. If his grand new product fails, it wasn't properly branded and introduced. No one ever says it was a bad idea and no one wanted one of them. If his economic policy fails, accounting must have made a mistake. If his employment guidelines fail, the American workers are lazy dolts. If his products fail in every sense, the workers aren't putting them together right. Heads will roll and they are always the rank and file. Bonuses will be given at the top no matter how many failures. The saying too big to fail should be too high up to fail because apparently CEO's are actually gods and cannot fail.
Why on earth do we, the lazy dolts, accept this travesty of logic?
It comes from a simple psychological concept introduced some 50 years ago. You know it now under the headings of "no child left behind" and other names. Put simply, children were rewarded whether they actually succeeded or not. Everyone was getting a star. Everyone was passing the grade. It seems to have slipped everyone's mind that some children were not ready to pass because at almost a 100% rate those children not ready to pass were immature males who had been made that way by over indulgent rich mothers with nothing else to do.
When you work, you clean, you cook, you wash and you have no help and more than one kid, the concept of spoiling and protecting one goes right out the old window. You don't have enough time. However, when the little darling is your meal ticket by carrying on the family name and legacy, you are going to wrap him in plastic bubble wrap and destroy any teacher that says he just isn't smart or mature enough to pass the grade.
Our problem is, they never got smart enough or mature enough to pass the grade and they are running things now. The fact that Romney didn't win can't possibly be Romney's fault. I keep flashing to the image of John Bohner with tears running his face because he didn't get his way...he is the Speaker of the House, not a 2 year old! Grow Up! You blow it, you take the fall, just like the rest of us. The fault REALLY is YOURS!
This insanity flows through all of American Business and Politics. THEY CAN NOT FAIL! Therefore, when we are out of work, being foreclosed on and don't have enough food to eat, they can't even conceive of the problem because THEY CAN NOT FAIL! This simply cannot happen. They have a permanent safety net. We must have one, too. Unfortunately, we can't find it.
When I was in psychiatry, I quickly noticed a disturbing trend. It was called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it was skyrocketing. This disorder is not just a disease of the military. It affects huge numbers of "survivors" of traumatic events. When I grew up, there was the Korean War and WW II. Some men returned with this problem, but most did not. Now I was seeing most returning with it and it was spreading into the general population like a wild fire. So, I looked at the family histories of this disorder and it wasn't hard because the families were usually sitting in my office crying. It was then I saw the pattern. The closer knit, more supportive the family, the worse the condition and the more the sufferer was pushing them away. Those of us who grew up in the take care of yourself universe and don't expect us to bail you out world didn't get PTSD.
When the support mechanism the person had been conditioned to expect, Mommy and Daddy bailing them out and taking their side, failed in an accident or war, the person was first lost and traumatized, then angry that these people didn't show up and fix it and then angry at the entire world for letting them down. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Now, everyone is supposed to do it for you as you reap the rewards if you come from the top 53%.
The model of free loading welfare recipient (though false) is easily inserted into the psyche of the average American to replace the model of a hard working poor person who needs help with their struggle because EVERYONE HAS A SAFETY NET. No one can fail or be left behind. These people are just to lazy to use it.
After all, you attract and create your own reality. Yes dear metaphysical friends, you, too, have been duped by a well organized, psychological con game whose purpose is simply to bilk you out of the last penny and vestige of freedom you have.
News Flash: THE CEO'S FAILED. THE POLITICIANS FAILED. EVERYONE FAILS SOONER OR LATER.....It's how you learn and grow. Unfortunately the first two groups get paid billions of bucks to fail. Trust me....you won't be getting a check when you fail.
hu·bris
noun \ˈhyü-brəs\Definition of HUBRIS
: exaggerated pride or self-confidence
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