“She’s always hungry. She always needs to feed. She must eat. All she gets is nasty Orcses.” – LOTR, Return of the King
I saw a wanted poster for Schrodinger’s cat. It said, “Wanted Dead And Alive.”
I have a general routine that I start before I write. I interact with my family because they seem to want me to do so. I then retire to the Wilder Tub of Genius where I smoke a cigar the size of a crutch that Tom Cruise might use. It’s not a huge cigar, since Tom isn’t that tall. But it is a mighty cigar nonetheless.
Then I generally enjoy life. Unfortunately, sometimes the muse hits me while I’m happily hanging out in the hot tub, and it pulls me away from the three pages (yes, it was that many) of notes I had prepared for you. Whenever that happens, I always, and I repeat always, go for the muse.
The idea of a muse is simple: it is creation. It’s an untamed force that hits you and takes over. It’s not exactly like The Mrs. hitting me in the face with a raw chicken covered in Ranch® dressing, but it’s close.
That’s tonight. Fridays are often that night where I go where the muse hits me
What hit me tonight?
Tonight it was this simple idea: controlling what goes into your mind is the key.
Except the dormouse. I hate that guy.
I start every post with a quote. There’s a reason why I do this – it sets the mind of the reader into a familiar idea. If the reader (you) doesn’t recognize the quote, it’s okay. The quote isn’t necessary for the magic that follows, but if you know the quote, you are nearly instantly transported into the ideas that will follow.
It’s like a subtle form of hypnosis, but one in which I don’t require you to pretend you’re a duck who has just created an egg out of chocolate and plutonium. Well, not more than once. As far as you know.
I use that because I want to create a mental space where the ideas that follow will sit well. If you’re already on familiar ground, the ideas will flow more smoothly. It’s a stupid idea, but it’s grounded in reality. Besides, I like movie quotes.
The reason I chose movie quotes is because they are the most shared of our experiences. Millions have seen, say, Ghostbusters®, while only hundreds of thousands have read Dostoevsky. Heck, I told my buddy who was an Orthodox priest that I was reading Dostoevsky and he shook his head and said, “John, that’s a little heavy, don’t you think?”
There was a really bad joke about ghosts. It still haunts me.
When a guy in a Russian cassock tells you that Dostoevsky is a bit heavy, well, it’s probably not the best way to reach people. By the way, spoiler alert: It’s Russian literature, so everyone dies. And then it gets worse. It’s almost as bad as reading a German instruction manual for a chainsaw – I tried reading one once all it gave me was a longing to invade Poland.
Or a British cookbook. Good heavens. The British have ruined pudding for me forever. Well, maybe Cosby beat them to that, but, still.
So, here I am, admitting that I want to manipulate the emotions of my readers so that they are more receptive of the ideas of crazy people like Plato or Seneca or Aristotle or Twain (Shania, not Mark) and the message that follows will sound crazy.
Be careful of what goes inside your head.
You don’t think that color scheme was an accident, do you?
I’ve tried again and again to show this very simple point: in 1900, the only regular contact any American would have had with the Federal government was the postman bringing letters. Now? When I get up in the morning I have nearly a dozen interactions with the Federal government before I leave my front door. The alarm goes off, and
- The lights (subject to Federal emissions standards at the power plant) come one and
- I go to the shower (subject to both EPA water standards and EPA waste disposal requirements) and
- Brush my teeth with toothpaste (subject to FDA requirements) and
- Put on my clothes (subject to The Mrs. wanting me to not look too cool in public) and
- Go into the Wilder Morning Den and drink a cup of (USDA approved) coffee and
- Have some (USDA approved) bacon and
- Pick up my (Federal Highway Administration Approved) keys and
- Check my (FCC approved) cellphone for messages and
- Walk upon my (Building Code Approved) floor and
- Open my door (which is made of lead and plutonium) and
- Start my (Insert a zillion Federal regulations here) car and drive to work.
Oddly, this little demonstration undersells the impact of government in my life. There are dozens of regulations that I skipped because, well, I’ve been drinking. Blame Jim Beam®.
This is just the setup, however.
What goes in your head?
I’ve told you how I try to make a post better by increasing your receptiveness to it. My motives are simple – I am not trying to sell you anything except ideas. And those Ideas are (mostly) the ideas of the most brilliant people who have ever lived on Earth. I try to sneak a few of mine in, because, hey, my beard is awesome, so I might have built up some wisdom.
But who is trying to manipulate the ideas that go inside your head?
The Mrs. had a complement the other day. She couldn’t listen to mainstream media coverage on a certain topic because Truth that I shared with her had infiltrated her brain. Every Single Time the media tried to lie to her, she reacted in revulsion because . . . the Truth had set her free.
What goes in your head?
What do you feel that is real? Why is that you feel that thing?
Those are very, very difficult questions, and are not for the weak of heart – what if you understood that most things you felt were truth were instead, lies?
This is a devastating lens. What lies do you believe in because they are pretty little lies? The more you examine them, the more they fall apart.
Communism sounds good on paper. Unless you’re reading a history book.
I promise you that I have done my best to make every word as Truthful as I can make it. But I ask of you this, can you understand the immense amount of propaganda you have been fed nearly every day of your life?
Step back.
What, really, is the Truth?
There is an entire industry made of tens of thousands who want to feed your head. They want to bring their ideas into yours. There is an amazing amount of money being spent to try to influence you.
What, then will you choose?
The pretty little lies, or the Truth that you know exists underneath?
A basic question is “Are your synapsis free-range or are they a product of the feed lot….?
Thank you for all you do!
Thank you! Question . . . everything.
Most people at an instinctive level understand some basic truths. On the other hand they are bombarded all day with things that they are told they must accept as true but the know at an instinctive level are not true. Then we wonder why people are angry and crazy all the time.
I have a similar experience with my wife. She will listen to mainstream news, often NPR, but invariably will call me all fired up about the lies she is hearing. She has learned, alongside me over the years, to recognize truth from lies, and it makes everything change.
“I have a similar experience with my wife.”
First thought: What, hit in the head with a raw chicken cover in ranch dressing?
Yup. I’ve had a friend mention that they can’t listen to the news anymore because of the lies.
It’s bad.
I have the same issue, because of things I learned in public school, of all places. How? I accidentally had a number of really good teachers over the years – the ones that slipped through the cracks and hadn’t been identified and neutralized yet….
Anyway – there are two important things when considering ‘news’:
1) everyone has a point of view, and often even an agenda – and it will influence how and what is and sometimes what ISN’T reported. Keep this in mind.
2) Often, the only way to find the Truth is to look for as many different sources as possible and ‘integrate’ them. You can often easily find the ‘unreported’ data this way, as well as identify mis-reported data. In today’s world – this is often the only way to descern what likely is really going on.
And unfortunately – this is a time consuming and tiring process. The benefit is that you are more likely to (at least, eventually) have information that will be trustworthy enough to be actionable.
It’s like thinking…. It can be hard work, and takes time and effort (and an attention span longer than a goldfish’s). THIS is why it is so seldom done. To avoid the work – far too many are just entertaining themselves to death.
And to get back to your friend’s reaction: Yes – it can make listening to MSM sources (even the presumably ‘unbiased’ ones) difficult, and even painful. I no longer keep breakables in the room with the TV, and I still feel like I should install a cage around it (as was seen in “Roadhouse” – to protect the band).
Yes – we do live in interesting times. Almost – an Idiocracy.
Excellent post. It is hard work. And often we fail, as with any worthy undertaking. And when we fail, we just start again . . . .
Since that’s a Number Two pencil, another accurate answer would be “Which of Zhou Bai Den’s orifices uncontrollably spew it.”
It would be better if it was ranch dressing . . .
Truth? Breathe. Hydrate. Shelter. Consume. Eliminate. Survive. Procreate. Die.
Watch Alone. In Alone there is Truth.
https://play.history.com/shows/alone
The Ultimate Truths : Humans are not meant to be Alone. They are Social. Social Bonds are built on Trust. The only thing Truth and Trust have in common are the letter T.
Somewhere along the chain of generations, somebody had the bright idea of adding Think to the list above and the world view of Humans began shifting increasingly from Truth to Trust.
Thinking invented Words. The second Word invented was Misunderstanding.
Words led to Language, then Writing, Then Books, Then Media, Then Broadcast, Then classifieds and bulletin boards and email and podcasts and blogs and tweets and posts and feeds and and and and and and and and with every step Truth has became harder and harder to both find and define.
Always remember the Truth in the quote at the beginning of Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, which struck me like a thunderclap when I first read it in 1969 as a teen, and which I have never, ever forgotten:
The survival value of human intelligence has yet to be satisfactorily demonstrated.
“survival value of human intelligence”
Actually, we have demonstrated several times at work the survival time is about 15 to 20 yrs. It takes that long for the young engineers to advance high enough to really screw-up something that we previously screwed and fixed. Of course, the younger guys want to “fix” the fix because it was annoying to deal with.
Things have gotten worse with the woke crap. For some years now, no one will discuss anything with a “minority” except as a requirement of the job, and then in as few words and officially as possible. The threats of HR are real. No one in their right mind will risk it. So the minorities are not getting the apprenticeship training they need. And guess what, they are the ones being fast-tracked. The survival time is shrinking.
The only theories on how intelligence was selected for that make sense is that it was an accident. And mainstream geneticists deny that intelligence could be selected for at all, since they deny group evolutionary theories.
The only physical advantage humans have is endurance. The most primitive of tribes even today often hunt by trotting after their prey until it drops. In a hot environment the limiting factor for endurance is avoiding heatstroke, which is directly related to the size of the brain and the ability to keep it cool. So we developed a big brain for no purpose other than to act as a radiator, as well as lots of blood flow to that area. Which is why head wounds bleed so profusely.
Then some of us moved north, and ice ages selected for those who can plan ahead and have empathy. Some research has shown that the ability to plan ahead is actually just having empathy with your future self.
To survive in the North one needs to have very little skin pigment, so you can photo-synthesize vitamin D. Without sufficient vD, you can’t fight off respiratory infections. Without vD, you get sick. When you get sick in a primitive society, you can’t hunt or gather. When you get sick in a modern society, you can’t go to school when you’re young, or to work when you’re older. Either way, you can’t compete against your peers who DID show up to hunt, gather, learn, and/or work every day. After a while, losing just a few productive days every winter puts one at a significant disadvantage, and that makes it harder to raise the next generation. $10 worth of vD supplements per year would keep you in the game, but the race hustlers would rather blame Society than acknowledge that Biology, Like, Matters.
I read this theory from a long distance runner. I cannot remember the name of the book.
I thought it lacked credibility then and even more so now. Humans don’t run down deer or any other animal. Running down animals is extremely inefficient. If our ancestors are chimps which I doubt, but if so, show me a film of chimps running down a deer.
The heat loss from the head is proportional to the skin surface area Which makes sense since we cool via perspiration.
Dunning-Kruger in full effect. Humans can train to run 100 miles (ultra-marathons). Horses start dropping dead after trotting about 30 or so miles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGleeVGS8F8
I’m not sure what your 2nd paragraph is supposed to be arguing. The bigger something is, the more heat it can absorb. The bigger something is, the greater the surface area that radiates heat. The more blood circulation in 1 area, the better that 1 area is at maintaining an optimal temperature although at the expense of other areas where the blood circulates the heat to. Having a lot more blood vessels around the brain indicates that the brain is more of a limiting factor than the rest of the body.
The book is: “Born To Run”, by Christopher McDougall.
A key point often missed is that humans evolved the ability to perspire and sweat over most of our body – not just our brain buckets. This GREATLY increases our heat rejection ability – far in excess of the game animals we trotted after (who do not perspire over their entire bodies). So we could literally run our prey to death by their succumbing to heat stroke/exhaustion. It took perseverance, but it worked well enough. As an engineer – always remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good. “Good Enough” may not be elegant, or even very robust – but if it gets the job done…
P.S. – as a distance runner myself, I found the book’s precepts plausible – and in general, a good read.
*The only thing Truth and Trust have in common are the letter T.*
Citation needed.
Iterated prisoner’s dilemma.
No truth? No trust.
Though you can mine both destructively for great profit until you get caught.
I theorize that much of the “weakness” and disorder we are seeing amongst the elites is actually them realizing we are approaching the last few iterations of the game. It is at that point that the marginal benefits of teamwork decrease, while the benefits of selfish action increase. So they aren’t failing, they are just getting a bit hasty to make sure their faction gets the last chair when the music stops.
Very, very well said.
Oh, I’m glad The Mrs. didn’t see that one! She gets homesick when we watch Alaska shows.
There is a wonderful passage in Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions that has stuck with me through the ages since reading it for the first of many times back in my teens. The artist Rabo Karabekian creates a total crap piece consisting of an enormous canvas covered in green (‘Hawaiian Avocado’) wall paint with a single vertical stripe of Day-Glo orange reflective tape toward one edge. He calls it “The Temptation of St. Anthony” and it was purchased for an astronomical sum by a wealthy town elder for an arts festival. This has the entire town outraged.
A bar waitress admits that she does not understand the work and does not even know who St. Anthony was, to which the artist tells her that he doesn’t know either and doesn’t really care. The waitress asks, “You have no use for truth?” The artist replies, “You know what truth is? It’s some crazy thing my neighbor believes. If I want to make friends with him, I ask him what he believes. He tells me, and I say, “Yeah, yeah – ain’t it the truth?”
Bottom line, there is no absolute ‘truth’. Your ‘truth’ is not my ‘truth’, and just like Schroedinger’s multi-tasking feline, ‘truth’ can exist quite comfortably in two or more mutually exclusive places at one and the same time. I may genuinely, honestly believe that I am the reincarnation of Genghis Khan, and you may genuinely, honestly believe that I am a potato. Whose ‘truth’ is correct? Both, of course.
*I may genuinely, honestly believe that I am the reincarnation of Genghis Khan, and you may genuinely, honestly believe that I am a potato. Whose ‘truth’ is correct? Both, of course.*
Until I insist you subsist only on sunlight, water and manure.
Potato my Aunt Fanny.
This is why the first thing the monsters try to destroy is our words.
Except . . . there is absolute Truth that is provable. Gravity. Force. Entropy. So, there is Truth. Can any of us grasp it all?
No.
But it is there.
Above all, I want the truth. Most people I know do not want the truth, but rather
the pretty lies. I have been banned (not too subtle) from talking about many subjects.
“Polite and appropriate conversation” as opposed to an exchange of ideas and plans
for life and death issues. I resent that. However, I can play the game. I even know
how to play “I am more liberal than you are.” Boring, delusional, frustrating stuff. Thank
you God for my Mr. being of like mind, and adding to our stash of freeze dried coffee.
TY John.
Thank you!!!
Yup, Truth is probably not a good strategy for party invitations . . .
“All truth is relative” is a statement whose truth can’t be determined.
In one thing you are mistaken. That No. 2 pencil will also work on wood…ok, unprocessed paper, but also on steel and plastic, if truth be told.
Note: Using a graphite pencil on steel, especially galvanized, will cause serious corrosion if exposed to the elements. So not a proper use of the pencil.
Heh, you’re right. Works far better than communism.
$319 million buys a lot of “truth”:
“While other billionaires’ media empires are relatively well known, the extent to which Gates’s cash underwrites the modern media landscape is not. After sorting through over 30,000 individual grants, MintPress can reveal that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has made over $300 million worth of donations to fund media projects.”
https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-show-bill-gates-has-given-319-million-to-media-outlets/278943/
This.
Money talks. And shapes public opinion.
I have a theory:
When television was young, the reporters mostly had risen through the ranks of the newspaper industry and, by and large, saw their job as reporting events. Opinions were largely confined to editorials. Of course, some reporters were less objective than others, but in general it all evened out.
Then, reporters discovered that being on television conferred a certain amount of “built-in” credibility. They began to see themselves as more than just reporters of events, but “conveyers of truth”. “Journalists”. That their “truth” was simply their own biased interpretation of events was not considered a violation of objectivity.
A new generation grew up thinking that being on television would be a sweet gig. They could help “make the world better”. The fact that they would automatically be invested with credibility without earning it in any way was seen as a feature, not a bug. They learned how to advance without rocking the boat (or corporate sponsors). In the process, “NEWS” became less a reporting of events and more a simple reading of press releases without critical thinking.
These days young cub reporters learn very fast not to mess with the “official” narrative supplied by those in authority. If they cause trouble, a new fresh-faced (and cheaper) reporter can easily replace them. These reporters are no longer independent of authority: they actually serve its purposes.
In the meantime, the general population never recognized the slow transition from objective reporter to authoritarian mouthpiece and still largely believe whatever they see on television as “The Truth”.
Those of us who have emerged from this cave of lies and see it for what it is now have to search out the Truth on our own.
Hey. It’s just a theory. One sprung from growing cynicism, a sneering hatred of authority, and a fair amount of Jameson. So take it for what it’s worth.
“if it’s on TV, it must be true!” – Bullwinkle The Moose, circa 1960
There is also the group level of analysis. It wasn’t just individuals, but groups discovering how manipulating the news could benefit them at the expense of others.
So, The Mrs. (who keeps up on these things) says that “modern” journalists are taught to *advocate* in their journalism.
Taught. At School. To bend the Truth.
Taught to.
By Communists.
What were the odds?
Yup. Taught to. She was aghast. Odds of Commies doing that? 100%.
Perfesser,
That beard complements your dazzling wit.
I hope you appreciate this compliment.
Indeed! I haven’t trimmed it (except for here and there) since July. I’m wondering if I should go for the Moses look.
The truth is what people believe; regardless of any facts that might contradict. Marketing people know this, so do politicians, many preachers, and most of the media. It’s why finding facts can be as tedious, and unpleasant, as searching for kernels of corn in piles of horse crap. People get lazy, accept the current brain food provided by the propagandists, and the truth becomes something as ridiculous as anthropogenic global warming.
I’d like to think humans are much better at filtering what goes into their mind, but I can’t. People see, store, and never process information that can only be described as garbage. Too make it worse, they expound their ignorance, and post it on social media.
And when a “fact” (that isn’t so) gets anchored, it’s really hard to dislodge it, and people will fight to retain it.
Thanks for giving us a glimpse of your writing process.
I’ve subscribed to a maxim for most of my adult life that has served me well.
“90% of everybody you meet is stupid”
Basically this means two things. One, when I remember this maxim, I don’t get frustrated with people’s stupidity, it’s already a given that they are probably stupid. Two, when I meet someone who is smart, then I know I’m in the 90% and that keeps me humble.
Corollary to that maxim: Everybody has their own expertise. They also have vast areas where they know nothing, but express their stupidity by opining on that area.
Which leads us naturally to the saying: It’s better to remain silent, then speak and remove all doubt about your stupidity.
Damn, I think I just violated the saying. I’ll be quiet now.
Oh, good heavens. I think I have 1.3-1.5 million words on the Internet. I have really broken the last one.
But, yup. I have to stop and not assume I’m the prettiest pumpkin in the patch. That’s a sure sign that I’m gonna get schooled.
John, I have a routine as well, though not nearly as well developed (or fun!) as yours: an idea percolates, and then I start my morning walk or evening walk with Poppy The Brave, muttering bits and pieces of the potential post out. I am sure one or more people have moved to the other side of the street as I come up upon them, wearing my weight vest that looks a bit like tactical armor in the bad streetlight, apparently having a conversation with someone that is visibly not there. Fortunately, I have not had to explain myself to any law enforcement yet.
After that, I come home and write.
Nice! Walking is a great way to write.
I once saw a German safety video on how to properly operate forklifts. It had a chainsaw in it.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N9JbSip8qrI&noapp=1
Ha! The Germans invented chainsaws. Oddly, I found that out . . . researching for this blog.
Love the URL.
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
1984 by Eric Blair aka George Orwell.
Exactly. I read that in 8th grade and it was very influential to my thinking. Still is.
And I don’t like the idea of those boots.
From the ’70’s:
Kill your television.
Good advice through the ages, although the smart phones should be be included these days.
Yup. I can’t recall the last time I’ve watched live TV.
Don’t miss it.