They say it's good to have goals. Now I'm not so sure who "they" are. I think maybe "they" are the same people who provide us with what the media calls "conventional wisdom." Now I am terribly conceited but, I still think I am right when I say there is no such thing as "conventional" wisdom. Shit conventional wisdom brought us all kinds of great ideas such as; the world is flat, man will never be able to fly, the earth is the center of the universe, some people were born to be slaves, women are innately inferior to men, homosexuality is a mental illness etc. etc. etc. So you see wisdom is unconventional!
If they are wrong about wisdom maybe they're wrong about goals too. When I was little people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I remember saying stuff like first man on the moon, until that bastard Niel Armstrong stole my thunder! I also gave answers like President of the United States. Honestly though I wanted to be a garbage man. The garbage trucks in Omaha at that time loaded from the back and they had this big rotating compactor that squished the shit out of the shit that was dumped into them. It was cool! Only garbage men got to operate that sucker. As a kid garbage seemed a lot more interesting than it does now.
Today nobody asks me what I want to be when I grow up. I wonder if I seem grown up? Nah, no way! "They" probably figure it's just too late to bother with asking me. I am really not sure goals are such a great idea nevertheless I have one. My goal is be almost totally inert on a beach! Quite honestly that is really how I want to spend my life. I am happy to announce that I am in fact quite close to this goal! I do have a job, but I live across the street from the beach. I spend as much time as I can either on the beach or riding my bike to the ferry or to east beach. I get plenty of exercise but, I love hanging on the beach doing nothing. Well actually I am doing research. You see later I paint my impression of life at the beach or by the bay. I really love my life, even though I never do get to squish the shit out of shit!
Sheep
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Only A Nazi Would Call Someone A Nazi!
Previously I wrote about how big a problem fear is and how our leaders use it to manipulate us. Okay so now we know who to be afraid of but, still we have to justify that they are really very scary. This may sound difficult but it is actually quite simple. All we have to do is compare our current threatening individual to someone who terrorized us in the past. If your current boss seems kind of mean but you're not sure just how big a bastard he actually is, just think about how much he acts like that jack booted thug you used to work for after school when you were a kid. You shouldn't of had to put up with that shit back then, and besides you're a grown-up now! See, how easy it is? Compare your current boss to some tyrant you used to work for (I'm sure you can find similarities) and you're ready to quit. Compare your girlfriend to that tart that broke your heart and you're ready to hire a private detective!
You get the idea. But here's the thing! You do not even have to compare this person to a real person from your past. You can use a real person from someone else's past! Your boyfriend might be just like your best friend's boyfriend, the one who propositioned you even though he knew you were her best friend. Hey your boss might be just like Al Capone! See history is full of villains we can compare people to. You are probably pretty good at this but you are nothing compared to the politicians and their media minions. But then you just make yourself miserable with this stuff, they make a living at it!
Remember when we invaded Iraq? Remember the build up to that quagmire? Who was it we compared Saddam Husein to? Why Adolf Hitler of course! Man if someone is just like Hitler they're bad! So when we compared Saddam to Hitler I knew we were going to start a war. It's the second step to war. First you get everybody scared, and then you justify their fear by saying "hey this guy is just like Hitler."
We do this all the time, comparing people to some famous villain like Hitler or Stalin. We call people we disagree with Socialists or Nazis. The other day some TV talking head was saying the Occupy Wall Street folks were Nazis and that they wanted to kill him and other "patriotic Americans." Once you compare people to Nazis you have good reason to be scared of them. Liberal commentators are too quick to call others Fascists and Conservative commentators are too quick to call others Socialists and nobody but Nazis should be called Nazis! We need to quit drawing Hitler mustaches on leaders we disagree with too.
Sure it's fun to get all exorcised about how evil and stupid the people we disagree with are but, this Socialist, Nazi, Hitlerian crap is really dangerous! I am for free speech. So here is what I propose, let's quit listening to it. Whenever you hear someone start tossing around labels like Nazi, or Socialist, or comparing someone to Hitler, turn them off! I promise you they are trying to manipulate you into supporting something that is probably stupid, like war, or repressing someone, or ripping off the middle class. I don't care what political party they belong to or if they are Tea Partiers or Wall Street Occupiers if they're calling each other Nazis they are actually using Hitlerian tactics themselves and therefore must not be indulged.
(that's all for now but there is more to come)
Russell
You get the idea. But here's the thing! You do not even have to compare this person to a real person from your past. You can use a real person from someone else's past! Your boyfriend might be just like your best friend's boyfriend, the one who propositioned you even though he knew you were her best friend. Hey your boss might be just like Al Capone! See history is full of villains we can compare people to. You are probably pretty good at this but you are nothing compared to the politicians and their media minions. But then you just make yourself miserable with this stuff, they make a living at it!
Remember when we invaded Iraq? Remember the build up to that quagmire? Who was it we compared Saddam Husein to? Why Adolf Hitler of course! Man if someone is just like Hitler they're bad! So when we compared Saddam to Hitler I knew we were going to start a war. It's the second step to war. First you get everybody scared, and then you justify their fear by saying "hey this guy is just like Hitler."
We do this all the time, comparing people to some famous villain like Hitler or Stalin. We call people we disagree with Socialists or Nazis. The other day some TV talking head was saying the Occupy Wall Street folks were Nazis and that they wanted to kill him and other "patriotic Americans." Once you compare people to Nazis you have good reason to be scared of them. Liberal commentators are too quick to call others Fascists and Conservative commentators are too quick to call others Socialists and nobody but Nazis should be called Nazis! We need to quit drawing Hitler mustaches on leaders we disagree with too.
Sure it's fun to get all exorcised about how evil and stupid the people we disagree with are but, this Socialist, Nazi, Hitlerian crap is really dangerous! I am for free speech. So here is what I propose, let's quit listening to it. Whenever you hear someone start tossing around labels like Nazi, or Socialist, or comparing someone to Hitler, turn them off! I promise you they are trying to manipulate you into supporting something that is probably stupid, like war, or repressing someone, or ripping off the middle class. I don't care what political party they belong to or if they are Tea Partiers or Wall Street Occupiers if they're calling each other Nazis they are actually using Hitlerian tactics themselves and therefore must not be indulged.
(that's all for now but there is more to come)
Russell
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Good Old Stinky!
Our brains are so wonderful it's really too bad that we misuse them. Building a grudge is a great way to misuse your brain. Here's how it works; just think about a situation in which you felt threatened and voila! your pissed! Don't believe it? Just think back to the last time you had to deal with traffic. I bet someone out there did something really stupid or offensive and it scared you! Your reaction to this threat was probably to get pissed. You might have even cussed out loud or shot them the bird. As you remember how stupid or offensive they were you're probably getting mad all over again. That's because you have a well functioning brain.
I really liked Kurt Vonnegut. He had a theory that, the reason we are unhappy and cause so much trouble is because our brains are too big! We are an evolutionary dead end due to our dysfunctionally large brains. He may have had a point. But you know, it is not just us ordinary people who misuse our own personal brains in order to hang on to anger and build a grudge. Our leaders deliberately manipulate us into building grudges. It's how they control us! But you almost (just almost) cannot blame them, it's just so easy! Besides we manipulate each other into building grudges all the time too. Don't believe it?
Have you ever had a really crummy boss? Of course you have. Did you and your coworkers get together on break and share with each other all the stuff you hated about your crummy boss? Sure you did! Shoot I remember this boss we nicknamed "Stinky" because he was. We used to share all kinds of disgusting stories about Stinky. It helped us hate him more. You've done something similar and you know it. We talk to family about in laws, to siblings about parents, to friends about spouses, and to everybody about traffic. Let's face it we're pissed! And we do everything we can to stay that way.
Oh back to how our leaders exploit our proclivity for resentment; they constantly remind us of who we should fear, who we should be pissed at! The media is their tool in carrying this out. Sometimes unwittingly as when they remind us to be pissed at the media (now that's some kind of mental judo!). And like lemmings running toward a cliff we do just what our overlords want us to do even when it is not in our own best interest. By the way, do you know that the Walt Disney Company actually herded those poor rodents over the cliff in that movie? Sick bastards! See now we can hate Disney! But back to the point, our leaders remind us to fear the terrorists, the liberals, the Tea Party, the immigrants, white people, republicans, democrats, those dirty hippies occupying Wall Street, the bankers, the French, rich people, welfare mothers,etc. etc. etc.
Basically some fear monger or other is always busy telling you to be afraid be very, very afraid! And you comply! If they can keep us scared and pissed they can con us into doing what they want. And it almost always works too. But hey this is only the beginning! This is just the first baby step on grudge building, but the journey to never ending war begins here.
(more to come)
Russell
I really liked Kurt Vonnegut. He had a theory that, the reason we are unhappy and cause so much trouble is because our brains are too big! We are an evolutionary dead end due to our dysfunctionally large brains. He may have had a point. But you know, it is not just us ordinary people who misuse our own personal brains in order to hang on to anger and build a grudge. Our leaders deliberately manipulate us into building grudges. It's how they control us! But you almost (just almost) cannot blame them, it's just so easy! Besides we manipulate each other into building grudges all the time too. Don't believe it?
Have you ever had a really crummy boss? Of course you have. Did you and your coworkers get together on break and share with each other all the stuff you hated about your crummy boss? Sure you did! Shoot I remember this boss we nicknamed "Stinky" because he was. We used to share all kinds of disgusting stories about Stinky. It helped us hate him more. You've done something similar and you know it. We talk to family about in laws, to siblings about parents, to friends about spouses, and to everybody about traffic. Let's face it we're pissed! And we do everything we can to stay that way.
Oh back to how our leaders exploit our proclivity for resentment; they constantly remind us of who we should fear, who we should be pissed at! The media is their tool in carrying this out. Sometimes unwittingly as when they remind us to be pissed at the media (now that's some kind of mental judo!). And like lemmings running toward a cliff we do just what our overlords want us to do even when it is not in our own best interest. By the way, do you know that the Walt Disney Company actually herded those poor rodents over the cliff in that movie? Sick bastards! See now we can hate Disney! But back to the point, our leaders remind us to fear the terrorists, the liberals, the Tea Party, the immigrants, white people, republicans, democrats, those dirty hippies occupying Wall Street, the bankers, the French, rich people, welfare mothers,etc. etc. etc.
Basically some fear monger or other is always busy telling you to be afraid be very, very afraid! And you comply! If they can keep us scared and pissed they can con us into doing what they want. And it almost always works too. But hey this is only the beginning! This is just the first baby step on grudge building, but the journey to never ending war begins here.
(more to come)
Russell
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Behave Or No Ice Cream For You!
Remember when you were a kid riding in the backseat of your parents' car next to your brother or sister? So there you were minding your own business when for no good reason at all your lousy sibling breathed all over you! Maybe they even touched you! So you poked them, and they poked back and pretty soon your mom intervenes, like she's NATO or something. She establishes a neutral zone running across the middle of the back seat foolishly believing she has provided a workable solution. But before long both hostile parties are encroaching on the neutral zone and hostilities recur.
Wouldn't it be great if this sort of ridiculous BS ended with childhood? You always hear stories on the news about how some adult returns to a party or bar he was kicked out of and violence ensues with fatal results. Tip of the iceberg! Only the fatal stories make the news. I am sure it happens much more often but only results in assault and battery (not newsworthy). Street gangs are always encroaching on each other. But it's not just gangsters and drunks that do this encroachment stuff. Tons of otherwise rational human beings get totally territorial out there on the road! You can see people who probably have good jobs, stable homes and a lot to live for risking life and limb to either invade or defend a car length of space!
Encroaching on others and defending "our space" is really bizarre! But it's a prime way in which we justify anger. "Of course I'm mad he got in my space!" It feels threatening and we respond by threatening back. So two adults wind up escalating in anger and chasing each other down the freeway like idiots meanwhile endangering literally dozens and dozens of other people who just trying to get home alive. Sounds kind of pathetic when you look at it objectively. But when we are justifying our anger by engaging in mutually threatening behavior we are not objective.
Here is the kicker, it's not just children, or just drunks or hoodlums or even otherwise rational adults who engage in this stuff. Political parties, special interest groups, religious groups, and countries behave the same way. Just imagine what would happen if we heard that North Korea had a naval ship anywhere near Hawaii! Or even in the Sea of Japan, we would send an aircraft carrier task force there right away! Of course we would after all we couldn't let them get away with that. All over the world countries are busy breathing all over their neighbors or even touching them daring them to poke back. And we treat this stuff with such seriousness, as if our leaders are intelligent adults not spoiled children.
Maybe it's time we put a dividing line down the backseat! "Now listen if you cannot behave and leave each other alone I swear I'll turn this vehicle around and nobody will get any ice cream!
(to be continued)
Russell
Wouldn't it be great if this sort of ridiculous BS ended with childhood? You always hear stories on the news about how some adult returns to a party or bar he was kicked out of and violence ensues with fatal results. Tip of the iceberg! Only the fatal stories make the news. I am sure it happens much more often but only results in assault and battery (not newsworthy). Street gangs are always encroaching on each other. But it's not just gangsters and drunks that do this encroachment stuff. Tons of otherwise rational human beings get totally territorial out there on the road! You can see people who probably have good jobs, stable homes and a lot to live for risking life and limb to either invade or defend a car length of space!
Encroaching on others and defending "our space" is really bizarre! But it's a prime way in which we justify anger. "Of course I'm mad he got in my space!" It feels threatening and we respond by threatening back. So two adults wind up escalating in anger and chasing each other down the freeway like idiots meanwhile endangering literally dozens and dozens of other people who just trying to get home alive. Sounds kind of pathetic when you look at it objectively. But when we are justifying our anger by engaging in mutually threatening behavior we are not objective.
Here is the kicker, it's not just children, or just drunks or hoodlums or even otherwise rational adults who engage in this stuff. Political parties, special interest groups, religious groups, and countries behave the same way. Just imagine what would happen if we heard that North Korea had a naval ship anywhere near Hawaii! Or even in the Sea of Japan, we would send an aircraft carrier task force there right away! Of course we would after all we couldn't let them get away with that. All over the world countries are busy breathing all over their neighbors or even touching them daring them to poke back. And we treat this stuff with such seriousness, as if our leaders are intelligent adults not spoiled children.
Maybe it's time we put a dividing line down the backseat! "Now listen if you cannot behave and leave each other alone I swear I'll turn this vehicle around and nobody will get any ice cream!
(to be continued)
Russell
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Would We Rather Be Right Or Be Happy? (or Being Right Makes Us Mad!)
So we have been at war for ten years and how is it going? How did this happen? I have to admit, initially I was for it. It was like hey we are going to catch or kill the people who financed, planned, and oversaw the 911 attacks. Well we accomplished that but, who knew it was going to take this long and cost this much and get so many people killed? I would not have agreed to the deal we got. I remember drawing a cartoon of a cruise missile flying up Osama Bin Ladan's butt, and thinking it was pretty funny. Of course cruise missiles cost a million dollars each and we were using them like a kid uses bottle rockets on the Fourth Of July. So now we're broke and we have not eliminated terrorism. It could be argued that with our drones and special operations we have become terrorists ourselves.
How is it that we become what we hate? I think it's because we hate. Still can we just decide to become a nation of loving people and never again sucker ourselves into going to war? I doubt it. I wrote about it once before but not in any detail. It's the grudge building thing, our national pastime, but probably not just ours. People all over the world seem to have this problem. Those idiots who attacked us ten years ago were grudge builders. Now we're suffering the inevitable consequences of our own grudge building. So why do we do it? Why is getting totally pissed off so damn popular? I think part of it has to do with our love affair with being right. We love to be right. We love it more than just about anything. I'm not sure we love being angry, maybe some people do. For some reason though it seems we have a need to justify our anger. It's like you're not supposed to get mad unless you have a really good reason. So if we're pissed off we better have a really good reason for it! It kind of makes sense until you really look at it.
We want to be right more than just about anything, and we need a good reason to be angry or we're foolish. So we justify our anger. You cannot get over your anger while you're busy justifying it. I think this is how we start a grudge, by justifying our anger. It's bad enough when individuals do it. When an individual builds a grudge it can have serious consequences. The worst kind of these we call "going postal." Nowadays it's not just Post Office employees who go berserk and start shooting people, and it's no longer a purely American phenomenon. School children do this shit, and it happens all over the world. As bad as this is it is nothing compared to what happens when whole countries engage in grudge building.
Every time a country starts a war it builds a grudge first. The politicians and the media collaborate in doing this. I'm not sure how conscious the effort always is but I suspect it's usually fairly deliberate....
(To be continued)
Russell
How is it that we become what we hate? I think it's because we hate. Still can we just decide to become a nation of loving people and never again sucker ourselves into going to war? I doubt it. I wrote about it once before but not in any detail. It's the grudge building thing, our national pastime, but probably not just ours. People all over the world seem to have this problem. Those idiots who attacked us ten years ago were grudge builders. Now we're suffering the inevitable consequences of our own grudge building. So why do we do it? Why is getting totally pissed off so damn popular? I think part of it has to do with our love affair with being right. We love to be right. We love it more than just about anything. I'm not sure we love being angry, maybe some people do. For some reason though it seems we have a need to justify our anger. It's like you're not supposed to get mad unless you have a really good reason. So if we're pissed off we better have a really good reason for it! It kind of makes sense until you really look at it.
We want to be right more than just about anything, and we need a good reason to be angry or we're foolish. So we justify our anger. You cannot get over your anger while you're busy justifying it. I think this is how we start a grudge, by justifying our anger. It's bad enough when individuals do it. When an individual builds a grudge it can have serious consequences. The worst kind of these we call "going postal." Nowadays it's not just Post Office employees who go berserk and start shooting people, and it's no longer a purely American phenomenon. School children do this shit, and it happens all over the world. As bad as this is it is nothing compared to what happens when whole countries engage in grudge building.
Every time a country starts a war it builds a grudge first. The politicians and the media collaborate in doing this. I'm not sure how conscious the effort always is but I suspect it's usually fairly deliberate....
(To be continued)
Russell
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