Speaking My Mind, Part 2: The Individual

You're obsessed with the spotlight you want the attention and you have to admit to it. Look at me I have my own project I guess I like that moment of fame to. However, at least I know I have something to say; as everyone does but it always starts as a need to be the trend setter. Watch yourself and control your ego so you wouldn't end up as the slobs in Hollywood thinking they have a purpose. Marlon Brando said it best: "Acting is the least mysterious of all crafts. Whenever we want something from somebody or when we want to hide something or pretend. We're acting. Most people do it all day long."

What does this mean to you? Well, we are always acting we always have some mask on to entertain others. Since where always entertaining we are already famous in our own lives. So those people in Hollywood are just trying to make more fame and this increase in fame only leads to an inflated sense of self. This inflated sense of self is better known as narcissism or Pride!

B.
Not Educating Yourself

Now here is the real problem, you listen to what other people tell you and you weigh it in gold. It seems that you think what people outside of you have to say is the truth, when the truth is in you. What do I mean by the truth is in you? I mean that one should learn to educate themselves. If you ever seen the "20/20 Special: Stupid in America" You would see what I mean. Educate yourself because no one else (not even most teachers as there to more worried about the money and benefits, so you) are going to have to educate yourself! Do the research yourself and make your own educated guess as to what is truth or not. Because the world around you wants you to be blinded by stupefying ourselves with fashion, drugs and being extravagantly wealthy! I am not saying do not have fun in life but know the balance between having fun and knowing when to be serious. Do yourselves a favor watch "Fight Club" or "Waking Life" there seems to be some truth there despite Hollywood works.

The best advice I can give to anyone seeking to educate themselves is to learn the Socratic Method of Learning. What exactly is the Socratic method of learning? It is a means of questioning what is being stated. The overall purpose of Socratic learning is to challenge accuracy and completeness of thinking in a way that acts to move people towards their ultimate goal. There are 6 different forms of questioning in the Socratic Method, they are:

Conceptual clarification - This is done by getting one to think more about what exactly one is asking or thinking about. Prove the concepts behind ones argument. Basic 'tell me more' questions that get one to go deeper.

Probing assumptions - Probing of assumptions makes one think about the presuppositions and unquestioned beliefs on which they are founding their argument. This is shaking the bedrock and should get a person thinking!

Probing rationale, reasons and evidence - When one gives a rationale for ones arguments, you should dig into that reasoning rather than assuming it is a given. People often use un-thought-through or weakly understood supports for their arguments.

Questioning viewpoints and perspectives - Most arguments are given from a particular position. So attack the position. Show that there are other, equally valid, viewpoints.

Probe implications and consequences - The argument that they give may have logical implications that can be forecast. Do these make sense? Are they desirable?

Questions about The Question - And you can also get reflexive about the whole thing, turning the question in on itself. Use their attack against themselves. Bounce the ball back into their court.

Another thought for educating yourself would be to look at words of a Frenchmen during the Enlightenment his last name is "Rousseau" and he believed that the aim of education is to learn how to live righteously and practically, one must learn how to work out there own social instincts and be protected from the vices of urban individualism and self-consciousness. A final thought on self-education comes from another man from the enlightenment era who goes by the name "John Locke" and he maintains that one must first know how to learn and enjoy learning. The trick to learning is not so much to learn all that is knowable, but to understand the love and esteem of learning something new; and one should go about improving ones self.

C. Taking Word of "Specialist"

Yes okay this is in the same car as not educating yourself! When you take the word of a specialist can you trust what they say, fully? Everything is half-truths the other half is for you to experience, for you to understand. We often put our policies of our government and rules of our lives in the lives of "specialist." Who's to say there not being moved by someone behind the scenes to make them say what they have to say (e.g. Bribery)?

Example: During the 70's and 80's there where well-respected scientist paid off by tobacco companies to lie and say "Cigarettes smoking does not kill, does not give cancer. It is healthy and there are no consequences to it." Now today all scientists agree that cigarette smoking can cause cancer and a slue of other respiratory problems. So not only have these well-respected scientist lost there respect they lied and it's for all to see.

Example: Fast forward today's current situation. This time it is far more global. This time it is about global warming. One side is saying it is the human industries of natural resources, smoke stack manufactures and automobile companies that are responsible for this global catastrophe. The other side of the coin says it's a natural cycle in the earth's climate.

Personally I find the most likely cause of scientists blaming the economy is paid off by liberal politicians whose goal it is to get the economy to go greener. While the scientist saying it's the climate's fault for global warming are paid off by big business and republicans to state half-truths trying to maintain status quo on our delicate economy. It could be neither a pre-dominantly human fault nor the fault of the atmospheric cycle. It could be in the middle between the two. So we base what we have to do around the words and figures of what specialist have to say. Than two sides try and fight it out as to who is right and who is wrong. Than we forget what we are trying to fix until someone comes in to remind us of our original plans!

Automatic Believing is one thing I see often in this society, again the idea that people weigh what others have to say in gold. The idea behind Automatic Believing is basically, what happens when people initially believe everything they see and hear ('seeing is believing'), but then rapidly assess whether it is true or not and consequently reject or continue to believe what is seen or heard. This assessment and decision takes time and energy, so the more tired people get more distracted by other things, the more they are likely to believe false information.

Auldrous Huxley said it best concerning truth: "Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations."

What does this mean to you? That the Powers that Be tell you lies and that they only mention parts of the whole truth to make people go for what the Powers that Be want to go for and not what you as an individual would want to go for! Yet, the Powers that Be are very good at trying to make there will look like your will as well, seeing is not necessarily believing, for if you knew how much they worked against you; you would do anything to get rid of them! I can only say to you that at a society and individual level you do not make commitments when you are tired or distracted. Watch out for people trying to persuade you during such times when you cannot give the matter your full and proper logical and reasoning abilities. As we have seen in history world leaders often appeal to our ego and emotions.

D.
Homo Economicus

The term Homo Economicus means "rational self-interested person." These are your typical businessmen type mentality. These are your politicians who say "We are here for you" but really are there for themselves and whatever happens to you whether beneficial or not is just a side effect of them being there for themselves. "Rational" and "Logical" thought is important however, using those tools for your selfish and egotistical needs to this end are what make rationality wrong. This society seems to want to continually feed the ego and therefore using "rational" and "logical" thought tend to over rationalize and over think certain situations because, that is what ego tends to do, it over does the work of getting what it wants. How in this universe filled with chaos and disorder can you expect your life to be filled rationality and logic? Who says that life was meant to be understood rationally?

E.
Spend Money

We need to consume, we need to spend in order to receive more or just the same amount. But it's when you buy more and more and have less time to enjoy what you bought that spending and having more becomes a problem!

Consider this: "You buy many items but these items often break and you need to spend time to repair them and if you do not know how to repair them than you need to spend money and to get money you need to work which means less time to enjoy what you have and more time trying to maintain what you have!" Where is the happiness in that?

I say "Less is more" the less you have the more time you can spend enjoying what you have and that is where the happiness comes from. Think smart when you buy a product. Do research on it and ask yourself am I going to have time to actually enjoy what I have or am I just going to work for it? If you are working for what you have instead of working for yourself than the things you own really own you and you have the option to continue to stay in bondage to that happen or make the better choice to let them go. In fact make a list of everything you have and ask yourself "Do I really need it?"

V. Unwillingness to Change

A.
Ignorance

If people do not know that there needs to be change how can they even begin to change themselves? You need to become aware that the stuff that is external and is often that which you value so much is nothing more but a lie designed to enslave you and make you submit yet again. People should not submit to the system designed to make you want to suffer and become a slave to what it wants you do. Part of the system is in you. It starts and ends with you.

B.
Work

People are unwilling to change because; they know as well as any other person knows that change requires work. Work, in physics is defined as mass over distance. In your own life working to make change has a similar formula, this formula is: How much do you want to change for the best way possible OVER how long you actually change yourself. The higher you score the more work is needed. Knowing this how much are you willing to work to make change?

Work is the opposite of laziness and some lazy remarks that I always hear are: "What can I do?" "I am powerless!" "I am happy where I am!" and than we say these helpless phrases to others which only reflects our own inner submission to the system. Until you can step up to the system and be willing to work to make change in your life you are nothing more than one of the many sheeple or like minded mass of people that submits to the many evils in society.

C.
Fear

We fear the truths of the ultimate reality, we often say to ourselves at a (sub) conscious level: "What if the truth tells me I need to do something different from what I am doing?" Benjamin Franklin says it best concerning how our fear of truth is turned into hatred of truth: "It is not to my good friend's heresy that I [give the characteristic of his honesty, on the contrary, 'tis his honesty that has brought upon him the character of heretic."

Heretics are hated and despised for people see them as trying to open evil into the world when in fact the word heretic comes from the word "heresy" which actually meant "to have a different school of thought" from the status quo, it's a matter of ideas that makes heretics dangerous, and we all fear danger. Heretics are often going against the Status Quo. We label those who think outside the box and those who find truth, as heretical because people find the truth different from what is believed to be the truth, and that difference in adapting to the truth is what makes people afraid of change. "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." - Auldrous Huxley

As we can see people have been killed because people spread a different message that goes against status quo and if there truths are ever revealed to the masses there would be a mass overload on the system and people would be free from the system that controls them.

D. Reflection of Inner Nature

We sometimes forget ourselves and we attack things that help us realize that what is bad can be a great revealer. We are stuck in this thinking that "We must AVOID bad things and get only good things." This simply is narrow minded thinking that only brings about self-interest. Your Ego says: "I must not suffer, but others can suffer for all I care!" Until we embrace our own fears, insecurities and perverted desires and than work to make them pure, you cannot change.

Until you can make your fears into courage, you insecurities into confidence and perverted desires into pure and selfless passions you will not be able to fully change. Sometimes the things we despise and runaway from are actually our allies designed to show us where we are wrong and where we need correction. For example, Thomas Edison gives a good saying about failure: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." It is about seeing the situation differently than failing in this case.