The main cause worth fighting?
World Stupidity. Collective stupidity, which breeds fear, violence, and apathy, is the main cause of almost all the shit I think needs to change with the world. To gain self-knowledge is to gain knowledge about how everything else should fit into the world. And if you don't have an understanding of yourself and your values, you are extremely susceptible to someone else convincing you to just follow them, to buy into someone else's dupe. The people in control don't want to change (why would they, they're in control?) and the people who aren't have been convinced that someone else is supposed to be taking care of stuff. And the people who acknowledge this situation either turn away in disgust or respond with violence. The number of people I know who deeply care but expect someone else to do something about it while they sit at home and complain staggers me. Instead of doing something, people sit down at a computer and write some stupid blog. whoops/.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
We walk alone, but not lonely
I just couldn't agree more. It's easy to push the idea of how much we all need to make this journey ourselves, and forget how difficult, how scary a process it is. But there are a lot of people trying to do this, and it's in everyone's interest in this process to help each other out. We all must walk alone, but that doesn't mean that people can't help us along the way, even if it's just telling us that it's worth our time and that the issues faced while doing it are things that other people have gone through.
It is such a tragedy to me that the way so much is structured in our society, it is so difficult to make this first step. So much is pushing in the opposite direction. You need to not only have a desire and an inclination to find your own path, you must also have the strength to go in the opposite direction, the will to say yes when everyone else says no.
Some people will be able to do this process no matter what. Some people will never have any interest in this process. But there are so many people who could do it if they had the chance, if there wasn't so much pressure to stay where you are.
We all walk alone, and the moment we realize that, we can all share in it together.
Thanks for understanding, Bernie
A Political Dupe
While we all know that to some extent we are being duped by the powers that be (politicians, media, etc.), it recently occured to me that maybe one of the ways is in the very myth that is perpetrated about what a politician actually is.
In spite of all the controversy, corruption, back-stabbing and other stuff that goes on in politics, on some level we are still presented with the image that most politicians are smart people who care about the interests of the country. Maybe not more than their own self-interest, but that at least the majority of them are smart and care about how our government works.
That is, until I saw a Daily Show recently in which they interview a representative from a rural section of Georgia (I don't remember the exact area or person's name, but that's not really important). The guy was an absolute idiot. I mean, an unbelievable idiot. That didn't even have to do anything to make him sound funny.
So, I started thinking. What if, rather than most politicians being smart and passionate, most of them are in fact dumb. As in below average intelligence. Because, to be honest, the people I know that have all the qualities I would want in a political leader have absolutely no interest in being in politics, by and large. The intelligence, honest, integrity, broad-mindedness, dedication, and humility (it is called for public servant for a reason) needed, in my mind, to make a great leader, rarely adds up to a person wanting to run for office.
In fact, what I find the most necessary qualities are a bull-headed dedication to follow your team, a willingness to play dirty to ensure that you win, and the ability to pounce when you smell blood. I don't even think intelligence is a necessary quality in a politician. Probably a useful one, probably one that would allow to you to succeed over others, but not a necessary one. And integrity, dedication to the country and its best interests? Pretty clearly not necessary (or no longer necessary).
What I'm saying is that it's entirely possible that most politicians are the people who were bullies in high school, or maybe the second- and third-in-command to the main high school bully. People who are used to fighting for their self-interest, bullying others to make their own role more secure, and a willingness to follow whatever keeps them in their rung on the ladder.
I definitely don't mean to say that all politicians are stupid bullies. In fact, I very much think that some of the people currently running for the "Big" office are in fact quite intelligent and qualified (although not all of them). Just that maybe we've all been convinced that politicians are supposed to be noble, smart, and dedicated, and it's just the few that ruin it for the rest. Maybe it's the opposite. It certainly provides an interesting perspective on the whole process.
In spite of all the controversy, corruption, back-stabbing and other stuff that goes on in politics, on some level we are still presented with the image that most politicians are smart people who care about the interests of the country. Maybe not more than their own self-interest, but that at least the majority of them are smart and care about how our government works.
That is, until I saw a Daily Show recently in which they interview a representative from a rural section of Georgia (I don't remember the exact area or person's name, but that's not really important). The guy was an absolute idiot. I mean, an unbelievable idiot. That didn't even have to do anything to make him sound funny.
So, I started thinking. What if, rather than most politicians being smart and passionate, most of them are in fact dumb. As in below average intelligence. Because, to be honest, the people I know that have all the qualities I would want in a political leader have absolutely no interest in being in politics, by and large. The intelligence, honest, integrity, broad-mindedness, dedication, and humility (it is called for public servant for a reason) needed, in my mind, to make a great leader, rarely adds up to a person wanting to run for office.
In fact, what I find the most necessary qualities are a bull-headed dedication to follow your team, a willingness to play dirty to ensure that you win, and the ability to pounce when you smell blood. I don't even think intelligence is a necessary quality in a politician. Probably a useful one, probably one that would allow to you to succeed over others, but not a necessary one. And integrity, dedication to the country and its best interests? Pretty clearly not necessary (or no longer necessary).
What I'm saying is that it's entirely possible that most politicians are the people who were bullies in high school, or maybe the second- and third-in-command to the main high school bully. People who are used to fighting for their self-interest, bullying others to make their own role more secure, and a willingness to follow whatever keeps them in their rung on the ladder.
I definitely don't mean to say that all politicians are stupid bullies. In fact, I very much think that some of the people currently running for the "Big" office are in fact quite intelligent and qualified (although not all of them). Just that maybe we've all been convinced that politicians are supposed to be noble, smart, and dedicated, and it's just the few that ruin it for the rest. Maybe it's the opposite. It certainly provides an interesting perspective on the whole process.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
High Fructose Corn Syrup, the campaign
I recently saw this tv commercial that just blew my mind.
The commercial opens with two mid-30s/40s moms. One is pouring a drink out of a big jug of purple drink. The other mom watches and then says, “I guess somebody doesn’t care what goes in her children’s bodies.” And the other one says, “What do you mean?” The first mom says, “That drink has high fructose corn syrup in it, you know how bad that is!” The second mom says, “Oh yeah, and what’s so bad about it?” When the first mom stammers, the second mom continues, “That it’s made from corn? That it’s all-natural?”
Then the commercial tells you about it’s website, HFCSfacts.com, telling people to go find out for themselves.
The basic idea of this commercial is, you’ve been told stuff from a bunch of different sources, but do you really understand it? If you don’t, then maybe you’ve been duped. The fallacy of the argument, “if you don’t understand something, then it’s probably a lie,” is such an insulting statement that has gone on in a number of different directions. I’ve heard the same thing about global warming (can YOU prove it? Oh, you don’t have any specific facts? You’ve bought in to the lie of global warming), and a general methodology of republican ad campaigns (does this guy seem too smart? Do you not understand what he’s doing? Come vote for the regular guy, the guy you understand already, the guy you could go have a drink with- sound familiar?).
On a brief sidetrack, why would you want someone to be in a position of leadership over you that you don’t think is smarter than you? If they are, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to be the leader instead? So, anyone feel like they are qualified to be president?
Basically, this whole thing is predicated on the idea that most people don’t really have any information of their own, they get all of it from someone else, so they have no foundation to launch any sort of counter. The pro-HFCS woman didn’t say, “Who is your information from? Mine is from here. Let’s compare.” She said, “You don’t understand your information? Wherever it came from, it must be wrong.”
Go out and find your own information on the subjects you talk about.
So, then, I thought I would research HFCS a little further, and provide some websites for people to look from.
The basic idea, as I’ve seen it, is that there are two main problems with HFSC-
1- HFCS contains a higher percentage of fructose than does sugar, fructose has been proven to be bad for the body in a whole number of ways, some of which include increases hunger and the desire for more fatty and sweet foods. In this way, HFCS as a substance is directly responsible for its health affects.
2- HFCS is not particularly any worse than sugar is as a sweetener. The problem is that it has been used to increase the sweetness of given items. As in, companies have decided to put much more of it in than used to be done with sugar. And, because of its form and ease of use, it can and is used in a number of foods that didn’t use to have anywhere near the same quantity of sweetener before (like bread). In this case, the problem is not HFSC in particular, it’s the amount that it is used and the pervasiveness with which it is used.
There seems to be quite a bit of debate on this subject. Quite a bit of the debate that agrees with point 2 is funded by such groups as the Beverage Institute (go figure). Either way, everyone agrees that the increased amount of sweetener is one of the main causes of American obesity, among other health problems.
Point being, at best (for HFCS), you should avoid goods that contain it because they will be so comparatively sweet that they can lead to health problems. At worst, you should avoid goods that contain it because at least one of the ingredients in it will make you fat, sick, and possibly give you cancer.
Here are some websites.
http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v11/n11/abs/oby2003179a.html (an article about the increase in sweetness in our diet)
http://www.hsibaltimore.com/reports/nutrition_cereal.html?gclid=CKHu6-yI1ZUCFQK2Ggod80yjXw (an article from the health sciences institute about the health dangers of high fructose corn syrup in breakfast cereals)
http://www.ehealthforum.com/health/topic117606.html (an article on why HFCS is bad and in fact causal for people with fibromyalgia)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL (an article from the SF Gate that gives a good overview of the health problems)
http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v12/n11s/abs/oby2004277a.html (an article from the obesity research journal on how different types of sweetener affect obesity)
And let’s not forget the HFCS website, http://www.hfcsfacts.com
Incidentally, the only scientist referred to on their website, G. Harvey Anderson, has a articles written by and research funded by the beverage institute http://www.beverageinstitute.org
Oh, and for more information on corn's relationship to all of the things we eat, read "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
The commercial opens with two mid-30s/40s moms. One is pouring a drink out of a big jug of purple drink. The other mom watches and then says, “I guess somebody doesn’t care what goes in her children’s bodies.” And the other one says, “What do you mean?” The first mom says, “That drink has high fructose corn syrup in it, you know how bad that is!” The second mom says, “Oh yeah, and what’s so bad about it?” When the first mom stammers, the second mom continues, “That it’s made from corn? That it’s all-natural?”
Then the commercial tells you about it’s website, HFCSfacts.com, telling people to go find out for themselves.
The basic idea of this commercial is, you’ve been told stuff from a bunch of different sources, but do you really understand it? If you don’t, then maybe you’ve been duped. The fallacy of the argument, “if you don’t understand something, then it’s probably a lie,” is such an insulting statement that has gone on in a number of different directions. I’ve heard the same thing about global warming (can YOU prove it? Oh, you don’t have any specific facts? You’ve bought in to the lie of global warming), and a general methodology of republican ad campaigns (does this guy seem too smart? Do you not understand what he’s doing? Come vote for the regular guy, the guy you understand already, the guy you could go have a drink with- sound familiar?).
On a brief sidetrack, why would you want someone to be in a position of leadership over you that you don’t think is smarter than you? If they are, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to be the leader instead? So, anyone feel like they are qualified to be president?
Basically, this whole thing is predicated on the idea that most people don’t really have any information of their own, they get all of it from someone else, so they have no foundation to launch any sort of counter. The pro-HFCS woman didn’t say, “Who is your information from? Mine is from here. Let’s compare.” She said, “You don’t understand your information? Wherever it came from, it must be wrong.”
Go out and find your own information on the subjects you talk about.
So, then, I thought I would research HFCS a little further, and provide some websites for people to look from.
The basic idea, as I’ve seen it, is that there are two main problems with HFSC-
1- HFCS contains a higher percentage of fructose than does sugar, fructose has been proven to be bad for the body in a whole number of ways, some of which include increases hunger and the desire for more fatty and sweet foods. In this way, HFCS as a substance is directly responsible for its health affects.
2- HFCS is not particularly any worse than sugar is as a sweetener. The problem is that it has been used to increase the sweetness of given items. As in, companies have decided to put much more of it in than used to be done with sugar. And, because of its form and ease of use, it can and is used in a number of foods that didn’t use to have anywhere near the same quantity of sweetener before (like bread). In this case, the problem is not HFSC in particular, it’s the amount that it is used and the pervasiveness with which it is used.
There seems to be quite a bit of debate on this subject. Quite a bit of the debate that agrees with point 2 is funded by such groups as the Beverage Institute (go figure). Either way, everyone agrees that the increased amount of sweetener is one of the main causes of American obesity, among other health problems.
Point being, at best (for HFCS), you should avoid goods that contain it because they will be so comparatively sweet that they can lead to health problems. At worst, you should avoid goods that contain it because at least one of the ingredients in it will make you fat, sick, and possibly give you cancer.
Here are some websites.
http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v11/n11/abs/oby2003179a.html (an article about the increase in sweetness in our diet)
http://www.hsibaltimore.com/reports/nutrition_cereal.html?gclid=CKHu6-yI1ZUCFQK2Ggod80yjXw (an article from the health sciences institute about the health dangers of high fructose corn syrup in breakfast cereals)
http://www.ehealthforum.com/health/topic117606.html (an article on why HFCS is bad and in fact causal for people with fibromyalgia)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL (an article from the SF Gate that gives a good overview of the health problems)
http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v12/n11s/abs/oby2004277a.html (an article from the obesity research journal on how different types of sweetener affect obesity)
And let’s not forget the HFCS website, http://www.hfcsfacts.com
Incidentally, the only scientist referred to on their website, G. Harvey Anderson, has a articles written by and research funded by the beverage institute http://www.beverageinstitute.org
Oh, and for more information on corn's relationship to all of the things we eat, read "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Clarity, Alabama
So there’s this guy driving down the road in rural Alabama. It’s late at night, and as he drives, he looks over to his right and sees a long run of chain link fence and a sign on it that says:
Alabama State Psychiatric Ward
Well, that kind of flips him out, but he keeps on driving. He only gets a few feet further, though, when he gets a flat tire. He pulls over, gets out and starts to change the tire.
All of the sudden he hears something and turns around. There’s a guy on the other side of the fence, clinging to it, staring at him with wild eyes. And the guy doesn’t speak.
Needless to say, the guy is getting more and more worried. Enough so that his hands are shaking a little, so that when he takes out the lug nuts from the flat tire, he drops them and they fall down a grate.
So now he’s flipping out.
“Oh shit! What do I do now? I’m in the middle of nowhere, next to the Alabama State Psychiatric Ward, there’s this crazy guy starting at me, and I’m stuck without a tire!”
He thinks to himself. As he’s standing there, he hears a voice from behind him.
“You know, you could just take one lug nut off each of the other tires. Then you’d have enough lug nuts on each wheel to drive off. It might not be perfect, but it would certainly be good enough to get to the nearest town and get them replaced.”
The crazy guy says, still standing there with his wild staring eyes, clutching the fence.
“Oh, um, wow, you’re right. That would work. Thanks.”
“Well yeah, I’m crazy, not stupid.”
Alabama State Psychiatric Ward
Well, that kind of flips him out, but he keeps on driving. He only gets a few feet further, though, when he gets a flat tire. He pulls over, gets out and starts to change the tire.
All of the sudden he hears something and turns around. There’s a guy on the other side of the fence, clinging to it, staring at him with wild eyes. And the guy doesn’t speak.
Needless to say, the guy is getting more and more worried. Enough so that his hands are shaking a little, so that when he takes out the lug nuts from the flat tire, he drops them and they fall down a grate.
So now he’s flipping out.
“Oh shit! What do I do now? I’m in the middle of nowhere, next to the Alabama State Psychiatric Ward, there’s this crazy guy starting at me, and I’m stuck without a tire!”
He thinks to himself. As he’s standing there, he hears a voice from behind him.
“You know, you could just take one lug nut off each of the other tires. Then you’d have enough lug nuts on each wheel to drive off. It might not be perfect, but it would certainly be good enough to get to the nearest town and get them replaced.”
The crazy guy says, still standing there with his wild staring eyes, clutching the fence.
“Oh, um, wow, you’re right. That would work. Thanks.”
“Well yeah, I’m crazy, not stupid.”
Friday, September 5, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The Bloody Revolution of the Soul, Vol 2
It is really interesting to me that a good number of the comments in response to my blogs have been about how what I ask for of people is too difficult, too challenging, or too dangerous.
If you have any interest at all in exploring yourself, learning about yourself, finding your own freedom or happiness, you could you possibly be worried that the process is hard? Of course it's hard! About the most difficult thing you can do in this life. To figure out yourself, when no one gives you time and the sea of opinion is pulling in the opposite direction?
But who ever said life was supposed to be easy? Enjoyable, blissful, wonderful, all this stuff, absolutely, but easy? A cow's life is easy. You walk slow, you chew grass, you shit, you mate, you die. If you're lucky enough to not live in one of those corrals.
But humans? Sorry, but the lot we have given ourselves is the struggle to understand ourselves. To make things easy, to ignore this struggle, is to ignore what defines us as humans. We are aware of ourselves, we know the difference between what does and doesn't make us happy, and we have the ability to figure this out.
Ignorance is not true bliss, it is the equivalent bliss to a drug-induced coma. But bliss that comes from knowledge, understood bliss, well that's a whole other thing. What could be better than saying, "I have understood what true happiness is for me, and I have gone out and gotten it."
And I'm not saying that everyone should just forget everything that they're doing and go out on the road to learn themselves. Everyone has constraints in their lives, and these constraints determine the places in which we have freedom to move. Maybe you can go on a vision quest for a while- good for you. Maybe you can just spend a few hours a week to sort yourself out. What you do is not what matters, trying to figure this out is what matters.
This is the real purpose, the real question of life. So yes, it is a struggle. It is the struggle. It is why Buddha sat for 30 days under a tree, not eating or drinking. It is why Jesus wandered the desert for his 30 days. If you want to get to a further place of understanding yourself, it will take effort. It's just the most worthwhile effort you can take.
If you have any interest at all in exploring yourself, learning about yourself, finding your own freedom or happiness, you could you possibly be worried that the process is hard? Of course it's hard! About the most difficult thing you can do in this life. To figure out yourself, when no one gives you time and the sea of opinion is pulling in the opposite direction?
But who ever said life was supposed to be easy? Enjoyable, blissful, wonderful, all this stuff, absolutely, but easy? A cow's life is easy. You walk slow, you chew grass, you shit, you mate, you die. If you're lucky enough to not live in one of those corrals.
But humans? Sorry, but the lot we have given ourselves is the struggle to understand ourselves. To make things easy, to ignore this struggle, is to ignore what defines us as humans. We are aware of ourselves, we know the difference between what does and doesn't make us happy, and we have the ability to figure this out.
Ignorance is not true bliss, it is the equivalent bliss to a drug-induced coma. But bliss that comes from knowledge, understood bliss, well that's a whole other thing. What could be better than saying, "I have understood what true happiness is for me, and I have gone out and gotten it."
And I'm not saying that everyone should just forget everything that they're doing and go out on the road to learn themselves. Everyone has constraints in their lives, and these constraints determine the places in which we have freedom to move. Maybe you can go on a vision quest for a while- good for you. Maybe you can just spend a few hours a week to sort yourself out. What you do is not what matters, trying to figure this out is what matters.
This is the real purpose, the real question of life. So yes, it is a struggle. It is the struggle. It is why Buddha sat for 30 days under a tree, not eating or drinking. It is why Jesus wandered the desert for his 30 days. If you want to get to a further place of understanding yourself, it will take effort. It's just the most worthwhile effort you can take.
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The hardest step in a thousand mile journey is the first. You should let your readers know that the journey doesn't have to begin alone. That's why some really like your music. The reason for the journey is often the same. Your songs reinforce that. The encouragement that solitude is not solipsism. Though at some point in the journey, you and I know it must inevitably be walked alone.