It is 2021. The Biden administration has launched a full-scale invasion of Syria and the US and Russia are at a nuclear standoff unseen since the Cuban missile crisis. All top Twitter trends relate to the widespread debate over whether or not Sesame Street is guilty of kink shaming.
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A vote for Kanye is a vote for Trump.
A vote for the Green Party is a vote for Trump.
A vote for no one is a vote for Trump.
A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Trump.
Everything is a vote for Trump.
Everything is Trump.
You are Trump.
I am Trump.
Trump is all there is.
There is no escape.
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Leaving aside the infantile silliness of “patriotism” and all the toxic agendas that it is used to advance, it’s also an inherently nonsensical concept. It’s impossible to be patriotic when you live in a large and disparate nation you can’t possibly have formed a real personal relationship with. Saying you “love” your country is as silly and meaningless as saying everyone in the world is your best friend.
You don’t love your country, you just feel feelings for a loose cluster of symbols you’ve been trained to equate with a nation. You look at a flag and listen to a country music song and feel feels, and you call that patriotism. But it’s got nothing to do with your actual country.
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To be clear, they’re not talking about banning TikTok because of data mining, they are talking about banning TikTok because of data mining that isn’t run by western oligarchs and intelligence agencies.
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If you consider yourself an anti-authoritarian but don’t prioritize opposition to the government which has circled the planet with hundreds of military bases and destroys any nation which disobeys it, then you’re not anti-authoritarian, you’re just another tool of authority.
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If you have a special hatred for the Chinese government, it’s only because you’ve been manipulated into doing so by longstanding and pervasive propaganda campaigns. If you are an intellectually honest person, you can very quickly and easily prove yourself wrong about whatever narrative you’re worked up about with a little independent research.
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The only time right wingers pretend to give a shit about Muslim rights is when they’re circulating imperialist propaganda about China.
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Manipulation is a necessary component in long-term abusive relationships, because people don’t tend to stay in abusive situations unless they’re manipulated into it. This is true whether you’re talking about significant others or globe-spanning power structures.
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It’s such a trip how opposition to mass-scale murder and oppression is the single most self-evidently correct position anyone could possibly take, yet so few take that position in a clear and unequivocal way. The reason is of course generations of propaganda brainwashing.
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Dissident voices and political activists who put a lot of energy into sectarian infighting are really just admitting they don’t care all that much about fighting real power and have always been in it for the drama and ego candy.
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Old money plutocrats have done terrible things, and continue to do terrible things today. But going forward it’s the new money tech plutocrats you’ll have to watch out for.
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Silicon Valley tech oligarchs are not less dangerous than the racists and assholes that liberals and leftists are begging them to censor.
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The main thing billionaires get out of having a space program is a narrative management op which helps market their insane economic doctrine of infinite growth on a finite planet; it doesn’t matter what the billionaire class does to our home because we can all just move to space. They have to know on some level that their stated goals for space won’t actually happen before their economic doctrine turns our planet into toxic landfill, but they need to spin the idea of space colonization or we’d stop their rapacious expansionism.
Jeff Bezos has come right out and said that his space program is geared toward eventually shipping the overwhelming majority of humans offworld to live in giant space cylinders. Really he just wants to continue his unlimited expansionism, but still. Gross.
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Liberals who’ve spent years saying the US government has been infiltrated at the highest levels by an elaborate conspiracy by the Kremlin have no business criticizing QAnon. Russiagaters and QAnoners are the exact same amount of stupid.
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There are two types of spirituality, and they are night-and-day different. One aims to discover what’s true in one’s own experience, the other gives you new narratives and teaches you to anesthetize yourself from the unpleasant. 99% of spirituality falls into the latter category.
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Rigorously investigate the nature of consciousness and self, not with your thinky talky mind or ideas other people have shared, but with your own nonconceptual experience. What you discover will astonish and delight you.
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I remember cartoonist Robert Crumb saying his work is the result of a strange acid trip he once took after which his illustrating felt like he was coughing up all the ugly shit from America’s collective unconscious. Now it feels like that’s what America itself is doing.
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The only reason anything ever changes for the better is because of an expansion of consciousness. Awareness spreads of the evils of slavery, the injustice of racial and sexual inequality etc, and then things change. In each case there are forces promoting that expansion, and forces opposing it.
That’s all we’re ever fighting to accomplish here: expanding awareness in individuals and in the collective beyond the barriers of propaganda and status quo normalization to carry the true nature of important issues from unconsciousness to consciousness.
People don’t change their behavior patterns because they’re told to or because they spontaneously decide to, they do it when the unconscious forces which have been compelling those behavior patterns move into consciousness (which is why inner work is so important for recovering addicts). This is true of the collective, too.
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71 responses to “Patriotism Is Bullshit, And Other Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”
Patriotism is hard to wrap my head around. Is it love for the politicians? Or the history? Or the flag, or the name, or the people, or the land, or the animals? You can’t be loyal to all of those at the same time. And if you’re going to be lucid, you have to admit that whatever place you were born isn’t necessarily better than others.
Totally Agree with this perspective. Patriotism is a marketing tool gone bonkers and only appeals to people that don’t think,..have no idea about the US history,…and cherish more to have another alleged self elected authority figure tell them how to live their life.
I can’t state any clearer then this ===>
“The only time right wingers pretend to give a shit about Muslim rights is when they’re circulating imperialist propaganda about China”
For some reason, I find Laura Ingraham’s moralizing especially irritating.
1. Her tone of voice and the way she enunciates every syllable very slowly. Good primary school teachers use this technique sparingly to actually communicate, she does it during her entire monologue to tell you how smart she is.
2. She’s a Trump sycophant who pretends to be independent.
3. She says she’s against regime change wars but is addicted to the aggression that starts them such as the assassination of Soleimani. Like a good toady, following marching orders against China.
4. I expected more from her, she did clerk for the Supreme Court. I know that High School Hannity and Sports writer Kilmeade are dunces but can’t we get a little critical thinking from somebody other than the occasional burst of sanity from Tucker Carlson? No, we can’t.
I do acupuncture for a living. I was all about the “beauty” of Chinese culture and wondered what was the big deal about communism.. Then I read “A Time of Ghosts” by Hok Pang-Tang. It’s out of print but you can still get it on kindle. It will change your life.
Just because we are being force fed the usual propaganda about China doesn’t make the Chinese government any less evil. That is a fucking evil bunch of psychopaths. To think that just because our evil government is pushing the anti-China agenda means that China is a good and innocent victim is a naive false dichotomy. They are both horrifying homicidal terrorist hives of psychopaths.
Read the book. It’s a first hand account by a guy who was 8 when the communists took the country, and how he spent most of his adult life trying to get out of that hell hole. Everyone should have to read that thing. Seriously.
Fuck Caitlin you have no idea. I was born in 56. You had to stand in the class and say this droning no sense one nation under God divisible blah blah blah.
Why did I always find it nauseating.
Then high school came around and there were the Jocks and the I don’t know what and the drugs were the thing.
I lived in middle class New York. Long Island. Not Rich for New York but wildly rich I see now for the world.
People complaining they did not get the best car. Our living room had Gates.
My parents gave our Dog away when they decided to move to a fancier house cause she shed. She was my best friend in the world though I had human friends too. I always miss her even now.
I caught a little tiny fish in the stream and kept it in a bowl. Why didn’t someone tell me that it’s a fucking prison.
I was 7 when JFK was shot and I was home from school sick with a cold or something. I was watching TV in my bed as they would roll the parents TV into the sick child’s room. Keep us quiet put the brainwashing machine in. I saw it all go on and ran down stairs.
Mommy mommy they shot President Kennedy. My lovely mother slapped be across the face, I will never forget, she told me to never say such a thing.
Crying I went back to my bedroom. Ya think she said sorry. Ha.
I was a bad kid they said. I liked to ask a lot of questions. When my Dad passed in 2017, a beautiful man I hold in my heart for ever, we had to go through the stuff and I found my 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade “Report Cards”. An insane concept.
It seemed I was pretty good at the nonsense they were teaching As and Bs but on every years report card the teachers wrote, if he would learn to not be sociable he would do much better. WTF. The most important thing you can learn as a kid is to communicate, no?
I was a loud mother joker. Small in stature big in mouth.
Hated school so much when I was home sick I used to open the window and let the cold air hit my sweaty body because they always were so crazy about stay away from the cold you’ll get sick.
Well guess what. It made me a tough mother fucker building immunity. I did not get sicker. I had Chicken Pox, German Measles and obe or two others.
The doctor came to the house with a little black bag. The times she brought me to the office as I got older like 9 ie a few years later the Doctor would take a sample of your mouth saliva and put it in a petri dish. He would do a few and put it in some box. I asked a million. Questions and they answered every one. He said we see what grows and then know if an antibiotic will work for you.
Never give something unless you were tested though we now know that was not the best plan but better than today where they give it like candy.
Now the doctors were still allopathic but at least they knew you and it was almost a healer though thank you Carnegie for killing off any natural medicine.
It went from not terrible to insane.
But I am rambling. Your post was magnificent my young friend. So right on. I never understood this love the country nonsense. Statism is like asking for your slavery. I just had no love for something I did not understand I guess.
Yet it surely got worse over time as I found it nuts that it was said non stop how America is the greatest country.
I would ask my parents who were 100% 1960s Kool Aid drinkers but got no good answers.
As I got older and my Dad would say it about it’s the greatest country, Dad where other countries did you live in.
None he replied. So I asked then how do you know. It was like Pshaw how can you not know as it’s so obvious.
Oh I am babbling but Caitlin that was so right on. The insanity with the training at school. Elementary School age 6-11 years old I think. I guess because I was so non stop babbling I would get in trouble.
We had to walk to the Cafeteria for lunch, in lines like in the army. Going back to the class after lunch the same single file lines. I came up with an idea to get a bunch of napkins and tear them into little squares and as we walked in the stupid line after lunch one day the three of us sprinkled the little pieces of napkins figuring how could they ever know who did it.
We slipped into the bathroom before going the rest of the way back and with the little squares of napkins pieces we wrote FUCK in the middle big the bathroom.
We got to the class and about ten minutes in the principal comes in. He acted like a God and started up with they know who dropped the papers and spelled a bad word.
If you admit it now then it will be much easier on you. In other words admit that you did it and you won’t get suspended. (Suspended meant days off from school but the fear made it scary).
One guy raised his hand and he was asked to come to the front. The principal then said now who was with you. You better tell me because I know anyway but want you to admit your mistake.
Yup he pointed out the second guy and that guy pointed me out.
I was equally bad as I turned in the fourth guy.
I cannot speak why but I never liked the US as a country though it’s true I knew nothing from facts. I simply thought it was crazy to believe this is the best country. Going to a school you hate. Fuck thousands of crazy shit.
There are so many great books. I love Larken Rose. He wrote the-most-dangerous-superstition. Good stuff.
Enough of my nonsense.
So right on.
There is a very simple solution to this current insanity. Ascension. Meditate with your heartspace as focus never the mind. Chiropractors deal with lots of head forward.
The solution is to be heart forward always. The mind is not who we are.
We are spiritual beings. There are at least two things to strengthen ourselves happening now.
One is to lead with your heart and never your mind/brain. Heart Forward.
They other is always follow your intuition.
Again I’m babbling and I apologise for it.
Thanks again Caitlin. I can relate.
Hiya Harry Has Issues,
There’s a difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism is loving one’s country. Nationalism is loving one’s country right or wrong. I think that most Americans are patriotic, while the remaining few of those who even care about, or know about the history of the country that they live in, are nationalistic. There’s nothing wrong with people coming together to build and defend a common denominator that benefits a group. While it also seems that it’s ok and a necessity for every other country or group to find a commonality amongst themselves, but just not for Americans to do it anymore. So Harry, if you can’t get past your issues to see this, then you and Caitlin should maybe go into ‘group therapy’ for some help and maybe a little calming meditation at the same time. LOL (I hate autistic rants)
Bottom line is, there’s a big difference between your average American who loves the country that they have built for themselves and the people who have taken that country over from the top down, and now working their con from the bottom up to finish those who still believe in all the foundations that this country was built on. The average American had their voices taken away a long time ago. While they never ever really had a voice to say if they wanted to go to war or not either. It’s like that line from “Animal House”, “Hey, admit it, you f’d up, you trusted us.” American’s are trusting. Governments can’t be trusted. Ahem Brother.
Statism is what you are saying is OK. I am simply not agreeing. AS usual it means I have issues and you since you follow the herd, do not.
Have you watch the Television lately? If so then nothing will convince you of any logic. You are unhappily, to those of us that would not like to be governed by insane occultists, brainwashed and until you get away from all media IE STOP WATCHING TV and MOVIES you are a cooked goose. Unable to understand any logic but the stuff that has been embedded into you.
I am absolutely out of where I should be. I Know better than to do this and I should not have posted. That I agree 100% and my Heartspace is saying stop. But fuck it. Once in a while I must let it run.
Wear your mask today?
Patriotism is bullshit and its a way to feel good at getting raped for taxes.
You OWN NOTHING and you just admitted you are OK with that. Buy a House. Its not yours. The Land, in my opinion, has no right to be sold to any human but that is me. TAXES don’t pay them They take your house. But I paid for it for 40 years I have no mortgage.. Covid Wiped me out. Sorry Just because you have a home worth $800.000.00 if you do not pay the taxes we will take it.
Yes do a reverse Mortgage. hahahahaha always a friggin answer
The houses we build are wrong and against nature. The rooms are Square with Flat ceilings.
Do some research on why Indians used Teepees and why Pyramids are exactly the shape they are.
I am not looking to fight as I am aware you cannot be convinced of anything.
I am 100% happy to be considered insane if you are an example of SANITY!
Hi Harry Has Issues,
Yeah, that’s why Indians didn’t have 40 story buildings, because it was against nature. And you know nothing about me. Though I can see that when you see two people that agree with each other, you also see that as the formation of a state. LOL And then you go on to rail against the state, though the topic is about patriotism. Yep, you are insane. And I’m glad that you are so happily so. So how flat is that ceiling that you are staring at?
Name the puppets, blame the puppets, a typical sideshow. Meanwhile the puppet masters, the Stromboli are never brought to task, never called to answer for the many crimes of this stagecraft drama. Stromboli will causally burn any puppet to roast their supper if it pleases them to do so. Puppets are just puppets, little wooden head actors, avatars made of straw. Put Stromboli on the stage if your wish is for better drama. Give us Stromboli!
That said, I’ll keep my God, my country, my family and my flag, because I love each of them just as I love the Earth, the sky and the waters, and all life having been blessed to live here. I do not believe one must abandon any these loves for the sake of any other. If that makes me an idealist, so be it. God is in control.
Wow! Great work Caitlin, nothing like the Truth in giving “self” a good slap around in bringing us to our full potential. That is, a conscious being, a being that “pauses” to give thought, and to think things through for what is right, and what is wrong, a search for the Truth, rather than, an automatic acceptance of what we have been told or read. Discernment is the word, discernment of the conscious thoughts, and inner thoughts, sending us little messages. It pays to take heed of those little messages!
“If you have a special hatred for the Chinese government, it’s only because you’ve been manipulated into doing so by longstanding and pervasive propaganda campaigns.”
Bullshit. I don’t know anyone in the Chinese Govt., but I do hate communism. Like every other country in the world the U.S. govt. operates in a world of anarchy. Citizens must obey laws, governments do not.
Patriotism sounds right when politicians and generals need more soldiers to fight and protect the motherland from aggressors. But when politicians and generals call on soldiers to fight and die to foment civil war and chaos in foreign Lands so that the US technocratic-military-industrial-complex can continue to thrive, that is bullshit-patriotism.
I don’t believe we can carry the true nature of important issues “from unconsciousness to consciousness.” The true nature of important issues does not originate in unconsciousness. It originates in the consciousness of a few people with exceptional integrity, courage, intelligence, education and wisdom who move from relative obscurity and confusion into clarity and truth in rare moments of insight and these exceptional individuals in turn explain their insights, perceptions and prescriptions to other less exceptional individuals. Unfortunately, to most people, advanced insight and wisdom seems like insanity. Even well-educated (meaning indoctrinated) people fail to grasp what Yeshua said and meant when training His Ambassadors for revolution.
My own little diatribe on Patriotism and Manipulation of it by the State:
https://olduvai.ca/?p=26259
After reading Ms Johnstone’s fine article today I had the pleasant ” one – two ” punch delivered to me by Ms Cynthia Chung. You can read her article here:
How to Take Back Control of Your Mind by Cynthia Chung!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/07/08/how-to-take-back-control-of-your-mind/
Fascinating.
Mickey Mouse News (aka ABC) has a big story about how alarming it is that evil Russia would use a charge of treason against a journalist.
They say, as far as one can tell from fonts on a screen, with a straight face.
The name Assange is of course not mentioned in the article.
Its called Doublethink.
New evidence shows that Mr. Putin murdered Jesus!
What a negative egoic idea for the future( 2021)=doom porn msm.
Well isn’t thats the Oligarchs inception idea.
“Bad American patriots”.
America(sic= a land mass) is not separate from the world , the insanity you there may be able to see there is visible everywhere.
“You can see the splinter in your brothers eye but fail to see the log in yours?”
We are all human beings on this planet it is the ego seeks to feel superior to Americans.
Better than.
All Isms are all just State concepts most have no reality.
So why just choose to villain ize & scapegoat the ones the msm media already blame for all the human unconsciousness.
How about stopping the egoic blame game and fear porn?
Its not spiritual.
Many more can clearly see the insanity of the world, to be aware of it but not create ego serving discourse that just perpetuates the insanity.
Yeah Ciatlin is Trump obsessed.
And if you think western and eastern intel don’t work together for the global oligarchy and were unable to get all the data from tik tock you are naive at best. A believer believing everything the msm says.
It was ok at one time to be patriotic when a country was culturally and ethnically pure so to speak. Thus 100 years ago it was ok to be uppity and aloof because you were french. You shared a culture and ethnicity of most of the people in france. Now french means someone who lives in the region of france not necessarily speaking french or with a french culture. Those days are long gone as mankind swirls the cultures and races of the world. There are some culturally and racially pure places in the world only because it is of no interest to the elite to push their agendas in those areas. Some are just bombed into oblivian instead which id more expedient.
“Leaving aside the infantile silliness of “patriotism” and all the toxic agendas that it is used to advance, it’s also an inherently nonsensical concept… You don’t love your country, you just feel feelings for a loose cluster of symbols you’ve been trained to equate with a nation…But it’s got nothing to do with your actual country.”
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Patriotism is a Substitute Religion. Swap out “The Almighty” and insert “Your Nation” and everything else is the same. Both utilize symbols, worship, icons, doctrines, sacred narratives, martyrs, the exercise of power and manipulation, have demons (those who oppose The State)… it’s all there. Patriotism is just another form of idolatry that was warned against by those words… “I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.” Filter out the old references and what this says is don’t worship anything other than the True Source of Life that is beyond all agendas and doctrines and silly symbols. To do otherwise is to act at your own peril.
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“Manipulation is a necessary component in long-term abusive relationships…”
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Manipulation is a fundamental and widespread life skill, period. The exercise of subtle or not-so-subtle power by one person or entity over another. Vote for Idiot #1 instead of Idiot #2. Buy this brand of soap and not these other ones. Love and Marry me and not him or her. Don’t use crayons on the walls. Don’t say a single thing your boss won’t like. Follow these Social Engineering ideas without question. Don’t have any original thoughts. Don’t ever do or think anything that The Group disapproves of. On and on it goes without end. The best manipulators? Not the narcissists or sociopaths or fools because they’re easy to spot. The best are the ones that manipulate you and you never had a clue you were being manipulated. And maybe the best manipulator of all? It’s YOU manipulating yourself by replaying and living out all the garbage that’s been put into your head all these years and you never did a housecleaning so it’s all on you now.
Please forgive me Ms Johnstone; but President Biden?? Mr. Biden has lost it; he can barely stand erect and his mind is off somewhere in never never land. Of course Donald Trump’s relatives may destroy him before the November elections and he might quit running; but Joe Biden is way beyond being wishful thinking. When I think of ” patriotism ” my mind recalls people being physically attacked with poles that have flags on them. I am just a retired old man that is very grateful that I made it back to my living space without encountering the violent lunatics that are everywhere.
Vegas says Biden. I’ve learned not to bet against Vegas. I’m not going to vote for Biden, but I will be mentally prepared if he does become the next POTUS.
You mean the next meat puppet. NO matter how bad he gets no one will mention the 25th amendment. He will simple issue decrees and no one will be sure if he is alive.
Keep walking Suzie, not interested.
So I get an email today from Win Without War completely buying into the bounty nonsense. When well-intentioned people are mindless idiots, what hope is there in dealing with a world full of evil-intentioned people?
“Dissident voices and political activists who put a lot of energy into sectarian infighting are really just admitting they don’t care all that much about fighting real power and have always been in it for the drama and ego candy.” Yes, yes, yes, and anyone who lived through the antiwar movement saw this firsthand. One major reason (besides all the others) that the left is so ineffectual is that people, both men and women, are unwilling to leave their egos at the door and work for genuine revolution.
From a strict evolutionary standpoint, consciousness is a kind of mistake – a malfunction of evolution – where it is out of this mistake that something new and unexpected emerged, and the world miraculously “opened its eyes”. That is, consciousness is not something which enables us to function better, on the contrary, it originates with something going terribly wrong. For when do we become fully aware of something? Precisely at the point where things no longer functions properly. That is to say, consciousness emerges from an experience of an unexpected failure, of something that obstinately refuses to make sense, because it is only when something is not-working in the expected way do we begin to pay attention….
There is, then, no reason whatsoever for things to be the way they are – the world as it is could always be otherwise to the present order of things. Nothing is ever set in stone. And so, if the existing order collapses and falls apart all around us, it will not be because of some hidden purpose or deeper meaning that’s working all things out for the best (Spiritual awakening, the laws of historical necessity, Divine Providence, the arc of Justice, etc), it will be by virtue of the absence of any Deeper Order, or the lack of any Big Other that can tell us who we are, why we are here and what it means to be human. And it is precisely this anarchic absence of any overarching Truth or underlying Oneness ensuring that all things are moving towards their innermost end and purpose that keeps the future open, that ensures a different world is possible. For it is only because we live in a universe without rhyme or reason that the wildly unpredictable emergence of new forms of consciousness and creativity are possible in the first place…
I think you’re confusing consciousness with conceptualisation. Or we disagree on meaning.
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For me, conceptualisation is thought. This is more than just thinking. At the basic level, it’s the bare registering of the presence of an object. (Some would say the object IS the conceptualisation). At higher levels, it’s abstractions such as democracy, racism, consciousness and conceptualisation. Any abstraction can have examples that are more concrete, so it’s easy to confuse abstract and concrete. In any case, it’s not “reality” (another conceptualisation), but a model of reality. Obviously, this is something that an evolutionary scientist could explore.
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Consciousness is sometimes equated with awareness. I don’t believe this is something that scientists can study directly. All they can do is either study the external behaviour of animals, or the activity of the brain. They then need to make assumptions which can’t be proved in order to correlate this with awareness. For example is a computer aware? Is a rock? How about a camera? How about a robot? The problem with thinking about awareness as a product of evolution is that this can only happen if awareness is an inherent property of all matter, right down to the individual atom and further. The next problem is how does awareness span space. For example, I can be aware of any part of my body, but which atom in particular is the I that is aware and how does that atom know about the rest of my body? The obvious answer is that awareness spans many atoms. If it can span many atoms, then it can span the universe. Quantum physics suggests this but shines no light on what awareness is or how it could evolve. The problem is that there is no way for scientists to study awareness directly. You are aware, so awareness is obviously a thing, but can you experience anyone else’s awareness? Even if you could (and some say you can), how can that help a scientist?
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For some people (and your comment suggests you think like this), conscious is contrasted with “unconscious”. For example, there are brain activities that are going on, but you’re not aware of it. This is just the same awareness I discussed in the previous paragraph, with the added feature of admitting that thought processes occur which are independent of your awareness of them. Phrases like “unexpected failure” or “something that [doesn’t] make sense” implies a conceptual framework of reference, even if it’s only primitive. Maybe we differ in when conceptualisation begins, but I don’t see how even an amoeba can be surprised by something without some sort of conceptual modelling being in place (at the chemical level). Maybe you think conceptualisation can only happen with a nervous system. Maybe you equate chemical changes with consciousness and so the example of an amoeba confirms your line of thought. But then, how is it a mistake for an amoeba to respond to its surroundings?
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The Buddhist definition of consciousness is more along the lines of an ability to have certain experiences. For example eye consciousness is the capacity to experience sight. This is different from having functioning eyes. Sight occurs when eye consciousness combines with an organ of sight and visible objects. This is not the same as awareness, it’s more like the ability to focus awareness on certain types of experience. This is conditioned, so I guess it could evolve. I don’t see how a scientist could study it, though.
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If you think of consciousness as the focus of awareness, then you can see that patterns of focus can develop. A feedback loop between experience and the focus of awareness produces the possibility for these patterns to evolve, and the physical body can be part of this evolution since the evolution of the body’s chemistry and structure creates new experiences and automated responses. Maybe this is what you mean by the evolution of consciousness. How, though do you call this a mistake or a malfunction? Those words only make sense within a pre-existing conceptual framework.
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Most of your final paragraph makes sense to me. I agree there is no Truth, and that the universe doesn’t make sense. This is because Truth and making sense are just conceptualisations.
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The mention of Oneness needs to be addressed because this word is bandied around in spiritual circles as though there is agreement on what it means. It is often used to mean universal consciousness or an experience of being connected to everything else. This can be experienced in altered states of consciousness, and it’s a compelling experience, but you shouldn’t assume that it’s real or true. The mind is quite capable of constructing experiences with an overlay that proclaims “This is True”. We experience that every day. Tradition mentions the experience of Infinite Space, and the experience of Infinite Consciousness. Alternatively, you can have an experience in which there is no conceptualisation, meaning there are no objects being registered. This is the experience of Nothingness. According to Buddhist tradition, none of these experiences are enlightenment, and their attainment is not a sign of permanent spiritual achievement. This is all tangential to the focus of this website, but if you’re interested in spirituality, it’s something to keep in mind. When you practice focusing on awareness, including awareness of thoughts and feelings, you can come to a realisation that the experience is complete and all at once, even though the conceptualisation models it as individual objects (in that same moment). This to me is the most useful definition of Oneness.
consciousness is such a big word. like love. ike depression. it is not simple enough to even use.
awareness is knowing. so that is better. do you know? if so you might feel empathy which as Bill Clinton sogamely said, i feel you pain. to be conscious als might mean doing something about it since yo are president. and maybe extending your “feeling” to caring for them. building a clinic a school hospital homes bringing food….and not blowing them up from 30,000 feet as if the poor were the ones taking over the planet…
well they are sort of by the numbers. anyway. ut may ve not for long as Hell and MePretty Hates are building viruses now that will only kill the poor. the New Weird Eden shall be empathy free because everyone there will also BePretty Belinda, and healthy and very rich.
shedding crocodile tears is not consciousness. fixing it is. give a man a fish? no. teach him how to fish. yes. so proactivity. is consciousness. teaching is too. nursing is too. most doctors. abbies. bus drivers. the sheer purity of their duties is po-humanity with out judgment. get them better so we can hang them. pure love there.
you cannot put a dying man in the gas chamber.
and starving people will steal food anyway they can. for sure. we have to feel, then think ahead, to be truly conscious. and this does not even touch on conscience. which comes from religions that do not know what they ar talking about. built upon dead bodies from their wars, sprinkling holy water on the slaves ships. crusades. the Inquisition. firing squads for showing an ankle. a head of hair. a face in public. wars. endorsing Hitler, as he begins the killing of jews. jews killing moslem children … so conscience is not consciousness either.
i see, i am aware. i am TOLD they are bad people. but i see all kids as equals. way better than grownups. i see children as the teachers of the Earth. and the children teach the Golden rule as grownups defile it. close it off unto their own religion only.
We would do better by getting taught by, and learning from, babies.
why N. Korea hates us; when the US bomber pilots came back to base {in Japan} accomplice to mass murder with no qualms, they had un-sed bombs still hanging on their wings. why asked the General? their is nothing left to bomb except rice paddies. “Then bomb the rice paddies!” he screamed at them.
make them lose their will to fight. via starvation. USA making friends out there. see the result?
a whole lotta love.
LibyaWartheTruth(.)com > eyewitnesses James and Joanna Moriarty on the genocide in Libya. Obombie, Reptillary and their CIA Operation Zero Footprint overthrew Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt and Libya. Combined 250,000 dead, then Operation Timber Sycamore sent Libyan weapons to ISIS in Syria, death toll half million.
Following “Unequivocal 9/11″ Nukes” at principia-australia(.)org > Baby Bush and the Neocons killed half a million in Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving open the question….
WHO IS THE WORST WAR CRIMINAL OF THE 21ST CENTURY ?
If this was horse racing, it would be a photo-finish with several noses in contention—but Obama gets my nod. The pores of his being drip with deceit.
In other news, this morning Wall Street jumped upwards on the announcement of the Trump administrations plans to kill more Americans. Pro-Death economic adviser Larry Kudlow said again that the Trump administration will not allow mass closures in response to the escalating pandemic resulting from their fast and early re-opening. This of course means that the virus will continue to spread out of control, and that many more Americans will die. This statement putting Profits firmly over People and guaranteeing mass deaths caused Wall Street Stocks to climb this morning. Wall Street has long celebrated announcements of impeding death for non-Americans. Now it openly celebrates and calls for Americans to die. The Chinese method of letting profits suffer to protect people’s live will not be duplicated in the Land of the Free.
Sounds like a contradiction which could be exploited, probably by an extreme rightist with populist style and better organizing and leadership skills than Trump.
You are a victim of propaganda . Media Kool-Ade has poisoned your ability to do critical thinking ? The so called pandemic is not fatal to 99.5 % of us . To be a pandemic at least 10% of the population must be a risk of dying . They simply changed the definition of pandemic to achieve their goals in this massive social engineering project being forced upon the underclasses , while manipulating stats to inflate the numbers . In fact this years death toll due to flu is lower than several of the last 10 years . Do some research ?
you’re full of crap. we don’t know what the fatality rate is yet, but it is at least several times that of the flu. the last 2 flu seasons in the u.s. were unusually severe. do some research.
Crap and pretzel must be synonymous in your universe ? the mortality rate for this years covid out break is is less than .05%. and killing the messenger won’t change that.
I agree.
Here is an article that examines the propaganda and offers suggestions on ways to deconstruct it. https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/07/jon-rappoport/my-investigation-of-covid-19/
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Strangely enough, here is a completely different article, by the same author and with the same date and title: https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/07/08/my-investigation-the-cult-of-covid/ It looks specifically at the some of false logic underpinning the covid campaign.
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The problem with doing research is that much of the research is suspect, as is the way it’s reported and the way it’s spun into the narrative. It’s no surprise that so many people get lost and just believe based on personal preference. This octopus has many tentacles, and they reach right into peoples’ hearts and minds. In that sense, we are all victims of propaganda. I understand your frustration.
Good news. Let the virus kill me or leave me alone. I choose to let fate decide.
In New York State, 6,326 sick patients (coronavirus) were transferred from hospitals to nursing homes between March 25 and May 8. I see Cuomo was “on top of things”.
Hmmm
Clearly, Como was tasked with finding a way to drive up mortality rates to maximize the impact of what otherwise would have been a slightly more severe yet basically run of the mill Flu virus. Though upon closer inspection his despicable actions were just one example of hundreds across the country needed to pull off this all out assault on the citizenry.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is now hard not to conclude that “COVID-19” is yet another false flag operation designed to separate the rights and freedoms, not to mention wealth from the citizenry and hand it over to the ruling elite. What makes this particular false flag different is that the perpetrators now have the resources at their disposal and perhaps more importantly, the heightened delusions needed to carry out such an evil plan on a world wide basis……..
Obviously, these Dominic animals think they have a shot at 1 world order. It goes without saying that their glorious plan puts them in charge by giving them all the wealth and power stolen from the people…..
Luckily for the rest of us, history is on our side…..
SO you believe the new numbers even though the CDC changed the rules and everything is called COVID now.
Even their own DEATH RATE has stopped going up and they are 100% full of shit. Additionally wearing a mask is killing people.
Walk into a New York Hospital with a Mask on. Get tested and your O2 is low. Get put on a Ventilator and guess what NEGATIVE TESTED you are marked COVID. Panic Attack. DEAD in two weeks. Very popular in very poor areas of New York. Nice city I live here. I saw this first hand.
We are so lacking in dignity as a nation and much of it can be traced to the three genocides that Brian Willson describes in his great biography, “Blood on the Tracks.” The genocide against the indigenous people of the Americas; the genocide against African people brought here as slaves; and the ongoing genocide against much of the rest of the world to create our products and subjugate people as slaves, such as child miners in the Congo dying for cheap cobalt our electronic devices and “Green New Deal” cars. Mary E. Marcy wrote a short book titled: “You Have No Country! Workers Struggle Against War.” The misuse of World War II to fuel more wars of aggression and greed is another grotesque that begs to be exposed for what it is: Fraud. It is time we faced ourselves in the mirror and it is time to pay back the people we have stolen from. Anything less than complete reparations just adds to our cowardice and shame. I am grateful to the young people standing up and fighting.I like the Mondragon Plan for structuring business, We need to reconcile with the Cuban people and government and follow their lead. We need to follow the French Resistance model that ousted the Vichey. Many of them were Stalinists. So what! They got the job done and a national health system in place.
As a descendant of freed serfs, I demand reparations for Serfdom!
Which serts? If Russian, the Russian serfs took over in 1917-1924, They got not just reparations but the whole shebang.
Untrue . The Russian revolution got rid of the aristocracy , but enabled the bureaucrats , intellectuals , spies , and generals that replaced them. A case of ” meet the new boss , same as the old boss” , from a serfs point of view.
That reminds me of the Irish Americans who try to worm out of responsibility for eagerly looting Black Americans, repeatedly, to the present because they also were enslaved and persecuted by the English. No, I’m talking about United States reparations. My grand father was a share cropper and a racist.
Like money fixes anything. Reparations is typical capatalism thinking. Herec s some money, you are better now so shut up.
Well said
Spirituality for a brave new world: No gods, No masters, No borders (nation-states).
Imagine there’s no heaven
Its easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Hmmm
Caitlin you failed to preference your story with Biden’s revocation of the 2nd amendment. Or the fact that the Democrats finally allowed combat troops to come home from guarding israel long enough to disarm the American people. And anti-BDS laws were federalized. And bans on criticism of jewish/zionists/israel became codified in Federal Law as well.
Then there is the new “treaty” Biden signed placing the entire US military under the authority and control of the Israeli IDF….In order to better protect and serve America and the American people.
Oh, and naturally this dismantling of the Bill of Rights took place with the overwhelming support of the Media, Hollywood, the Congress and course the lobbies….
Ops! wait a minute! My mistake, in practicle, terms most of this has already happened in a relentless surge of bi-partisan efforts here to fore not seen since WWII…..
You probably already have read this;
http://canadianpatriot.org/why-canada-failed-the-ben-franklin-challenge-in-1776/
And, in my personal experience most people are too selfish to give a damn about anything but themselves in spite of whatever else they might saw.
They like their little tribes, though.
Brainwashing. Propaganda. Viewed this out and out propaganda gem the other night. I was riveted as high power ‘Truth’ searchlights opened up on the standard Western output as N Korea probably steamed in with their own. Well worth a watch but it’s grisly in parts.
Only 10 minutes in and this is brilliant !!
Some listening music for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZufjjPb6Y&list=PLna1ry0MkEzJqAPItUDOBmKq5rCQ1D3Fx&index=79
I think I will share here
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzQqWFt3BWJ0ToEyPgmZqg/videos
Gordon Bennett!! Stunning! I certainly wasn’t expecting that at 2:00, Crikey!! Many thanks for this, Julius.
Please enjoy the playlist – the Moranbong Band is musical perfection. So many favourites, but for more shredding by Kang Phyong-hui the guitarist, I recommend #97 Let New Year’s Snow Fall and #73 Tansume.
Great article except for the final paragraph which is not proven and in fact research shows is unlikely to be true ?
Saw a fascinating piece the other day that said the difference between the True Left and the Fake Left is that the True Left believes in Human Progress.
The Left has always believed in Progress.
The Conservatives have always said there is no Progress. For instance, Conservatives will always argue that there can be no justice because there was not justice in the past.
Its how you can spot the Authentic Left which is trying to organize and unite people in a march towards Progress, and their opponents who always tell you that Progress is impossible.
For example, “White People are always racist” is not a Leftist statement. Because it denies the possibility of human Progress. It denies that people can learn and grow and do better. It denies the history that over the generations the human society has been progressing, despite the best efforts of Rupert Murdoch to stop that progress and erase that history.
When someone tells you that people can never change, then that person is an opponent of the Authentic Left, which will instead invite you to join them and say “lets all change together and build a better world.”
Good comment. Unfortunately, not many who show up here are capable of understanding it, or will simply and stupidly disagree.
The left see the best of humanity and dream of a future which will never exist. The right see the worst of humanity and deals with it from that viewpoint. Both are authoritarian and evil if allowed to fully rule. Only by keeping them at each others throats do we have a modicum of freedom.
What was it? ‘The last refuge of the scoundrel?’ Basically we are living in a stratified (multi-level) insane asylum which is at its heart (and fortunately it HAS got one) is a spiritual struggle between consciousness and unconsciousness/inertia however you want to frame or label or personify it. Exposing it artfully and artistically is about the best we can do at the moment.
Difficult to pick a best highlight out of this post and I am not at all sure why I want or need to. This chunk really really really resonates with what I’ve been mostly telling myself or what my shadow has been telling my ADHD mind.
“I remember cartoonist Robert Crumb saying his work is the result of a strange acid trip he once took after which his illustrating felt like he was coughing up all the ugly shit from America’s collective unconscious. Now it feels like that’s what America itself is doing”
Tension in the background / underlying shared field amplifying the oscillations. More and more sensitives emotionally triggered by the increase in the extreme swings (highs and lows) .
Einstein and Tesla et al pointed the way: see the universe as energy. Universe is everything (and nonthing).
E = mc^2
Which of course says, to the few who stayed awake during algebra lessons …
m = E / c^2
mass equals energy divided by a constant.
Energy equals mass. Mass equals energy.
Knock on wood.
What you just felt was the electric fields of the atoms in hour knuckles impacting with the electric fields of the atoms of a former tree. If you could zoom in really, really close, you’d see that both consist of tiny nuclei of matter in the center of the atom, surrounded by vast electric fields created by the electrons around them. When you knock on wood, that is not one solid impacting another, it is the electric fields of your atoms colliding with the electric fields of that former tree.
Our reality is an illusion created by our under-powered brains misinterpreting limited data from senses that were only really designed to help us find food.
The fundamental subversion of consciousness comes primarily from the widespread belief that there must be some one in charge. That we cannot function as individuals interacting in a peaceful manner without this or that gang of Psychopaths In Charge. That there is actually a difference between the blue gang and the red gang. Fear and division are their primary tools. We are getting a lethal dose of both.
The Red Gang openly wants to kill me
The Blue Gang does not.
To me, there is a difference.
I prefer the illusion that the universe is infinite in all directions, including in. Look closely enough and see the universe out there in here.
The difference being the ” blue gang ” only pretends it doesn’t want to kill you ? Wilson took us into WW1 , FDR into WW2 , Truman , into Korea ,and Johnson into Vietnam . American foreign /domestic policies toward toward its masses are bipartisan efforts at repression regardless of which color coded gang holds sway.
Patriotism is something that looks truthy, especially if you do your “reality testing” by only asking people what they think. That’s at least 2/3 of people. If you don’t independently assess reality, you might go for patriotism and mas religion. If you sincerely seek truth, you are in a minority. You may well be tolerated if you keep quiet.
Things are pretty weird in the US approaching the big-fracture, between red zealots and blue zealots.
This hydroxychloroquine thing was fine until Trump said nice things about it. Now it’s either the red death or the blue death. I’m not sure. Fortunately, case fatality rates are way down this summer, so with cases way up, deaths are stable.
Take 5000 units per day of vitamin-D, won’t you?
http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/07/collaterally-damaged-tony-fauci-has.html
Finally, Vladimir Zelenko MD’s research is published. The outcomes of the humans he treated earlier this year.
We all saw this online, but here it is wrapped up nice and proper:
COVID-19 Outpatients – Early Risk-Stratified Treatment with Zinc Plus Low Dose Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin: A Retrospective Case Series Study
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202007.0025/v1
Hydroxychloroquine and zinc prospective study from France was well run. They did not give it to people with heart disease. It helped a lot. (Give zinc too, sez I.) Thanks Marjorie!
In our institute in Marseille, France, we initiated early and massive screening for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Hospitalization and early treatment with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin (HCQ-AZ) was proposed for the positive cases.
https://emerginnova.com/patterns-of-covid19-mortality-and-vitamin-d-an-indonesian-study/
Well Said Thank You
https://questioningcovid.com/
https://www.academia.edu/42632665/Evidence_the_COVID-19_pandemic_is_false