McCarthyism and blacklisting was a kindergarten play compared to facebookism and xism (formerly tweeterism). The former was largely limited to people of aspirations (as in “removal of liquids” - leading to the leftover of solid matter, not so easy to modify), intending to play social roles. What we have now with personism affects literally every body. Long-term social structure disruption by way of renaming a few concepts is truly amazing.
Nice words; but--sadly--that's true (in physical reality) only to the extent that individuals can enforce their natural freedom. Legal shenanigans get away w/ whatever they like because they're backed up by brute force (funded by our own wildly-regressive tax dollars!).
Which is EXACTLY what Those In Control want us to believe UBI has to be like. Of course, it has to be unconditional. The means-testers have to be fired & sent home to find something less pernicious to do w/ their lives. Poverty causes so many other expensive problems that even having a UBI just high enough to cover everyone's basic needs would be CHEAPER THAN allowing it to continue: https://daviddegraw.org/peak-inequality-the-01-and-the-impoverishment-of-society/
How much time have you spent looking into intentional communities? The "free" ones?
However nice it sounds, with all due respect, we don’t know anything of it. That is the realm of knowing of our Creator(s?). We can only guess, and our guesses always depend on how uncomfortable we are with what we have.
We don’t know what “natural” or “spiritual” means. If we knew, we would never even think about these words. It would be our integral part. But it is not. We differentiate the world into natural and not so natural. We oppose spiritual to various concepts. We play with these terms because we don’t know what they mean. We don’t even know if they have any meaning whatsoever. But we have devised them because they are easy to use to achieve division. Once we divide, we may feel needed to unite or wise to lead others. No humbleness. Is it natural or not natural arrogance?
We don’t know half of Earth’s creatures. How can we say “all”? We do know that even the strongest (that we know) of them are limited, bound, restricted and not free. An elephant or a horse cannot sleep lying. A fish is not free to go for a land trip. A bird is not free to walk on the ground all its life. Limitation seems to be the natural law, not freedom.
It’s all subjective. We need to precisely define what we are talking about. “They” do it. All law is a total aggregate of precise definitions (and some deliberate vague open spaces). Definitions are like a map. Once you have a map, you are free to choose the road. Without it, you are stuck. Which is waste of precious time and energy.
If definitions are like a map, it’s pretty hard to HAVE a map when they change definitions constantly to fit their narrative. It’s up to us to push back when they try to change these definitions. I may not be able to change the CDC when they change the definition of “vaccine” but I can sure ridicule and refuse to go along. Same for pronouns. Not playing their games and you’re either a man or a woman, full stop.
Er, horses do sleep lying down, they need an hour of this per day. They can lock their legs and sleep standing which they do all the time, especially in the wild with predator risk. 🙏
But we sleep in a comfortable horizontal position more than 1/3 of our life - despite predators watching us from all sides 24/7 and actively trying to get hold of our money, property or well-earned benefits. Most of these predators employ our neighbors, friends or even folks from our own family to keep tabs on us. Isn’t it strange?
"Definitions are like a map. Once you have a map, you are free to choose the road."
The map is not the territory. Words are defined in terms of other words. Circular. If you want to know the concrete meaning of a word, look for the referent. If you can't find it, you're dealing with an abstraction that can mean different things to different people. The way out of the trap is to search for the lower level referents that make up the concept behind the word, a referent being something objective that we can all agree upon. If you can't do that, you're basically talking nonsense. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you understand that's what it is.
We talk about things in the context of communication - otherwise we don’t need words or meanings or explanations. Communication means at least two parties exchanging or sharing information. If the intent is to “see eye to eye”, conventional references approximating different experiences are a must, that’s obvious. “What’s the time?” is a question about a map, not the territory, because the territory is a personal translation of the map (like primary school education) into a tangible experience. A fascinating process in itself.
They do control our food, water and fuel, and have a dominance in the means of violence, if not a "monopoly" on it. One can seek Divine Guidance within the "terrain", which is the most-intelligent "map".
Agreed. Supporting empathy within oneself is a "navigational cost" of "Divine-Guidance", in order to use the "smart map". I find myself paying this cost a lot lately, but would have it no other way. The great majority of people cannot live off-grid with their own sources of food, water and fuel, but with Divine Guidance, something can be worked out.
I am hopeful that enough of us who live with compassion can link up in parallel to be able to pull-together, to reach some kind of "critical mass" to be able to adapt the current predatory/parasitic economic paradigms to something more cooperative, something more like the Amazon rainforset.
"Hopeful" also implies "not sure". We are in overall agreement, but just as you examine the patterns of predation as being in full force and dominance, the means of harmony remains accessible to most people, to varying degrees of "talent". At what point is there a broad engagement, not merely to "universal mind", but in parallel, as in a "church" or "sangha" amongst spiritual practitioners?
"The way of the Tao is reversal." "Age of Aquarius"?
Right. Now count the abstract nouns in what you just said and try to operationalize them (find the referents)
Maps are not the territory, but we need them nonetheless. It's more a question of making accurate maps than of abandoning map making, since at its root, map making is just pattern recognition, which is inherent in all living things.
Fascinating!
Terrifying! :-)
McCarthyism and blacklisting was a kindergarten play compared to facebookism and xism (formerly tweeterism). The former was largely limited to people of aspirations (as in “removal of liquids” - leading to the leftover of solid matter, not so easy to modify), intending to play social roles. What we have now with personism affects literally every body. Long-term social structure disruption by way of renaming a few concepts is truly amazing.
Nice words; but--sadly--that's true (in physical reality) only to the extent that individuals can enforce their natural freedom. Legal shenanigans get away w/ whatever they like because they're backed up by brute force (funded by our own wildly-regressive tax dollars!).
Yes, but, "dropping out" requires having the financial wherewithal to do so. Here's my (non-violent) solution: https://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/end-poverty-demand-a-ubi-equal-to-what-congress-pays-itself
I get the point, but….good luck with that.
The gov't does whatever WE let it get away with.
Jill, I agree with that sentence. If everyone would simply say NO. So frustrating.
There you go! Now, we must start by ‘showing up’ and saying not only NO, but H3// NO.
So...they should be really happy getting free, unconditional cash from the gov't, right? Especially if it's enough to cover their basic needs.
Which is EXACTLY what Those In Control want us to believe UBI has to be like. Of course, it has to be unconditional. The means-testers have to be fired & sent home to find something less pernicious to do w/ their lives. Poverty causes so many other expensive problems that even having a UBI just high enough to cover everyone's basic needs would be CHEAPER THAN allowing it to continue: https://daviddegraw.org/peak-inequality-the-01-and-the-impoverishment-of-society/
How much time have you spent looking into intentional communities? The "free" ones?
Who likes the Andy Williams or Matt Monro version of "Born Free" best?
However nice it sounds, with all due respect, we don’t know anything of it. That is the realm of knowing of our Creator(s?). We can only guess, and our guesses always depend on how uncomfortable we are with what we have.
We don’t know what “natural” or “spiritual” means. If we knew, we would never even think about these words. It would be our integral part. But it is not. We differentiate the world into natural and not so natural. We oppose spiritual to various concepts. We play with these terms because we don’t know what they mean. We don’t even know if they have any meaning whatsoever. But we have devised them because they are easy to use to achieve division. Once we divide, we may feel needed to unite or wise to lead others. No humbleness. Is it natural or not natural arrogance?
We don’t know half of Earth’s creatures. How can we say “all”? We do know that even the strongest (that we know) of them are limited, bound, restricted and not free. An elephant or a horse cannot sleep lying. A fish is not free to go for a land trip. A bird is not free to walk on the ground all its life. Limitation seems to be the natural law, not freedom.
It’s all subjective. We need to precisely define what we are talking about. “They” do it. All law is a total aggregate of precise definitions (and some deliberate vague open spaces). Definitions are like a map. Once you have a map, you are free to choose the road. Without it, you are stuck. Which is waste of precious time and energy.
If definitions are like a map, it’s pretty hard to HAVE a map when they change definitions constantly to fit their narrative. It’s up to us to push back when they try to change these definitions. I may not be able to change the CDC when they change the definition of “vaccine” but I can sure ridicule and refuse to go along. Same for pronouns. Not playing their games and you’re either a man or a woman, full stop.
Absolutely..if we stop the flow of remuneration to these ‘controllers’ they will cease to control us.
The evidence is everywhere ... we live in the age of "reality is whatever you want it to be".
Er, horses do sleep lying down, they need an hour of this per day. They can lock their legs and sleep standing which they do all the time, especially in the wild with predator risk. 🙏
But we sleep in a comfortable horizontal position more than 1/3 of our life - despite predators watching us from all sides 24/7 and actively trying to get hold of our money, property or well-earned benefits. Most of these predators employ our neighbors, friends or even folks from our own family to keep tabs on us. Isn’t it strange?
"Definitions are like a map. Once you have a map, you are free to choose the road."
The map is not the territory. Words are defined in terms of other words. Circular. If you want to know the concrete meaning of a word, look for the referent. If you can't find it, you're dealing with an abstraction that can mean different things to different people. The way out of the trap is to search for the lower level referents that make up the concept behind the word, a referent being something objective that we can all agree upon. If you can't do that, you're basically talking nonsense. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you understand that's what it is.
We talk about things in the context of communication - otherwise we don’t need words or meanings or explanations. Communication means at least two parties exchanging or sharing information. If the intent is to “see eye to eye”, conventional references approximating different experiences are a must, that’s obvious. “What’s the time?” is a question about a map, not the territory, because the territory is a personal translation of the map (like primary school education) into a tangible experience. A fascinating process in itself.
They do control our food, water and fuel, and have a dominance in the means of violence, if not a "monopoly" on it. One can seek Divine Guidance within the "terrain", which is the most-intelligent "map".
Agreed. Supporting empathy within oneself is a "navigational cost" of "Divine-Guidance", in order to use the "smart map". I find myself paying this cost a lot lately, but would have it no other way. The great majority of people cannot live off-grid with their own sources of food, water and fuel, but with Divine Guidance, something can be worked out.
I am hopeful that enough of us who live with compassion can link up in parallel to be able to pull-together, to reach some kind of "critical mass" to be able to adapt the current predatory/parasitic economic paradigms to something more cooperative, something more like the Amazon rainforset.
"Hopeful"
"Hopeful" also implies "not sure". We are in overall agreement, but just as you examine the patterns of predation as being in full force and dominance, the means of harmony remains accessible to most people, to varying degrees of "talent". At what point is there a broad engagement, not merely to "universal mind", but in parallel, as in a "church" or "sangha" amongst spiritual practitioners?
"The way of the Tao is reversal." "Age of Aquarius"?
Just asking for a friend... :-)
I’ve been crying a lot lately. Contemplating transcendence. Thanks for this Raphael.
Right. Now count the abstract nouns in what you just said and try to operationalize them (find the referents)
Maps are not the territory, but we need them nonetheless. It's more a question of making accurate maps than of abandoning map making, since at its root, map making is just pattern recognition, which is inherent in all living things.