Category Archives: Living

05.05.13
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You have to brainwash people.

Psychological conditioning is the fundamental cause of all human conflict.

So… you have to un-brainwash people, and then… re-brainwash them. Wait. What?

There is no way that everyone, or even the majority, or even a plurality of people will achieve enlightenment. The price for achieving enlightenment is too high. 3% of the world’s population have doctoral degrees, and I would say that achieving enlightenment requires similar purposefulness and intellectual demands/rigor as earning a doctorate. Another way to look at it is: .005% (yes, that is five-1,000ths of a percent) of the world’s population are professional athletes. How does that accomplishment compare with achieving enlightenment? How many people would you estimate have achieved enlightenment? A couple per generation?

However, enlightenment is the ideal solution to the fundamental cause of all human conflict (psychological conditioning). Short of magically getting everyone (or anyone!) to achieve enlightenment, the only other option is better brainwashing–indoctrination that is more humane than a person’s original indoctrination.

You have to brainwash people.

Suddenly, George Orwell’s 1984 does look more like a How-to manual than a warning.

(Cross-reference: “You Have to Manipulate People.”)

05.04.13
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You Have to Manipulate People.

You have to manipulate people.

That sounds sinister or wrong. But it simply practical.

The vast majority of people do not think. So they will not be swayed/convinced by reason, even though reason is the strongest type of argument.

Yet, because they don’t think, they have to be informed, swayed, controlled.

And the only way to do that is manipulation.

(Cross-reference: “In Defense of Elitism”)

04.29.13
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It’s your choice.

The most remarkable aspect of living is how much control you have over your life. You have complete control over your life. Your parents and upbringing shape your actions, reactions, your deficiencies and “set” your personality. But everything is your choice. You can choose where you live, how you dress, how you act and react. Everything is up to you. Your level of maturity, your level of understanding, your grades in school, who you associate with, and how you respond to those people.

Happiness and contentment are 100% a choice. As are misery and discontent. Your every thought at every moment; what you think and how you think; our attitude and all of your responses are a choice. There is no such thing as “She made me mad.” There is only, “I chose to get angry.”

Your general health and level of fitness are up to you. As is how you spend your time, and how productive you are. All of it. Everything is simply a choice.

You have a default way of waking up (and sitting and walking), but those don’t have to be default. You can choose.

These kind of choices are as easy as choosing what you will wear today, but these kind of choices feel impossible because of conditioning, habit.

At any and every moment, you choose essentially every aspect of your life and your reality.

04.28.13
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What I read this morning

Here’s what I read this morning: