We're Causal Determinists cursed with Cognitive Dissonance and Inequity Aversion.
In the West we sit back and grumble as the Governments bail out the Billionaires & Banks that gambled and lost billion$ of our money.
We don't live in the nice little comfortable Middle Class world of the 50s. Advertisers want us to think we do but in reality we live under the same system that has existed since day one. If you need proof, here it is...MotherJones
It has been amazing to watch the young people in the Middle East risk their lives to escape the tyranny of the elite.
I wondered what would happen if North Americans decided that the system needs replacing and march en masse? Until people are starving I don't think that we'd challenge the system. We have too much stuff to lose and we don't want to get clubbed or shot at with rubber bullets. We'll just wait and vote for the opposition, then things will change! We'll show them!
"Many of us have superstitions – odd, reassuring habits that make no rational sense – but there may be an underlying reason for such behaviour.
Our brains are designed to detect structure and order in our environment, says Bruce Hood at the University of Bristol, UK. We are also causal determinists - we assume that outcomes are caused by preceding events.
This combination of sensing patterns and inferring causes leaves us wide open to superstitious beliefs. "But there are very good reasons why we have evolved these capabilities," Hood adds. Spotting and responding to some uncertain cause-and-effect relationships can be crucial for survival."
Ten Things We Don't Know About Humans
It almost seems as though we've just started to wake up from Millenia of bullshit? I like to think that the Interwebz had something to do with that. People can only respond to situations when they have information.?
Oi! Where'd ya go on Farcebook?
ReplyDeleteDonn. Tea Partiers have had access to the same information on the internet that you and I have, only they don't seem to have the critical thinking skills necessary to filter out the bullshit from the science. They come to the scene with what their daddies and their preachers told them, and whatever supports those already programmed assertions is reinforced and instead of an "informed" electorate, you get a scared, blind, and loyal mob ripe for manipulation. Glen Beck took his playbook straight out of Meinkamph and what's even more amazing, he delivers his incredibly insane and inane propaganda with a perfectly straight face, and peope purported to have an IQ actually buy it, hook, line and sinker. We're screwed.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it, 97% of all income is taken by 3% of the population in NA, whereas in the middle east, it's not even .00003% of the population. NA's 3% need us to work to fill their coffers. North America uses the mining town strategy - you work for them, they pay you, and you pay them for your house, your food from the company store, your insurance, your bank transaction fees ... it's all one company in the end. Poor sods in the Middle East don't have the benefit of the symbiotic mining town economic model.
ReplyDeleteMiss you on Facebook Donn! Come back! You always have such interesting threads!!! You entertain, enlighten, encourage, and engage people. You use the media so well to provoke discussion and thought. I have so enjoyed your posts.
I miss you!!!
If you're going to be here, then I shall follow you here. Robyn
Ute
ReplyDeleteThe Interwebz is running out of space so I thought that I should get used to just having my blogspace. It's quiet out here, sort of relaxing...it takes hours to search for everybody's stuff.
Just stretching my legs, watching the vultures circling overhead...reading the paper.
*coyote howls in the distance
Alex du Pendragonne
I watched a doc on Canada's relationship with the USA. It's funny and sad that your average Canadian knows more about what is "really" happening in the US than an American. Maybe it's easier because we're not immersed in the mythology and we just don't swallow all the hyperbole and Manifest Destiny bullsh*t.
What is plain to see is that half of America has bought into the phoney baloney grassroots God-Bless-America crap paid for by the Billionaires Club...it's so dishonest and transparent but they know which buttons to push and voila!
Ripley,
That's fantastic, North America IS one giant mining town. I am bewildered by the ability for (some) Americans to actually believe that they are GOD's Puritan beacon on the hill when the whole system is about getting rich and making more money for the elite ruling class.
The televangelist should replace the Eagle as the National emblem. Do as I pray not as I do.
It's funny/bizarre/tragic that most Americans have no idea how the rest of the world views them? We've (Canadians too but without the religiosity) been in a classic boiling frog scenario for 60 years now, most of us haven't noticed how we missed our opportunity to gain some control over our governments, and now we are pretty much cooked and it's prolly too late.
Hyperconsumerism is real King.
I love Fb but I really need to find other people who realize what they have at their fingertips. I'm so glad that you & I met again. I am totally consumed with hooking up with other people who want to know more about everything.
Yey, back on the darkside, Mr Coppens?!
ReplyDeleteThis is like my post, only with proper information.
Sx
Pleased that you're back!
ReplyDeleteWe'll just wait and vote for the opposition, then things will change! We'll show them!
ReplyDeleteAnd then we act surprised when we get more of the same old same old.
I think the French have got the right idea - they've got the government serving and living in fear of them and they don't need much to get militant if the government steps out of line.
ReplyDeleteThey get treated pretty well.
The rest of us I fear let our governments hold us to ransom. Literally. As we are too fond of a quiet life and not making a fuss, dear as it may cost us to keep our heads firmly buried in the sand.
This mining-town comparison is nice. It's one giga company: Saloonbankwhorehousechurch ...
ReplyDeleteBut I do not follow you with your last sentence: People can (and severly do!) react to situations without information. It's the norm. And the propaganda shouters in Northern America follow what was a motto for the last years: Simplify! Who is not pro is contra.
The "system" is based on the rich-quick-promise, on greed. Every generation again discovers leverage. The last generation of thieves only somehow managed to fill the whole world with non-real money ... but the next inflation will sort this out.
Looking at numbers about the US like death of infants, average level of information of students etc. I sometimes think it is intented to keep a whole generation uninformed. And that is the friendly formulation.
kabuki simply adores you. The status quo will not be changed until a majority of the middle-class are willing to suffer a bit of discomfort whilst we round up the theives of the ultra-class and pop their asses in the bastille. ps kabuki is available for pep rallies. fees reasonable
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU so much for your wise words and kind comments.
ReplyDeleteThis is is where the system fails..
on Facebook I could respond to these comments with a Like or a Comment within seconds.
Now you think that I don't care about your responses when in fact I am simply a selfish lazy bastard. I appreciate how long it took to manoever through the blogosphere chugging along from blog to blog and then jumping through all the hoops to leave a comment. Seriously, nobody would bother if they didn't care so I am deeply grateful.
If you would join me on Facebook you'd find that I am muchwould be much
HAHAHAHA
ReplyDelete....if you would join me on Facebook you'd find that I am much more coherent and sober, well, most of the time anyway.
Tut, Mr Coppens. Blogging is as easy as Facebook if you use Google Reader and get all the comment replies sent via email.
ReplyDeleteSo there.
Sx
Furthermore, Mr. Coppens, blog birthday parties are more fun.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Miss Scarlet's birthday party which you're missing because you're on Facebook.
Goddamn. Are you back or not?
ReplyDeleteOMG it's taking me half an hour to write a post UGH!
ReplyDeleteI didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition? Good Gawd Y'all!
btw: I congratulated Scarls @ 3am on FB so :P
...see, MJ, XL and I know how to exploit the full potential of Blogger - you have know excuses, Mr Coppens.
ReplyDeleteSx
It's my birthday... ignore the typos...
ReplyDeleteSx
I don't mind being exploited but obviously you wonderful people are not only lovely, but much, much more patient than I.
ReplyDeleteHunnybunny, write coherent sentences. They even can have a meaning. Your fackebooke universe is double filtered.
ReplyDelete