THE BUBBLE from Murph
I have met several women recently that expressed the idea that they didn’t want to know about all the bad stuff going on out there, they liked the bubble they were living in. I got to admit that this was the first time it had been stated so emphatically to me. Got me to thinking about this.
On this web site and many others, there are numerous references to the ‘sheeple’ that are being led around by the nose rings they install themselves. These metaphorical nose rings are attitudes and thinking. It seems that in any large population there is a certain amount of the population that would just as soon be told what to do and how to do it and what to think on a constant basis. To be otherwise can be rather disruptive to day to day life. Having to critically examine events and ideas circulating around you is hard work. My favorite quote on this; “Thinking is hard work, that is why it is so unpopular”. And, at the least, it is time consuming.
Taking a look at our society, one of the things we have to understand is that our society has changed a lot over the last 50 years or so. Today, for a substantial amount of our society, people are working multiple jobs, both husband and wife work, and time for examination of events and ideas is rather short to non existent. That I suspect this is a deliberate condition imposed on our society is beside the point.
Another factor to look at is the mental ability to be critical and closely examine what is being expressed and the nature of events. We have to face the fact that at least half of any given population is mentally not equipped for this kind of thinking. That is what average IQ is about. The latest stuff I have seen on this issue indicates that, in American society at least, the average IQ by traditional measurement is less than 100. That means that half the population is under an IQ of 100, or at best slightly more. It used to be that it was figured that to get a university degree took a minimum of 115 IQ. Now this has nothing to do with the moral values and living strategies that people use to live their life. But it is going to have a lot to do with abstract thinking and ability to analyze what is going on around a person. As near as I can figure, it is a sad state of affairs perhaps, but nevertheless true.
So right of the bat, we have 150,000,000 of our population that are simply not able to deal with high level critical thinking. Of the other 150 million, a very large percentage are engaged in so much activity just to stay healthy, raise a family, and keep a roof over their heads they haven’t the time to examine things closely.
I am going to take up one issue to point this out dramatically.
We have had a series of events take place in a relatively short period of time that has given imputes to the advocates of restrictive gun laws. Columbine and Virginia Tech are two big ones. Already, the Democrats are pushing legislation in this area. The idea is that if guns are limited to military and police, violent crime will be reduced. This is an area that is of high interest to me since I am very much opposed to anti gun legislation. So, I have been doing a bunch of research in this area. One of the first things I noticed is that depending on what batch of data is being used, the same data can have exactly two sets of opposite conclusions drawn. If you move into several sets of data, you find very obvious contradictions.
One of the justifications used for disarming the public is the experiment in
http://home.overflow.net.au/~nedwood/guns.html
If you Google up Australian gun control you will get more web sites than any of us have time to examine, pro and anti stances. I went through a good dozen of them and found about a ratio of 4 to 1 showing it was not effective. This took me several hours to read and try to analyze the data, and how it was arrived at.
In our own country, this fight has been going on since the
- There are far and away more example of defensive gun use being legitimate than you will ever hear on the popular media. See for a well researched web spot;
http://www.pulpless.com/gunclock/noframedex.html
- In every society, there are going to be those that for a variety of reasons are going to be violent and will use any means at their disposal to be violent.
- When you look at the legal ownership stats on firearms in this country, the amount of illegal gun usage against other people is very small. Supposedly 70 million households have guns of some amount.
- When I look at the role that law enforcement in this country, very little actual effort (despite the propaganda to the contrary) is put into crime prevention. It is mostly a system of punishment. Therefore, a disarmed public is at the mercy of violent crime with no way to effectively resist. To complicate this, it appears that a very significant amount of law inforcement, at all levels, engages in illegal acts on a regular basis. In effect, we have illegal activity being used as an excuse for enforcing existing laws and law enforcement personal engaging in the very acts they arrest people for.
- Our constitution was rather explicit in advocating an armed citizenry to hold off or resist government tyranny.
This is my short list of conclusions. They have been arrived at after considerable time and energy spent in looking at both sides of the argument. Now take a look at the shear amount of issues facing us. The incredible hours that have to be spent examining both sides of a contentious issue. No wonder we have such a large proportion of ‘sheeple’. It is overwhelming endeavor to examine all of it.
This also ties into what is called single issue voting. We each have a favorite area that we are adamant about concerning social and national policies. I know many people that voted for Bush only because of his stated policy stance on gun control, which was none. How many people do you know that voted for him based only on his stance on abortion? It takes a lot of time and effort to do a balancing act for the lesser of two choices of evil, which unfortunately is what we are left with in national politics that affect us all.
So, on the bigger issues, we do the best we can. This web site is interesting because of the large variety of issues that are taken up on a regular basis. Thank you all for your input and research.
posted by cyclone @ 11:52 AM
28 comments
28 Comments:
I have to admit that I made the biggest mistake of my voting life in 1978 when I VOTED FOR REAGAN for the stupid reason that I was mad at Carter for poisoning marijuana crops with paraquat, which I saw as an act of domestic terrorism. Little did I know how much worse things would get with the Republican cabal that I helped to elect. Damn. Even those who can be considered pretty smart are guilty of dumbassery much of the time.
Now, Murph,regarding time spent doing research and critical thinking - put down that mouse. I've got a whole list of things for you to do....
From Belgium,
Freeacre,
Do you know my wife? Lol.
Some might argue that the only thing Americans do with guns is to keep shooting themselves in the foot. Probably one issue politics is true. For instance I never trusted Mr. Blair from the beginning but after he let that slime ball Mandelson tell him how spin worked and what he had to do be ahead of the game instead of what was necessary to improve the country, I would never vote for him again no matter what his other policies were. I also think you guys missed a trick when you dumped George McGovern in favour of Nixon but that was long ago. Talking of gun misuse, now that Rummy is out of the way and killer Cheney is unwell, George Tenant could prove to be the loose canon which sinks his own ship. What do you think?
So far as bubbleophobes go, those that are able and have the luxury time to think usually finish up feeling as if they are peeing into the wind without the support of the bubbleophiles to back them up. This is what the system is designed to do of course. If I ever get reincarnated I think I will come back as a butterfly, spending months in a warm cocoon and then a whole day reproducing the species. It sounds alright to me.
Belgium,
Personal opinion is that they are all going to sink the ship, Dems and neocons alike. At least from my value system, I haven't seen one substantial program to improve this country for years now. I have seen a few bones threw to the populace on side issues.
Boy, are you right about feeling like I am pissing in the wind. For christs sake, we have had warnings that this was going to happen for over 40 years now, and except for a few wing nuts on the fringe nobody has wanted to listen to any of it. The major problem with the people doing the warning is that they tried timetables. That they were so wrong about the timing most of the time that people discounted them out of hand. We shall see how they feel about it all when the shit hits the fan. You will notice that I tend to steer away from timetables, for just that reason. For the most part, who in any modern society wants to deal with their part in the misery of the world, or their part in consuming finite resources. Comfort and advancement is the word of the day and to hell with the doomsday forecasters. I suspect from my studies that this has been true for all of recorded history, until of course, it becomes a fact in their face.
I told a friend that when I get reincarnated I wanted to come back as a shark, a really big one, top of the food chain and all. I was told that all the shark reincarnations were taken up by politicians and lawyers, had to chose something different. I suppose if we want to chose on the basis of specie continuation, a cockroach wouldn’t be bad. lol
Generally, I think people are influenced by the psychology of the herd. They tend to conform to what everybody else does.
The MSM is very influential in shaping most peoples ideas and actions. It's like a mass psychosis. Trying to break these people out of the herd is next to impossible.
It takes a person who searches for the deeper things to really see what's going on. The person that will listen to what your saying and then research it on their own time is the only people we can reach. Each person has to have their own self-realization to change.
What will happen is when the economy crashes hard and people start to really suffer this realization will be forced on them and it will be hell to pay then.
Joe M,
Boy do I agree that when the shit hits the fan there will be hell to pay by all the people that feel that they have been blindsided, of course, they haven't, they have been warned for 40 years.
It is interesting to look at the 'herd mentality'. There is good reason to say that herd mentality is the result of how human brains are hard wired. If humans are mostly all wired up the same, of course there will be a tendency to do things the same. If you prefer to look at humans as free will entities, then how do you explain the tendency to group together?
And, the 'herd instinct' does deal with individual perceptions, but only with social acceptance.
I rather suspect that there is a desire by people to not want to go to the hard work of deciding for themselves on any given issue and the time it takes to gather sufficient information for that decision. That problem is further compounded by sources of information. For centuries, printed material was considered authoritative and true, whether it was or not. Now, I find attitudes that if the talking heads on TV say it, it has to be true. Of course depending on who you listen to, and that is going to have its own reinforcement of perceptions.
Its a complex problem. I do not think there are simple answeres to it.
That was supposed to be; "The herd instincets does NOT deal with individual perception".
From Belgium,
Joe m,
I couldn’t agree with you more. What the West and the USA in particular needs is an articulate, populist leader from amongst the ranks of the people. Another Lenin or Lech Vowesa; maybe even a Murph or a Cyclone; I am willing to wager that not many had heard of the first two when things were only getting bad. When the people need a leader, one will emerge to fill the bill. In the meantime the theory goes loosely along these lines. Those with vision and a will to do something to avert catastrophe will organize themselves into small self sustaining communities. City dwellers will become the most badly affected by whatever hits society first. To survive, they will try to invade these small communities to take whatever they need. In order to defend themselves the inhabitants will take up arms and more importantly build their sites on high ground wherever possible. Whatever happens after that is anybody’s guess but it could be a replay of the Indian Wars.
In this way, the people turn upon themselves and those who are orchestrating events still come away with what they planned, a bit like Iraq.
you mighta known i couldn't pass this one up murph... lol!
If you prefer to look at humans as free will entities, then how do you explain the tendency to group together?
Similarity of imprints! Similar positions relative at emmergence!! I could go on. But I won't!!!
i prefer to look at humans as free will entities but reality is, the will has been heavily and pervasivly denied. thus, it is not really free.
were it free, truely free, it would not need rules, not to mention guns, from "above" to hold it down. it would set its own limits. and those limits would not be over-riding, over-powering, or running around killing others or self. and the spirit/consciousness/mind end of things would be in alignment with those limits. otherwise, again, the will would not be truely free if there are conditions placed upon it.
some prefer to think the concept of the will is all just an illusion. but i'll tell you this... when the shit hits the fan and the survival chakras get triggered, it won't be illusion comin at ya!!
the way it is right now, the concept is mearly a potential. and in the context of the way it is now... which is pretty much the way its always been... kristofferson got it right a long time ago... freedom's just another word for nothin left to loose.
are we there yet??
speaking of iq tests here's a good one you can take. you don't find out until you try to get your results that you have to register to do so. so consider yerself forwarned. also, its a pain in the ass deleting your way through all the ads. they don't hit you with those til you try to get your results either.
http://web.tickle.com/tests/superiq/
there's an even more super-dooper one with around 55 questions that i don't see now. but take the first one and they'll likely send you the link to the 2nd one. they did me. i got a little bit of bother from them the first day or 2 but nothing since.
b... u been in jail brotha? good to hear your voice again... p
P
The hardest IQ test I have ever taken was put out by Omni magazine some years ago. It was 30 questions if I remember right. There was no time limit and you could confer with whoever you wanted on the questions. The test started at 120 IQ, lowest score you could get. Took me 3 weeks to take the test. I answere all but about 10 of them. I got 8 right.
You Know Who,
Lol Ok, I will take a stab at the questions. Ah yes, the old free will question comes rearing its head again.
Could it be free will to decide to group together as a survival strategy? And this became a social instinct?
The question still is, how much of behavior is wired and how much is free will? If we have no free will at all, then that makes all religion and behavior science completely immaterial to human life, at least in a meaningful manner other than a desire for conrol.
I would agree that the will has been largely denied as a rational for social stability, which of course I deny as having validity. The problem you have with your argument concerning having will and thusly no rules I think is not necessairly valid in a social setting. On an individual basis, maybe. I see a lot of debate on either side. For instance, how then are you to deal with insanity, the violent sort? Because humans are a diverse bunch, I don't think you are going to find uniformity in thinking and response to stimulus, even without free will. Remember Null A philosophy. Response to symbols is not going to be uniform.
In my reading of history, when humans are forced into completely alien environments, no matter whether by choice or imposition, response is not uniform. Would this be a definition of free will?
From Belgium,
P,
Not jail exactly, more like house arrest, lol
I don’t know if you have seen this IQ test before, only one question but it is a good one and it can be solved. It took me days and many failed attempts to do it and when I did do it, I had made so many wrong moves that I had to take back that I couldn’t repeat it and had to start from scratch again. According to the write up some Japanese companies use it to sort out the critical thinkers.
http://www.robmathiowetz.com/
If you need a clue, let me know.
On a side issue during the month April, Belgium was the hottest place in Europe. Daytime temperatures were between 70°F and 79°F and not one drop of rain during the whole month anywhere in the country. This has not happened before since records began. Whatever crops grow during April are not doing very well and nobody is prepared to hazard a guess as to when it will end.
Btw, today is my birthday, another step in seven league boots towards the happy hunting ground. Hay-ho.
Did you notice that I am steering well clear of the free will argument – done that one before and don’t want to jump back in. It did occur to me though that bubbles are usually the result of an excess of soft soap.
Aho.
Spirit Across The Sea, happy birthday you ole coot, may many more grace us with your excellent input.
Damn, seems as if the years just slip by like greased lighting.Know what i mean?
It appears as if the acceleration talked about in the Mayan Calendar is coming on strong,should be interesting for sure.
The freewill issue is dependent upon which depth of feeling one belongs to it seems. The cut and dry of it is probably an endless journey, and will more then likely keep us entertained through many a cold night within the warm long houses, or tee pees in which we find our selfs.And our council fires will shine bright as we discuss these things together, and that is just really all right with me, could not have found myself in better company.
So good happiness to all that attend your journey around the sun and know that it is a privilege and an honor to know you.
Peace and Prosperity to you Brother.
aho
montana freeman
Hey Belgium,
Happy birthday! Only 365 days to the next one. You aren't doing a Bertrand Russel trip are you? lol
Oh dear, it takes an IQ of 130 or better to do abstract thinking - that is less than 5% of the population - that may explain why so few are posting to this site
Self-control (not free will) comes as the frontal lobe controls behavior patterns orginating in lower portions of the brain or long term memory. A function of learning and levels of arrousal.
Free will comes from - soul/spirit longing for the brain to be changed - ???
Usuallymike,
Oh dear, I didn't think it was that high for abstract thinking. Guess I am going to have to ask for a defiinition of it. My dictionary says; 1. disassociated from any specific instance. I wouldn't think that it would not take 130 to do that.
You also brought up an interesting question. Can the brain be changed normally, or by excercising desire?
WHAT?? 130 and up is only 5% of the population?? And we have majority rule!! Crikey! No wonder things are so fucked up. Shit, I am a couple of points shy of 130 myself, I have to admit...but I make up for it with heightened intuitive powers and good cooking skills...I hope!
I don't think it takes a genius to be a viable person. Lots of these sociopathic financial traders and con men and politicians, etc. may be clever, but that doesn't make them kind or honest or worth a damn.
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Spirit Across the Sea!! It's a pleasure to share the planet with you.
Spirit Across The Sea
(a-da-nv-do dee-gah-nv-dee-wee-sss-suh-ee he-ah ah-may-kwo-he)
Any of that sound familiar mf? :-)
Is thoroughly delighted with all the kind words and proud to call you all friends.
130 to contribute on this site huh!
Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits. Does that count as abstract thought?
Aho.
3:44 AM
tla-i-go-li-ga tsa-ne-gi
a da nv do, yet,
thanks for the reminder, good to hear from you again , your words are so honored here at this council fire, of brothers of common cause and to brave to be afraid of things that bump.
peace
aho
mf
testing
Belgium,
Happy Birthday!
Murph,
Great post! It seems to me that the herd instinct is there in humanity, it's just buried under a very thin layer of free will! Sure we talk about how different we all are and even brag about it, but let one kid show up at school with a rip in their jeans, then next week ALL of them will have rips in their jeans!
The very ideas of popular fashion and music prove this very well! Those who wear not the latest things or do not cut their hair like every body else in the crown are termed "radicals" and avoided!
When you throw a drowning man a rope, and he throws it back, there's only one thing you can do, and that's throw it to the next one!
From Belgium,
Thanks Stoney,
You hit the nail on the head there. Who remembers all those beatniks that were all individual and all looked like Manfred Man?
Melamine, melamine,
falsely elevates protein.
My food has been compromised,
and so has my spleen.
My kidneys are throbbing.
My cat just dropped dead.
Why my apple juice comes from China,
FDA hasn't said.
Burma Shave.
rp.... rotfl..thats the best one yet!!!
b... happy birthday!
stone... a very thin layer indeed! and under that huge herd instinct is an even deeper, and bigger, layer of survival instinct.
when it gets triggered en masse, all hell will break loose!!
...p
Good one, Rockpicker! It's nice to hear from you guys again...I've missed you.
It's been busy here, as I know it is for everybody. I'm wondering how you guys are that live in the area where the fires are, and the floods. Anyone suffering plagues or raining frogs or any other damn thing? The mound in the Mt. St. Helens volcano is building at several feet per day. Looks like it almost reaches the rim of the crater now. The prognosticators at Halfpasthuman predicted the flooding that is going on, and now they are looking towards earthquakes. May have beachfront property here eventually...
We mostly stopped eating commercially produced meat or fish, but now even the flour has been contaminated! Just another example of the homeland becoming more insecure as the neo-con policies of corporate global manufacturing of everything gets concentrated and outsourced beyond our control. Thanks, Bush and Cheney. Now we can be poisoned at will by any greedy bastards or disgruntled serfs from just about anywhere.
On a positive note, it looks like we are winning the war with the county over the groundwater issue. They have delayed the vote until the results of the water testing is in - bought us another year, hopefully. Yea! We have four new chicks that are driving our dog nuts, and one new dove we named "Butter Bean," who is pretty cute. We bought a composter, so that's going on, and bush beans, broccoli, Swiss Chard, kale, herbs (Thyme, basil, cilantro, etc.) are popping up. Will plant Chinese pea pods, Oregon snap peas, carrots, radishes, beets, etc. today. Things are looking pretty good. We watched an amusing documentary from Netflix called the Life of Chickens, or some such thing. I guess it's true that farmers are optomists, at least in the spring.
Take care, my cyber-tribe. Make hay while the sun shines, as it were.
aho
freeacre
the ga fire is 200-250 miles sse of atl in the wild okeefenokie swamp but we've had days with reports of the smoke sited here. we're in so many trees where we live can't tell from our house.
wish i had good news but...
i heard kennedy's s1082, fda revitalization act of 2007 passed the floor with little opposition yesterday.
scary! the twits are dangerous!!
and...
yesterday morning the 3 egges in the nest outside liz' office window finally hatched. she watched all morning as mr cardinal transferred food to mrs cardinal who would then feed the chicks. liz went to the kitchen for lunch around noon.
but...
when she got back ma and pa were in the next tree over boo-hooin and the chicks were GONE. hawks i imagine. so she boo-hooed with em all day. then when i got home she told me all about it and i had ta boo-hoo too. we've been watching her sit em for 2 weeks and proud papa would fly in for a visit and then be off again. been lookin real forward to watchin em raise them young-uns.
liz of course could not let such an opportunity to note to me the differences between the male and the female when it comes to baby-in and motherhood. i don't think me and mr cardinal cried any less than she and ma did over the loss though.
what was that anne murry song? ... sure could use a little good news today?
damn!!!
Bummer, Palooka. Racking my brain for a good take on the situation. Best I can come up with is that the hawk probably used the food to feed her own babies. But, it doesn't seem real comforting. Sorry. Happy to hear that the woods around your place are not in flames.
What with the projections for fires, drought, flooding, tornadoes
, hurricanes, and the accompanying depletion of national guard manpower and machinery to help out, I think this is going to be a very rough season... Duck and cover.
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