Ideas have a problem. 
They are never complete, certain, inviolate. 
Emotions have a problem. 
They're never logical, predictable, explainable. 
Rationality doesn't scale in the presence of emotion. 
Emotion doesn't sum up in the presence of rationality. 
We reject religion dogmatically. 
We accept superstitions and ideologies religiously. 
We act unconsciously 
out of the who we think we are but really don't know. 
We react with conscious agendas 
out of the what we think we desire. 
But where do our desires come from? 
Like our thoughts, are we certain they're even ours? 
Counterintuitively, 
we think we desire 
and we feel we know. 

"Our minds have been manipulated to give power to illusions."  

- Vandana Shiva

If an expert comes on TV 
be sure to listen to them.

Don't question what they say 
with any of your conspiracy theories.

Experts in media have been
helping us all for generations.

If an expert comes on TV
be sure to listen to them.
Don't question what they say
with any of your conspiracy theories.
Experts in media have been
helping us all for generations.

sorry, i didn't get your message. 

someone decided your thoughts are unacceptable 

and questioning their guidelines is also unacceptable. 

i suggest you change your thoughts 

if you ever want to communicate again.

have a good day.

shadow banning is now part of twitter's 

official terms of service

1/14/2020 WHO

CAN YOU MANAGE / DO YOU UNDERSTAND

watch for the signs

don't think your life.

move it with your spirits.

before enlightenment...

...after enlightenment

what's the difference?

(you have to be enlightened to tell)

“It’s easier to fool someone than to convince someone that they are being fooled.”

—Mark Twain.

Clockwork Sheep Are Eyes Wide Shut

With so much media available, today's populace should be the best informed citizenry ever. The technology definitely exists to achieve this and yet audience laziness and consolidated agenda-based reporting have produced just the opposite result. Reporters have a parti pris and audiences have short attention spans. Reporters have editorial marching orders and audiences only have the research acumen to read headlines, catch a glimpse of an online post, or hear approved pundit talking points repeated endlessly through a 24/7 news cycle. Both reporters and their audiences lean heavily into their confirmation biases and the first informs the latter. 

From this defective melange comes popular world views, cultural movements, and a constrictive box of individual myopia that's absolutely certain beyond any need for critical thinking. Why dig deeper when so many headlines say the same thing? Never mind if the varied entities behind those headlines are owned by the same one source. Why look for nuanced gray areas when the attractive newscaster acts so sincere as they interview the beyond doubt expert? Never mind if other experts with differing points of view are never interviewed and appeal to authority alone is a logical fallacy, even more so when that authority is carefully screened to match agendas. Why risk social media ostracization by asking unpopular questions when one can binge-watch Games of Thrones again and let the experts hash it out? Never mind if experts are knighted by the approval of the Self-Appointed Correct and those deemed not correct are not allowed a voice. 

Instead of reasoned debate, honest investigative reporting, and a populous with a curiosity and skepticism that drives deeper into all that can be known, what evolves instead is a self-reinforcing alliance of laziness and agendas reducing the world's technical capabilities to know into a pathological somnolence netting dreamlike states of imagined but certain-for-all-time reality. The hypnotic effect of this over time can drive lazy masses into sleepwalking in directions with socially engineered results. It is no conspiracy theory to suggest that people try to influence other people, otherwise the big business of public relations, political action committees, and advertising are conspiracy theories. If laziness reduces the voice of the people to the bleating of identical sheep and media agendas continue to strive to pull the wool over the flock's eyes, then one can say the clockwork sheep are truly eyes wide shut.

some progressive thinkers say covid-19 is Nature's revenge 
for people mistreating the environment.

this is puzzling
for this statement attributes independent intent 
and a personification of consciousness to Nature.
this is bizarre coming from the same group who believe
in darwin, not in god
in natural selection, not in creative design
in evolution, not in conscious purpose
in inanimate matter, not in eternal souls
in the scientific method, not in mysticism or spirit
in a big bang from nowhere for no reason going nowhere.

all of a sudden covid-19 
has converted scientific materialists
into neo-pagan zealots.
are they waking up or de-evolving?
mysticism says they are waking up.
scientific materialism says they are de-evolving.

fb not relevant

n95 mask in china

jung said "beware of wisdom 
you did not earn."

anyone who has spent a night 
in a strong ayahuasca
or psilocybin 
or mescaline zone
has definitely earned 
whatever comes from it

the diehard nihilist 

who asserts there is no meaning 

or worth in life 

will passionately express 

their belief 

by listening to their favorite 

nihilist music group 

and the nihilist finds 

this music meaningful.