The Power of Ones, by Robert Gore at Straight Line Logic
Humanity’s greatest scourge is groupthink. Millions have marched off to war, convinced of their side’s goodness and the enemy’s evil, and didn’t come back or came back in coffins. Billions have embraced politics and political philosophies with warning labels for anyone who cared to look: destruction and death sure to follow. Against the death toll from groupthink, the Black Plague, Spanish Flu, cancer, heart disease, and every other human malady shrink to insignificance.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article please click the above link.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article please click the above link.
I am so appreciative of your prose, insight and the clarity of expression, that gets clearer with every posting.
The straight line....through a continuum that may prove itself a circle in time-space, never quite the same circling back, clarifying, expanding, eddying...awareness, involvement, commitment, evaluation, insight, wisdom, vision. And around we go again in the cycles of perception and conception.......and holding a Constant...there's a clue right there!
In honor of your cyclical, non-repetitive growth; and in honor of those who's lives reflect same. there's another clue back there too.....
I, officially, because I am the source of expression, and I want to, because I can. And through a filter of honorably intended mischief
declare this 22nd day of July (another clue)
Piday 2020
You may groan now
Group-think is the big problem, and it is very widespread.
I suggest it is part of our genetic inheritance, it is part of seeking safety in repeating what the loud mouths say. Well, safety from bullying maybe, not from other dangers.
The answer would be for expressing individual ideas, creating thinking, and ability to analyze and freely comment to be taught in school.
We have gone backwards.
That is the mob rule follower of democracy gone wild, no checks and balances, no morality, no mutuality, only anger, chaos and destruction...that viscous animal of your worst nightmares.
For what will become of Conscious man without the light in the dark days we find ourselves in now.
Fight the enemy, and we have to live with those scenes in our subconscious, forever questioning, what else besides reciprocal violence could have been done.
I fear the answer is...none...
Thank you Robert.
I think it is fun for the viewers at home to witness another battle & see who gets the most and best "gotcha" moments. I think it's especially exhillerating for the "troll" or "triggered", getting activated into battle mode with an audience watching, drooling for the next reply to provide more material to use to prove the other a fool. And finally I'll admit that it is a little fun (or it wouldn't be tempting) for me to feed into it and "win" more often than not as long as I know why I believe what I believe, but it's not very satisfying and even in the moment it feels like an unwelcome imposition on my thoughts and mood. So as often as I can manage to calm that dog of an ego down, I plead fifth as soon as I see that someone's "triggered" & looking to fight. You can't be angry & understanding at the same time, so anything I say will be used against me anyway. Even when I win I feel a little sick knowing that the person who showed their @rse is no doubt still angry and likely to turn around and take it out on someone weaker & less able to defend themselves, so I try my best to walk away and not give 'em any fuel.
It's crazy how "on edge" so many people seem to be these days, though thinking about it just now, it seems to predominantly everywhere I look online. Co-workers & people in the grocery store seem almost nicer than normal. I guess the internet is sort of serving as a window into people's minds, where the things that they are having to more uncomfortably face in "these uncertain times" all come out to play, and I don't think evolution quite knows what to make of this alternate-reality mindscape. Maybe they're even nicer than normal in person in "these uncertain times" because somewhere deep inside they know that's what they've been missing & real life face to face conversations (with body language, voice inflections, & so much more to soak in) just feel so much more human & rewarding & real. I believe both have value, but addiction has crept in and thrown off the balance. A lot of younger people who were raised on it have a hard time even making eye contact these days.
When you were a young one
They tormented you
They could always find a way to make you feel ashamed
Now that you are older
Everything they put you through
Left you with an anger that just cannot be contained
So you spend every day of your life
Always searching for something to set
You on fire
Now you've become
Everything you claimed to fight
Through your need to feel you're right
You're the savior of nothing now
Everywhere around you
You find reasons to
Turn into a warrior to protect what you believe
But you think their beliefs
Make them less than you
And that is a delusion that your sickness has conceived
Now you spend every day of your life
Always hoping that something will spark
That desire
Now you've become
Everything you claimed to fight
Through your need to feel you're right
You're the savior of nothing now
They frick you up, your mom and dad,
They may not mean to, but they do,
They fill you with the faults they had,
And add some extra just for you,
But they were fracked up in their turn,
By fools in old style hats and coats,
Who half the time were softly stern,
And half at one another's throats,
Man hands on misery to man,
It deepens like a coastal shelf,
So get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
-Phillip Larkin (swear words edited/changed)
Regarding your post: "Man alive, that was a good read!" Do you think you can take the "position" of the "One" and address this with your friends in the context of, "This concerns me", from an aspect of Egoism versus Egotism? To be genuinely concerned with enjoining an exploration versus a position of being "Right". Perhaps my post begins an emulation of what I asked, between you and I. A clarification of intent, expression, the rising of potential conflict....identifying an emotional trigger, our mutual or dissimilar views of what "Is" and perception or conception of what "Ought" to be.
It is better not to make merit a matter of reward
Lest people conspire and contend,
Not to pile up rich belongings
Lest they rob,
Not to excite by display
Lest they covet,
A sound leader's aim
Is to open peoples hearts,
Fill their stomachs,
Calm their wills,
Brace their bones
And so to clarify their thoughts and cleanse their needs
That no cunning meddler could touch them:
Without being forced, without strain or constraint,
Good government comes of itself.
Lao Tzu; Tao Te' Ching; approximately 500BC. Supposedly one of the most translated works in history.
This is the translated work of Witter Bynner; 1944 The Way Of Life; According to Lao Tzu
Everything you've shared illustrates the dynamic of relationships and choices. Relationships and choices....awareness, involvement, commitment, evaluation, insight, leading to wisdom and possibly vision (envision, an extrapolation). I state this simply as a process. This is actually what my dad and I use when we look at human dynamics. These are his original thoughts, with some agreed upon changes, that he used in teaching Communication and Human Relations for around 30 of a 35 year career. I'll suggest reading Rand's; The Objectivist's Ethics and use the process to evaluate. I did. Every attempt to punch a hole resulted in clarity and authenticity of what she offered.
Welcome to the fray
I owe no other person an obligation to save them when I see them drowning in the shipwrecks that they caused by never learning how to take the wheel, especially if/when it's demanded by that person in which case they will likely try to use me as a flotation device & force the decision to either drown or be drowned (best to keep my distance until that one is willing to agree not to fight). I do, however, owe it to myself to listen and look out for other silent screams that will die out if/when help could have been given but was never offered. What Jordan Peterson says about those who come up to him to tell him how much his talks have changed their lives for the better gives me goosebumps at how true it seems to be: You mean, nobody else ever taught you that you actually have value? It's absolutely mind-blowing how little encouragement it takes to make a difference in a person's life.
Even if my words still aren't good enough to build a strong enough boat or rope to pull someone else out (as I'm still working on keeping myself afloat), maybe my best chance at surviving and helping others survive is to tread water close but at a safe & observable proximity to the ones who might kill to survive, where others could be warned of the risk and choose for themselves whether or not to give in to the cries for help and concern from those who have none.
I've been working on this (finding my voice) more and more, trying to notice & take note of when & where it seems to make more or less of an effective difference, and more regularly finding more noticeable & encouraging results in myself and others. Real life face-to-face (or at least on the phone) better, deeper conversations with my brother & friends have been by far the most fulfilling & mutually rewarding, but I've seen it sometimes matters to my more distant friends & family online too.
This last 3.75 years of building hiking trail out in the woods on a very small crew have been an extremely interesting living example of the struggle-sessions between a democracy & a dictatorship (among other things). Our fearful leader would rule with an iron fist if only we would let her, but we refuse. Not at first but when all decided that they had had enough and were ready to quietly walk away, I decided there was nothing to lose in taking a stand and she backed down. Then tried the rage on another who decided to try their own voice on for size and also backed her down. So she tried another and eventually found that there is now a very clear line drawn in the sand that she can not cross or provoke us to cross. She still tries to push our lines & gain a little ground, but more weakly and knowing it's still no use, mostly focusing her hate on the new guys/gals that come and go. Most on our crew lean left politically, & I still have to keep a clear line with the others that will get some uncomfortable push-back if/when they try to cross it but they are more centered than they would be if they didn't have a friend that questions & tests their claims & assumptions. 2 of them are especially geared towards categorizing people into groups with custom labels and can't seem to understand how a person can think without "identifying with" a party that defines their views and I keep an especially clear boundary with them, speaking as clearly as I can without crossing the lines that would terminate our free exchange. I think over-hearing me refer to BLM as "making America racist again" the other day might have triggered them into giving me the silent treatment & it broke my heart a little bit when I heard them try to use something I showed them (about how our would-be dictator thinks) to try to trigger her into joining them in silent rage by saying, "It looks like (SilentScream) found a quicker way to get to the trail yet again". It only got a small reaction though & I got them to laugh & get over it yesterday so all is well again, but never without a struggle. :)
I appreciate your time & insightful reply. I've found a lot of good food for thought worth sharing already in my short time here.
Just an editorial comment, but you have a typographical error here:
If you could somehow open the brains of those who followed leaders and malignant idiocies to their deaths, the one thing you would find is the thought^,^ actually the stale remnant of a thought, a trite rationalization—because everyone is doing it.
The comma immediately following the first instance of "thought" should be another m-dash so as to set off the phrase "actually the stale remnant of a thought, a trite rationalization." That m-dashes, commas, and parentheses can be used almost interchangeably in that role admittedly causes some minor mistakes like this to slip past the editors.
"The order of people who respect individual rights—they’re own and everyone else’s—and will fight to the death to defend them."
The word "they're" should be "their."
Excellent but so depressing a post. Not having a good day of it so far; everything seems dark and sad. I'm sure I'll get over it, and of course none of it's your fault for pointing out the truth!
Thanks for the great blogpost.