The Greatest Survival Value of All
Is to be able to change -- and recognize change, which is difference -- which many over the last several decades, have increasingly taught to blur, as though that was mankind‘s greatest evil, rather than saving grace. In that way, can the many self-serving vested interests, establish and maintain that control and co-dependency, of you allowing them to push your buttons -- with their conditioning/education programs. When they say, “Jump,” you jump; when they say hold this sign and walk around in circles, that’s what you do obediently. When they tell you to hate, that’s what one displays on cue.
That was what mass media (and all those institutions that supported that concept of individuals (anonymity) and society) was perfect for -- distributing propaganda on this massive scale with its greatest justification being that that’s also what everybody else believed. The test of its effectiveness was that everybody talked about the same program they saw on television -- or about the same article dictated from the Associated Press. Nothing else was recognized as even existing; if it existed, “they” would let you know about it, and since they didn’t, it DID NOT exist.
"They" were the exclusive keepers of the truth -- and not, as many more are coming to realize, that truth is being discovered from moment to moment -- by everyone, and not just a few self-selected types with lifetime security at Harvard University, or whomever else thinks they ought to own the monopoly on truth. That’s not how democracy, or a free market economy works -- that you have to patronize the company store because it is the only game in town!
Obviously we’re moving away from that kind of a society towards one of expanding greater choices -- and possibilities, and how well one makes those choices, determines the outcome of their lives. So we have to be conditioned to thrive under those conditions -- rather than be conditioned merely to follow the orders and tirelessly operate the treadmill for as long as they tell us to. And there are still those around who will be happy to tell you what to do, how to live your life, what is best for you -- as though they knew better, and weren’t just demanding that you do what is best for them!
And that is why the mass media and all those other institutions that propagate their preeminence in whatever jurisdiction they claim, are increasingly appealing to deaf ears or viewers who have long since switched to another channel -- that which best suits and serves them. Thus, the ability to change and not just be a creature of habit, tradition, knowledge and memory, is displaced by those who can come full stop and say, “What are the new realities and conditions that will determine my best and most appropriate response?” That is the critical skill of just paying attention and finding out what is -- without the preconceived notions of what it is, has been, and always will be, unvaryingly -- because somebody said so a long time ago.
That manner of conditioning is a certain death. Because it is conditioning oneself to be insensitive to reality (new information) -- from one’s own senses and experience -- in deference to what some experts say is what is "actually" happening, and what you should do about it. That of course, is the cult and culture of experts -- that are integral to the concept of mass culture, but in the present state of art, culture and technology, is revealed to be counterproductive, and the problem of most dysfunctional lives.
posted by Mike Hu @ 10:16 AM
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5 Comments:
I sincerely hope that there are no longer these “certified” fitness trainers still claiming you should not exercise or move unless you first consult them -- and require you to pay and obtain their approval to breathe, walk or run -- which a few people did quite well without that supervision before.
Only in the mid-70s, did “certified personal trainers” become popular because the results guaranteed by an exercise machine manufacturer, were not forthcoming as guaranteed, and so the machines initially offered as “foolproof,” could only be trusted to be so if each repetition of movement was carefully supervised and monitored. So while the initial claim was that all the “experts” were wrong, the new mantra was that “these people” were now the experts and the only ones to be trusted and believed.
Most of the material offered in those “certification” course are just common notions offered famously by “P.E. instructors” -- and meant to be another money-making scam the “fitness” industry is renowned for. But that is not to say that all exercise, conditioning, disciplines don’t have a long proven track record of actualizing and manifesting human potential. The ‘70s was famous for credential inflation -- by which everybody became some kind of “professional” specialist. Even the mavericks who have traditionally excelled in the field of athletics, were cowed by those who could spin a plausible argument -- as few thought to do so. Many never thought about it because they were up to that time just “naturals” -- people who did what they did because they had an aptitude for it -- rather than that it was fashionable, and the “correct” thing to do, that everybody should do.
The ‘70s are pivotal in the understanding of the great turn that society took towards increasingly great professionalization and specialization, which is the greater compartmentalization of contemporary life and experience. From about that time on, the mass media played an increasingly dominant role in shaping the mass consciousness -- and people coming of age after that time, were often not aware that there was any difference between their actual experiences of reality and what “the experts” told them reality was -- through the mass media, as well as the schools, universities, “non-profit“ organizations, etc.
The best-selling book of that time was, “Looking Out for Number One,” which justified anything one could get away with. To the author’s credit and redemption, he later repudiated everything he advocated in that bestseller -- which was much less commercially successful. People wanted to buy the hype; they became addicted to it. Whatever one wished to believe, was all that mattered. That was the first blush of the education of the Baby Boom generation -- in which the majority of a generation was college-educated, rather than not. The driving force for that was not being drafted into the military in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
So there was also this powerful reinforcement for doing whatever one could get away with. This trend began to be reversed when information became abundantly available with the personal computer and the Internet. Those changes are still well under way -- as we speak.
If one doesn’t get immediate results from their “personal training,” it’s because the personal trainer has no idea what produces them -- though he may know all the jargon to fool those who are impressed by phony credentials and jargon, which is all many people know and have been exposed to all their lives. They’ve been told that “certified” means good, and “uncertified” means bad -- and it never occurs to them that there is distinction beyond that.
In their book, a “certified” teacher is superior to an effective one, without the certification. But in the world of athletics and performance, the rank, “certification,“ quality on paper, means nothing. They still have to go out and play the game -- and find out the truth of the matter.
That is the value of athletic participation -- that one’s knowledge and presumed superiority, has to be verified by some kind of actual reality. Winning is the same whether only the two teams recognize that -- or whether the whole world does, but it is a verifiable, agreed to result by which there is some agreement to what is being referred to. Claims and wishful-thinking are something else entirely -- of which many people have not been made aware of in their lives.
The “truth” as far as they know, and have been taught and rewarded for accepting, is what the properly certified or anointed authority (expert, teacher) says it is -- under punishment of the law (grades), they suggest. But how does a truth come into being? In popular culture, it is that which is repeated and reaffirmed by the institutions of propagation -- the media, schools and universities, under the assumption that it has been challenged and verified or we wouldn’t see it in the mass media. Except that now, it may be entirely possible that the person who wrote the authoritative book on the subject matter, may not have done any original research or experimentation himself.
Most people’s lack of fitness is seldom that they need more effort -- but always that they lack a high enough understanding of what they are doing. It is much like getting a new product home that requires minimal assembly and wondering why they made it so difficult -- before realizing what the manufacturer thought was clearly foolproof in his instructions and intent.
For the manufacturer’s part, they do not realize that they can get a better writer to write the instructions -- but think that the appearance of words is enough. He fails to recognize that the proper sequence and understanding of the relationship of each word to every other, as well as referencing something tngible and verifiable, is critical to the understanding. That is the limit of the understanding that can be communicated.
So it requires a feel for the experience beyond just knowing the jargon as though it were the experience. Knowing THAT difference, seems to be a major marker for distinguishing the authentic from only the cultivated image of it.
Being able to distinguish the real from the phony, is the greatest survival value of all -- the greatest fitness.
Not being able to tell the difference between the authentic from the phony -- is really the greatest handicap in living today, or for that matter, in any time, because it opens one up for all the decisional mistakes that can drain one of all their time, energy and resources. Many such solutions will simply be bad choices that one will never recognize as a mistake or a bad choice -- and unless one does, there is no hope for a correction and finding the proper solution. One is simply convinced that the answer is “right” despite the outcome of acting on that advice. Instead, increasingly greater resources are diverted into denial of that reality -- like telling one innocent lie and then having to live an entire lifetime to preserve that one little lie.
Thus everything becomes distorted and blurred so that any distinctions of better and worse (non-discrimination) are prohibited from discussion and further review. The “worst” outcome, is to find out the truth of the matter -- at all costs. Nothing must be allowed to upset the apple cart, rock the boat, challenge the rigid pecking order (status quo) -- unless of course, somebody at the very top dies, and then there can be a fearsome struggle for ascendancy, but not before. At such a time, ruthlessness is quite proper, while at other times, forbidden. Such societies and cultures, discover nothing, produce nothing, and above all else, can never tell the difference
So if one pays for extensive personal training and instruction (physical therapy), buys all the things the advertisers convince him he is one product away from unconditional vindication, validation and worldwide success and approval, he will do obediently -- because that is what the self-designated expert says is fact, as he alone is the authority. And despite the claims, whatever is your actual results, are simply your fault and it is up to you to find the best excuse you can to explain away the difference between the promised and the actual results (cognitive dissonance) because “everybody else was successful with it except you.”
Many people live in such bubbles (delusions). Hand them the microphone and they think they are the world’s greatest performer -- because they cannot tell the difference that they aren’t. They are simply told what is the truth of the matter or encouraged to believe what whatever they want to believe -- and that is what you must believe over your own senses, your own judgment, your own sense of right and wrong, your own discipline. The height of their advice is actually, “Never trust your own judgment, your own feelings. You must work against them! Consult with your professional before making any decisions that may affect your life!”
And it is simply not enough to ask for a second opinion from their confederate working in the same office -- or general plan, no matter that they might be of an entirely different skin color or sex. That is not the difference that matters. But that is what the masters of deception are very gifted at doing -- diverting one to all those considerations that do not matter, so there is no focus and energy for the only thing that matters! That is their very method of preselecting the most gullible and vulnerable.
One is simply kept “too busy” to notice, too drained of energy and attention. One is totally overwhelmed by the distractions, the entertainment, all that is false and illusory. They’ll even provide a test every week to see how much of that content you’ve absorbed.
Do we need a study to know this?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11995731/
"Noisy surroundings may raise heart attack risk
Exposure to loud sounds can spike hormones, blood pressure and heart rate
Updated: 5:52 p.m. ET March 24, 2006
NEW YORK - Living or working in noisy surroundings may raise a person's risk of suffering a heart attack, a new study suggests.
Researchers in Germany found that urban middle-aged adults who lived near high-traffic roads were 46 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack than those who lived in more peaceful neighborhoods.
Similarly, men whose jobs exposed them to high noise levels were about one-third more likely to have a heart attack than their peers in quieter workplaces.
The reason for these associations is not completely clear, but the stress of dealing with chronic noise may be involved, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Stefan N. Willich of Charite University Medical Center in Berlin.
A number of past studies have suggested that long-term exposure to traffic noise or loud workplaces such as factory floors may contribute to high blood pressure and heart attack risk. To the body, loud noise acts as a "warning," and the normal stress response involves hormonal changes and a spike in blood pressure and heart rate."
Yesterday's Ph.D. is today's common sense.
At universities, it’s amazing how many professors will brag about the fact that they haven’t had to revise their thinking since the first time they wrote a treatise on their specialty -- and since then, have delivered the same lecture for the past thirty years at least, as though knowledge is something perfected long ago, and merely passed down as inviolable truths for generations thereafter -- rather than that they are discovering the truth daily, and expect to, for the rest of their lives.
That’s a very different paradigm from those old personalities who thought that learning was something one did before one got out into the world and started to live and work as functional adults. Those conditioned in that manner, therefore think that truth is a remembered thing -- rather than a discovery of the actual moment, which can be verified in any moment, by anybody -- and not merely determined and passed down from the chosen priesthood of that knowledge.
Knowledge is the known -- and what is even more important than the known, is the unknown -- that one wishes to discover and experience, and not merely repeat only the familiar. That kind of a personality and orientation requires a different set of skills than one capable only of accumulating knowledge -- second-hand. Because the world of the future is the world of the unknown and yet to be discovered -- and that is the world one can remain vital and viable living in, and not the world limited by memory, knowledge, the familiar, and past experience. That kind of life doesn’t allow for any creativity, anything new, fresh, yet unexperienced. It retreats further into the recesses of its own memories -- which is a major problem of aging, dysfunction, dementias.
The new mind emerging in the 21st century is better mind for the reason that it is a constantly renewing processing mind than the old mind whose major function is to remember. Computing machines can remember and store information for instant retrieval much better than the human brain could -- freeing its resources only to process the input of the present moment. The old mind was based on the belief that cultivating rote memorization had value; similar to that wastage of processing capacity, is the solving of problems that are merely theoretical and hypothetical -- as though there was some value in that, when the real problems of actuality, are ignored and denied.
And so the energy is going to solve all the imaginary problems while the real problems confronting one, are regarded as a nuisance from the real world of endless entertainment and distraction. Thus, the reason one can never accomplish what one wants to, is that there is no time left after exhausting oneself in all the problems that can be solved -- only in one’s mind -- without any verifiable reality, including the words, written or spoken.
They are intelligent because they simply presume they are -- with no need to exhibit any of it in any actuality verifiable to anybody else -- after being duly certified as such.
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