(Dis)Information (Propaganda) Wars

It's always been so -- that the difference between success and failure -- is the information we have to work with.  Yet we now live in an age of virtual information -- dependent on asking the right questions, and not settling for the wrong information -- just because it is "free," and offered.  That is often the most expensive information -- that could cost them everything -- fortune, health, friends, sanity, etc.

So these predators of the information highways, are particularly pernicious -- and virulent.  One could be heading to perdition -- and not even realizing it.  They thrust themselves headlong into every effort and battle in that direction, not realizing that they should be going another way.  They could be entirely mistaken -- but they will never realize it.  Meanwhile, bad things happen -- seemingly unrelated and unconnected.  If only good things happened, then it would be an entirely different matter -- but bad things happen -- especially when they hoped that they knew exactly what they were doing.

One never knows for certain -- which is the proper understanding.  Yet many are so certain of every outcome, that they make it up themselves -- no matter what the "facts" are.  In fact, they prefer what they made up, over the actual realities.  They come to believe -- and to convince as many others as possible, that their information is God's Word.  But one will never know, unless they buy it -- and persuade all their other friends to buy it too.

So beliefs and ideologies come to mean the truth -- rather than actually finding out the truth of any matter for themselves.  They have been conditioned to believe that what they were taught, is the only way it could be -- despite the pounding they are taking that things are not so.  And so they come to believe in nothing -- and expect to be bamboozled.  That is their lot in life -- and their manipulators may even tell them they exist in "Paradise," and the best of all possible worlds.

And so they never venture out -- and fear to find out what they haven't been told to believe -- for there is only worse everywhere else.  That is how the battle for the control of minds takes place -- and not allowing one the freedom to make up their own minds, after seeing all the information.  Proponents only tell you their version of the truth -- as their public (noble) service, and not that it would serve all better, if they simply were allowed the whole truth.  They even teach these tactics as highest duties of citizenship.

In such a distorted world, is it any wonder that many are simply lost -- and will never find their way?  They will just be exploited by all those who make their living on exploiting everybody else -- as though that is what everybody does, and there is no other way to be.

Those are the limits to life and living -- rather than the natural and ultimate limits to the actualization of individual existence.  The general is not the specific destiny of any individual -- as much as the propagandists insist everyone conform to their expectations -- for everybody else.  Those are truly the antisocial people in society -- claiming to look after everyone else's best interest -- while controlling the outcomes, for everybody else.

That is the hard habit to break -- from the mass media culture of the 20th century -- where a few did the thinking for all.  The alternative is allowing each to examine all the information, and finding out what works for them -- individually, as the actuality of their existence.  One might be lactose intolerant, or carbohydrate intolerant (metabolic syndrome) -- and there is nothing wrong with that -- but that they have to explore other alternatives to well-being -- than the one thing they are allowed to entertain.  That is fairness and the opportunity of living in an age of information availability that virtually all have equal access to.

But as always, some do a lot more and better with.  That is the whole point of life -- finding out the truth for oneself.  There is no reality beyond that.  If a diet causes one endless irritable bowel, it does not matter if it is the recommended ideal for everyone else.  Or that the ideal workout is what one cannot or won't do -- as habitually as brushing their teeth, or combing their hair.  The point is not to be as intrusive as possible -- but effortless in all one's actions, practices and exercises.

That is simply what one does -- as often as possible.  It is not a big deal,  If they have to make it a big deal, it is not the right program for them, and they will abandon it at the first chance they get.  That's how all the programs they've embarked on in the past, came to an abrupt and timely end.  So how not to be that guy, and that way?  Obviously one has to custom-design for their own proclivities -- and not merely follow the crowd to obsolescence.  That's been proven not to work -- over and over again, but still, those who fancy themselves as authorities, will explain that the reason it doesn't, is because nobody will do it -- as though that required genius insight to recognize.

So one really wants to be they one who recognizes the obvious as the obvious -- rather than the brilliant at explaining why things do not work -- or fail.  That doesn't take genius insight -- and a whole bunch of academic and professional credentials.  It merely takes a quiet mind to see -- the obvious.  Then it is not necessary for the body to conform to the mind -- as an exercise -- but the mind can merely be aware of what the body is doing, and conform in that manner of integration -- because it is the integration, and not the conformance of the body to the will of the mind, that is the valued and productive exercise.

Many claim to "know," but never seem to actually manifest such knowledge -- or that they know anything worth knowing.  What are we expected to believe -- if they cannot even make a difference in their own life?

Everything You Know is Wrong

You only need to know what you don't know -- and not just continue to confirm all you know that is wrong (not working).  People seem mystified that the results from what they do, does not produce the outcomes they had hoped for -- but often, quite the opposite -- which is proof of course, that everything they know to be true, is wrong -- and that is what the results are shouting out to them. 

More of the same, is not going to change that -- and will probably make things predictably worse.  Yet many have been conditioned by their "teachers" to just try a little harder -- and not that their students need to look elsewhere for the truth.  That truth is borne out daily in everything we do -- and not just under laboratory conditions and protocols.

As all the information becomes more available, what becomes increasingly clear, is that formerly, we were not told all the information, by those who claimed to have the exclusive authority to do so -- including those formerly employed in the "mainstream" media -- who claimed they were the "Fourth Estate" arbiters of all that could be known -- by virtue of that exclusive right designated to them in the First Amendment. But a careful reading of the First Amendment, authorizes no such thing -- and a few self-designated people just took it upon themselves to claim such rights -- and privileges.

So at least fifty years from that heyday -- they are shellshocked to learn that everything they thought they knew that everybody else did not, turns out to be mostly wrong -- and is in fact the reason that things do not get better, but actually explode disastrously out of control.  Those outcomes are so widespread that most have come to regard them as simply what happens when one lives long enough -- and that is the fate of mankind, to just get worse with time -- as though there is nothing they can do about it in their own lives, while hoping for miracle cures from people operating on mice -- thinking they can rewrite the evolution of the world.

The meaningful story of civilization, is how one lives their own lives -- and not changing everybody else first -- while one goes on to live catastrophically.  That is meaningless, and delusionary, and often deranged.  What are they doing that is more important?

So fifty years ago, the world shifted into the mass media model -- in which everyone was expected to conform to the truth that a self-selected few wanted them to believe -- and leading the pack, were the "reporters," given a special place in the pantheon of celebrity -- because they "owned" the media.  They didn't have to prove anything else.

Predictably, often the messages were greatly distorted by their own agendas -- so that it became very difficult, to determine what the original author (interviewee) said, and what the intermediary translated that into.  Sometimes that profound understanding, had to be condensed into a 60 second bite, or give way to a more important "commercial message" -- but that was the world we lived in, and the rules we followed.

All that changed roughly with the beginning of the 21st century -- that had been rightly anticipated as the end of the world as we knew it.  All those old hierarchies would give way to information as a right to know in itself -- and the new masters, were those who were excited to share it -- because they could.  That certainly changed everything.

The venerable "institutions" were revealed for what they actually were -- fronts for the status quo -- maintaining the monopolies who could afford to pay their advertising rates.  But that it was all the information "fit to print" -- or could be known, was now open to question.  Probably the final straw that broke the camel's back, was nobody listened to their advice on how to vote anymore.  People would just simply make up their own minds -- which of course, infuriated those who thought it was their singular right to do the thinking for everybody else.

Of course that is just symbolic of the greater fundamental changes taking place -- without sanctioned authority to do so.  And that was researchers taking their findings, directly to people who want to know -- because nobody now controlled the leading edge of discovery and innovation.  It was now up for grabs -- to anybody who had the competence to make those judgments for themselves.  These were those living on the "leading edge" -- and feeling competent to determine these things for themselves.

This was especially so in their own lives -- and realities -- which could now be even better than the "consensus" could determine before.  It was where only the few and the brave could feel comfortable living at.  But rather than being foolhardy at doing so, these were those who became expert at understanding the risks in doing so -- realizing that mere safety, was often not the best of all worlds.  Not today, and not tomorrow.  A better understanding, would always come along -- but one had to discover that for themselves.

Not everyone is prepared to live that way -- but those who do, discover worlds that were unimaginable before.  When everything seems to be going wrong and is hopeless, one has very little (nothing) to lose, trying a different course.  In that way, the last can be first -- and not last in a race that is already over before they even begin.  That is not a prognosis for success -- in any aspect of life.

In a world of games, one is allowed to devise one in which they can win -- and not be simply one of the many hopeless losers.  That is the only thing worth knowing -- and not all the trivial pursuits.