Control Denied

Due to my development of a blatant disregard for any type of formal learning, I told my examiners to define their questions better. I wrote about an entire page on why their question "democracy is more desirable than any other feasible alternative" was too subjective to be thoroughly answered. Sociology and Political Science can go fuck itself - there's nothing falsifiable about conjectures that can't be refuted. I'd much rather call my Political Science degree a Political Theology degree - there's a lot of faith and belief in which rational thought is supposed to belie.

Because thousands of Tibetans march on the street because they hate the Chinese government mean that they desire democracy? We assume they do. We believe that democracy and freedom are hand-in-hand, indissoluble, colloidal. In this democracy of mine, we lock up artists, deny same-sex couples to formalize their relationship and treat our adults like children by depriving them of the chance to fuck up and learn for themselves. If you believe democracy is freedom, remember that when you say something is, it is not!

That exam was almost as stupid as the time one of my old high-school mates gave me shit for putting too many print articles in the school magazine. That isn't relevant. But it was just as retarded.

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The Adolescence of Humanity

"The conclusion of the World War is the closing of the period of the childhood of humanity.
This childhood, as any childhood, can be characterized as devoid of any real understanding of values, as is that of a child who uses a priceless chronometer to crack nuts." - Alfred Korzybski, The Manhood of Humanity

Written over 80 years ago, Count Korzybski's seminal work on time-binding postulated that humanity had finished its childhood and was ready to enter "manhood" as he described it. As much as I do not wish to ride roughshod over his incalculably valuable works and systems, he forgot one thing - a child does not enter manhood instantaneously, he must experience the unwieldy period of adolescence. A time of self-indulgence and insecurity; to find what knowledge one has accumulated and to apply it to their interpretation of the world - not quite a child but not yet a man. Which brings me to Dr. Phil and his "expose" on the already ubiquitous and not-so-clandestine seduction community.

Dr. Philip McGraw, PhD holds a degree in psychology, notably in behavior-modification therapy. His southern "straight-talk" soothes audiences by applying scant conventional wisdom to seemingly innocuous problems. He invited two walking advertisements for the Mystery Method on the program who spouted - almost verbatim - what their mentor "Mystery" had told them (and some throwaway maxims that Neil Strauss plagiarized to boot - so cringeworthy) which had me groaning at a television more so than usual. (Especially when it turns out he just copied down the game of "First-Degree Rapo" from Berne's Games People Play and spun it out into 200 pages to be applied to women by men rather than vice-versa.) He then turned our attention to Ross Jeffries and his Speed Seduction techniques which I discovered is little more than SS draped in NLP clothing. However, the following exchange earned Dr. McGraw a bit more credibility in my eyes at least:

McGraw: How much success have you had with this product?
Jeffries: Well, what is success? Is it how many students I've taught? How much money I've made? I can say that I have made a lot of men very happy. Hopefully women too.
(Me: I wonder if this bastard can NLPify his way out of this one.)

...

McGraw: So what differentiates your method with these fellers'?
Jeffries: I ask women about their good feelings ... and I anchor it with a tap on the nose or by moving a glass-
McGraw: So you're using neuro-linguistics.
Jeffries (visibly startled): Yes, Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I've been an NLP Master Practitioner since 1987.
(Me: Impressive.)

Normally, I wouldn't give a shit since I use NLP myself to various advantages. But then the words of Korzybski struck me, since he had an invisible hand in creating these production-line Don Juans - we have the knowledge to improve our daily habits, to eliminate unsanity and to use General Semantics and its offshoots to guide ourselves to the Manhood of Humanity - but I think Count Korzybski was premature in his optimism. First, we must grasp the value of the knowledge we have been given in order to truly appreciate it. Not to say that the aforementioned application of this knowledge is completely useless, I merely posture that we haven't begun to unleash its full potential for a greater benefit. Nevertheless, I coined this phrase (which Shai thought was too good for the likes of me) to remind myself about how dumb we all can really be:

"Nearly everyone has the capacity to be smart. The problem is, idiots never ask how and smart people won't tell them."

Enjoy!

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Belief and Manipulation

"A definition is the start of an argument, not the end of one." - Neil Postman

Its a very cold world. The image of the outside of my skin, the feel of its contours and the sounds of its going on are just processed and filtered, inverted and diluted and end up being verisimilitudes in one way or another. Someone asked me in a round about way what the point of Facebook is. Facebook is a product of its medium. On the internet, communication and feedback isn't requisite to the spread of information. It changes the focus from "allowing" communication to happen to "insisting" that you do. This gives credence to the maxim that "you can't not communicate." Facebook is never silent. Even when you walk away, it is still communicating and insisting that you do every time you log on. Facebook is not a compendium of facts, or a fun-looking Wikipedia about non-famous people; it becomes an advertisement so people can make emotional value judgments about other people. It, like most things, renders irrelevant information relevant and vice versa.

For example, take the book "The Game" which purports that, using a swathe of bastardized NLP techniques and cocky attitude, any man can pick up any woman at any time. "The Game" does not teach people to become modern-day lotharios, it tells men to become walking sandwich boards to elicit emotional responses from others to achieve their goals - it teaches them to become walking bullshit-spouting advertisements. An advertisement tells you nothing about the product; it only claims certain abstract positions and forces you to react on an "emotional" level. If you want someone to buy your product or use your service, you must make them "feel good" about it. The world of modern-day advertising aims at just that. I can promise you abstracts, therefore I can promise the world. It is hard to refute an advertisement, since it doesn't set itself up to be challenged. Game rules, indeterminacies and double binds make sure of it.

Hey, I'm not one to make a case against it - if the shoe fits, wear it!

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