Author Archives: benafia

Nov 27 2012

Before And After Sense, OR, How Well Do I Know A Truth As Being Present Now?

Facing Life Directly One Brick Of Now At A Time?

The Wall of Now. Where did it come from and where is it going, as it seems this wall has a kind of permanence to its construction while simultaneously leading our choices down an uncertain path.

These existential ambiguities roll through relativistic ontological parameters; Where do subject and object meet? When and where do I know a thing as empirically present in my awareness? Are my cosmological and spiritual assumptions of what Is Now an honest cognition if I have no interest in my own possibilities of error in judgment?

Where is now exactly? What does my consciousness have to do with it? Did we create now out of our past, since all we discern petty much is judged against what we know? In fact, does not the simple construction of a sentence wrap the DNA of the past into a spiraling act of memory projection?  This seems to make awareness a thing that has a long tail into the past, while we assume there is not an extension into the future.

We construct our awareness of Reality, our epistemological conclusions as to what actually is, with a faith that the future is currently free of us, free enough that we can change it by doing a thing now and “seeing” how it turns out.  Riding this temporal arrow of the nature of now, we aim at being present while we are encouraged by many factors to goalatize the future a target as a futurized intention to make some next thing happen. ( Now that sentence seems to have redundancy built right inti it) This post seeks to hit some truths that exist on both sides of the present moment, that persist for some time with some relevance to doings now. Perhaps to what is valued as a value itself.

Amidst all this questioning of existence there is this assumption; That questions are examinations of Life beyond the trap of what seems obvious; That what is obvious has a likelihood of flaw particularly as we do not doubt our abilities of discernment, and that those flaws have their own meanings to self and to society, meanings that can cover the “true” intent of a definition with the sociocultural coloration of ignorance into a garb of knowing. The unexamined now is like the unexamined life, where my awareness of my impact on the world is kept in a kind of darkness for a unwillingness to know a more complete impression of truth for my own solipsistic demands of “my” emotion.

How high is It, this construction of now in my mind? How broad? Is It really a frozen moment, a photo, or do things go beyond it into the known and the unknown?  Is this unknown my feeling of freedom, where if bridal-led with a sense of constraint leads me to believe I am restricted, oppressed by constructs that direct me toward what is allowed and what is not?  What is possible and what is not?

I ask many questions here, not to propose I have all the answers to Now’s conundrum, but simple to open portals of thought into this P1000385 - Version 3present moment.  What of this moment is true and what is more of fantasy?  What is imagined and projected out by my assumption, my interpretation of what is occurring in The Now and what, perhaps, do I chose not to know for whatever reason be it belief or ignorance?

This illusive present moment, here one moment, here the next, but where is It exactly?  What do past and future have to do with now, it seeming both are so dependent upon the outcome?  If now is a Finite moment, sometimes called the Now Point, what are past and future to this present? And what of my, our, one and only Point Of View?  Does my event horizon of consciousness actually cross over to yours, or is the singularity of me alone, behind a kind of insurmountable wall of the perception of my conscious awareness>

Our awareness, does it not exist beyond the confines of NOWs certainty?  My memory influences my senses from the past and my senses filter my environmental insights indicating intrinsic importance to awareness, but this ability to perceive does not mean I perceive correctly once my cognition registers to me as a true view.  Right now exist amidst a myriad of interrelated/connected processes involved in space-times relativistic matrices, going and doing while I attempt to extricate one moment to call right now where I am convinced I reside fully. I have learned across space-time to have faith, to believe principles of connectedness have regularity. Yet how do I know when I have encountered some canard, a thing perhaps designed to obfuscate or otherwise confuse?

At The Mercy Of Now’s Possible Facade

We are born able and susceptible to construing patterns of being, kinds of laws that are trustworthy; I trust my foot in the air will land on something solid (usually), how do I predict this? ; That a predominance of data suggesting it is so? Same thing (thinginess?) with where I am headed, quite certain it will be there at the end of the block, and somewhat less certain; at the end of this sentence.

Our thoughts go off dancing across time as surely as a dancer on a surface, but the surface of consciousness may resemble solid sandstone, or quicksand, depending upon where the pressure falls and continues, seemingness becomes a kind of trusted standard on which to step.  We step where our senses know best by history, tending to walk in the direction of sight–where we intend to go or sensory apparatus feeds this movement through now. We assume consciousness exist now, in The Now, while not knowing the parameters and depths of now. The notion of my being, (beingness), with a self awareness we self proclaim as sentient, even including an awareness of a soul, the idea of a transcendent nature that persist beyond the physical restraints of the body. In this matrix and continuum of being present in Life our human ideas are tested for validity, and yet the standard for correctness has a problematic core; our fallibility in knowing we know enough to decide what is true from what is not.

Amidst this sea of ambiguity we are reduced and induced to deciding what to do now, and now.  We create a paradigm of consensus realities that become a prism and as easily a prison of perception from which we diagnose the condition of Reality, and then are readily encouraged to prescribe what to do now and next now, moment by moment.  With unknown skill and perhaps unknowable discernment of tool quality and performance skill-sets, we are to do something, usually a thing considered of use by society and culture.

Do I Decide What Is?

In our result oriented world; things are or are not. Ambiguity and uncertainty are considered undesirable qualities because of this decision imposed upon Reality.  We can look at many an emotional issue with a certainty in which we “see” the reality of the actions of others as conveying their intentions, then judging by what is sometimes faulty logic and erroneous evidence, acting upon that questionable self diagnosed Appearance Reality.  This degree of often likely error goes on to create its own ripples of influence into my perceived now, and likely to some degree, into the world.

We have a certain rush to judgment mentality construed as being a good thing overall.  Questions unanswered, gray zones, insufficient evidence, transitional limbos, these will often not reflect well in the goal oriented glare of the light we place upon success and achievement.  If we are to sell ourselves, as we do striving for work or attention, we usually do well to appear to know what to do now even if we have no idea in reality.  In this case, attitude, such as apparent confidence, will do more to color in the gray areas as will the truth of a matter.

We gamble on our opinions of now to get what we want, perhaps not really knowing why we want what we do.  We humans are here highly susceptible to appearances, so much so that we can see, particularly amidst our youth, how style and attitude are employed to perform as substance, especially the “looks” of power.  This pretense to knowing exist in our “grown up” constructions as well.  We have institutions that perform in what may be at times an Appearance Reality facade; judging one as being guilty to an act via some seeming preponderance of data meeting an alleged standard of proof while not intending to know what may in fact be non pejorative information.  We have executed the innocent, assuming they are guilty of a horrendous use of personal power, yet not personalized the institutions use of effectively that same power.  We can operate our reality farm detection machinery perhaps not knowing to what degree we are harvesting our own Confirmation Bias; how we imagine some aspect of now is without knowing if we actually have the correct data set, and not intending to know this truth.

We have religion, politics, construct and concept designed to further one point of view in a reality of collectivities.  When what seems as ugly weeds of cognitive dissonance arise amidst my garden of self reflection, I may pull them up and throw them away, going on to perceive my world as if these incongruities of the self never appeared, or perhaps making sure to point out the weeds I “see” in others gardens as indications of their own inferiority, for look at how beautiful my garden is.

My view of the soundness of my world view can include defects I do not acknowledge and assumptions I do not own up to. This landscape of being, where we may build high and proudly, can be, and likely is, unexamined in the nature of its accuracy.  Our ideas of cause and effect, of laws of manifestation, are likely compromised by all we do not know. We trust experts who claim to know, and beliefs we claim to know, and not wish to know if they in truth do know true cause and effect. The deep question to the nature of being human is if we want to know, if we truly intend to know what is possible, or else are satisfied floating along on currents of assumption because that’s what we are told to do, for it is the easiest thing to do, to repeat.

But For Now?

It is beginning to be understood that what appears to us to be the future influences the present moment. A kind of precognition is being documented by random number generators and other devices, detecting events before they happen now.  My awareness of now (including my own personal awareness of precognition) seem to indicate now is not as isolated a moment as we have assumed.  My awareness of my island of now may well exist in a virtual sea of now, a sea connected to All.

The institutions we create in society, and so the self, are riddled with the fault lines of these assumed truncated appearances which do not discern a truth, or at least not the truth believed. Truth is however, always ever-present even in dysfunction and error. There are cause and effect relationships depicting the nature of existence even if I am not getting accurately what they are or if they are.  For better and for worse, we marry our identities to presumptive traditions, for we assume a “thing” is already completely known for the appearance of consensus reality says a thing is so. But in reality? We may well be the forest too and not just the tree; the flower and not just a petal; more of an integral aspect of existence than just a body that comes and is then gone.

We humans lay claims upon sure truth and reality even while not knowing the ingredients of the landscape in which we flourish and perish.

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Nov 2 2012

America The Perplexed

It is yet another shocking time in America (USA North /America). Skies have fallen, seas have risen, winter is beginning to push fall aside.  Yet then there is another climate; politics, demanding that cloudy cover of lies, or select unspoken facts, are equivalent to facts in context. Politics makes opinion, supposition and interpretation its own climate. The truncated context that suits ideology that suits ignorance with its hands over ears and eyes becomes the TRUTH spoken as wisdom.

We have wishful thinking stalking our fears for signs of hope.  Is this spring of desires promise really showing signs before winters cold digits seek out what warmth remains? How can this be?

H2 and O, Nitrogen and Carbon, parts of our chemical cocktail that fill the glass of Life.  But what exactly are our ideas made of?  We can deny the laws of Nature by pretending some other laws supersede, or better yet, deny the rules of Creations manifestation discerned by our sense and senses, inserting other ideas in their place, perhaps sanctified by calling them something? Divine?

Looking for proof of something through evidence beyond verifiable means, then pumping their “connections” up with emotional deregulation, opens the story of knowledge up to narration that can hide elements of deception. The tellers of the story then place these polluting particles behind flags or good books, for we no longer question human fallibilities that extend into the entire atmosphere of perception.

We do believe in science if we use electricity, food, water, shelter, for we have reasoned how to have nature nurture us by following its rules.  Yes, its rules may be the rules of God as well, in fact likely more reliable as such than books selected by men mostly to run religion as they see fit.

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We may wish our vote turns out for the best this election season, we will see.  It is sometimes advised to be careful about our desires, for we may at times in life be shocked at the reality of what we wish for.

Upon a star…

Sep 13 2012

Long Time No Rhyme

Long Time No Rhyme

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Moonrust

Wait?

why wait?

bite this bait

Its called elections

pretends to be Democracy,

squirms as an impaled worm

alleges Freedom

but of its children

it demands pledges

YES!!!

Money talks, then stalks the facts

like that Sasquatch old footage

going forward gazing back

last moments sunlight

rusted without rain

never quite to be found this time around

and around

dizzy

Democracy

nearly extinct meltdown

drowning in a bathtub

rising “values” voting

moral crusaders

hiding immoral background

handcuffs upon our moon,

powdered crater face smooth smile

our circus is backward around

this time around

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.{photo: Benafia}

 

 

Jan 24 2012

Photos From The Drylands

A few new pics.

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Apr 8 2011

Flirting With Summer or Whatever Happened With Spring?

Torii gate variation

Image via Wikipedia

Flirting With Summer; or, Whatever Happened With Spring?

I say this,  for this year we plunged into a record low single digit, then in a few weeks were trespassing onto 90.  The record low was the coldest day I have had in 24 years in Arizona. This was preceded by a day that refused to go above freezing. This, also for the first time in my life here.

Many plants still show no signs of life as the weather continues to warm into the 90′s this week (post begun a couple weeks ago). Very little rain here this “La Niña” season;  less than an inch in several months. Some plants seem to be 2 months behind schedule this year, which may be not so good, since the famous dry heat of Arizona will tend to fry my many wildflowers with thin petals.

Our Redbud tree has blossomed incredibly this year, and someday I will put photo’s on this post to show what I mean.  I put up a Japanese “Torii Gate” a few days before the earthquake and related disasters i Japan.  Today I finished, well almost, a rock wall to one side of it.

continuation from two weeks ago

April 8 and flirting with winter

Today is yet another odd one; the mesquite’s have begun to leaf and blossom. An old adage is that they only do this after the threat of frost has passed.  We will see, being that the weather service is predicting low Saturday night to be in the mid twenty’s! I’ll take a photo of before and after to see how the old saying goes.  We may also see snow here at 4,000 feet. This intense system is expected to generate severe weather into the weekend in the Midwest.

I will put up an independent post about the Torii Gate, for anyone interested in the way I built it.

Feb 18 2011

If Only I Had The Money For Real Estate

If Only I Had The Money For Real Estate

Why?

The house right above us is in foreclosure $65,000 for over an acre with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths plus views like this;

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–and this:

-and this:

.and me right below with all my remodelling skills

Can’t have it all for myself…

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Oh well.

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from currently balmy 74 degrees in Arizona February

Feb 11 2011

The Information and Communication Age Overthrows Egyptian Dictator Mubarak

The Information and Communication Age

Overthrows Egyptian Dictator Mubarak

Will this produce Democracy as we know it, given the Egyptian militaries huge role in Egyptian society?

A peoples revolution occurring in the heart of the Middle East demonstrates the organisational aspects of the revolution happening throughout the world via social media. This is a challenge to the usual oligarchic hierarchical mechanisms throughout society effecting self identity.

As in the USA, these interest use their vast advantage of access to idea spread, enabling a platform for the manipulation of the individuals self construct to be immersed in “dominator” paradigms. This strategy is opportunistic and survival orriented, making fear a prime mover in our actions, rendering Democracy to a kind of back seat.

This new communal perspective spreading throughout humankind is both letting us each know, in some respects, what the others are doing.  It also increases the viral capacities of mis and disinformation, as evidenced poignantly by the manipulations of the US right wing, known to be most misdirected and erroneous as to the factual aspects to their belief system.

Democracy is not a guarantee that anyones aspirations nor their stresses will be served. This “error” in perspective can open a Pandora’s Box of opinions as to what is real and what is not, again evidenced by the views of many US conservatives regarding US president Obama and his alleged intentions and beliefs, these fashioned into Appearance Realities by the corporate media’s skewed slant in many events and realities of the world.

For Egypt, this is just a beginning of an ongoing effort of the individual to achieve more say in the events of their lives, and a reinvention of those interest who seek to control perception and place.

Enjoy the victory. Prepare for the journey.

Feb 4 2011

The Big Denial: Conservatism Mandates Institutionalized Ignorance

As Belief Overrides Factual Cognition

The Edifice Of  Media Conservatism Mandates Institutionalized Ignorance

This imposed limitation of perception creates a way into falsity without even knowing it, owning it, nor rectifying the self deception. Ignorance itself, becomes a major political and cultural commodity.

First I must say this, and I hope you will receive this post as what it really is; an honest statement of the facts of personal psychosocial dynamics–We are each in some ways and at certain times both conservative and liberal in our thoughts and actions of and in the world. In spiritual, political and social consciousness, if I do not know this about the subjective self’s interest in situational awareness, I do not know much.

The Closed Self vs The Open Self

In conservatism, belief trumps full facts in context, yet the conservative will usually avoid the nature of responsibility and accountability to their paradigms mind-frames, while likely suggesting others need to be held accountable for their own belief structures.

An idea of truth trumps the real thing, abstraction held above self application, yet that idea is called the “Real Truth” by many a self professed conservative, leaving the real of the real social and physical environments thing to seem an untruth. Behind this cognitive contraption often mandating a diversion to cognitive dissonance avoidance facades, ways of comprehending reality can be reversed through the conservatives perceptual lens. This convolution of reality makes the conservative mind, heart and soul, one where denial and obfuscation are invisibly incorporated into their protected from questioning perceptual bias, this going on to infect the mind, heart and spirit.

A retreat into a “sacritized” self narrative does seem to have an evolutionary advantage at times for obvious subjective reason–If I have the land then I can use it and others cannot; or the food; or the… a way to get or keep what I have vs dealing with all of the demands of honoring contravening interest of others. Others then require a negative narrative cognitively from the conservative point of view.  Many self interest like these are pandered to by what is known often as “The Right Wing” and its vast economic and social directions hold on cultural narration via established corporate and power interest.

This conservative narration of superior view and entitlement then requires the appearance reality, and consensus reality, that rightness is on the conservatives side, leading to the assemblage of good abstraction for them and bad for others. This is  usually frame-based upon their views tagged moral, character and other blame and shame types of negative outcasting of others.  The classical “other” is then made the subject of both a fear based animalistic protectionism, and a targeting of hostility toward these others. Again this provides platforms for the continuous scripting of otherness on Right Wing TV, Talk, Internet and other medias, helping to keep the cement hard onto the desired targets, keeping tight delusions and perceptual avoidance necessities.

With Stealthy Face and Well Sugared Tongue

Confirmation bias to narrative is presented as alleged truth in most any argument, including what I am doing here. This is the creation of an Appearance Reality seeking to make the grade to social Consensus Reality, but to the conservative, seen as truth itself.

Emotion is a common buttress to convincing one of “true meaning”, powering up rationalization with its find what it needs logical scenarios.

Here this becomes appearance realities visible source of correctness, supplanting the rigors of full objective reasoning, with attitude, likely harboring inherently misanthropic viewpoints towards others. The conservative generally is not bound to honest investigation toward full context pattern recognition, but instead sees such attempts at objectivity as intrinsically hostile, misinformed, and likely misleading, leading the conservative to cherry pick both facts and context, such as when cold weather somewhere, or a record snowfall is “proof” of a global warming hoax.

We see that the corporate driven perception of reality selects out ideas and even data that support its philosophy automatically, on automatic pilot to continue their flight into the future, unfortunately, as with cancerous tissue and direction, without concern for the implications of its thought or its action of self preservation leading to possible annihilation.  These days there are many commercials from suspect corporations, suspect for they seem to perceive a need toi define their interest as solely ones own, they go on to demonstrate how worker and family friendly they are.  The intent quite likely to divert our attention from the full consequence of their action, instead showing us how much they are for folks like us, our fellow humans.  You like having your job, don’t you?

Conservatism’s Everyday Shell Games With Smoke And Mirrors Too!

These approaches to appearance reality perception count upon our ignorance; that I not know the full truth, but instead focus upon a subjective narrative surrounded with goodness and what seems right.  Simple and effective in corralling cognition behind an enclosure of idea that supports something perhaps intrinsically fatal to civilization, yet now protected from questioning by a kind of  belief appearing to be full truth.

Mind control attempts to be not only unseen, but inoculating the subject to be suspicious of the actual truth, thinking it is skewed and attempting to manipulate perception away from a consensus paradigm presented to be seen as necessary to life itself.  The “wedge issue” and “culture war” realms are filled with intent to cleave society from perceptions of wholeness and congruity, presenting the idea that what is problematic in life is being caused by groups of others extrinsic to what is good and wholesome.  For instance, I could be called a liberal being part of the problem for my ideas here.

Now, as evident on many conservative propaganda platforms, evidence of global warming is not scientifically debunked, (that manipulative scandal aside) but ridiculed as being outside the conservatives confirmation bias. The proposal is then seen as automatically wrong and suspect to derision, along with shame and blame strategies to divert attention from full reasoning.  This is all about mind control being presented as the obvious truth of appearance and consensus realities, while full factual contextual rendering is drawn out as suspect for its requirements for more thinking and appreciations of Creation.

Conservative media outlets supply this pro-corporation exploitation of the world as our paradigm’s view, as the honorable one, the truthful one, the one that is the only good one.  Messengers of the vast preponderance of data, such as with climate change tied to human chemical alterations of the atmosphere, are then cast into doubt with various thought-terminating clichés standing guard as validation of alleged scientific inaccuracy and theoretical bias.  To listen to conservative media outlets is to receive a near continuous narration stream of logical trickery filled with the smoke and mirrors of rationalizations pretending to be forthright reason.

These “facts” are demonstrated daily to many millions of Americans with argumentative tricks of the trade; where reality is traded for confirmation biased propaganda, to those needing it; The “Real Truth”.  Now we can “see” the global warming hoax for what it is;  Or so it is believed was proven to be the case.  This is how emotionalized data can become something other than honest truth, while technically, perhaps, being factual data in the abstract, and so, true.  An example may be in Antarctica, where, while the penguins there are facing the increasing stress on ice retreating, but in the center of Antarctica, snow may be falling more often than it was before, “proving” to some perhaps, that all is well, even exceptionally so, for new ice must obviously be being created at an increasing rate. Context controlled to fit bias, then facts or data selectively used to debunk scientific theories–by appearance reality manipulation of perception of reality.

‘I suppose those warm-mongers will call this freezing weather as part of global warming!  What a joke!!!‘ Such “common sense” connection is oblivious to a possible phenomenon known as the warm arctic/cold continent paradox.  Yes, a possible aspect of climate change including global warming, where the warming polar air allows the polar jet stream to uncoil further than “normal”, sending cold air plunging southward, all while the arctic is experiencing record warmth.  Much easier to be simple, obvious, and certain, than take in nuance, paradox and ambiguity endemic to Life.

Mental Meltdown

In much conservative media propaganda, the melting of the polar regions and migrations of plants and animals to the north in the Northern hemisphere are ignored. The current human induced mass extinction event is ignored. The vast predominance of record highs over those of cold over decades is ignored for momentary confirmation biased opportunistic rationalization debunking prospered as good natured honest “proof”.

This dishonest trick on the self, of logical myopia, serves the perceptual bias the conservative must confirm to keep cognitive dissonance at bay or tagged onto others. This is a hostile world view, or cosmological and spiritually broken cognition that leads to a disharmonious view towards existence, producing classic us against them phobia’s and psychosis along with the projection of these “truths” onto perceived oppositional characters. Then, as it is in existentialism’s morass of pick and chose for oneself meaning; mentioning conservative us against them paradigms makes the one bearing this message a guilty party to conservatives fear based cosmological and spiritual perceptions of the universe at large beyond their tightly conformed tent.

A critical thought toward conservatism’s rationalization matrixes can well mean to them that you are against them, obviously, and so, one who is blatantly propagating us against them consciousness oneself.  This reverse reality technique allows one to not review the full impact of the concepts and tenets one possesses for a critical external view of others, usual across many boards.

Conservatism is often itself an assault on critical thinking ability, crippling the conservatives ability to see objectively, and thus perceiving the world as subjectively motivated. In the USA, conservatives rescript their perceptions of abstract ideological fortresses, such as The Bible and the US Constitution, as being their right to interpret and not others. This preserves the conservatives sence of abstract arrogance, while seeing others attempts at understanding those abstractions for themselves as being intrinsically misguided or influence by some evil nature.  For conservatives truth is a one-way street–theirs, and this cripples their ability to be truthful and free, let alone honestly responsible to the ramifications of their actions.

Do As I Say; Conservative Conformity Matrix

All conservatives harbor misanthropic tendencies towards those who do not see the world as they do.  This presents a perpetual problematic relationship towards Freedom, Democracy and other Liberal institutions that must include all.  The conservative is motivated to act against these others in the world and in society. Within the conservatives broken, or dysfunctional perception, others are conceived as being the same, these others becoming the targets for conservative blame, shame, and ostracism campaigns designed to deny others of their right to be as they are.

The basic fundamental of the conservative mindset is; ideology (belief) before fact or evidence.  It is something we all do, bias towards our own interest when the interest of another seems to contradict our own.  Seems.  This means I believe another’s interest is in contradiction with mine or in competition with it. In the basic bottom line math of survival—like other animals–it seems in my interest to put me first.  It takes something other; a higher interest, to see past a basic Darwinian mindset into one with a broad minded overview.

I imagine many on the sides of left and right, as well as the middle, think they are one way but not really the other.  As we dichotomize our perception, we side to bias–Confirmation Bias, and quite likely emotinalize the weight of our believed in correctness compared to the others.

Conservatism particularly, requires logic and interpretive defectiveness and defensiveness to seem correct.  In this sense it is opportunism and rationalization dependent.  Its interest in reason is not toward an investigation toward objective truthfulness, but instead, one which reaffirms its borders and imposed limitations upon perception and cognitive apprehension.  This defective reasoning is then often called “The Truth”, case closed.  Conservatism, with its mandate to not include others and evidence fairly nor completely, must then impose upon itself a nonsensical narrative; one making the conservative seem to be more entitled to the world than those who do not share the narrative.

The Narrative Rules; Those Outside It Loose

Those who support a world view favoring objectivity and the use of full context are left with mouths and minds left agape as today’s propaganda conservatives define reality with their myopic rational constructs.  Here in Arizona this perceptual bias towards established wealth and power, and a subservient population, is in classic conservative head lock. The interest of others is only conditioned to the money subservient narrative towards what hearts, minds and souls deserve of this world, but those seeking to correct the myopic deformity in perceiving human nature are viewed as on the side of social, economic and spiritual ill, or evil.  In this, ignorance parading as good old common sense is itself the source of evil–ignorance in action over oneself and others.

Beneath the wedge issue emotional tents set up for unsuspecting citizens, with many prompted weekly at church, on radio and TV to keep under the wedge issue tents toxic gas, the narrative, the storylines of conservatism, the us versus them mindframes are inhaled deeply with invisible penetration. Conservatism is in this way the Dry-Rot Of Civilization; that which eventually brings the individual and humanity down by excluding compassion, empathy, understanding and honesty.

In The Image Of Man: Conservatism Attempts to Make Conformity Universal

The story always has their ideological prism focused squarely onto the individuals very identity and worth as a human being.  Here, a particular definition of God, patriotism and other things abstracted as pure to their narrative; such as morals, true values, Truth and goodness, these are identified as intrinsically their own, the in-groups providence.  Others are always needed to be identified as being deceived or against their abstract definitions, the lexicon becomes as a kind of guarantee to the idea.

To this mindset, saying a thing such as you are intolerant of intolerance can mean you are just as intolerant as any other bigot. The mind-traps for the conservative mind, such as this example of an existential derived false equivalency, is just one of a myriad of logical tricks employed by conservative propagandists to “prove” their own nobility of character.  The radio and cable TV hums with these deformations of idea day in and day out, charging the batteries of those suffering under societal stress to target their distress onto various politically charged targets.

As in other cults and cultures, imitation becomes a means for an individual to felt security, as if immersion it the appearance reality of the narrative can create the actual reality in the cosmological and spiritual sense as being full Truth to existence.  Those not like us are easily pegged as being against us. I have encountered many folks who express the current right wing talking points, pretending they are free thinkers as they repeat what they have just heard o,n the radio or TV; disparate theories pretending to be confirmed truths.

Now, once embedded into the confirmation bias, a list of others seeming contradiction, different viewpoints, different appearances and even styles of expression such as dress, music and such, becomes codified as alien and other to cherished abstractions.  To individual and societal manipulators, the armory of perception becomes propaganda’s voice of reason, but actually, self serving rationalization. The authority and integrity of those outside of conservatism’s mental and emotional strangleholds are discarded as so much garbage–unconcerned for where these end up, for they are discarded from legitimacy in the narrative.

Into The Electrified Tent

I attended a “mega church” one recent Christmas with family members, only to find this church to be a place, not really of worship, but of mind control set to a corporate agenda. The back of the church was filled with right wing pro affluent lifestyle books and pamphlets to file through as you left the church.  It was very much an atmosphere of affirmation of  kind of lifestyle with an organized intention to bias minds, hearts and spirits to an elite way to be in the world, a way with a political agenda as central to spiritual identity.

During service itself, we where cautioned that being Republican did not guarantee you a place in heaven.  I can’t imagine anyone actually thought that, or did they?  What kind of movement is based upon a spirituality wed to a material list or a political one?  From the giant screens projecting high-tech emotive imagery, to the modern music set to dramatics onstage, this service seemed to be most about keeping attention by entertainment and the engendering of the “correct” bias.  I had stumbled into what appears as the GOP driven spirituality merged with the modern worlds consumption and excess bias being framed as being a Godly thing.

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Ill finish this article later, being I have things to do immediately—

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