paradox

"Life is good, but the world is on fire." - Mr Atwater

copyright(c)2014 Wm Schaeffer

I remember Violets

I remember Violets

By Bill Schaeffer

I remember violets in the woods and the smell of new mown grass.

I remember fireflies and hamburgers cooked on an open grill.

I remember burning leaves and the new school year.

I remember Thanksgiving and Christmas

and the first snow of the season when the whole looked magical and new.

And then, I remember the melting of ice

with the sun's growing strength and time off for Spring vacation.

I remember the woods turning green and the birds returning to build nests.

I remember baseball and swimming trunks and riding my bicycle.

But most of all, I remember violets…

copyright (c) 2009, 2014

William Schaeffer

The Uses of Language

The Uses of Language

By Bill Schaeffer

Language n 1. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another’s treasure.

From “The Devil’s Dictionary” by Ambrose Bierce.

Recently I have become aware that many of the challenges in communicating effectively arise from lack of awareness of the different purposes for which people use language.   Even though the same words and phrases are used, the ways in which they are ordered and organized reveal different purposes.

It seems that people use language for one of two reasons, to find similarities, or to find differences; to build consensus, or to deduce truth.  Some people are Consensus Builders.   Other people are Difference Finders.   These goals are almost mutually exclusive.    Much of communication difficulties come when these two types of people are using language for cross purposes.

I first became aware of this distinction when I was selling paintings with Pete.   Pete is an intelligent and talented guy with a great vision for art.   I enjoyed hanging out and discussing art and life with Pete.  I learned some things about the artistic process by watching Pete work.  He made art constructions and collages that for the sake of discussion, I will call paintings.   If a painting didn’t sell, he just took it apart and made a new one.   This was new to me, since all my artwork is signed with date and time and I don’t change it.   He seems flexible and not attached to any particular results of the creative process.

Consensus Builders

It was while talking about Professional Sports that I realized that we use language in two opposite ways.  Pete is a Consensus Builder.   He uses language to find similarities and build bonds of friendship.   If there is a slight difference, he tries to “smooth over” that difference and concentrate on how we are similar.   This is why he loves watching Professional Sports; it gives him a topic of conversation that is essentially “non-threatening.”  Discussing sporting events gives him a way to concentrate on the “warm vibes” of togetherness without the emotional disturbance of conflicting opinions.  Pete majored in psychology in college and relationships are very important to him.

Pete told me that I am a Difference Finder.   In his view, I like to tear things apart and show how they are different.  I like to find the weaknesses, and flaws, in a person’s opinion and use that to make a topic of conversation.  Perhaps he might add that I am cold, distant, and act superior.   I don’t try to, but that may be.

However, I realize that I am trained as an Engineer and I think like a mathematician, or logician.   That is how my brain works.  I am fascinated by truth and history.  I like to dig into controversial events to see what the “real truth” is.   In logic and mathematics, it is important to realize that if you find a single solitary exception to a statement, then that theorem statement is entirely false.   The easiest and most effective way to establish non truth is to find a contradictory example.  If you are categorizing and classifying, you look for differences to make the task easier.

Unfortunately, theory building and fault finding can be extremely annoying if one is not interested in anything other than just socializing pleasantly with friends.

If one’s priority is on Consensus Building, there seems to be a relaxed and casual relationship with truth.  There is less concern with the “absolute truth” and more concern about the “truth for right now.”   The priority is about establishing smooth workable relationships with the people in the immediate vicinity and not making any intellectual abstractions or conclusive judgments.   No one is planning on finding anything important or making any significant achievement other than passing time with a minimum of stress.

I am reminded of my friend Tom C.    One day, he replied to a facebook message with a long technical explanation for a particularly fascinating phenomenon.   The “poster” asked him, “to  not post such long responses because it looked weird.”  Tom was surprised, because he thought he was being helpful.   She thought he was strange because he wrote too much with too many “big words.”   She was using language to build a network a friendly rapport, where every member of the network communicated the same way.  She wasn’t using language to find solutions.

I am also reminded of the Academic Establishment in Europe at the time of Galileo.  I’ll skip the details, but the history makes fascinating reading.  At that time, the established “scientific truth” about the composition and structure of the “cosmos” outside the Earth’s atmosphere was fanciful and imaginary.   Any seventh grader today would laugh at the descriptions of moon, sun and stars that were taken to be absolutely true with all seriousness by every single intelligent learned man in Europe.  Galileo, with the aid of a telescope and observational procedure, wrote a paper that contradicted some fundamental concepts of the accepted world view.   With only one or two guarded exceptions, the entire academic body, of all the countries of Europe, was more concerned with preserving the accepted, and erroneous, world view than they were in finding the TRUTH.  They were more interested in silencing Galileo for even trying to “disturb the peace and order” than they were in actually trying to understand what he was talking about.  

None of Galileo’s appeals for the use of thought and logic were of any avail.  His career was ruined.   He was forced to live under house arrest and not publish anything for almost 16 years.   He was forced to renounce his conclusions AND he was almost executed.

This story represents the degree to which people that prioritize similarity building and social cohesiveness will go to ensure that their opinion is correct.  This is the type of Consensus Building that the majority of people want – to have everyone agree to the same thing even though that opinion may have no relation to “actual facts” whatsoever.

Difference Finders:

On the other hand, Difference Finders are less interested in the human relationships, than they are in the subject being discussed.   They use language to discover facts and knowledge.  They have relationships with people to help them find facts.   They don’t have relationships, just for the sake of being connected.  There has to be an intellectual purpose for the relationship to exist.    These people dislike trivial small talk, and cocktail chatter.   They think of themselves as being intelligent.

They think, “Life is short and there are thousands of fascinating problems to think about and to solve.   So much of popular discussion and popular belief are comprised of misstatements and outright lies.  How can we know WHAT is TRUE?  We need to work together, and share our opinions, if any of us can establish any sense of real TRUTH.” 

In mathematical proof, a single contrary example will invalidate a theorem and prove it absolutely wrong.  These contrary examples are very powerful tools to find truth with few resources being used (resources of time and effort).   Therefore, someone concerned with scientific or absolute truth tends to look for contrary examples.   A contrary example yields a true statement (of falsehood).  A supportive, or agreeable, fact tells us nothing new at all!    Contrary examples move knowledge forward.   Supportive facts tell almost nothing new, or of value, toward discovering truth; as paradoxical as this sounds.

For example, there is not today one single government institution that is not politicized, inefficient, and ineffective.  But we rarely hear about it, and if we do the news is silenced to cover up the crimes in the name of “propriety.”  The recent Veterans Administration scandal, foster home abuse, vote fraud, General Motors recalls, the “economic bailout,” Obamacare, Iraq, GMO food, EPA, Vioxx, SSRI’s, ADHD, “weapons of mass destruction,” and a hundred other examples where  we are being lied to about diet, health, exercise, business, money, the stock market, foreign policy, global warming, nuclear power, pollution, genetically modified foods, race, age, intelligence, credit, taxation, inflation, pesticides, preservatives, unemployment, and our own history.   Almost nothing we are told on TV is anything more than the shadow of the truth, unless it is an actual education program, or a movie promotional event; and even then the truth is suspect.

How can we know when we are being manipulated and lied to unless we ask what other people’s opinion and experiences are; and then critically examine the answers?

Although I can respect the talent, I don’t want to watch prime time comedies and professional sports every single night so I can be lulled into a pleasant complacency about life.   I don’t want to drink a glass of forgetfulness and then just sleep on it.   I don’t want to lie around the pool getting a good tan, or attend a party to talk about superficialities with attractive strangers that I’ll never see again.   I want to live a vital, engaged, and meaningful life.  I want to understand what is going on.

I am reminded of the time that a Vandal Army was threatening to invade a Roman City.   Upon arriving, they found there were no guards at the posts, and the city was almost deserted.  Marching further into the center of the town, they found the whole population and the armed guards themselves were inside the arena watching gladiatorial games.  The people were easily surprised and the town was taken with very little effort.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter much how correct and logically precise the Difference Finders are.   They comprise only a small percentage of the population of humans on Earth.   The vast majority of people are Consensus Builders.   These Consensus Builders don’t care about truth, or objective reality, as much as they just want to make sure that everyone agrees.  They just want to establish some feelings of companionship with their fellows and are not very concerned about the specific details.  An approximate solution is more than good enough.

And these are the people who rule the world.  Their natural facility for building networks of relationships in business, government and society ensures that they are always at the center of what is happening.  They are the ones who convince everyone else to follow them even if they are not really sure where they are going themselves.

Difference Finders will always find themselves to be one step behind the crowd and trying to catch up socially.   Even if the Difference Finder had designed a new invention, the Consensus Builder will probably have already formed a team to administer the patent rights.

Therefore, recognizing the social environment and mode of communication being used is vital to successful relationships and a feeling of connectivity with your companions and compatriots in life.    Difference Finders can try “lightening up” in social situations and pay more attention to others.   They can look for academic circles of discussion instead.   Consensus Builders can work on being more tolerant and not so easily offended.   And we all could learn to be better listeners.   What do you think about that?

Copyright©2014 William A. Schaeffer

Ethics and compassion

From my insurance class on ethics:

"It is easier to love “humanity” than to love people. People who consider themselves ethical and yet lack a caring attitude toward individuals tend to treat others as instruments of their will. They rarely feel an obligation to be honest, loyal, fair or respectful except insofar as it is prudent for them to do so, a disposition which itself hints at duplicity and a lack of integrity. A person who really cares feels an emotional response to both the pain and pleasure of others."

from ethics course at www.webce.com

I met Robin Williams

I met Robin Williams

In the fall of 2013, I got hired as a background actor on a one day shoot of “The Crazy Ones”   This was the new TV sitcom that Robin Williams starred in.  The scene was a used car lot and it was actually my old car that got hired.   I was driving a green 1996 Toyota Camry with 235,000 miles on the second engine.   I loved that car, but the engine finally blew about two months later and I had to get rid of it.

Call time was 6:00AM in the morning and it was going to be an “all day shoot.”  The scene was in the Chicago Area and I wore “Bears Colors” with a navy blue T-Shirt, blue jeans, and a brown sport jacket that I just bought at Good Will.   I was lucky that wardrobe liked my clothing and I did not have to change.

We moved our cars into the parking lot and my car got placed near the front of the lot near the building.   The day was hot and sunny.   The work was slow and all the extras were tired.   I was exhausted and spent some time napping in a chair between takes when I could.   For a little while, I slept in the seat of my car, when they were shooting at the other end of the lot.

Of course, we were all excited to work with Robin Williams, but professional protocol requires us to pretend that he is just another actor and no one particularly special.   Being a lead actor is very challenging and the extra attention from cast and crew members can be distracting and upsetting.  This is why actors have their own trailers.   So they can relax and concentrate on the performance.   A lot of money is being spent on set and the Producers cannot afford to have a lead performance that is not the very best.    Some actors have gotten cast members fired from the set just for looking at them the wrong way.   We are all told not to stare at the actors.

Well, I was impressed with Robin Williams.  He carried himself like the consummate professional on set.    He never complained about the heat and sun and never looked like he was ever hot, or uncomfortable.   He was cool, calm and in control.   He did not goof around, but just stood there professionally waiting for the shot to start.  

On most professional productions, there are special cast members called “Stand Ins”   These actors Stand In for the main actors while the crew members are setting up and adjusting the equipment for the next shot.   It can take a long time to fix technical problems, so Stand Ins are used to frame the shot.   This gives the actors time to rest and prepare their performance.   However, Robin Williams didn’t even leave the set.   He just stood there waiting for the shot to be ready while the Stand In worked.   And he looked relaxed and even comfortable the whole day.   This was an amazing demonstration of strength and composure to me.

I was hot, sweaty, tired, and weary.   I had been awake since 4 AM and the heat was wearing me out.   I was younger than Robin Williams was and did not have any difficult work to do.  And yet, Robin maintained perfect composure and never complained.   I remarked to my coworkers that Robin Williams was the consummate professional. 

The last scene we shot was a time lapse gag shot.   The shot was to simulate all the cars being sold in a day.   A camera was placed at the top of a crane at one end of the parking lot and we were instructed to, “stand near your cars and mill about like you are shopping.”  

Once the shot starts, members of the sales team would select us one-by-one.   They would escort us to our cars and pretend like they were selling the car to us.   Then we would shake their hand, get in the car, and drive it off the lot.   This sounded like fun.

We all got in our first positions.  The director called “tape running…  background… action.”  And then Robin Williams walked on set.   He came right over to me first, as the first buyer of the first car being sold.  I couldn't believe it, but we were "rolling." I pointed out my car.   As we walked to the car, I explained that it had 235,000 miles and is on the second engine.  Robin said, “Woah” like he was impressed.   Because it was a time lapse shot, there was no sound being recorded, we could say whatever we wanted, so we adlibbed about buying the car.    Then we walked around to the driver’s door.   I stopped, looked at him, enthusiastically shook his hand, and said, “Thank you.”  Then, I got into my car, and drove away.  As I left the set, I felt like the luckiest man on Earth.  For the rest of the day, I felt like I was fortunate member of the chosen elect, just because I met Robin Williams and shook his hand.  That made my day.

And that was it.   After that shot, we broke for lunch, and there weren’t any more shots in the parking lot.   For one shot, I walked back and forth outside a showroom window while they shot a scene inside.   The 2^nd AD kept asking me to take off my hat, and I didn’t really want to because I was afraid of getting sun burned, but I took it off anyway.   Ed Asner and a few other celebrity actors were there that day, but I’ll always remember it as the day I got to meet Robin Williams.  

Sadly, it is a day that today is more special than it ever was before …

Copyright© 2014 William Schaeffer

Theory of Love

Commentary on Alan Watts youtube video: “ Alan Watts is God for Ten Minutes”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1LzVN8nqg0

1) Alan Watts Video Text:

A question from the audience:  “If we are all supposed to love each other, love will cease to exist because there is no hate to contrast it.”

2) Bill Schaeffer comment:

07:33 I tend to think this statement represents a misunderstanding of love.   To me, love is “wanting to be” in the same "space" with someone (or something) else.   Love is the universal law of attraction.   Love has no real opposite, except possibly apathy or indifference.   

Love is a force of attraction.   There is no opposite to gravity, there is no opposite to light.   Darkness is the absence of light, but darkness does not negate light.

Hate is a fearful perversion of love, a twisted mutant emotion that wants to be in the same "space" as someone else, but is fearful and uncertain.    This hate manifests itself as wanting to destroy the thing it wants to be close to, but it never succeeds.    Hate is never satisfied and is self-destroying.

Love is always satisfied and is self-perpetuating, and self-generating, and ever renewing force of growth in the Universe.”

3) abc123754212 comment:

“Although is light not merely a physical phenomena created by the giant , flaring ball of fire and gas we call "The Sun" ? Is light not merely a physical and observable phenomena that has arisen out of  physical processes of billions of years of formulation  ? 

How can Love be a force in the universe when Love is only found n earth in humans and animals ? Human and animals constitute an infinitesimal fraction of the universe . How , thusly , can Love be said to be a universal force ?

Please explain ?”

4) Bill Schaeffer response:

"Well, it is largely a poetic turn of phrase.   HOWEVER, IF we look at the Universe in a slightly different way THEN we could think of it as follows(in super condensed form):

Some ideas:

1. One interpretation of the dual slit experiment is that electrons have conscious thought and these electrons actually choose, or decide, their course of action.

2. More than one philosophic tradition talks of all things in life as having a "living soul" (i.e. rocks, stones, hills, plants, trees, insects, birds, animals, "everything").

3. Even our own bodies are made of billions of one celled animals that act with purpose and intent.   Are they conscious?

4. "Radical" Physicist Amit Goswami considers that it is consciousness itself that gives form and concrete reality to the Universe we inhabit.   This, in my understanding, is a kind of a generalization of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, where it is our own conscious intent that "makes the Universe real."

5. Jeremy Narby in "The Cosmic Serpent" claims that psychedelic visions could be messages of photons of light that are emitted by our DNA itself.

6. In one interpretation of electron spin pairs, these electrons are still "instantly connected" across billions of light years of deep space.


In any event, IF we consider the Universe to be teeming with conscious entities, that are all coexisting and communicating on many simultaneous levels, AND all behaving with conscious intent; THEN we could say that, "LOVE IS A PRIMARY MOTIVATING FORCE Of THE UNIVERSE."


Again, the briefest of explanations, full of possible flaws, but a poetic vision of the Universe that in many ways seems more true to experience than the giant impersonal "clockwork" theories of the 19th century academics."

Copyright© 2013, 2014 William Schaeffer

The Story of Love

The Story of love.

by Bill Schaeffer

Before you were born, there was love.

Before your parents, your country, and even before your civilization was born, there was love.

Before the Greeks, and the Romans, and the Egyptians, and the Babylonians, and all the lost nations of antiquity, there was love.

Before Abraham, and Isaac, and even before Adam and Eve, there was love.

Before animals walked the earth, and the birds flew in the air, there was love.

Before fish swam in the seas, and even before the first one celled organism, there was love.

Before the earth and the moon and the planets and the sun, when the whole galaxy was just a spinning mass of super heated gas, there was love.

Before creation itself, and even before the beginnings of the entire universe, there was love.

In fact, love may be the single most important thing that all existence is made of.

Love is everywhere, if you look.

Love is the force of gravitational, and molecular, attraction.

Love is wanting to be in the same space at the same time. And of course, you can't. And that is where all the problems with love began. And that is why we have a universe, and a life; to try and help work out some of those problems.

The physicist Amit Goswami postulates that consciousness is the force that gives material form to existence and to the universe. We see what we are looking for and it seems real.

I say that it is love that moves consciousness, and it was love that started the universe, and it is love that keeps it going. And it will be love that pulls it all back together in that final bitter embrace. And when the universe is gone and there is nothingness, and nothing, forever and ever, there will still be love.

Just waiting.

Love just waits.

And love can wait forever and ever, and even just a little while longer if it has to, because that is what love does.

Love just waits.

Love just waits for love to love.

And then, love just loves.

And a whole universe springs forth into being, and the mystery of love continues.

Copyright ©2014 William Schaeffer

Blinded by the Brilliance

It is a curious coincidence that on the Day of the Holy Transfiguration.
On the day when the Christian Church celebrates the event
Where Jesus revealed himself as the Son of God with Moses and Elijah
To his followers: Peter, James, and John.
When he had shown himself to be in the blinding light and Glory of God;
So they had to turn their faces away from the brilliance;


On that day August 6,
In 1945
Is when the first Atomic Bomb
Was exploded over Hiroshima.

And Thousands
Of observers
On the ground,
Looking up,
Were blinded,
By the brilliance
Of that light.






Copyright©2014 William Schaeffer

Proof that Most Priests teach False Doctrine

Proof that Most Priests teach False Doctrine

This is a very simple little proof and a little bit of a trick with semantics.   I believe it may be possible to extend the proof even more definitively, but I am still working on that derivation.

Proof that most Priests teach false doctrine:

1) Form a hypothetical group of Priests in your mind.   This is comprised of all the different Priests of all the different religions and faiths.

2) Add to this group all Catholic and Episcopalian Priests. 

3) Now, (and this is the tricky part) add ALL Priests of all other religions at ALL other times in history.  This includes ancient Jewish, Greek and Roman Priests.   Also include the many different Priests of Ancient and lost religions of Babylon, Egypt, Persia, Phoenicia, Sumer, and many, many others.  Include Shinto and Taoist priests also.  Include Meso American priests of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca.

4) Now you have a group of ALL the Priests of ALL the religions in the World at ALL times.

5) Select the one true doctrine that we all know to be true.   Specify this doctrine with as much explicit detail as necessary to guarantee truthfulness.  

6) Select the Priests from the group of all Priests that agree with the one true doctrine that we have agreed is true.

7) This group of Priests you select will be the vast minority of the group of all Priests.   It would be surprising if it was even 1% of the total number of Priests.

8) Therefore:  The vast majority of Priests [of ALL Religions at ALL time in human history] teach False Doctrine

Remarks:  

This is a clever and tricky little “proof” but it highlights a few interesting ideas.

A) The concept of Priesthood seems like a universal social role, or function, independent of culture, or religion, or time.   There are many religious concepts that seem to have universality in the human mind and the concept of the Priest is one.  We seem to recognize the need for supernatural ritual behavior and also recognize that some people are more adept at this practice than others.   The Priest, however, is unique in some sense because we have no way to judge the efficacy of his talents or abilities.   We must accept his word on the matter.

B) It is probably possible to extend the proof to state that ALL Priests teach False Doctrine, but that would be a little “off putting” and ruin the good natured philosophical fun of the exercise.

However, if we consider the fractal detail nature of truth and doctrine we see that we are on a “slippery slope.”  The more we try and specify the exact nature of a concept, the more difficult it becomes, the more effort is required, and the more prone to error we become. 

Therefore a thoroughly rigorous philosophical definition of “correct faith” might be hundreds of pages long.  If so, it is possible that the group of Priests that hold this doctrine is so small as to be negligible.  It is mathematically possible that there is no Priest that advocates the one true faith that we have decided on.

We are reminded of the fact that there are about 5,000 hand written copies of the New Testament that survived from the first few centuries of Christianity.  There are more errors between these copies than there are words in the New Testament itself.   There is no single definitive, or authoritative, ancient copy of the Bible.   Additionally, in the present day, there is no definitive copy, or translation, of the Holy Bible that all humanity agrees is correct.

C) This proof inverts the concept and understanding of the Priest in relation to ourselves.  In all societies the Priest is the special and chosen intercessor with God, or the gods.  The Priest, therefore, has a status above most all other members of society.  It is the Priest’s function to judge and interpret the will of God.  Usually, his judgment is above question.   In this exercise we, as commoners, are judging Priests, the Priesthood, and the social role of a “priestly character” in many human societies.   It feels a little uncomfortable.

This process highlights the concept that Morality itself is not derived from religion.  But that our Moral Sense is inborn and innate.  WE judge religion, and religious concepts, on the basis of our intuitive understanding of Morality.   This is the basis of religious conversion; we are consciously choosing religious concepts that we judge to be more true, that the ones we were previously exposed to.  The concepts themselves may be Divine, but WE are the judge. 

D) Ultimately, religious belief is a personal understanding.   In some way this is similar to the theory of General Relativity in Physics.   Speed of an object is determined in relation to our position and movement.  There is no absolute frame of reference in the Universe.   There is no Omniscient view.

Copyright©2014 William A Schaeffer

The Lunchtime Boogie

The Lunchtime Boogie

My wallet and keys.

Wallet and keys.

If you please,

I’d like to see --

My wallet and keys.

Wallet and keys.

Copyright © 2007,  2014 William Schaeffer

Phone on a wire

I miss the old days

when we had a phone, 

on a wire,
in the living room.  

I don't really like

carrying a phone around

in my pants.

copyright (c) 2014  William Schaeffer

Dada Proverb

"Even with a new leather belt,
 I still need to tie my shoes."

copyright(c) 2014 Wm Schaeffer

I wanted to be

I wanted to be

I wanted to be a famous musician

So I could prove to my father

That I was worthy of his love.

And then I realized,

That he would never love me.

I wanted to be a famous painter

So I could prove to my mother

That I was worthy of her love

And then I realized

That she would never love me,

I wanted to be a famous writer

So I could prove to my family

That I was worthy of their love

And then I realized

That they would never love me.

I wanted to be a media star

So I could prove to the world

That I was worthy of their love.

And then I realized

That the world would never love me.

There was nothing I could prove

To anyone –

Ever.

And then…

I wanted  to be happy

So I could prove to myself

That I was worthy of my own  love.

And then I realized

I was already worthy.

I had nothing to prove.

So I had a cup of tea

And read a good book

And went to sleep.

Copyright©2014 William Schaeffer

Healing the Sick

What does dying on the cross

Have to do with

Burning at the stake?

What does healing the sick

Have to do with

Persecution  and  punishment?

What does compassion and mercy

Have to do with

Judgment  and  torture?

What does prayer and meditation

Have to do with

Politics and War?

What does Peace of mind

Have to do with

Business as Usual?

What does thought and study

Have to do with

Advertising  slogans?

What does health and safety

Have to do with

Guns and  knives?

What does Loving kindness

Have to do with

Planet  Earth?

Copyright© 2014 Wm Schaeffer

Friday

friday

Friday

Friday is a beautiful day;

But not as beautiful as Saturday.

And Sunday - 
It is beyond description.

copyright 2006, 2014 William Schaeffer