Myopia

Expanded from a response to a Stephan Molyneux video on youtube:

Perhaps psychological Myopia is the sane mind's attempt to stay sane in the face of the forced demand to conform to contradictory social ideals.  This strategy is to "remain focused" on one's immediate surroundings and then willfully "ignore" the philosophical problem areas of belief that are off "in the distance."

Given the situation where one is commanded to believe a new fact that "must be true," even though it is obviously false.  Additionally, when the penalty for being discovered "promoting" the falsity, or lack-of-truth, of the new fact is a painful corporeal punishment (i.e. physical torture or imprisonment) and almost equally painful social censure (poverty and homelessness); the mind struggles for a rational solution.  

Assuming that the healthy mind seeks to avoid internal contradictions and inconsistencies of facts, this mind finds it difficult to accept new data "as true" that contradicts all prior evidence.  One possible solution to this dilemma is to relax conditions of truth and reliability, in effect refusing to judge or discriminate truth from falsity.   But this is not satisfactory because then nothing you believe has any validity and it could lead to very serious consequences in other areas of activity.   You could die.  If you no longer trust you ability to evaluate, then you no longer can reliably avoid peril, because you cannot discriminate peril.   Eventually you will be a victim to a hazard that might have otherwise been avoided if you had just learned to "trust your instincts."

Another possible solution is to accept the new data as irrefutably true and discard all previously know facts that contradict this "new data," but this is not acceptable either because it devalues your own sense of evaluation and self reliability.  Ultimately, this also degrades the previous truth value of the facts that you know to be true.  You are forced to doubt what you know to be true once again. You are forced to doubt your ability to ascertain truth and once again the consequences can be serious.


About the only solution that the sane mind can accept, and remain sane, is to "not think about" the philosophical contradictions posed by this "forced belief"and instead concentrate on the immediate world close at hand.   In this way, the consistency of thought and action can be maintained without struggling with the philosophical and social dilemma of trying to refute an obviously untrue "fact."   Any contradictions between personal philosophy and social dictates to conform can be largely avoided most of the time.

copyright(c)2014

William Schaeffer

Love happens over the telephone

Love happens over the telephone.

IF someone hears of your misfortune, or your success, and they do not call on the telephone, or visit in person, then they don't really care.

No matter WHAT they write in an email, or a text, or tell you in a chance encounter later on; if they do not call on the telephone, or visit in person, then they don't really care.

In this society, where almost all promises seem eternal, and then evaporate on closer examination, it is important to know who cares and who does not.

Love happens over the telephone.
If they do not call, they do not care.
If they do not call, they are not true friends, just acquaintances.
If they do not call, you really are on your own.

You can call them again if you like and pass some artificially pleasant time in your uncertain suffering, or you can just face the truth.   They don't care.


Because, love happens over the telephone.
And now you know, if you haven't already figured it out already.
Why chase a fantasy?
The real people, who you can count on, who really love you, will call you on the phone.
Just wait and see.

Love happens over the telephone and don't let anyone tell you differently.

~

copyright(c) 2014

William Schaeffer

From the Book of Enoch

From the Book of Enoch LXXXIII 3-8:

"3. I had laid me down in the house of my grandfather Mahalalel, (when) I saw in a vision how the heaven collapsed and was borne off and fell to the earth. 4. And when it fell to the earth I saw how the earth was swallowed up in a great abyss, and mountains were suspended on mountains, and hills sank down on hills, and high trees were rent from their stems, and hurled down and sunk in the abyss. 5. And thereupon a word fell into my mouth, and I lifted up (my voice) to cry aloud, and said: 'The earth is destroyed.' 6. And my grandfather Mahalalel waked me as I lay near him, and said unto me: 'Why dost thou cry so, my son, and why dost thou make such lamentation?' 7. And I recounted to him the whole vision which I had seen, and he said unto me: 'A terrible thing hast thou seen, my son, and of grave moment is thy dream-vision as to the secrets of all the sin of the earth: it must sink into the abyss and be destroyed with a great destruction. 8. And now, my son, arise and make petition to the Lord of glory, since thou art a believer, that a remnant may remain on the earth, and that He may not destroy the whole earth."


From the Book of Enoch trans R. H. Charles, D. Litt., D. D., 1917, London

In the Middle of the Night

In the middle of the night -

Laying in my bed
in Hollywood;
I hear screaming
and yelling,
out on the street,
in the distance -
muffled.

And I cannot tell
whether someone
is in distress
or they are having fun.

Then there is silence.

I'll never know.

A helicopter flies overhead
but it keeps on flying,
over the hill,
and into the distance.






copyright(c) 2014 Wm Schaeffer

Integrity

"Nothing at last is sacred but the integrity of your own mind."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson from the "Essay on Self Reliance"

copyright(c) 2014

William Schaeffer

Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd

So, so you think you can tell 
Heaven from Hell, 
Blue skys from pain. 
Can you tell a green field 
From a cold steel rail? 
A smile from a veil? 
Do you think you can tell? 

And did they get you to trade 
Your heros for ghosts? 
Hot ashes for trees? 
Hot air for a cool breeze? 
Cold comfort for change? 
And did you exchange 
A walk on part in the war 
For a lead role in a cage? 

How I wish, how I wish you were here. 
We're just two lost souls 
Swimming in a fish bowl, 
Year after year, 
Running over the same old ground. 
What have we found? 
The same old fears. 
Wish you were here.


(Waters, Gilmour)

The Dexterous Butcher by Chuang Tzu

“The Dexterous Butcher”

by Chuang Tzu: 

From the Inner Chapters

Ting the cook was cutting meat free from the bones of an ox for Lord Wen-hui. His hands danced as his shoulders turned with the step of his foot and bending of his knee. With a shush and a hush, the blade sang following his lead, never missing a note. Ting and his blade moved as though dancing to “The Mulberry Grove,” or as if conducting the “Ching-shou” with a full orchestra.

Lord Wen-hui exclaimed, “What a joy! It’s good, is it not, that such a simple craft can be so elevated?”

Ting laid aside his knife. “All I care about is the Way. If find it in my craft, that’s all. When I first butchered an ox, I saw nothing but ox meat. It took three years for me to see the whole ox. Now I go out to meet it with my whole spirit and don’t think only about what meets the eye. Sensing and knowing stop. The spirit goes where it will, following the natural contours, revealing large cavities, leading the blade through openings, moving onward according to actual form — yet not touching the central arteries or tendons and ligaments, much less touching bone.

“A good cook need sharpen his blade but once a year. He cuts cleanly. An awkward cook sharpens his knife every month. He chops. I’ve used this knife for nineteen years, carving thousands of oxen. Still the blade is as sharp as the first time it was lifted from the whetstone. At the joints there are spaces, and the blade has no thickness. Entering with no thickness where there is space, the blade may move freely where it will: there’s plenty of room to move. Thus, after nineteen years, my knife remains as sharp as it was that first day.

“Even so, there are always difficult places, and when I see rough going ahead, my heart offers proper respect as I pause to look deeply into it. Then I work slowly, moving my blade with increasing subtlety until — kerplop! — meat falls apart like a crumbling clod of earth. I then raise my knife and assess my work until I’m fully satisfied. Then I give my knife a good cleaning and put it carefully away.”

Lord Wen-hui said, “That’s good, indeed! Ting the cook has shown me how to find the Way to nurture life.”

Translated by Sam Hamill and J.P. Seaton
 (The Essential Chuang Tzu, 1998)

Sumerian proverbs

Six thousand years ago saw the rise of the Sumerian culture in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers.   This is considered by many to be the first true Empire and the first State, even though the oldest cities on archaeological record date back to ten thousand years ago, or older.

All knowledge of Sumerian culture or history was lost to time, until several libraries of cuneiform tablets were unearthed and translated in a herculean effort of scholarship.

In the Bible, there is no mention of Sumer, although Abraham was from Ur, which was one of the great cities of the Empire.  Also, the Sumerian myth "Epic of Gilgamesh" has a flood narrative that is almost identical to the story of Noah, except the names and a few small details are different.

Here are a few Sumerian proverbs from that time; from the Time LIFE book on "The First Cities," 1973, p. 105;

"For his pleasure -- marriage;
on his thinking it over -- divorce."

"He who has not supported a wife or child has not borne a leash."

"When a poor man dies do not try to revive him."

"Wealth is hard to come by, but poverty is always with us."

"Possessions are sparrows in flight that can find no place to alight."

"Don't pick it now; later it will bear fruit."

"Tell a lie; then if you tell the truth it will be deemed a lie."

"Into an open mouth a fly enters."

" Who has much silver may be happy;
   Who has much grain may be glad;
   but he who has nothing can sleep."

Law of Physics

Law of Physics

By Bill Schaeffer


In the science of Physics we learn that there can be no Force without an

equal and opposing Force. For example, the force of movement is opposed

by the force of friction, and the force of impact is opposed by the structural
force of the material being impacted.

It seems that the practical application of this fact is the realization
that you cannot do anything important in life without encountering
some significant opposition. In fact, the strength of the opposition

can be thought of as a measure of the significance of your ideas.

Or, as Albert Einstein once observed, "Great spirits have always

encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

So don’t worry if it seems like the whole world is against you,

it is just their way of telling you that you are on the right course.

copyright ©2007, 2014 William Schaeffer