Perfection and Imperfection by Wishimay

THOUGHTS?

I don't think peanut butter actually has dairy in it.

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 10:16 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:

We are ALL so clueless. Every single one of us on this planet. We're cavemen trying to drive a tank. I never know whether to give us points for trying or laugh at us for our paltry and pathetic efforts...

Why not both?

Eventually the caveman figures out a little bit of how to drive the tank. In so doing, he becomes a bit less "cave" man and a bit more "modern" man.

Then he figures out a bit of how a tank works, and moves ahead again. Then figures out how to improve it, and makes a new leap. Then figures out how to make it obsolete...

"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero

"I was wrong" - Hero, 2012

Mitt Romney, introducing his running mate: "Join me in welcoming the next President of the United States, Paul Ryan!"

Rappy's response? "You're lying, gullible ( believing in some BS you heard on msnbc ) or hard of hearing."

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 11:18 AM

M52NICKERSON

DALEK!

I do not fear God, I fear the ignorance of man.
A warning to everyone, AURaptor is a known liar.
...and now a Fundie!
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=53359

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 11:52 AM

Well, who the hell is useful anyway? Pretty sure even a vast majority of people who aren't unique aren't useful either. We pretty much all live in the pit of mediocre sameness.

Which is actually a good thing, because as same as we all are, our tendency to unintentionally or deliberately be useless makes us difficult to control.

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 3:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Well, who the hell is useful anyway? Pretty sure even a vast majority of people who aren't unique aren't useful either. We pretty much all live in the pit of mediocre sameness.

Which is actually a good thing, because as same as we all are, our tendency to unintentionally or deliberately be useless makes us difficult to control.

I will tell that one to hubbs and I am sure he will enjoy that thought emensely....

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 3:55 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I shudder when I ask this...but- THOUGHTS?

RSA has totally beaten me to the punch on this, and so I will post the clip.
Yes, it's eleven minutes long, a bit "heavy reading" for the soundbyte internet generation, but worth every bloody second of it.

Empathy is the KEY, it's the one thing which opens all the doors you speak of.

Also worthwhile is Maia and Bruces book.
Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential--and Endangered
http://www.amazon.com/Born-Love-Empathy-Essential---Endangered/dp/0061
656798/

This is the root, the core, of why I am so adamantly opposed to education, child-rearing, and social systems which are set up to drive out empathy, to suppress it and throw those secondary drives to the fore, resulting in aberrent behavior we then try to mitigate with abuse and drugs instead of admitting it comes from a conflict of their own human instincts and what is required to survive and prosper in a society created and run by sociopaths.

Why Does the World Feel Wrong?
http://www.strike-the-root.com/91/groves/groves1.html

Quote:
Our battle for liberty appears not just as a conflict between those who want freedom versus those who want control, but instead as the battle between normal people and the psychopaths. I have found incredible explanatory power of our world within the psychopathic hypothesis: The world feels wrong because psychopaths run it. In a country trained to discount and ridicule all ideas more than a standard deviation from the average, coherent explanations of observable social phenomena don't get much press. Without understanding physical laws, we would never have gained the massive improvements in our quality of life from technological developments. Similarly, without understanding our social systems, we will never escape from the tyranny unleashed on us by psychopaths. We should spread the word and explore this rich vein of thought with vigor.

So, you wanted my thoughts on it, and there they are.

-Frem

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 4:54 PM

^
What Frem said. Eventho he sugar-coated it.

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 5:19 PM

There is only one problem with that... there is so much crap out there that if we made all the reasonably sane people be empathetic they would go insane in a very short time. Have to fix the psychos first. Then re-boot empathy. Because if you fix empathy and don't stop the cruelty first, empathy becomes jaded and hardened very quickly and you've accomplished NOTHING, except people that hate themselves for not doing anything about it, now or in the past...

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 5:39 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
There is only one problem with that... there is so much crap out there that if we made all the reasonably sane people be empathetic they would go insane in a very short time. Have to fix the psychos first. Then re-boot empathy. Because if you fix empathy and don't stop the cruelty first, empathy becomes jaded and hardened very quickly and you've accomplished NOTHING, except people that hate themselves for not doing anything about it, now or in the past...

It's kind of a chicken and egg argument, but I think you have it the wrong way around.

Empathy in itself solves a lot of problems, it reduces conflict, aggression, depression, feelings of isolation. Being empathic helps those things within yourself, but also others as well. It is a win/win situation.

You cannot help to win the psychopaths over, or to annhilate them, but you can change what are deemed acceptable behaviours. That is why we need to demand a bit of civilitiy, honesty and empathy from those that wield the most power in society.

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 6:17 PM

I speak from experience. I used ta care about everything and now I pray that stupidity really does become painful. I have stopped acting on almost all empathetic urges, save giving advice and the occaisional wistfulness. Then I remember why I stopped caring. I can't deal with humanity much at all anymore. If something happened to my family I would stop all interactions and be a hermit. No, really. I've done it before....

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 6:29 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I speak from experience. I used ta care about everything and now I pray that stupidity really does become painful. I have stopped acting on almost all empathetic urges, save giving advice and the occaisional wistfulness. Then I remember why I stopped caring. I can't deal with humanity much at all anymore. If something happened to my family I would stop all interactions and be a hermit. No, really. I've done it before....

Stupidity IS painful. I generally have a headache at all times. :)

Hope that helps.

(I also am a hermit)

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 7:54 PM

HKCAVALIER

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
There is only one problem with that... there is so much crap out there that if we made all the reasonably sane people be empathetic they would go insane in a very short time. Have to fix the psychos first. Then re-boot empathy. Because if you fix empathy and don't stop the cruelty first, empathy becomes jaded and hardened very quickly and you've accomplished NOTHING, except people that hate themselves for not doing anything about it, now or in the past...

Heya Wish,

Um. The problem with going for empathy too soon, for jumping to compassion and forgiveness too soon, is you need to START with empathy for yourself. That is to say, empathy for where you've been, what you've done. Compassion for yourself. Forgiveness for yourself. People skip that stage and wonder why they "end up" hating themselves.

That's because you STARTED OUT hating yourself. Ya just didn't realize it yet.

People with entirely different rules for how they treat other people and how they treat themselves always end up treating everyone terribly. Because self hatred blinds them from the truth of who and what we all are, including themselves.

If you really, truly comprehended what you've been up against, you couldn't hate yourself; you could only be proud and not a little amazed at what you've accomplished; you would be grateful. You'd have a little humility.

All you hear is gibberish when I talk to you like this because you hate yourself. Hating yourself is the problem. Y'know what? It's the only problem you have. It's the only problem your whole world has. But it's enough to destroy you and it will, unless you can find a way to love yourself, for real. You gotta find a way to love who you are, or you will die hating everything.

It's not complicated.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Thursday, November 1, 2012 8:45 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I speak from experience. I used ta care about everything and now I pray that stupidity really does become painful. I have stopped acting on almost all empathetic urges, save giving advice and the occaisional wistfulness. Then I remember why I stopped caring. I can't deal with humanity much at all anymore. If something happened to my family I would stop all interactions and be a hermit. No, really. I've done it before....

That's sad, Wish.

At work, we call it 'compassion fatigue' and we usually see it as a time close to burn out. It means moving away from dealing directly with people all the time.

I think HkC is right, empathy and compassion start with yourself. If you can't meet your own needs and treat yourself well, you'll burn out if you try empathy.

I think the other thing is that you can have empathy and not like people's behaviour. You can recognise someone is in pain, but hate how they act it out.

I usually see the world as like this, we start off programmed to love and be loved and depending on how that need is met, we continue or deviate from that path. People who use bad behaviour have learnt that is how they get their needs met, in fact that is often the only way they see them being met. Their experiences have shaped their world, that it is a cruel, vicious place, dog eat dog and so on, so that is how they respond.

Prison is full of people like the above.

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Friday, November 2, 2012 6:12 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Sugar coating it, really ?
If so be glad of it...

Thing is, you restore empathy the scumbags of the world can't get any traction, you see.
For without the willing drones to act as their triggermen, without jackboot lickers to carry out their orders, they are just one more jackass with a loud mouth, and no more power or influence than their own hands can execute - even if you gave them a firearm and limitless ammo, how much damage could they DO ?

Versus dickheads who by one stroke of a pen can slaughter millions cause the lack of empathy means hordes of willing scum "just following orders", whatever those orders may be.
So to me, it ain't the sociopaths that are the threat - it is those who enable and support them, BY CHOICE, ON PURPOSE, due to lack of empathy or via self-fostering their own hatreds and intolerances.
What I call Jackals.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/DyingLikeAnimals

Those who serve inhumane agendas by choice, rather than from ignorance, are actually MORE my enemy than those in charge of said agendas, and while I am not in favor of dehumanising people, I do believe that one can by such actions surrender their own humanity, and thus waive any right to be considered human - I myself do not even regard them as such, but something akin to a cockroach infestation, if cockroaches had brains enough to do it on purpose.

To forgive a sociopath merely enables them, and forgiveness unto a jackal is a waste of time in that they will use it to validate and excuse their own conduct, but to forgive the ignorant - that's a weapon, and a damned good one.

Consider for a moment Tianamen Square, while most focus on the student as hero, one ordinary guy standing down a tank, consider that if the tank ran his ass over he'd just be one more martyr in a fiasco that had them in such plenty the media didn't even deign to notice.
What changed that ?
One nameless, faceless tank driver... who said the word most dire, most important to a sense of empathy and humanity, who said "No."
No-I-Will-Not-Do-This.

Think about it, the student was following his own beliefs, a natural though courageous expression of them, but the tank driver was as well, for he believed in the established order enough to serve it in a military sense, and when it came to cases, humanity versus duty, he chose humanity.
That too is courage, and empathy, and it is exactly THAT kind of empathy which robs sociopaths of their power, for without anyone to carry out their will the threat they represent falls by the wayside, and in due time, without producing more, they will be cast into the dustbin of history where they properly belong, unheeded and barely noticed at all.

By "producing more" I don't mean folks who have actual broken wiring in their head, those are in fact so rare as to be almost mythological - I realized this back in school when attempting to correllate behavior, it is NOT that there is such a high proportion of them in respect to general population, it is that most of this crap is LEARNED BEHAVIOR.
Hell, I wrote a paper on learned sociopathy as a defense and adaptive mechanism, and the hysterically overblown hostile reaction to it at the time firmly convinced me I was onto something there - children emulate what they feel, what they believe, are those most successful in our society, and that in this time naturally leads to sociopathic behavior which then calcifies post-puberty until it becomes such an integral part of their personality that altering it is nigh impossible outside of a total psyche catastrophe and re-evaluation of self.
Pouring sand in the social, psychological, emotional and educational mechanisms which cause that, BEFORE THEY GET IT DONE, is *critical*, easier not to ring the bell in the first place than to un-ring it after the fact, you see ?
Which is why I do the things I do.

Now, while I do struggle with some of the same compassion-is-painful issues as anyone else, circumstances made that less damaging to me than others I think - scar tissue is a lot tougher, body or mind, and being forced to take up the reins of adulthood far too early within a complete dearth of respect from a society I was all but born hating left me emotionally stunted enough to blunt the edge of that razor, although it is not without its bite, sure.
But for a fact, most of the violence I've committed has been rooted one way or another in compassion, the spark that drives the more destructive engines of personality, the spur that drives the beast within, is almost always hostility to inhumane conduct visited upon others who've no means to stand against it - this isn't the rage of an adult, freighted with excuses, rationalisations, petty jealousies, intolerance and social biases, it is the pure white-hot fury of a child maligned, punished or abused in spite of innocence for the express convenience of an inhumane social order.
I know EXACTLY what it's like to be on the wrong end of that lash, and thanks to a semi-edetic memory, I NEVER FORGET IT, ever.
This is why that whole how-dare-you-defend-yourself concept sends me into a berserk frenzy every time I see it, empathy for others begins with empathy for self.

Rather than flail myself for being human, deriding empathy and compassion as weakness (which is, mind you, playing THEIR game, by THEIR rules, at THEIR table) - rather than give in to self flagellation and indulgence of the beast within...
I threw a saddle on that motherfucker and rode it to battle!
Which has it's own consequences, physical and otherwise, I will not deny - kind of hard to when the physical and mental cost of them impacts me in a personal way every single day, too many of which are spent in a wheelchair lately for my liking.
I was asked recently - if I could go back, do it all over again, would I change any of it ?
My answer is, and always has been "Not on your life!"
Again, forgiveness begins with self - that I have CHOSEN to self-identify as a villain, is by virtue of acceptance of who I am, good, bad and crazy, and acknowledgement that I stand against our currently accepted social values... values I do NOT share, find unacceptable, unpalatable, inhumane and detrimental to our advancement and enlightenment as a species.

Yeah, ever notice how standing against the social order makes you a "bad guy" ?
WITHOUT REGARD TO THE NATURE OR CONSTRUCTION OF THAT SOCIAL ORDER ?
Never thought about that one, didja ?
Oh yes, villanous indeed to be compassionate, mwa ha ha ha and all that rot for style points too!
Worth remembering that salvaging the damaged came to me by way of necessity and being backed into a corner about it, and that my *intentions* were from the get-go to wreck the living crap out of the mechanisms that leave people so damaged in the first place.
That there is less need for it, and certainly less need for such a brutal approach, is what lead me to passing the reins down to Justin - it's hard to see looking at just this moment in time, but you look at the last thirty years the overall progress we've made (all of us) on this is beyond conception, I expected a much longer and harder fight than its been going in, for a fact.

Now yes, it's easy to focus on the lunacy of the sociopaths, especially with it being lauded and shouted by the media, and what with it being so very public and condensed into a frantic intensity by those who wish to keep or get their hands on the reins of power - but you know what it really is ?
The frenzied, desperate rabidity of a beast backed into a corner!
They're DOOMED, and they know it, the writing is on the wall - even political power won't save them because ENOUGH people will no longer listen, will no longer carry out their orders, perceived authority or no - my concern is not letting them near the machinery to destroy us all in nuclear fire when it all comes crashing down upon them, don't think for a moment that they wouldn't.
So all their wailing and gnashing of teeth about putting women and minorities back in their place, pining for an imagined glory days which never was, amounts to mere sound and fury of a pathology whos time is effectively OVER, loud little handful that they may be.

And why ?
Because empathy, compassion and cooperation is the NATURAL STATE OF MANKIND.
We don't need force to "civilize" us, if we did then we'd never have built civilization in the first goddamn place, that whole need for a leash tripe is a lie, sold to us by dickheads with a leash in one hand and very predictable ideas about who should end up holding it - "for our own good" my entire ass!
Consider for a moment that DECADES of research, drugs, social conditioning cannot deprive a human being of empathy, even in a reflexive sense, it can only even barely suppress it, you see this every day on the american highway system, which functions not by virtue of the threats of legal force, but by the mutually shared understanding that it only WORKS when people work together - if anything the presence of the boys in blue mucks up the process, so why not just admit it ?

That suppression is also part of the problem as well, for the more you suppress a persons humanity the more twisted the form in which it finally expresses itself, and it WILL express itself, like a tree root does to a sidewalk, nature ALWAYS wins - this is most prevalent with self-destructive puritannical religions, in case you hadn't noticed that the most vocal proponents thereof are in fact the most warped behind closed doors, for those very reasons.

So yes, empathy first, always, because it is the natural state of a human being.
AND NATURE ALWAYS WINS.

-Frem

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Friday, November 2, 2012 8:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by HK:
... is you need to START with empathy for yourself.

That's because you STARTED OUT hating yourself. Ya just didn't realize it yet.

Sorry, I don't hate myself, mostly. I was saying on that part, that I see that happen alot and it happens HERE from time to time. Cutters, drinkers, druggers... about half the time that is because of self-hate or self blame....

I actually started out hating people, but that's a long ugly tale that don't get better. My mother is a clinical narcissist, for one thing...I don't think I've ever had anyone ask what I want- they just see what they want for me... and the whole "stabbed in the back thing", I've had more than my fair share of that too. Never had a friend for more than a year, before hubbs and I doubt I'll ever find another. Which I guess is okay, means getting stabbed in the back less...

....will read the rest of the posts when I get back later.......... I need more hands, faster typing and more hours in the day.....

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Friday, November 2, 2012 8:14 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Quote:
The problem with going for empathy too soon, for jumping to compassion and forgiveness too soon, is you need to START with empathy for yourself. That is to say, empathy for where you've been, what you've done. Compassion for yourself. Forgiveness for yourself. People skip that stage and wonder why they "end up" hating themselves.

Amen. Except I don't think most people wonder why they end up hating themselves; they don't even realize they DO. Most people externalize problems without even wondering about their part in it.

And in my opinion empathy doesn't work to change things very much. Any one person who is empathetic dies, and unless they touched someone else or more than one with the concept, or instills it in their children, it dies with them. The only way it would work, and work PERFECTLY to change the world, is if everyone did it at once. Nonetheless, I live by it--I STRIVE for it and strive to extend it to everyone else--and fail frequently. As a buddhist, the "trying"--and not beating myself up when I fail, but trying again next time--is all that's important.

Quote:
People with entirely different rules for how they treat other people and how they treat themselves always end up treating everyone terribly. Because self hatred blinds them from the truth of who and what we all are, including themselves.

I don't think it's different "rules", it's different "perceptions". Because we don't try to be self-aware, as above we externalize how others act without applying the same perceptions to ourselves. For me, "rules" would have to be conscious...but that's just my interpretation of the word.

I read something years ago that really stuck. It explained how almost every critter is born with the (unconscious) knowledge that they must please their providers (parents) or they will die. That's why we imitate our parents and "think like" our parents, and the majority never get away from that. Yeah, we think consciously that we break the ties at some age, but by then so much may be subconsciously integrated that we can't even see it. Ergo, offspring of racists may become racists without even knowing why or thinking there is any OTHER way to think. Yeah, external forces have an effect, but for me, unless we consciously think about stuff, the parental/childhood experiental bond will hold.

In essence, many of our beliefs were established in childhood and have outlived their usefulness. Others are leftovers from situations and circumstances that are no longer relevant. But most of these beliefs are pretty hard-wired into us, so we act out of them subconsciously and "alter" reality to fit them. If a parent (remember we feel we need to please them to survive) says something negative to us in our formative years, we internalize it. Just think for a minute how many messages we get as kids that tell us we failed; a passing comment by a parent can be internalized to "you don't deserve to be loved", an OVERHEARD comment can be internalized--when either of them might mean FAR more about the parent, how they feel, their own internalized crap, who they're talking to, how their day went and on and on and on, than it does about us. But once internalized, it starts to harden our reality and our feelings about ourselves.

As odd as it might seem, we work just as hard to validate our bad beliefs as our good ones. Because the process takes place on a subconscious level; our subconscious does not analyze a belief to see if it’s appropriate or not, it just bends reality to make it fit. All the logic in the world is no match for real world validation (good or bad) provided by our VERSION of reality.

A biggie (and shock to me and which fought when I first heard it) is at the verrrry bottom of self-hatred, if we peel away the layers, is the belief that we don't "deserve" to be loved...and below that, that we don't deserve to LIVE. That was a wowser for me. It's that loud voice inside our heads that reminds us of everything we’re not, everything we mess up, everything we lack, and everything we think we'll never be. It can go on for a lifetime, without us even realizing what’s going on. Here's a real kicker--if you can do it--to find out how that works. The next time something does not go the way you wanted it to, or just when you are feeling low, ask yourself how old you are feeling. What you might find is that you are feeling like a bad little girl, a bad little boy, and that you must have done something wrong because it feels like you are being punished. If you can get ahold of that child--especially if you can figure out where the belief comes from and realize it had nothing to DO with the child (and that's a REAL toughie!)--you can find empathy for that child, and it can help the self-awareness. And don't kid yourself, however much you felt your parents loved and supported you, there's "stuff" in there.

Another toughie is trying to figure out, when you’re around a person that leaves you feeling annoyed, nervous, troubled, suspicious, edgy, or in any way uncomfortable, where that comes from. Very often, some part of what you are seeing is a reflection of a hidden belief you have about yourself, one that you are not very comfortable with. Our ego wants to resist the fact that anything unpleasant is actually a reflection of a negative belief on our part. It’s much easier to give credit for our discomfort to someone else.

Oh, the human brain; it's so damned fascinating and so damned fucked up at the same time. I've said it before, but for me, if there WERE to be a "god", it would be the brain. It's capable of so much, it DOES so much, but we consciously understand so little about it, the subconscious part rules way too much of it and we never even realize it. We've figured out an awful lot about it, yet barely touched the surface. I find it endlessly fascinating.

Quote:
You can recognise someone is in pain, but hate how they act it out.

THAT's the key for me...not to just hate people for what they say and do, but to always, always try to look behind it and realize that, just like me, they're run by their subconscious, so deserve compassion, whatever they actually DO. Hating the external stuff leaves room for caring about the "child" who was molded without even knowing it.

Yeah, Frem,

Quote:
Those who serve inhumane agendas by choice, rather than from ignorance, are actually MORE my enemy

But how much of it IS "choice"? Sure, they think it is consciously, but the subconscious is what's driving them. I'll fight them tooth and nail, but I'll never see them as the enemy; if I do, I'm accepting that everything bad I do was done by "choice", and away you go into the "don't deserve" stuff. I don't think anyone's talking about FORGIVING bad stuff, just about recognizing their humanity (deep as it may be and little as they may be in touch with it). I have no "enemies" and I don't "hate" anyone...but I hate what people do and will defend myself as if they ARE the "enemy".

If I could go back and change things, unlike you I'd change a LOT. Because it wasn't until was way too far into my life that I started even trying to become self-aware, and if I could go back with even as much self-awareness as I've managed to achieve, boy, would I change A LOT!

So yes, empathy first, always, because it is the natural state of a human being. AND NATURE ALWAYS WINS.

But man, can it be almost impossible to get past all the CRAP and find that nature! If we can't get past all that crap, nature hasn't got a shot.

Gawd, this ended up so long I wonder if anyone will ever read it? Doesn't matter I suppose, because others have said much of what I did already, I guess I just wish everyone could think about it and come to understand it.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Friday, November 2, 2012 8:19 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Yeah, Byte, you hate yourself...just my opinion from a lifetime of observation, you certainly don't have to believe it. Nobody who says--and apparently so firmly believes that considering otherwise is rejected--the things you say about yourself doesn't hate themselves.

Nobody STARTS OUT hating other people...we're not even "people" at that point; when something bad happens, we instinctively believe it's 'cuz WE did something "bad" or "wrong". Once we're old enough to actually THINK, a lot of stuff has already happened that we may never be aware of, as I said far too lengthily above. But unless we're willing to try and dig into it, we're stuck with what we think consciously, which is how I see you thinking. JMHO.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Friday, November 2, 2012 2:44 PM

Recovery for Mankind needs Empathy.

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Compassion.
I was taught this by word, not so much by deed. But I believed it.

My sis had much the same teaching; we were together, getting the
same lectures, demands, accusations. The big difference between
us was: she had 2 parents to correct her. I had 2 parents & a sis
to correct me. She nearly always chose condemnation over empathy;
I guess it was the easier, known value. "Shit runs downhill," she
often quipped, meaning, they hurt me; I hurt you.

Later in life, she would ask me what I meant using stupid words like
honor, stupid concepts like spirit vs ego. She knew perfectly well
what the words meant; she was simply trying to deny my knowing.
Her notion of the correct smart way to live was to win above all.

Assuming we both made a choice of moral code at the age of 4 or 5,
we did not waver over a lifetime. Not that I was always a "good
person," far from it; but I wanted to be. Sis as a selfish psychopath
was always far more successful than me. (sigh)

No matter what the teaching was, I can only choose for me. The
Teacher and the Sis can't choose for me. I can't choose for anyone
but me.

I believe in Karma. That we arrive here Pre-Damaged with plenty of
work to do. We have Free Will that isn't free; we have to work like
hell for it. We fail a lot, all of us.

All the more need for empathy. Compassion. Understanding.
It's been on my list lately to learn about Forgiving and Closure.

Human life on Earth: It's a big school, a big game.

O right! What's the point of this post?
If I want to Change the World, and I Do, I have to do it without
trying to Change the World. Me Changing the World is like ...
Me trying to eat for everyone; me trying to piss for everyone.
It Cannot Be Done.

I can only work on me. I make myself happy, make myself feel good.
I raise my vibrations. Vibrations are very powerful. What I make
of myself is my gift to the world. It's simply the Law.

=========================
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. ~Charles R Swindoll

If I have to react to others all the time, then they own my mind more than I do.
If I let others tell me how to feel, I lose my ability to choose happiness.
If I let others tell me who I am, I've vacated self-definition.
Finally, I realized how foolish I was to give others such power over me.

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Monday, November 5, 2012 5:49 AM

Quote:
Yeah, Byte, you hate yourself..

I am not Wishimay.

You all do know how to make a person feel welcome though.

Wish, cheers to less backstabbing. An island never cries. *toast*

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Saturday, November 17, 2012 3:28 PM

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2234425/So-thats-genius-Einste
ins-intelligence-unusual-features-brain.html

Ta HA.

I see someone is actually taking my suggestions ta heart... that's right, it's allll me

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Saturday, November 17, 2012 4:24 PM

Neurotransmitter activity.

The shape of Einstein's brain was different, enhanced we may say.
What'd be cool to me is to find other people, geniuses, with like
structural differences, and check out the neurotransmitter activity
in those areas.

Brain researchers are miles ahead of me. They're already doing it,
I bet.

We are way more different in our brains than in our fingerprints.

======================

A man's gotta know his limitations. ~Dirty Harry

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Sunday, November 18, 2012 1:30 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Quote:
That we arrive here Pre-Damaged with plenty of work to do. We have Free Will that isn't free; we have to work like hell for it. We fail a lot, all of us.

Well, you just nailed a good part of buddhist philosophy, dear. Then you nailed the rest of it:

Quote:
If I want to Change the World, and I Do, I have to do it without trying to Change the World. Me Changing the World is like ... Me trying to eat for everyone; me trying to piss for everyone. It Cannot Be Done.

I can only work on me. I make myself happy, make myself feel good. I raise my vibrations. Vibrations are very powerful. What I make of myself is my gift to the world. It's simply the Law.

In a nutshell, and I can only speak for me, but yes, when I'm successful working on me, it does make me feel good. Just a little, but isn't feeling good "just a little" worth an awful lot? To me it is.

Your sister: It's interesting, not having siblings of my own, I've observed your case is very common. Seems like there's always at least one in the family who grows up with the "I want, I want...I got mine, fuck you" mentality, and at least one who sees the world the way it really is and strives for self-awareness. I'm sure researchers have figured out the reason(s) for this, all I know is I've observed it...many times. You have my sympathy; every time I mourn not having siblings, I'm reminded that it could have been far, far worse WITH them!

Einstein's brain? Something interesting along those lines is that bipolars tend to have higher IQs than "the average bear". We've theorized on this endlessly...do we tap into something others don't (because many of us "sense" things or have had unusual experiences related to dreaming about something happening to a loved one, etc.)? Does our illness open up areas not accessible to others, causing both the high IQ and the high emotions?

One of the theories about bipolarity is that we don't "sift" things properly--there's too much input and we get "brain overload". So are we just open to more "stuff" than others? We've never figured it out; I wish they could get a handle on it while I'm still around; it's one of the questions I'd really love to have answered.

That was my idea of "god" by the way. Someone that, when I die, I could go sit with, who would answer ALL my questions. That seemed like the best idea of heaven to me, when I was younger. I'd still love to have someone sit down with me who knew everything about the human brain...I could spend years understanding its complexities, given the chance!

Idiosyncratic personalities and high intelligence go hand in hand so often I can't help believing there's some kind of correlation. If you look at the list of people who had bipolarity or clinical depression throughout history, there's some awfully bright people there!

Einstein's son, by the way, was diagnosed at age 7 with a severe mental illness. He spent decades in hospitals, and died in the Zurich sanatorium in 1965. Given the predisposition to mental illness is believed to be genetic, it makes me wonder if Einstein carried the gene... Einstein himself suffered from aspergers syndrome...but I'm not sure if that's connected to other mental illnesses. I think aspbergers is a neurodevelopmental disorder, not a mood disorder, if I remember correctly. I wonder if we'd have drugged Einstein when he was dx'd, as we do with so many....

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Sunday, November 18, 2012 2:35 PM