Grad school...

Sorry, just have to get this one in...

I'm in grad school right now. In the beginning, I was really excited. All of this great learning, surrounded by people with similar interests...then it started to fade.

It started when one of my professors, who teachers Motor Learning, gave us the second test of the semester. It was on 7 chapters, and one research paper. The test itself had 28 questions, and focused almost exclusively on one single theory we had learned during that month. Needless to say, the depth of knowledge on that subject that the test demanded was extreme. I got a 70. Versus a 100 on the first test. It seemed strange to me that someone who teaches the principles of learning would construct a test designed to make students do poorly. Very strange.

Then, the following week, my other professor in Research Methods administered a 30 question test (each with five sub-questions) that took an average of about 2.5 hours to complete. This professor reads off of the slides he projects every night (which are also in your class reader, in case you wanted to stay home and read the same information). There is no teaching going on in this class, unless it's in how to read slides. Which I already know how to do. Very confusing.

The final straw was when my psych professor assigned a paper to me to present that dealt with such difficult statistical analysis of psychological data that I had to read it no fewer than 7 times to really understand it. It was my turn to present, but there were only 10 minutes left in class, instead of the 20 I was supposed to be allotted. I figured she'd push it till the next class, but no. My presentation, needless to say, was rushed. Worse still, my motivation was really destroyed by the difficulty I had understanding this paper. Funny thing is, it's a class called Motivation and Performance. Again...are these folks reading their own textbooks?!!!

At this point, I'm just waiting to see what kind of grades I get, and whether or not I'll be allowed to continue with the program (need a B or better in all classes). If not, I won't be too upset. Graduate school is not a place to learn. It is a place to follow the rules. Do as you're told. Don't ask questions. Don't look ignorant, either. They don't want to teach you...you have to figure that out yourself.

Holding Patterns

What I've described is a societal "holding pattern." A blockage in free movement. Similar to somatic awareness techniques, the way out is through subtle movement in the direction of freedom against resistance.

Never mobilize a symptomatic area - stabilize it. Never mobilize in the direction of pain or discomfort - mobilize in the opposite direction against resistance.

Are you getting this at all?

Conspiracy Theorists and Disaster Syndromes

These are just self-protection mechanisms. Have I said this already? People who are afraid of technology or the use of technology have as shallow an understanding of the way things work as those who fear nature, or the natural world.

Both live in a strange miasma of illusion - they live in shallow surface-appearances. They're simpler even than the water-spider...who at least can see through his reflection into the water, to catch a juicy tadpole or fish.

It's just another channel to try to harness the Drive. Life. But, like all dams, it fails eventually. The waters are too powerful, or too great. The dam bursts, and the water flows again, which is the Way of Nature.

McDonalds, Pizza Hut, fast food, slow minds - the Force pushes through this structure, and the people get fatter. But eventually the dam bursts. Diabetes, heart disease, cancers - and the water level returns to normal, it flows again. But another channel is built...another aqueduct, another dam. Over and over.

Separation is one of the keys to dam-building. Separate the food from its source. Separate the people from nature. Separate the wealthy from the poor. Separation is a key.

The Will to Power

Yes, I said it, Nietzsche was right!

The drive to control is an outgrowth of the will to power - the fundamental backbone of life - the drive to expand, to grow, consume. It is the Will to LIVE. Without it, the life withers away, or commits suicide (intentionally or not).

Why has nothing changed in the course of human history? Mostly because no one will admit that the above is true. Like alcoholism, first you have to admit you have a problem. Only then can you work on it.

When human animals admit that the drive to live outweighs everything else, drives everything, and that part of life is to kill/consume other life, then we can begin to be truly "human" - to see through the veil of words and organizations...to make decisions based on thought (which is human), that is, to drive, instead of to be decided by this drive, to be driven.

Then it becomes no mystery as to why the things that seem like they should be so good, can turn so bad - all the social paradigms we've created - society, religion, government, science...

Until this happens, the human animal will continue to be a herd animal. Trained to be obsessed with surfaces, while those whose drive and luck is more forceful pull the strings.

PS - If you don't know anything about Nietzsche or his thought, don't break bad on it. He was not a misogynist, Nazi, Communist, etc. Don't believe the propaganda your scaredy-cat advisers have fed you...they don't know anything about it either.

Go read Beyond Good and Evil. Then read The Antichrist. Then The Gay Science. Then Daybreak. Then read Beyond Good and Evil again. Then read The Will to Power. Try to get the Walter Kauffman translations - he has good footnotes that help to understand what's going on.

Morality, or The Evolution of Humanity

This is one of the biggest scams going. Of all that has been accomplished, or that has occurred in the course of human events, what has changed?

Are we more "civilized" than before? Not really.

Is there more "freedom" than there was in the days of Ancient Greece, or Bushman/Aboriginal living? I'd say no.

Do we experience greater luxury in life than any before us in history? Only if you count convenience and luxury as synonyms (which they are not). And even then, we experience only slightly greater "convenience" than those who came before us.

For all that the great leaders of the world ever did (in the West, they might be - Alexander, Plato/Socrates, Jesus, etc.; in the East perhaps - Lao Tzu, Confucius, Buddha, Gandhi, etc.) the distinctions of rich and poor remain.

The animal seeks still to express its power, in whatever form available to it. The crafty outwits the smart. The reflexive out-acts the learned.

The urge to save humanity is almost always a disguised urge to rule.
- HL Menken

"Americans are focused on making a lot of money. And to make a lot of money, you have to be hyper." - Cesar Millan, "The Dog Whisperer"

The Arbitrary Human/Animal Distinction...

Ever hear of the Nuremberg Trials? Well, after WWII, all the Nazi "war criminals" (another scam, but more on that later) were taken to international court and convicted of their various crimes.

Among the guilty were the experimenters at prison camps, who performed brutal experiments on the camp prisoners.

Part of the outcome of the trials were the tenets of the Nuremberg Code - laying a foundation for the ethical treatment of HUMANS in experiments.

Wait. Only humans? Well, humans aren't animals, so yes, only humans! Do whatever you want to a monkey!

It's about time we edited those, and other experimentation guidelines to include all animals, that we might realize our "humanity..."

Here's a sample of the Nuremberg Code, with ANIMAL where it should be:

1. Voluntary consent of the human (ANIMAL) subject is absolutely essential
2. The experiment must yield generalizable knowledge that could not be obtained in any other way and is not random and unnecessary in nature
3. Animal experimentation should precede human (ANIMAL) experimentation - REDUNDANT Where is your "humanity" if you would do something to an animal that you wouldn't do to a "human" animal?
4. All unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury should be avoided
5. No experiment should be conducted if there is reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur
6. The degree of risk to subjects should never exceed the humanitarian (ANIMALITARIAN) importance of the problem
7. Risks to the subjects should be minimized through proper preparations
8. Experiments should only be conducted by scientifically qualified investigators (SELF-REFERENCING = LIE. Since only science can determine who would be a "scientifically qualified investigator" this clause should be struck, or altered to recognize that "scientifically qualified" needs to be vetted by the animal population at large, and not by a select, special-interest, community.)

Another scam came to light during my stay in Yosemite. The scam of the Career. "What are you going to do with your life?" "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "How will you support yourself?"

For anyone who has ever strayed outside the jersey barriers on the highway of life, you know that there are as many ways to survive (thrive, even), as there are people on the planet. I know this, but I'm still haunted by the Voice in my head..."get a career...make a difference...make a ton of money..."

More subtle still is the "go into debt" voice. It's not as old, and they haven't found a way to make it sensible. It's too much nonsense. They keep trying - interest-only loans, no-payments till X, etc. - but they haven't succeeded yet.

Anyway, long story short - get happy. Find what makes you happy. Do everything and anything that makes you happy. Find a way to do it and make enough money to support yourself. If you make more than that, great. If not, who cares? Your life is short.

If the idea of "want" is false, so too is the idea of "free will," and "volition." You never "do" anything. Things are done through you. You never "cause" anything. You are an effect that sets into motion other effects.

"Love" is a similar idea. It doesn't really exist. It was created in the Elizabethan novels of Romantic women stuck in towers and whale-bone corsets.

Let's be honest. It's all a scam, isn't it?

I recently went to Yosemite National Park for a little vacation. As usual, when confronted with overwhelming natural beauty, I experienced a moment of clarity out there.

The scales fell from my eyes. Nature, our Mother and Father, our Womb, our True God, sat before me, doing nothing. The trees competed for space and water, as did the undergrowth. The burnt-out pines rotted. Animals searched for food, and played. The rock seemed to sit silent, though I knew it was moving.

Everything moved, without human intervention. I was reminded of Alan Weisman's book "The World Without Us," in which he documents the rebounding of nature in a post-human world (http://www.worldwithoutus.com/did_you_know.html).

But what really brought me back to myself was the sudden realization that the world is already "without us." All of our explanations of things don't change the pines creaking in the wind, speaking their own language. All of our pollution and murder, our unchecked expansion, doesn't change anything fundamental.

Why not return to that state now? Before we're actually gone. Our true predator is ourselves...obesity, cancer, heart disease, depression, AIDS...these are our own doing. We fight them, but in fighting, give them power. Better to stop fighting. To stop doing all the time. All of this doing. Getting us nowhere.

Cures

Cures for things are hard to come by. Usually, nowadays, it happens by accident. Penicillin is a good example.

In the beginning, I imagine, people just had to experiment with whatever was handy. "Let's see, what happens if I rub some of THIS on there?"

"Oh...he died. Hey everybody, don't use this stuff when you have that thing on your arm..."

Cures of that sort rely heavily on a direct observation of cause and effect.

What we do now is "investigate." Called, "the scientific method." We observe causes (symptoms) and effects (diseases). Then we try to recreate causes (symptoms) that make those effects (diseases) (in an isolated laboratory environment). Once we can do that, we can try to find a way to stop those causes (symptoms), thereby stopping the effect (disease).

But is that what we're really doing? Could we really be recreating effects (diseases) to search for causes (symptoms)?

Let's look at heart disease:
By the time a disease appears, the appearance of the disease is an effect. We search for deeper causes, like cholesterol levels, salt intake, etc. But those things themselves are diseases. They are effects. High cholesterol is an effect of low-exercise levels, improper nutrition, and, at times, genetics (though I feel we like to use genetics as a scapegoat these days).

Well, what is the cause of low levels of exercise? Maybe it's simply not doing anything (though I tend to think there are causes that underlie a lack of desire to do anything - complacency is a disease). We can try to treat this disease with movement. And if that doesn't work...look for a deeper cause.

What is the cause of improper nutrition? Do this one on your own.

I think this goes beyond the difference between "analytic" medicine and "synthetic" medicine. What I'm asking for is ecological medicine.

This blog entry came about because I subscribe to the CNN.com Money Alerts (I know, right?). I received one today that said - "Drug companies are set next week to unveil their latest weapons in war on cancer, but there's still no cure in sight."

And I had a sudden, terrible realization.

Why would any drug company actually want to find a true cure for anything? It would make their business obsolete. Instead, wouldn't they want to do what they seem to be doing - which is to create drugs that offer long-term (i.e., hopefully a full human lifetime of) relief from symptoms...but not CURES?

In "The Apology," Socrates explained to his students that he was about to take the cure for this ailment he'd had. In other words the cure for life is death. And this guy (and his "student") are considered two of the founders of Western thought? I think we need to keep our eyes open...

PS - This entry is in no way intended to make light of serious illnesses, the people who have them, or the folks searching for cures. It's just a bunch of questions.

Corn.

Are you familiar with it? You're familiar with one type of corn.

My interest in this wonderful-tasting vegetable was aroused recently by the recurring commercials touting ethanol engines in American cars using "American corn." They've been called "flex-fuel" vehicles.

Check it out in Google.

Then turn your brain on.

Who stands to profit here? Is it the foundering corn industry? The foundering American car industry? Both? Yes. You're right. It IS both.

Corn is one of the most heavily subsidized crops in the US. It is subsidized mostly for the great fields of beef we like to grow here (which is an entirely different entry).

Something happens when you offer a reward for people for doing a particular thing. THEY START DOING IT!

Hence the farmers of our great land, who were increasingly being edged out by big corporate farms, and terrible business practices on behalf of our USDA, began growing CORN (or soybeans...or wheat...). Then we had an over abundance of the stuff. What to do...what to do?

I have a good idea. Let's turn it into sugar, and put it in absolutely every food we can. Yes. Check your labels.

Recent diet crazes, and real nutrition experts, have been blaming High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) for the obesity of America. Really, it should be a game of "Follow the Corn..." - the high beef intake of our nation doesn't help its waistline or health. Or maybe, "Pin the Tail on the Subsidy..." - our addiction to wheat-based products is equally as fattening.

So now, subsidized corn is in danger. What to do? Well, there's this fuel thingy. Let's use that!

Instead of taking a look at the absurdity of the situation, and changing it, we just find a different outlet for our bad behavior. I think this is actually just human nature. Look at your own bad habits. Don't you do the same thing on a personal level? You just find a new way to explain your bad behavior. "Oh, I have to do it like this, my doctor said I'm ADHD" (and prescribed you expensive and essentially un-tested mood-altering drugs).

I want to make a quick soybean note, since this is exactly what happened when tofu rose in popularity within the US. There was a massive soybean overstock, and the industry needed to figure out what to do with it. Let's make tofu popular. Suddenly, you see "scientific" reports touting the health benefits of tofu. You see the sht in everything - tofu ice cream, tofu chicken wings, tofu water.

You see it on the tube, and you get sucked in. You're trained to believe what you see. You're trained to do that, not just from your upbringing, but from evolution. What happens to the monkey that doesn't believe its eyes when it sees a tiger? It doesn't pass its genes on. That's what.

I implore you, the next time you hear a "scientific" study, to put it into Google and look for a refuting study. 9 times out of ten, you'll find one.

You may think I'm getting off topic, but this is exactly what I'm referring to, in all of these entries. Use your brain friends. Use it for good. For truth, justice, and the American way.