Sexuality is, perhaps, one of the easiest things to understand about living organisms, but it is the least understood thing about living organisms by humans. This is because there are more myths about sexuality than there are facts known to the general population. Often scientific papers are misquoted, misread, or simply ignored on the subject, but it's all in there, and very easy to understand when you actually read the information. So I will attempt to weaken some of those myths here, at least the most damaging of the myths circulating at this time.
When it comes to sexuality there are generally a few different types, the rarest being the well informed, scientifically educated, and deep thinking person, we'll call them the scientist. One of the most common are those who think that because they have a lot of sex, they know everything about sexuality, we'll call them hillbillies. Another common type of person is the one who keeps up with the magazines, popular culture stereotypes being their bread and butter, we'll call those people wasps; if you get that reference then you win the game today.
The final type, the rarest of those who are often wrong, but also the most educated of the least educated, know about their own sexuality so well they can recite genetic, biological, and other scientific texts on the matter. However they are completely clueless about the sexualities most opposite their own. We shall call these people smart.
The nature of sexuality has often been shown as a sliding scale, or categorized list of various types. The reality of sexuality is that it is more of a cloud, a cloud with hundreds of dimensions, billions of paths, and millions of extremes. The reason for this is that sexuality is actually not a single trait, it's a combination of many traits in the organism's genetic makeup, which includes what they are attracted too, what causes them to become aroused, pheromone reactions, even their favorite color can play a huge role in sexuality.
I have noticed that a majority of transgender "admirers" are best described as closet homosexuals, or closet heterosexuals, rarely do they truly understand what they are getting with a transgendered individual. What they really should be looking for is the transsexual, a person who's sexuality is opposite the social definitions for their particular genitalia. That's a lot for a brief description, but it illustrates just how complex this matter is.
Due to the fact that everything which influences sexuality is genetically or personality driven, it becomes more than just a choice, also much more than just who you want to sleep with. The asexual, like me, is one which has absolutely no sexual desires, though we can be attracted to people and wish to get close, we simply have no desire to sleep with them at all. But the gambit of asexual variations is just as massive as heterosexual or homosexual variations, even transsexuals have a lot of variation.
It's that variation which people know almost nothing about, unless you are one of the lucky few who have spent most of their lives studying biology, genetics, social psychology, and even neurology. That variation is discarded when the labels are used, to call someone gay, or homosexual, ignores all the other traits influencing their sexuality. Perhaps they are aroused by the smell of leather, many people have this trait, this does not change that they are homosexual, but it is an important trait to note in their sexuality lest you inadvertently insult them by saying leather is evil or bad in some way.
Most heterosexuals are anything but heterosexual, in reality. Many of them are mecha-sexual, they are aroused by machines, often employing them as a tool in their activities. Many are aroused by latex, or rubber, wearing masks made of the stuff as a method of improving the enjoyment of sexual activity. We could invent billions of new labels for sexuality, and still never include all possible variations on the primary ones.
We cannot discard the labels, we need those as a means of identifying each other for various reasons. But people do need to learn more about the variations, and what each label actually represents. Too often I have heard people refer to transsexuals as transgender, in spite of the fact that the latter has nothing to do with the core sexuality, though it can alter the label best describing their core sexuality. Here's an easy way to remember that group; transgender female (male-to-female for the layperson) who is sexually attracted to women is a lesbian, a homosexual. Once you understand why that is true, you will understand a lot more about transgender and lesbian.
The key to really understanding sexuality is not found in pop-culture magazines like Vogue or GC, but in those long, dry, scientific papers. At least, I have heard people think they are dry, I find these papers quire fascinating, riveting, more enjoyable than any fiction.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Musical Genius - Life Genius
We know what makes a scientist a genius. We know what makes an artist a genius. We know what makes a politician a genius, or a military leader, or even a business owner. But what makes a musician a genius?
This question is one that I have discovered to have implications in much of our lives. Music is one part science, one part shock, and three parts wisdom. The wisdom that is required is knowing your audience, knowing yourself, and knowing the culture. Many musicians fail, they fail because they don't get to know their audience at all, then make the fatal error of forgetting themselves.
They lose themselves in their message, becoming too inundated with what should be, they forget to address what is. Many people will argue that the lyrics are less important than the tones, they are wrong, it's not even debatable. They are wrong because even music with no singer has lyrics, the lyrics are in the tones and perceptible only to those sensitive to such things.
My tastes in music are often called eclectic, I move from sounds of the forest to Akira the Don, then to Marilyn Manson, in one day. I hear the lyrics from both the singer and the tones, the instruments cascading around my ears, flooding my head with images. Those images are the lyrics of the tones, the lyrics of the music itself. This is where the genius can be found, the lyrics of the singer and those of the tones must dance in your mind, painting a picture.
The music is the landscape, the stage, the singers are the actors. They must work together or the song is grating on the ears. Only a few musicians with sung lyrics have accomplished this, and most are not even well known, others are only well known in very specific cultures. Now what does all this have to do with life?
As we go through life, we experience the world, reality, learning from it and being altered by it. The end result is the "me," it's what and who you are. That is our sung lyrics, what's in front, what everyone sees immediately when we come into their lives. But what we leave behind, as we move through life, that is our tone's lyrics, the landscape we are seen in when we are remembered. The footsteps we leave behind, the remains of our actions or inaction, the smells and sounds people will remember with our words.
A life genius leaves a lasting impression, where their tones are in line, matched to their singing, their impressions match their words. A life genius will remain forever in the minds of those they encounter, just like a musical genius, because it all just fits so perfectly. I often work to remember those who don't have that synchronization, either their words are wrong or their landscape is off somehow. I do this mostly out of pity, they will never be remembered by many, but also because then I hope I can learn from their mistakes to help teach others not to make them.
I know I leave an impression, often people will approach me on the street, people I cannot remember for the life of me, and they will call me by name and try to discuss things I have done. No, nothing that I have done wrong, often they reminisce about things I had helped them with. That is why I am now sharing my wisdom, the things I have seen, so more people can be life geniuses.
One could call this handing out free help a way to make up for past wrongs I had committed, you'd not be far from the truth. When I was young my mother, and church leaders, discovered I had this knack, this ability, to capture the attention of people. I could speak to large groups, even when I was really young, and sway them, manipulate their thinking. My tones, my voice, my appearance, it all worked together, so well that none could ignore my words, and they could not forget them either.
So I was placed before these groups, told how they should be swayed, I was used as a tool, and did not fight back. I should have fought back, but at the time I did not understand what it was. I was brainwashing these poor people into following a religion that even I knew was completely made up. So now you are wondering what my secret is, how can you do what I do? You want to know how to capture people's attention, to become a lasting memory in their minds. Everyone wants to know this.
The first thing, make sure your voice matches your personality. Not talking about pitch, that is difficult to control for most people, but your accent, how you speak the words. If your personality is one of prudence, commanding and in charge then your words should be sharp, short, and precisely spoken, for example. Do not be afraid to experiment, and ask perfect strangers if they will remember you tomorrow.
That's the second step, you must not fear talking, share your ideas, your thoughts, your opinions. Talk to people, even talk to yourself. As you walk through life, try it, speak your thought processes aloud, the reaction of those around you will tell you how well you can make an impression. Try to think of the last person you remember talking to themselves in public, you'd likely be hard pressed to do so, but there may be that one you do remember, the one who's voice, appearance, and personality just stuck in your head. That is the person you want to be.
Style is also important, your personal style should match, clothing and other artifacts, you. If you are perky, cute clothing with adorable characters will set the stage, let people know who you are, it defines their first impression, building the stage for you to act on. If you are brooding, dark, with an air of strangeness, dark clothing and makeup is perfect, but your voice and speech pattern must match as well. Try to recall the one person, dressed in all black, that spoke with a rapid, high pitched, excited voice. The ones that remain in your head are those who speak with an angry pattern, or one of doom and gloom, deep, dark, foreboding.
Anyone can become a life genius, but very few of us are naturals. Those who turn it into a profession often work long and hard at it, testing, changing, adapting, and often failing before they succeed. Naturals like me, we tend to shy away from people in real life when we grow older, resenting the damage we had done as youth, trying to avoid doing more damage. So I invite you, the wise and experienced people of today's generation, become a life genius, make people remember you, sway their minds to a healthier society.
This question is one that I have discovered to have implications in much of our lives. Music is one part science, one part shock, and three parts wisdom. The wisdom that is required is knowing your audience, knowing yourself, and knowing the culture. Many musicians fail, they fail because they don't get to know their audience at all, then make the fatal error of forgetting themselves.
They lose themselves in their message, becoming too inundated with what should be, they forget to address what is. Many people will argue that the lyrics are less important than the tones, they are wrong, it's not even debatable. They are wrong because even music with no singer has lyrics, the lyrics are in the tones and perceptible only to those sensitive to such things.
My tastes in music are often called eclectic, I move from sounds of the forest to Akira the Don, then to Marilyn Manson, in one day. I hear the lyrics from both the singer and the tones, the instruments cascading around my ears, flooding my head with images. Those images are the lyrics of the tones, the lyrics of the music itself. This is where the genius can be found, the lyrics of the singer and those of the tones must dance in your mind, painting a picture.
The music is the landscape, the stage, the singers are the actors. They must work together or the song is grating on the ears. Only a few musicians with sung lyrics have accomplished this, and most are not even well known, others are only well known in very specific cultures. Now what does all this have to do with life?
As we go through life, we experience the world, reality, learning from it and being altered by it. The end result is the "me," it's what and who you are. That is our sung lyrics, what's in front, what everyone sees immediately when we come into their lives. But what we leave behind, as we move through life, that is our tone's lyrics, the landscape we are seen in when we are remembered. The footsteps we leave behind, the remains of our actions or inaction, the smells and sounds people will remember with our words.
A life genius leaves a lasting impression, where their tones are in line, matched to their singing, their impressions match their words. A life genius will remain forever in the minds of those they encounter, just like a musical genius, because it all just fits so perfectly. I often work to remember those who don't have that synchronization, either their words are wrong or their landscape is off somehow. I do this mostly out of pity, they will never be remembered by many, but also because then I hope I can learn from their mistakes to help teach others not to make them.
I know I leave an impression, often people will approach me on the street, people I cannot remember for the life of me, and they will call me by name and try to discuss things I have done. No, nothing that I have done wrong, often they reminisce about things I had helped them with. That is why I am now sharing my wisdom, the things I have seen, so more people can be life geniuses.
One could call this handing out free help a way to make up for past wrongs I had committed, you'd not be far from the truth. When I was young my mother, and church leaders, discovered I had this knack, this ability, to capture the attention of people. I could speak to large groups, even when I was really young, and sway them, manipulate their thinking. My tones, my voice, my appearance, it all worked together, so well that none could ignore my words, and they could not forget them either.
So I was placed before these groups, told how they should be swayed, I was used as a tool, and did not fight back. I should have fought back, but at the time I did not understand what it was. I was brainwashing these poor people into following a religion that even I knew was completely made up. So now you are wondering what my secret is, how can you do what I do? You want to know how to capture people's attention, to become a lasting memory in their minds. Everyone wants to know this.
The first thing, make sure your voice matches your personality. Not talking about pitch, that is difficult to control for most people, but your accent, how you speak the words. If your personality is one of prudence, commanding and in charge then your words should be sharp, short, and precisely spoken, for example. Do not be afraid to experiment, and ask perfect strangers if they will remember you tomorrow.
That's the second step, you must not fear talking, share your ideas, your thoughts, your opinions. Talk to people, even talk to yourself. As you walk through life, try it, speak your thought processes aloud, the reaction of those around you will tell you how well you can make an impression. Try to think of the last person you remember talking to themselves in public, you'd likely be hard pressed to do so, but there may be that one you do remember, the one who's voice, appearance, and personality just stuck in your head. That is the person you want to be.
Style is also important, your personal style should match, clothing and other artifacts, you. If you are perky, cute clothing with adorable characters will set the stage, let people know who you are, it defines their first impression, building the stage for you to act on. If you are brooding, dark, with an air of strangeness, dark clothing and makeup is perfect, but your voice and speech pattern must match as well. Try to recall the one person, dressed in all black, that spoke with a rapid, high pitched, excited voice. The ones that remain in your head are those who speak with an angry pattern, or one of doom and gloom, deep, dark, foreboding.
Anyone can become a life genius, but very few of us are naturals. Those who turn it into a profession often work long and hard at it, testing, changing, adapting, and often failing before they succeed. Naturals like me, we tend to shy away from people in real life when we grow older, resenting the damage we had done as youth, trying to avoid doing more damage. So I invite you, the wise and experienced people of today's generation, become a life genius, make people remember you, sway their minds to a healthier society.
The Best Time To Live - Nostalgia Is A Lie
We, as a species, have a habit of lying to ourselves, a lot. We often regale each other with stories of times past, painting them in this memorable light of perfection, as if we really enjoyed that moment more than now. But it's all a lie, really, a lie we tell ourselves. Being an emotional species we have a tendency to recall the extremes more than other things, like extreme happiness, fear, sadness, or even anger. But our minds focus more on what makes us happy, what makes us want to live, basically.
On it's own, this lie is not harmful, it keeps us going, we try to repeat those feelings of joy and enjoyment. But in the long run it can be very detrimental, if we insist on living in the past times we felt this way, we may lose the drive to move forward. We see this problem very clearly in those who reminisce about things they don't even recall, times they didn't even live.
Renaissance fans are probably the most notorious, they paint this era as perfect and rosy. Yet that era was full of disease, everyone was dirty, and you were lucky if your own food didn't kill you. People killed each other in the streets, law was only for those who could afford it, and pests were your pets. People knew almost nothing, other than who not to piss off in their neighborhood. Most children were abandoned or orphaned at young ages. People were not kind to each other in any meaningful way.
There are people who think the 1980s were so great too, simple lives, with no care in the world. I grew up in the '80s, trust me, it sucked, it sucked so much I do not miss anything in my childhood. People were still pretty violent, and rude to each other. The music was just random noise set to a beat with random words for lyrics. Art was bland and often monochromatic. Computers were still bulky machines that were just glorified calculators. Illnesses plagued us, even the common cold could kill you. Also, people denied most of the scientific understanding we had then, which was still very little compared to the best time to have lived.
The 1990s were not much better, we did get a handle on violence. Video games offered us better entertainment. Movies improved, so did the music, but the art was still horrible. Slang became very strange, the word "like" was abuse more than any other word in the English language. Medicine did improve a lot, but still had some major problems, diagnosing conditions was less than adequate. Technology finally matured, we got connected, began filling this new world with every bit of information we could find. But it was still far from great.
The 2000s are the best, right now, here, today, this very second. However, that will change, next year will be the best, then the next year, then the next year. Our species is always improving, that's a given, it's the fundamental drive for all living organisms. So yesterday will never be the best time to live, because today is always the best time to live. In 2050, when I am old and growing tired of living, I will look back on this and smile, because even when I am tired of living I will still know that I am in the best time to live.
Oddly, this is the thought that keeps me going, keeps me working to live in spite of the problems I face. Who knows, maybe tomorrow someone will find a way to make my problems better, that's the greatest thing about tomorrow, you never know what will happen. So if you ever hear anyone say they wish they had lived in some past era, point out all the great things we have today, here's a list we have this very moment that should make you feel proud to be alive today:
1. This is the most peaceful time in all human history, ever, in all ways. Sure, we have room for improvement, some locales are having problems, but over the face of the Earth, humans are kinder to each other now than any time before. This is a trend that has been going on for as long as we have been paying attention, people want to work for peace.
2. Information is free, and almost complete. We have access to the answer for almost any question you have about almost anything you could ever need, at the touch of a button or screen, in an instant. Technology is constantly improving, being updated, modernized. People are always adding what they know to this great pool of information that the technology records for us, from videos to maps, science to opinions, everything ever known.
3. Survival is not a struggle anymore, for most of us. Our medicine, our science, has made survival almost too easy. We don't have to toil in the fields all day just to eat, don't have to hunt our own food. If we are hurt we can get medical aid to help us heal, when we need a friend for support we can text or call them at any time. We have enough time to enjoy lives, to play games, read books, explore our world without the pressures of nature hounding us.
4. Illness does not mean a death sentence. In times past ailments would often mean death, you had no way to defend against them. Today we have vaccinations to prepare us against the worst, and medical technology to make sure a broken bone heals properly, and doesn't get infected. We have access to these everywhere too, though some people are restricted access by their governments, we're working on that problem. But it's there, it's possible to survive things which would destroy you.
5. You will never vanish, there will always be a record of your existence. In the past billions of humans have been completely forgotten, never shall we know what they knew, felt, or thought. But today everything about you gets recorded, you are here forever, this world shall not forget you exist so long as it keeps spinning. That is the closest thing to immortality you can have, no memory of you will be forgotten completely, ever. A thousand years from now something you post online may become the most important thing that saves humanity from destruction, and you will be there for it, because you will be remembered.
On it's own, this lie is not harmful, it keeps us going, we try to repeat those feelings of joy and enjoyment. But in the long run it can be very detrimental, if we insist on living in the past times we felt this way, we may lose the drive to move forward. We see this problem very clearly in those who reminisce about things they don't even recall, times they didn't even live.
Renaissance fans are probably the most notorious, they paint this era as perfect and rosy. Yet that era was full of disease, everyone was dirty, and you were lucky if your own food didn't kill you. People killed each other in the streets, law was only for those who could afford it, and pests were your pets. People knew almost nothing, other than who not to piss off in their neighborhood. Most children were abandoned or orphaned at young ages. People were not kind to each other in any meaningful way.
There are people who think the 1980s were so great too, simple lives, with no care in the world. I grew up in the '80s, trust me, it sucked, it sucked so much I do not miss anything in my childhood. People were still pretty violent, and rude to each other. The music was just random noise set to a beat with random words for lyrics. Art was bland and often monochromatic. Computers were still bulky machines that were just glorified calculators. Illnesses plagued us, even the common cold could kill you. Also, people denied most of the scientific understanding we had then, which was still very little compared to the best time to have lived.
The 1990s were not much better, we did get a handle on violence. Video games offered us better entertainment. Movies improved, so did the music, but the art was still horrible. Slang became very strange, the word "like" was abuse more than any other word in the English language. Medicine did improve a lot, but still had some major problems, diagnosing conditions was less than adequate. Technology finally matured, we got connected, began filling this new world with every bit of information we could find. But it was still far from great.
The 2000s are the best, right now, here, today, this very second. However, that will change, next year will be the best, then the next year, then the next year. Our species is always improving, that's a given, it's the fundamental drive for all living organisms. So yesterday will never be the best time to live, because today is always the best time to live. In 2050, when I am old and growing tired of living, I will look back on this and smile, because even when I am tired of living I will still know that I am in the best time to live.
Oddly, this is the thought that keeps me going, keeps me working to live in spite of the problems I face. Who knows, maybe tomorrow someone will find a way to make my problems better, that's the greatest thing about tomorrow, you never know what will happen. So if you ever hear anyone say they wish they had lived in some past era, point out all the great things we have today, here's a list we have this very moment that should make you feel proud to be alive today:
1. This is the most peaceful time in all human history, ever, in all ways. Sure, we have room for improvement, some locales are having problems, but over the face of the Earth, humans are kinder to each other now than any time before. This is a trend that has been going on for as long as we have been paying attention, people want to work for peace.
2. Information is free, and almost complete. We have access to the answer for almost any question you have about almost anything you could ever need, at the touch of a button or screen, in an instant. Technology is constantly improving, being updated, modernized. People are always adding what they know to this great pool of information that the technology records for us, from videos to maps, science to opinions, everything ever known.
3. Survival is not a struggle anymore, for most of us. Our medicine, our science, has made survival almost too easy. We don't have to toil in the fields all day just to eat, don't have to hunt our own food. If we are hurt we can get medical aid to help us heal, when we need a friend for support we can text or call them at any time. We have enough time to enjoy lives, to play games, read books, explore our world without the pressures of nature hounding us.
4. Illness does not mean a death sentence. In times past ailments would often mean death, you had no way to defend against them. Today we have vaccinations to prepare us against the worst, and medical technology to make sure a broken bone heals properly, and doesn't get infected. We have access to these everywhere too, though some people are restricted access by their governments, we're working on that problem. But it's there, it's possible to survive things which would destroy you.
5. You will never vanish, there will always be a record of your existence. In the past billions of humans have been completely forgotten, never shall we know what they knew, felt, or thought. But today everything about you gets recorded, you are here forever, this world shall not forget you exist so long as it keeps spinning. That is the closest thing to immortality you can have, no memory of you will be forgotten completely, ever. A thousand years from now something you post online may become the most important thing that saves humanity from destruction, and you will be there for it, because you will be remembered.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
And Then This Happened
Student Faces Major Trouble Over Knife Found In What He Says Is His Father's Old Car
I found this story in my Twitter feed, was bored and monitoring it for whatever caught my eye. As I read it, it is a very short article so take the time to do so now, I found so many examples of what's wrong with our cultures today.
The first clue to one of our biggest problems is the "random search" of a car driven by a high school student. Have we really reach the level of paranoia in which this is considered acceptable by society? To invade a child's privacy in such a manner does not give them much reason to respect the privacy, or lives, of anyone else. We are teaching them that people don't matter, is that what we really want them to learn?
They once tried to propose this in my school once, and my school was pretty violent at the time, the 80s were really violent compared to today. The student body, with the support of parents and many teachers, protested this notion so strongly that the board had no choice, they didn't employ such an archaic policy for us. Today the students have been beaten down by the authorities as to accept this policy, and that scares me more than the kids with knives. This scares me even more than kids with knives who intend to actually harm someone, because that's so rare now I haven't encountered one in more than a decade.
The implications of this are made worse by the fact that society does not question it, at all. A long time ago someone famous once said something very profound, if we are willing to sacrifice even our basic liberties for an illusion of security, we deserve neither. Of course I added my touch to the phrase, because security is truly an illusion, no government agency can really effectively protect it's people, that's just not possible. This is because our biggest threats are ourselves, no one else. No one can protect you from yourself. So giving these agencies the power to do what they want simply so we can pretend they are protecting us is ludicrous.
Okay, so back to the story before I go on and on. The next part that stands out was that it was not even his property, he was borrowing it. So not only was his privacy infringed on, his father's privacy was also trampled under the boot of an obviously authoritarian party. The reason for them being authoritarian is that they are taking what is unlikely to occur as justification for enforcing their authority. The reasons for the tool being present are perfectly valid on their own, however, even without those reasons, a knife is a tool far more than a weapon. If you want to get technical, retractable pens are more useful as weapons, those can be turned into dangerous projectiles with only simple modifications.
This entire situation only demonstrates why paranoia is so bad for us. Originally, in the 90s, they made a claim that violence was on the rise, which it was actually on a steep decline in that era. They attempted to blame video games for this, Super Mario was convincing kids to kill everyone around them, after they grew up and did a ton of drugs and alcohol of course. But we now know this was all nothing more than alarmists seeking a way to attack something they just didn't understand.
Today violence, the world over actually, is at an all time low. Mind you, we still have a lot of work to do, but not in the USA. Our violent crimes have been in check for a very long time now, I can remember when you had to carry a weapon at night, in rural Washington, just because us kids would rob you blind .... for fun. Now, I can walk down the streets of downtown Seattle without seeing any crime at all. We need to take back our paranoia, and focus on important matters, like helping other countries who do still have problems with serious violence.
Now here is where the story really takes a turn for WTF. They are considering punishing this student for something their father did, which was completely innocent and practically expected. This means he's guilty until proven innocent. Now remind me, what is it our justice system is based on? Oh, that's right, innocent until proven guilty. This is one of many stories that show our culture has completely discarded the basic foundation of our justice, the one thing that made the USA better than most other countries, the only saving grace in our government, and we are discarding it for a false sense of security from threats that don't even exist.
Parents, teachers, authorities in the USA, you are all wrong. Stop ignoring that fact, you are wrong, we have lost our soul here, the one thing that made this country great, the only reason I even liked the USA, you are destroying. This is not my country, my country had a sense of justice, equality, and freedom, not authoritarian dictators who want to tell you what to do.
I found this story in my Twitter feed, was bored and monitoring it for whatever caught my eye. As I read it, it is a very short article so take the time to do so now, I found so many examples of what's wrong with our cultures today.
The first clue to one of our biggest problems is the "random search" of a car driven by a high school student. Have we really reach the level of paranoia in which this is considered acceptable by society? To invade a child's privacy in such a manner does not give them much reason to respect the privacy, or lives, of anyone else. We are teaching them that people don't matter, is that what we really want them to learn?
They once tried to propose this in my school once, and my school was pretty violent at the time, the 80s were really violent compared to today. The student body, with the support of parents and many teachers, protested this notion so strongly that the board had no choice, they didn't employ such an archaic policy for us. Today the students have been beaten down by the authorities as to accept this policy, and that scares me more than the kids with knives. This scares me even more than kids with knives who intend to actually harm someone, because that's so rare now I haven't encountered one in more than a decade.
The implications of this are made worse by the fact that society does not question it, at all. A long time ago someone famous once said something very profound, if we are willing to sacrifice even our basic liberties for an illusion of security, we deserve neither. Of course I added my touch to the phrase, because security is truly an illusion, no government agency can really effectively protect it's people, that's just not possible. This is because our biggest threats are ourselves, no one else. No one can protect you from yourself. So giving these agencies the power to do what they want simply so we can pretend they are protecting us is ludicrous.
Okay, so back to the story before I go on and on. The next part that stands out was that it was not even his property, he was borrowing it. So not only was his privacy infringed on, his father's privacy was also trampled under the boot of an obviously authoritarian party. The reason for them being authoritarian is that they are taking what is unlikely to occur as justification for enforcing their authority. The reasons for the tool being present are perfectly valid on their own, however, even without those reasons, a knife is a tool far more than a weapon. If you want to get technical, retractable pens are more useful as weapons, those can be turned into dangerous projectiles with only simple modifications.
This entire situation only demonstrates why paranoia is so bad for us. Originally, in the 90s, they made a claim that violence was on the rise, which it was actually on a steep decline in that era. They attempted to blame video games for this, Super Mario was convincing kids to kill everyone around them, after they grew up and did a ton of drugs and alcohol of course. But we now know this was all nothing more than alarmists seeking a way to attack something they just didn't understand.
Today violence, the world over actually, is at an all time low. Mind you, we still have a lot of work to do, but not in the USA. Our violent crimes have been in check for a very long time now, I can remember when you had to carry a weapon at night, in rural Washington, just because us kids would rob you blind .... for fun. Now, I can walk down the streets of downtown Seattle without seeing any crime at all. We need to take back our paranoia, and focus on important matters, like helping other countries who do still have problems with serious violence.
Now here is where the story really takes a turn for WTF. They are considering punishing this student for something their father did, which was completely innocent and practically expected. This means he's guilty until proven innocent. Now remind me, what is it our justice system is based on? Oh, that's right, innocent until proven guilty. This is one of many stories that show our culture has completely discarded the basic foundation of our justice, the one thing that made the USA better than most other countries, the only saving grace in our government, and we are discarding it for a false sense of security from threats that don't even exist.
Parents, teachers, authorities in the USA, you are all wrong. Stop ignoring that fact, you are wrong, we have lost our soul here, the one thing that made this country great, the only reason I even liked the USA, you are destroying. This is not my country, my country had a sense of justice, equality, and freedom, not authoritarian dictators who want to tell you what to do.
It's A Boy - Maybe Not
Gender in humans has been something pretty skewed by ideology that we have lost sight of the most important aspects of life. Everyone from street people to medical doctors still insist they know better than everyone else. The reality is that we really don't know.
The first life forms on the planet, the ones we got our genetic start from, are all capable of asexual reproduction, they did not need to have any form of physical attraction for each other. But does that mean they had no genders or sexuality? Well, no, these early organisms likely had the same variations in gender and sexuality we see in the more complex life forms today, they just didn't need them, and had no brains to act on the genetically determined attractions.
As life forms became more complex, colonies of these earlier life forms evolving to work with other colonies, we call these "organs" now, genetic material needed more variation to keep the organisms alive. Enter sexual reproduction, as an option. The earliest life forms didn't need to reproduce sexually, they didn't require the sharing of genetic material, it was an option though. The life forms that did utilize this option, however, became more common, their populations grew faster and they adapted better to their environments.
Essentially, natural selection had more traits to select from because of the organisms that were mixing their genetic material with similar organisms, resulting in more variation, more life, and more chances for survival. This eventually produced more stable methods of reproduction, bisexual and orgy style methods being the most suitable for producing stable, and capable, offspring.
But life is like a weed in a garden, once it starts, there's almost no way to stop it. So organisms spread through the planet, covering it's surface completely. Plant life terraformed the planet so that other life forms could crawl on the dry portions as well. Life was booming, and the only real threat to life was other life. So the original methods of reproduction were no longer necessary, they actually had a drawback in that many species were quickly overpopulating portions of the planet. When plants do, they create too much oxygen and the atmosphere itself can become explosive as a result.
This eventually produced a collection of species that reproduced in a less efficient method, mono-sexual. A dichotomous gender system, one male, one female. This system slowed their growth, allowing the resources to be more easily divided among them, increasing their fitness within the world. But these species came from those who had other methods of reproduction, and thus the genetic material needed to drive reproduction included those of various other methods as well. This proves to be a huge benefit, because it slowed down the reproductive rates even more, allowing even more resources to be available for any individual of a species.
Fast forward to today, skipping the Triassic and other eras, and you now have modern species, humans being one of them. At first humanity embraced our primitive natures, even today we are very primitive actually. This prevented us from over populating our environment, allowing the resources to be more plentiful for each individual is what helped to make us a strong species.
It was all moving along swimmingly for a while, several million years went by and our species was improving in ways no other species had managed to improve. We learned to not only utilize our environment, but how to change it, what we now call genetic modification. Our methods were sloppy at first, but we were so very young then. But our population growth was not excessive, it was "just right" for our species, because not everyone was breeding, and people were dying at very young ages.
Then the worse thing could happen, people decided they didn't want to be animals anymore, which was not going to magically change us into something else. So they found ways to enforce this dichotomous gender system, using social engineering, we call it religion now. This caused more people to reproduce, more people to breed, and our population began exploding. Our only saving grace was that illness claimed more of us when our populations reached critical levels.
Then we figured out how to keep ourselves alive much longer, medicine, clean water, and other advances. We lost control of our population completely, yet people still hold onto this idea, the one idea that started this mess in the first place, that everyone should breed. This has not only created some serious social problems, psychological problems in children, and over all insanity in the general population .... it has ultimately caused us to become our own biggest threat.
Luckily, we are still intelligent, somewhat, enough to realize that these problems hurt each other socially and psychologically. So we are making strides in correcting the presumption that humans only exist to breed, however, most will still deny the bigger threat to our species. Over population of any species is a bad thing, not because it will stamp out other life forms, those will evolve into better life forms as a result, actually. It's a threat to our species because the resources for each individual will be reduced to a level that requires us to kill each other more than we do already.
We have worked for peace in our species, trying to end all wars, yet right now war is the most humane method of keeping our population in check. I would rather us be able to afford peace in the world, than to see the gender system remain a dichotomy just because of some ignorant humans who cannot mature beyond childish superstitions.
The first life forms on the planet, the ones we got our genetic start from, are all capable of asexual reproduction, they did not need to have any form of physical attraction for each other. But does that mean they had no genders or sexuality? Well, no, these early organisms likely had the same variations in gender and sexuality we see in the more complex life forms today, they just didn't need them, and had no brains to act on the genetically determined attractions.
As life forms became more complex, colonies of these earlier life forms evolving to work with other colonies, we call these "organs" now, genetic material needed more variation to keep the organisms alive. Enter sexual reproduction, as an option. The earliest life forms didn't need to reproduce sexually, they didn't require the sharing of genetic material, it was an option though. The life forms that did utilize this option, however, became more common, their populations grew faster and they adapted better to their environments.
Essentially, natural selection had more traits to select from because of the organisms that were mixing their genetic material with similar organisms, resulting in more variation, more life, and more chances for survival. This eventually produced more stable methods of reproduction, bisexual and orgy style methods being the most suitable for producing stable, and capable, offspring.
But life is like a weed in a garden, once it starts, there's almost no way to stop it. So organisms spread through the planet, covering it's surface completely. Plant life terraformed the planet so that other life forms could crawl on the dry portions as well. Life was booming, and the only real threat to life was other life. So the original methods of reproduction were no longer necessary, they actually had a drawback in that many species were quickly overpopulating portions of the planet. When plants do, they create too much oxygen and the atmosphere itself can become explosive as a result.
This eventually produced a collection of species that reproduced in a less efficient method, mono-sexual. A dichotomous gender system, one male, one female. This system slowed their growth, allowing the resources to be more easily divided among them, increasing their fitness within the world. But these species came from those who had other methods of reproduction, and thus the genetic material needed to drive reproduction included those of various other methods as well. This proves to be a huge benefit, because it slowed down the reproductive rates even more, allowing even more resources to be available for any individual of a species.
Fast forward to today, skipping the Triassic and other eras, and you now have modern species, humans being one of them. At first humanity embraced our primitive natures, even today we are very primitive actually. This prevented us from over populating our environment, allowing the resources to be more plentiful for each individual is what helped to make us a strong species.
It was all moving along swimmingly for a while, several million years went by and our species was improving in ways no other species had managed to improve. We learned to not only utilize our environment, but how to change it, what we now call genetic modification. Our methods were sloppy at first, but we were so very young then. But our population growth was not excessive, it was "just right" for our species, because not everyone was breeding, and people were dying at very young ages.
Then the worse thing could happen, people decided they didn't want to be animals anymore, which was not going to magically change us into something else. So they found ways to enforce this dichotomous gender system, using social engineering, we call it religion now. This caused more people to reproduce, more people to breed, and our population began exploding. Our only saving grace was that illness claimed more of us when our populations reached critical levels.
Then we figured out how to keep ourselves alive much longer, medicine, clean water, and other advances. We lost control of our population completely, yet people still hold onto this idea, the one idea that started this mess in the first place, that everyone should breed. This has not only created some serious social problems, psychological problems in children, and over all insanity in the general population .... it has ultimately caused us to become our own biggest threat.
Luckily, we are still intelligent, somewhat, enough to realize that these problems hurt each other socially and psychologically. So we are making strides in correcting the presumption that humans only exist to breed, however, most will still deny the bigger threat to our species. Over population of any species is a bad thing, not because it will stamp out other life forms, those will evolve into better life forms as a result, actually. It's a threat to our species because the resources for each individual will be reduced to a level that requires us to kill each other more than we do already.
We have worked for peace in our species, trying to end all wars, yet right now war is the most humane method of keeping our population in check. I would rather us be able to afford peace in the world, than to see the gender system remain a dichotomy just because of some ignorant humans who cannot mature beyond childish superstitions.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Comsumerism - Ignorance Abound
I am known to beat a dead horse quite a bit, and this is almost an exception to that rule. However, the entire reason the USA will not become a Capitalist society is because of how inundated our culture is with religious nonsense. If a child is not offered the chances to make decisions as they learn, they will not learn to make decisions well as an adult, this holds true for society as well. For too long people have been given answers to questions that benefit only those in power, and people became too use to having someone else watch out for them.
This phenomenon has been the primary reason Capitalism cannot take root in the USA, people are slow to learn how to make smart decisions and thus still need someone else to tell them what to do. This "someone" is often a government agency, such as the FDA. This has opened a path for criminals to take advantage of people, instead of being smart and looking up information to validate claims and businesses, people just accept what information is handed them as fact.
In true Capitalism, the consumer has the power, businesses must please the consumer or fail due to a lack of profit, and failed businesses just get replaced by better ones. The consumers make the ultimate decision in which businesses are healthy, and which are bad, making for a very powerful, and stable, form of society. The problem is that this requires the consumers to become educated, to know what they are buying, why, and how it's made and sold. It means the consumer must ignore the figurehead "masters" and be responsible for their own decisions.
This is a difficult task, because people are still stuck on "now now now," they want quick answers, quick results, and even quicker paybacks. In the past we had little time, as a species, to think on matters, and having someone who looked out for us was of some benefit. But in this day, everyone has access to all the information required for any intelligent decision. This means we can ... relax. For the first time in history we are able to actually learn, study, and analyze every decision, every product, every service we need or want.
So I challenge anyone who reads this, ignore the advertisements, ignore the government's opinion, ignore the opinions of others, and investigate everything you buy. Turn to scientific research, to actual facts and figures. Turn to the things that can actually inform you on matters, the opinion of a perfect stranger can often be more valuable than that of a friend for such matters, because the friend will worry more about your relationship than the facts, while a perfect stranger will just tell you what they think.
Scientific papers are the most valuable sources of information, and now, thanks to the internet, you can buy these papers or acquire them from friends at the click of a link. The thing about scientific papers is that they go through a rigorous method of peer review, make sure you check for that specifically to make certain it's valid. This process eliminates errors, almost flawlessly, in the data, making the information more accurate and thus more valuable.
Try it yourself, you will find that many of the products you have been ignoring due to false information are some of the best products you could have been using. You will find that many of the companies you have been avoiding are some of the best companies as well.
This phenomenon has been the primary reason Capitalism cannot take root in the USA, people are slow to learn how to make smart decisions and thus still need someone else to tell them what to do. This "someone" is often a government agency, such as the FDA. This has opened a path for criminals to take advantage of people, instead of being smart and looking up information to validate claims and businesses, people just accept what information is handed them as fact.
In true Capitalism, the consumer has the power, businesses must please the consumer or fail due to a lack of profit, and failed businesses just get replaced by better ones. The consumers make the ultimate decision in which businesses are healthy, and which are bad, making for a very powerful, and stable, form of society. The problem is that this requires the consumers to become educated, to know what they are buying, why, and how it's made and sold. It means the consumer must ignore the figurehead "masters" and be responsible for their own decisions.
This is a difficult task, because people are still stuck on "now now now," they want quick answers, quick results, and even quicker paybacks. In the past we had little time, as a species, to think on matters, and having someone who looked out for us was of some benefit. But in this day, everyone has access to all the information required for any intelligent decision. This means we can ... relax. For the first time in history we are able to actually learn, study, and analyze every decision, every product, every service we need or want.
So I challenge anyone who reads this, ignore the advertisements, ignore the government's opinion, ignore the opinions of others, and investigate everything you buy. Turn to scientific research, to actual facts and figures. Turn to the things that can actually inform you on matters, the opinion of a perfect stranger can often be more valuable than that of a friend for such matters, because the friend will worry more about your relationship than the facts, while a perfect stranger will just tell you what they think.
Scientific papers are the most valuable sources of information, and now, thanks to the internet, you can buy these papers or acquire them from friends at the click of a link. The thing about scientific papers is that they go through a rigorous method of peer review, make sure you check for that specifically to make certain it's valid. This process eliminates errors, almost flawlessly, in the data, making the information more accurate and thus more valuable.
Try it yourself, you will find that many of the products you have been ignoring due to false information are some of the best products you could have been using. You will find that many of the companies you have been avoiding are some of the best companies as well.
Garbage - The True Value of Psychiatry
Psychiatrists are often looked on for diagnosing the sanity of another person, or to determine if that person is a danger. In the USA our courts still give these witchdoctors the power to, essentially, end someone's life for any reason they see fit. I do mean any reason.
Psychology is a scientific study of behavior in humans, a very scientific one that utilizes the scientific method and incorporates information from solid sources. Yet psychologists are largely ignored in the USA, the people in charge still give psychiatrists a free ticket to torture, maim, and even kill patients who often need nothing more than a hug.
So what makes a psychiatrist no more than the modern witchdoctor? Simple, they have absolutely no scientific research backing up any of their claims. It's all based on stereotypes and personal opinion, often relying on the highly inaccurate anecdotes of other people. Basically, the psychiatrist just chooses who they want to destroy, and who they want to leave alone, the "mad scientist" archetype.
My common response to the difference between the two is "a psychologists asks you what you are thinking, a psychiatrist tells you how you should think." This adage is highly descriptive on so many levels, I will look at them all. The first being that we know, for a fact, that there is no real insanity, for if there was there would be no real sanity. Every type of thinking, or method of logic, is inherently unstable, that is the price of being an organic organism. This we know from neurology and genetics.
This means that a psychopath is no less sane than a pacifist, a vegan no less sane than a carnivore, and a hypochondriac no less sane than a sky diver. The problems arise when these modes of thinking interfere with social interactions in a manner that causes unnecessary harm to others. Note, that does not include one's self, which I will get into in a bit. A psychotic personality works very well as a military soldier, or even a slaughter house, because killing is the primary thought in their logic. In reality, most psychotic people are never a problem, and many do work in fields which killing is acceptable, or required.
I am a morbid personality type, everything my logic follows is mechanical and curiosity can cause me to do things which others may consider stupid, or insane. The reason it's considered morbid is that I am willing to look into things that others dare not contemplate, I know of the most painful way a human can die, for example. However, I am far from suicidal, I fear being dead more than anything else imaginable.
As for being a danger to one's self getting a free pass, it does anyway, all psychiatrists do is determine which calculated risks they approve and then deem all others "insane," often resulting in the destruction of many lives. But living is not simply breathing, and altering a personality kills that person, making them a completely different person. Psychiatrists employ many methods to kill someone, from drugs to electroshock "therapy," even surgery. Yes, even today psychiatrists, untrained as neurologists, can perform surgery on patient's brains, even in the USA.
They work around the laws by using consent forms, while the patient is under the influence of potent drugs. Ironically, these same methods available are ignored by medical doctors, who actually have the proper training to do surgery. But that is for another time. The psychiatrists have a license to kill, and no one ever questions it out of fear of becoming one of their victims. So what do we do? We fight back, inform the people in charge that these monsters are not only wrong on everything they assert as "sane," but that we are tired of them being given a free license to kill.
One of my friends fell victim to these murderers, she was talked into getting electroshock "therapy," which is only effective for combating extreme cases of seizures, by a psychiatrist. She is gone, her body is now inhabited by someone else, someone who is not her. That psychiatrist got away with murdering my friend, killing her in a savage way. Psychiatrists are no better than Gilles De Rais.
Psychology is a scientific study of behavior in humans, a very scientific one that utilizes the scientific method and incorporates information from solid sources. Yet psychologists are largely ignored in the USA, the people in charge still give psychiatrists a free ticket to torture, maim, and even kill patients who often need nothing more than a hug.
So what makes a psychiatrist no more than the modern witchdoctor? Simple, they have absolutely no scientific research backing up any of their claims. It's all based on stereotypes and personal opinion, often relying on the highly inaccurate anecdotes of other people. Basically, the psychiatrist just chooses who they want to destroy, and who they want to leave alone, the "mad scientist" archetype.
My common response to the difference between the two is "a psychologists asks you what you are thinking, a psychiatrist tells you how you should think." This adage is highly descriptive on so many levels, I will look at them all. The first being that we know, for a fact, that there is no real insanity, for if there was there would be no real sanity. Every type of thinking, or method of logic, is inherently unstable, that is the price of being an organic organism. This we know from neurology and genetics.
This means that a psychopath is no less sane than a pacifist, a vegan no less sane than a carnivore, and a hypochondriac no less sane than a sky diver. The problems arise when these modes of thinking interfere with social interactions in a manner that causes unnecessary harm to others. Note, that does not include one's self, which I will get into in a bit. A psychotic personality works very well as a military soldier, or even a slaughter house, because killing is the primary thought in their logic. In reality, most psychotic people are never a problem, and many do work in fields which killing is acceptable, or required.
I am a morbid personality type, everything my logic follows is mechanical and curiosity can cause me to do things which others may consider stupid, or insane. The reason it's considered morbid is that I am willing to look into things that others dare not contemplate, I know of the most painful way a human can die, for example. However, I am far from suicidal, I fear being dead more than anything else imaginable.
As for being a danger to one's self getting a free pass, it does anyway, all psychiatrists do is determine which calculated risks they approve and then deem all others "insane," often resulting in the destruction of many lives. But living is not simply breathing, and altering a personality kills that person, making them a completely different person. Psychiatrists employ many methods to kill someone, from drugs to electroshock "therapy," even surgery. Yes, even today psychiatrists, untrained as neurologists, can perform surgery on patient's brains, even in the USA.
They work around the laws by using consent forms, while the patient is under the influence of potent drugs. Ironically, these same methods available are ignored by medical doctors, who actually have the proper training to do surgery. But that is for another time. The psychiatrists have a license to kill, and no one ever questions it out of fear of becoming one of their victims. So what do we do? We fight back, inform the people in charge that these monsters are not only wrong on everything they assert as "sane," but that we are tired of them being given a free license to kill.
One of my friends fell victim to these murderers, she was talked into getting electroshock "therapy," which is only effective for combating extreme cases of seizures, by a psychiatrist. She is gone, her body is now inhabited by someone else, someone who is not her. That psychiatrist got away with murdering my friend, killing her in a savage way. Psychiatrists are no better than Gilles De Rais.
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