Tag: thought

If you know everything about everybody and you know how everybody is connected to everybody else, can you know for certain who is at the top?

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[This essay provides an essential background for understanding KOBK (Kill-or-be-Killed) game-theory on both the interpersonal and societal levels. Like all psychological phenomena, KOBK is fractal, potentially operating at all levels of society: from the individual to the social collective. ABN]

For the most part, you can’t.

Look at it this way—how does someone like Dick Cheney, say, know he knows what he is doing, or was doing as vice-president? [This essay was written in 2012, hence the reference to Cheney. No other references are dated.]

He had a semiosis about what he was doing and where he stood within the American political/military hierarchy, but how did he know that that semiosis wasn’t a front for another semiosis (game plan) hidden behind it? How would someone like Cheney find out that there was no other game plan hidden behind the game plans he knew about?

I don’t think he did know or could have known. Did Cheney realize that? Does he realize it now? I can’t answer.

One way someone like that could get information that shows he at least knows a lot, if not the whole thing, is to exercise power. If someone can exercise power and not be stopped, they can be kind of certain that the semiosis they are working within is “true.” Their game plan worked, so there is a greater chance they are in control than if it had not worked. But how can they be certain? I don’t think they can be.

Take another example: A crime boss in the 1980s might have done his thing for years believing all the while that he had the system figured out. Because he kept getting away with his crimes (because he was able to continuously exercise power without being stopped), he may have come to believe that his game plan worked, that he was at the top of his power structure, that his semiosis was “true.”

But we know that many of those bosses in the 1980s were wrong. For years their phones and meeting places were bugged, leading to successful prosecutions under RICO laws. The bosses thought that they had found a way to distance themselves from the nitty gritty of their crimes, but they were wrong. Their game plan (their semiosis) was wrong.

Continue reading “If you know everything about everybody and you know how everybody is connected to everybody else, can you know for certain who is at the top?” →

A Buddhist heuristic for thought & action

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  1. Information arrives
  2. Analyze it; seek help & opinions of others
  3. Decide how to proceed based on what is ethically/morally right or best

The above helps us decide where and how to enter the Noble Eightfold Path:

I noticed this morning that virtually everything I talk about with my wife and friends follows the heuristic stated above and all of that flows into the Noble Eightfold Path.

An example: The vaxxes. When they first appeared as information, I discussed them at length with anyone I reasonably could do that with. We all saw roughly the same thing—they were experimental, dubious, probably harmful, and not necessary: ergo, best to wait. Later on, after a couple of months, we were all certain that we should not take the vaxxes. Some of us also felt that we should speak about this conclusion and share it with others when opportune.

There was and still is a telling divide in the people I know. Many of my friends and family members willingly and very naturally engaged in analyses of the vaxxes and continue doing so to this day. The ones who did not want to engage in any analysis in the beginning, still will not do so to this day; all of the ones in this group took the vax.

Only one of the people who analyzed them early on took the vax, twice. Both he and his wife have vax injuries. His appear to be minor, hers are very serious. He openly regrets having taken the shot, continues analyzing vaxxes, and now also actively tries to explain to others in our circle why they should stop getting them.

Notice that propaganda and mind-control work most of all with getting people to skip analyzing information themselves and accept conclusions first being offered, then demanded. With only cursory analysis of the people making those offers and demands, it is not hard to see that their analyses are hidden, poorly done, or not done at all and that obvious objections to their demands are not answered reasonably.

I think this simple heuristic cuts to the heart of many matters, many kinds of information that arrive in our lives, both personal and public. It seems to highlight that when reason, thought, and analysis are skipped or skimped on, morality and good sense are harmed. We not only vax ourselves, we also vax our children and council others to make the same mistake. ABN

first posted MARCH 14, 2023

Groping toward truth or away from

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Who did it is rarely said because we don’t know. Who is at the top is something else we do not know. Sudden rise to fame is seriously dubious but those that do, do doggedly persevere. Where’s Musk? Where’s Trump? Even smart people can’t think of everything. It’s good to see this out in the open and also we are all living in deeply ambiguous times. The only solid core is Jews consistently telling other people what to do or say. But does that mean they are at the top or scapegoats for the top? Take Eva as a general example. I don’t think she is a knowing gatekeeper. She is young, very busy, and only knows so much. Most of these people belong on this graphic, but not for all the same reasons and it depends how you interpret what it means. In a totalitarian world, people can’t say the whole truth because: 1) they usually don’t know it or 2) it’s so complex it cannot be easily conveyed, even in book form, or 3) your basic fear. Politics is always the art of the possible. So is life. So is analyzing the king without getting killed. Deep down we do not need and should not even want leaders. The only way out is the slim chance a majority of us understand enough to somehow act in concert well enough to bring about something good. One thing I know and very few seem to know and even fewer say is we got here through clandestine violence, secret violence; as much secret violence per capita as there was open violence in the Soviet Union, China or Cambodia. When people talk about that, they are onto the real deal. But they don’t talk about that because usually they don’t know about it. How could they not know about something so obvious? The people that built the Soviet Union killed many millions of Russia’s most intelligent people. They targeted them because they hated their fucking guts and wanted to make the population easy to control. Same in China and Cambodia. Why would anyone believe the people who have seized control of the West are any different? Instead of killing millions, they decided to just maim and poison them secretly. Hit them when they are young and it looks like mental illness. Does whoever made this graphic talk about that? ABN

A clarification of my views on the meaning of pandemics — Nick Hudson

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1. When it comes the semantics of what constitutes a pandemic, unfortunately they have been made important by the existence of the Pandemic Preparedness apparatus, including the WHO accord and IHR revisions. That’s the only context in which the definition of a pandemic is important. A very broad definition, which includes pathogens that are mild, is of no use to man or beast absent that context, and irremediably perilous within it. The Covid policy response has proven that.

2. Under a sensibly narrow definition, Covid was not a pandemic. Controlling for misattribution and iatrogenic harms, its fatality rate was negligible.

3. Under any definition, the excess mortality witnessed in a few places during the Covid phenomenon was not caused by a pandemic, but by policy. The real phenomenon was a mass casualty event, not a pandemic.

4. It is extremely unlikely that a pandemic, narrowly defined, can occur. In our integrated world we don’t encounter pathogens that are novel in the sense of immune naivety, because pathogens are related to one another, and we enjoy rich immune cross-reactivity from prior exposure to related endemic ones. Even the cleverest lab scientists can’t cook up entirely new ones.

The validity of points 1 to 3 above in no way depends upon point 4 being valid. So I reject the Pandemic Preparedness construct and view pandemics as not presenting a real threat. Preparation for them is akin to preparing for invasion by the flying spaghetti monster. I cannot prove that he doesn’t exist, but I think anyone who spends a cent on that project is a dangerous lunatic.

And for clarity, even if none of the above four points are valid, all of the mandates involved in the Covid policy response were moral obscenities never to be repeated under any circumstances whatsoever.

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STOICISM: The Connection Between Physics and Ethics

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A.A. Long summarizes the Stoic philosophical system and highlights the connection between its physics and ethics in Hellenistic Philosophy; Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics. An outline of his thought follows:[2]

•  The Stoics “prided themselves” on the coherence of their philosophical system

•  They believe the universe is “amenable to rational explanation” because it is “rationally organized.”

•  Mankind derives their rationality from the same logos embodied in the universe.

•  Cosmic and human events are consequences of the same logos.

•  Mankind is related to cosmic Nature or God through the rationality of the logos.

•  Full recognition of the implications of our relationship to cosmic Nature will inspire us to live up to the excellence of our human potential by living in agreement with cosmic Nature.

•  Natural philosophy (science) and logic are tools that enable mankind to know what facts are true.

•  “The coherence of Stoicism is based upon the belief that natural events are so causally related to one another that on them a set of propositions can be supported which will enable a man to plan a life wholly at one with Nature or God.”

link

Geert’s Concern about the New Covid Variant (JN.1)

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I greatly admire Geert for repeating his warnings. He is risking his reputation to say what he believes will help millions of people. His advice is: if you are vaxxed, start antiviral prophylactics now. The two best and safest ones are ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. I am not a doctor. Do not rely on my advice. Listen to Geert and make up your own mind. The reason vaxxed need prophylactics now is their immune systems have been turned off due to the vaxxes. The new more deadly variant when (and if) it arrives will arrive soon and spread very rapidly, according to Geert. ABN

Death and Destruction in Gaza — John Mearsheimer

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link to full article

The military purpose is to provoke regional war while also killing and pushing people out of Gaza. Why they want to do this is speculation. Kill, subdue, expand territory, seize gas and oil, Build Back Better, runup to WW3, hassle Russia, destroy Iran, Greater Israel, genocide. The formula is similar to what was just done in Ukraine where 500k young men were slaughtered and one-half of the population has fled, leading to large investment funds owning huge portions of Ukrainian farmland.

Mearsheimer is quite good but he relies too much on documentary evidence. The trajectory of US neocons, which includes Israelis at its core, fealty to Israel, has been power aggrandizement since well before 9/11. We can see this strategy playing out in everything they do, including invading the West with massive replacement immigration.

The goal appears to be nothing less than world domination. Note that Zuckerberg now joins Musk, Bezos, and other billionaires who have built deep shelters underground, clearly in preparation for nuclear war. ABN