Fear can be a Bitch

Oh, the pain that we put ourselves through when making an inaccurate prediction or seeing an image of possibilities going through our head.

Greed With John Strossel

confederalsocialist

Play, religion, fear, oversimplification, extrapolation, combination, genius, autism, imagery, Einstein, beam of light, shopping, paranoia.

What will be done to control humans? What will be done to prevent that which we do not want to happen? Isn't greed bad? Don't we need the government to solve problems that we don't have time for or can't do? More often than not, it seems, the answers are counter-intuitive. Why? Because we start from a position of ignorance, and the world, reality, is so wonderfully complex.

A few years ago, I started with investigation of genius and play, and how it contrasted with school and compulsory learning. I praised learning and thought of compulsory education in quite a harsh way. My mother, who was homeschooling me, agreed that school could be hard work, but that that would give you a good work ethic. She herself got up early, did the daily chores early, and was usually busy, but productively busy; and yes, she had time for her kids.

Yes, school is hard and it can give you a good work ethic. However, this could be done much more efficiently by simply starting up a lemonade stand (or any equivalent sort of business), and adjusting yourself to consumer demand. And why should it be compulsory? Yes, education is wanted. Accordingly, won't parents pay to get the best school possible? And, additionally, the basics that are needed -- reading, writing, thinking -- can all be bought cheaply, if not simply taught by the parent.

But, just toss away those arguments and answer me this: when has it ever been the case that forcing someone to take something that they want... makes sense? Taking some words from Stefan Molyneux, 'it is a Canadian value that people care for the elderly. OK, so now we're going to force you, by taxes, to help the elderly. But then! it's not a Canadian value!, if you have to force people to do it!'

Forcing learning ceases learning, unless the person happens to be a sadomasochist. And then it's probably not learning, per say, that they're after. And yes, there have been cases where teachers have hard-balled their students and their students have benefited. Those students are worse off; they are dependent on the teacher to learn.

And as I look at this post, it looks less like I'm an observer, and more like I'm an angry vengeful ass. But then, with people justifying the use of force against me to satisfy their ideologies, perhaps you can understand this.

But to get back to what I was writing about above: the combination of fear and extrapolation might be behind the fear of greed. Now, what I like about words, and playing with words, is that by using definitions that appear contradictory, their explanation expands the mind, or at least explains my POV. For example: selfishness is the highest altruism.

Now, by this I mean, in part, that altruism doesn't work; in fact, it has the opposite effect than it intended. I don't mean when you walk by a lake and hear someone drowning and dive in and save them - I mean well-intentioned and carefully thought out. Or perhaps I should categorize that as poorly thought out?

It seems altruistic to give food to the hungry. Yet, this places "the hungry" in a parasitical relationship with the giver, resulting in an overall loss. If, instead, you find a way to help the hungry get food on a consistent basis, there is now, at least, a net neutral, and perhaps a net gain. As the saying goes, "Give a boy a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a boy a rod, and he'll eat for the rest of his life." And yes, most of this is coming from Strossel's "Greed" video clips.

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that all of our illegitimate fears are the result of our play and imaginative abilities, paranoided. How and why does this happen? Probably biologically-based, in that we have always needed to be on our toes. An evolutionary perspective, yes. The irony of that is that I don't "believe" in evolution. I just keep using it because it makes sense. I turn a blind eye to the age of the earth, mostly because I'm focused on current human affairs (that I might be able to explain things in everyday terms, rather than refer to history and statistics, that it might be easier for others to explain), but it seems quite possible that the earth is quite old.

And why does the age of the earth matter? It didn't, not until it became a focal point for whether someone had credible belief in Christianity or not. So, no, it doesn't really matter if you don't care about God. Of course, it does matter if you're focusing on things that relate to it, such as history and geology, but not as much if you're focused on current psychology. Not that having an understanding of early humans and their psychology won't help, of course.

A lot of governmental worries are based upon seeing the consequences of going from our tyrannical system that works primarily because of all of the free marketeering keeping it going, and seeing all of the chaos that would result in restoring things to their proper anarchic (an-archy = no archons, i.e., no rulers) state of things.

Likewise, the paranoia shown (in my opinion) that the person who John Strossel interviewed 4:25-5:18:

"I know your dirty tricks!"

shows a consistency in his outlook about how John Strossel and those who profit from what they do, are evil bastards just looking to get money.

The question then becomes, for me at least, How can people not see the truth that's right in front of them? Additionally, let's put another twist on it: How can atheists be so blind to the truth that Christians have? I'm an atheist; I'm also an anti-theist who thinks that Christians are delusional. Do I think Christians should be tied up in a straight jacket? Heck no! That would be just as insane as a Christian wanting to put an atheist in a straight jacket for fear that the devil in the atheist might do the Christian harm.

However, both the atheist and the Christian would say of the other, "That guy is delusional." Christians on YouTube (such as Yokeup) have said that atheists don't exist: they just reject God! They're afraid of being accountable. 

What seems to often be the case with paranoia and fear is what is called projection (such as the Christian need for being accountable to God for their sins). And it is poo-pooed. If you're projecting, you're an irrational emotional child in need of psychiatric treatment. Why not self-examination? Because an outside professional authority must do it.

You'll sometimes "catch" anarchic atheists doing it, as with this 9/11 conversation:
9/11 truth
9/11 not controlled demolition
re 9/11 not controlled demolition
9/11 not controlled demolition part 2

While juniorbaconchee seems to be irrationally holding onto his belief that 9/11 was a conspiracy, if he is right, then does it justify his emotional response? That is, why is he so emotional over this? He spent nights, apparently, horrified at what his government could do. It reminded me a lot of the Christian response to Hell, and their urging of atheists to be saved that they might avoid the same fate. Problem is, if the Christians are wrong, it's a big hubbub over nothing. That would mean that they're basically glorified drama queens.

And what if the Christians are right? Then God is a fucking strange being. 2000+ years and he hasn't come back, He's his own son and his own father, he has a holy ghost that impregnated Mary, but she's a virgin, he used to intervene (when events weren't as verifiable as they are now) and doesn't now; everything, including babies, are miracles now (to make up for all of the miracles that should be happening), yet we have overpopulation; the bible is the perfect word of God and yet it was written by fallable men and so it has to be interpreted over and over, and how would a book that makes its own prophecies make sense anyway?; and why, after all this has been made excuses for, would I pick Christianity over another religion, which probably says that Christianity is false (the same way that Christianity says that all the other religions are false) and all of the Christians are going to their hell? And, are we going for truth value, or emotional value? I say it provides neither. God loves you, but if you don't love him back you're going to hell? Some love. Oh, but we're wretched and need God's love. Yeah, must be great for your self-esteem. Please, just admit that it's faith and stop trying to rationalize it. Be honest about your delusions; that's how you get rid of them, y'know?

That said, I'm still wondering if Christianity is entirely based on having been raised in the religion. Can an atheist become a Christian later in life, having examined all of the evidence? Would love to hear about it.