Defining Class
Defining Class: That group of people that make us feel comfortable in our prejudice.
- rod boyle
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Lights out in BC
Travelling, moving to BC, A***** from work is with me (why him, really?), in my car, heading to BC, 7 hours to go, nighttime in the mountains...
A gas station, diner, I pull over to fill up, my car packed with my belongings, A***** is travelling onward with my family (father, family, general), I'll only be a few minutes behind...The gas station, all the lights are out, just a few emergency lights, I go around it, fill my car with gas, pull it over and park it...the phone rings, it's A***** telling me there's a power outage all over BC, I look down the road, can't see a single light, back to the kiosk where I filled up with gas, people in the restaurant, lights dim, kiosk unattended, the restaurant must be on a generator...
I grab a couple of packs of cigarettes from the kiosk, leave my car at the gas station, I'm taking my motorbike instead, it's fast, sleek, so new, I've never owned anything so nice, dunno what I'll do about the car but I can come back for it, can't drive 'em both, and I take off down the highway in pursuit, much faster...
(odd. Don't own or know how to drive a motorcycle. And why is A***** tagging along...gonna have to speak to him. Don't like work intruding on my dreams...)
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The Illusion of Mind
Somewhat musing, and clarifying my thoughts on the Illusion of Mind.
By which I mean, of course, that necessary delusion that we all suffer that somehow we are "I" - unique, continuous, congruent people.
The Ego, constructed from birth forward, pejorative, it's social convention to disregard the ego, we use the terms "egomaniac", "egotistical", "egocentric" to describe someone who's ego is unacceptably developed - the ego, that combination of individual experience, that separation from others, we manifest it a hundred ways, through consumerism, fashion and clothing, brands, our identifying with various causes, corporations and lifestyles, religion, art, we are anchored to our experiences, opinions and beliefs, all of which serve to make us "unique". But this ego is the frail, uppermost, "conscious" realm of thought, it's the day-to-day quest for identity and belief in ourselves that defines us, and I would argue that it's largely, if not entirely, an illusion.
There are in fact a hundred, maybe even thousands of smaller mental and psychic cogs that work to create this illusion, largely hidden (but not entirely), our conscious self is perhaps a bit like an optical illusion where we see lines against dot backgrounds and our mind fills in and imagines a square , or any of a hundred other corollaries, the square does not exist, certainly, but it is suggested, and the suggestion is enough for our minds to imagine a whole...
Imagine, extend feelings of hunger, of pain, of withdrawal from your chosen addiction, there comes a point with each of them where you break, you're mind no longer able to grasp the wholeness of you, the smaller mind that preoccupies itself with food, survival, pleasure is now in control. Homunculus has taken over. But these are extreme states you argue, but then think of emotional states - be they pleasure, anger, heartbreak, loneliness, etcetera, and you'll find they as well can consume you - and everyone, at some time, has fallen prey to these. Again, extreme states. Think about your autonomic responses - breathing, heartbeat, kidneys, a thousand parts that work efficiently in the background until it's time to make their demands known - and when they do, there's an urgency that cannot be resisted. Relating, on a curious and personal note, while trekking in Nepal, above 15000 feet my breathing was no longer autonomic, it became very much a labored, conscious process - each breath required both diligent effort and concentration, curious, indeed, for this was a process that my entire life had looked after itself.
And curious, too, or not so, if you please, but consider meditation - various practitioners are able to alter any number of their autonomic responses, reducing heartrate, breathing, raising or lowering core body temperature and adjusting metabolic rates. And curious or not, meditation is generally the process of refuting ego, descending beneath the realm of self, enlightenment (a popular aim in meditation) is generally described as a liberation from ego and worldly desires, a oneness - an intellectual as well as an emotional realization - of the connectedness of all things.
In mind - or the grasping of mind - it as well helps to survey the external landscape of external stimuli - always a part of mind, the backdrop of thought, the countless super and subliminal cues and subconscious responses, the manipulation of which suggests that a great proportion of which we consider to be free will is nothing but a conditioned response to the environment around us. Consider the illusion of what we perceive to be the world about us, generally shared, but represented to each of us independently in our own heads, we agree - often - as to the size and shape of an item, but disagree as to it's meaning, it's subjective value (a piece of music might simultaneously inspire and/or revolt 2 different members of an audience), our every sensation is first filtered through our senses and a hundred hidden prejudices, opinions, interpretations, understandings, emotions, creating an internal representation that bears little objective relation to the external world.
And finally there's memory - the lingering experience as recalled through all the processes above - seldom accurate or objective to begin with, memories are overwritten every time we revisit them, destroying all continuity, we continue our lives from places we think we have been...from false memories and interpretations of events, memories of books, films, third party narratives told to us at cocktail parties and by our parents, siblings, teachers, all woven into our own, we know that it's unreliable, tested and proven, but our own recollections are somehow not to be doubted, and every memory is a false starting point from which we begin again...
These are just a few random thoughts, poorly organized, but for more coherent and inspiring reading that might challenge or enlighten you on theories of self and mind, try some of the links below...
Link: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080411/full/news.2008.751.html
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_hand_syndrome
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_on_our_consciousness?language=en
Link: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/19/partial-recall
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TPP - Harper's Secret Treaty
"Negotiated in secret" in itself suggests something's afoot, the The Trans Pacific Partnership agreement has been described as:
"I think in 10 years from now, we'll call that the signature worst thing in policy that Canada's ever done...
"It's a treaty that structures everything forever — and we can't get out of it."
And:
"Instead, agreements such as the TPP are about implementing policies that have nothing to do with comparative advantage, policies that are often designed to lead to higher consumer costs and concentrated corporate power. Treated as marginal issues, these policies are “free-trade free-riders,” coasting along on an unearned legitimacy.
Today, the free-trade free-riders are central to agreements such as the TPP. Take intellectual property. As Dr. Stiglitz, Dr. Hersh and groups such asMédecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders) have noted, greater drug-patent protection would “limit competition from generic drug manufacturers that reduce drug prices and improve access to treatment, and would accelerate already soaring medicine and vaccine prices.”
This isn’t a bug; it’s the point of the agreement."
In Stephen Harpers Canada, people were the slaves to the corporations. You were either rich, or expected to help others become rich. Regardless of the cost. 10 years of shitty government can take a lot longer that 10 years to fix up.
To get a clear (and well rounded view) of the Trans Pacific Partnership, and how it probably doesn't benefit you a single bit, read the following links:
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/jim-balsillie-tpp-1.3310179
Link: New Zealand on TPP
Link: Informed Canadians on TPP
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