"Atlas Shrugged"

Sarah Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska, is a very healthy trend -- indicative of a totally new breed of people who become involved in government -- that she can also walk away from it rather than it becoming her ego, identity and power trip. That's very healthy -- for people in any field actually.

One shouldn't become so obsessed with their self-projection that they no longer have balance in their perspectives.

Of course it is shocking to the old mentality personalities who measure everything by these self-delusions, even to the point of ruining their health and lives, trying to maintain unrealistic delusions of the importance of what they think they're doing. It's easy to get hung up in it -- in politics, in show business, in athletics, in art, hobbies, drugs, recreations -- even exercise.

A lot of people unnecessarily kill themselves because they think they can't slow down a bit but have to keep going at a constant unvarying pace -- and so they get wiped out when a truck makes a right turn into their path. Or they think the objective of their recreational activities is to get the greatest adrenalin rush -- to overcompensate for their dull years at a job without taking any risks.

This distortion in what these individuals perceive and what is evident to everyone else, is called cognitive dissonance. They're not dealing with the reality most people see. Nowhere is that more true than the world of reality created by the mass media -- as what we should believe as though we need some direction constantly in this way.

So they tell us who and what is important to think is "in," and who and what is important to ridicule and abuse -- as the new "socially" (politically) correct.

The two great literary thinkers of the 20th century, both described this major concern of the mass media and the danger of conformity and demand for approval from the properly designated agencies and institutions that become nameless and faceless propagators of the "conventional wisdom" everyone is well-advised to heed, even at one's peril.

Sometimes, the best thing one can do, is to quit -- and see if that makes a difference, and even solves the problem. That would especially be true for those who find themselves in identities and jobs which are destroying themselves and causing them great unhappiness in life -- which is obvious to others as the excessive weight gain or distortion of features so that one becomes a virtual monster in appearance -- that most people are too desensitized to notice anymore.

That would be the look of a person whose facial muscles and features look like they are being pulled in a hundred different directions all at once. It is painful to look at such faces. So it is always remarkable to see normal people passing through in political offices -- rather than those who have known nothing else, and have become merely caricatures and parodies of themselves.

So it is good and healthy when a person can catch themselves becoming something other than what the group consensus wants them to become. That is the only hope for a better tomorrow.

Continued at Thinking Differently.blogspot.com

This was the blog I started and used during my 2006 campaign for the office of representative for the district of Waikiki-Kapahulu, and although losing that election handily, kept up the postings until a few months ago, when I wanted to consolidate and refocus my energies on my natural and native interests of conditioning -- and particularly the field I conjured up as "Understanding Conditioning," which is essentially asking the question, "How do we know what we think we know?"

For most people, that is because everybody else has told us so, but often times, what is believed true by everybody, is not what is tested and found to be true in the experience of daily living, but what nobody has taught to question and challenge before. Nowhere is that mentality more true, than in the fields of exercise and conditioning -- for better well-being and fitness. Yet most presume they know what all that entails -- without ever having inquired very deeply, and that key beyond all else, to all understanding is that one first discovers the limits of their own knowing that enables one to find out.

One never bothers to learn, unless they realize they don't know. But in presuming to know, they will never bother to find out, because their minds are already closed to that possibility. The closed mind is a very limited mind -- that thinks what they know, is all that can be known -- instead of only what they know.

There was a time even in recent memory, in which there were places in the world in which it was still possible to be unaware of most of the world -- and live blissfully in that state, that even in places like Hawaii, are now crumbling because of their insistence on maintaining that ignorance. So while they may call their society and government a democracy, people don't think for themselves but think, do and say what others tell them to -- as the only expression and choice they have ever known.

Of course it's not a choice -- but that is what they've been conditioned to believe is their choice. That variation on the theme is being played out in many other predemocratic societies -- in which people think "democracy" is their right to force everybody else to think, do and say what they want others to.

The essential democracy is really about the control and power over one's own thinking and actions -- and not how many others they can force to do their will.

In that manner, the representation of one's own ideas, are just as vital a part of the that democracy, and so I continued to express another viewpoint as what a good representative should do -- regardless of whether most other people think he should or not. And so that has become a crisis now in Hawaii when it is faced with monumental challenges -- yet nobody knows how to break out of the cycles of the past because they all think the same, and there are no ideas other than "Give us more money."

Some People Never Learn

Every year it is the same thing -- the people whining and complaining about the crooked and inept Democrats -- and saying they should withhold their votes in the next election.

But then, nobody is offering to run against the incumbent and they expect the Republican Party to offer them a choice, and when nobody does run, they don't think it is up to them to do something about it, but up to the Republican Party or somebody else to do something FOR them -- so that they can continue to do NOTHING but whine and complain about their "choices.".

The people of Hawaii still don't get "democracy." It's about running your own lives, and not about choosing somebody to do all your thinking for you, and then telling you what to do, and voting for that person to make it a "democracy."

Democracy is about assuming that responsibility -- and not merely demanding all one's rights and entitlements demagogues will promise them to get their vote -- and then get as much money as they can for themselves.

What do you expect? The schools seem to play a leading role in cultivating this “disconnect” of education from reality -- encouraging the notion that “right” means to go along with everybody else’s thinking, and it is “wrong” to do one’s own thinking and go against the crowd. And that is why political correctness has become the tyranny of these times -- when it not kings we must obey, but this tyranny of thought.

And though the newspapers and other media like to portray themselves as the overseeing Fourth Estate that determines “objectivity,” they are no more immune from the sway of the crowd than everybody else, who were biased by that same education -- of merely obeying authority, and never questioning it, and inquiring even beyond into how things could be done otherwise.

All that is “taught” is how to go along to get along -- and if it hasn’t been before, then it won’t be in the future, so don’t even think about it. But that is the importance of a real education -- and not just the indoctrination of the teachers and their union which is the core of the Democratic Party, because they want to believe they are “democratic” personalities rather than very authoritarian ones.

Thus, “democracy” has become this “authoritarianism” because it sounds nicer and more politically correct -- than calling it as it is. But nobody is allowed to question and consider otherwise -- because that would not be politically correct.

But you can whine and complain all you want -- as long as you do absolutely nothing else about it.

Over the Rainbow

Hey, it looks like some Hawaii people are starting to catch on.

Those liberal groups don't exist to eliminate the problems for which they're raising money for -- but to raise money exploiting the causes for which they're raising money for.

So getting rid of these problems is obviously not what they're going to do -- but to create/perpetuate as many of them as they possibly can.

Maybe there's hope for Hawaii after all. Nah, the newspapers are going to do as many "public service announcements" masquerading as news as ever. There's the editor carrying their banner for them right now. They're usually the first to be fooled -- by all those "extra lunches" their favorite lawmakers/lobbyists just happen to be delivering to them right now.

You wonder how the checks and balances can become so corrupted in Hawaii so that citizens are rallying in support of causes against their own best interests -- including the full-time bloggers who have dedicated their lives to spreading misinformation.

Of course far and away the all-time Hawaii favorite has been “doing it for the keiki,” as though that alone was enough to justify and rationalize the most egregious corruptions and distortions, as the cultural blackbox. If things don’t make sense to adults, as adults, then appealing to the emotionalism of their tortured childhoods of deprivation and depravation, is the surefire winner among a people who have never learned to think for themselves, and in fact, growing up in Hawaii, meant the highest devotion and trust to one’s superiors (elders). Such blind devotion was deliberately cultivated, and then ruthlessly exploited by at first the most ruthless of the politicians, and then, was fair game by everyone.

As such, real sentiments and authentic feelings about these universal rights, became special interest entitlements -- under the guise of being for the keiki -- even their own junkets to Disney World, so that they could relate that significance to their charges yet to discover the vast world they could only hope to experience vicariously through self-designated others, like themselves, and other media anointed celebrities.

That was the importance of the media in such a plan but they “botched” it and thought talent was totally unnecessary anymore --that all they had to do was fake it, bluster it, intimidate it, and nobody would look behind the curtain to see who was manipulating the vast machinery that projected such awesome powers and abilities to dictate and fulfill everyone’s fondest desires -- especially for that longing of that perfect childhood in paradise, everybody was “entitled” to.

Blind Ambition

Highly competitive systems often favor those who are the most ruthless rather than those who are the most good (best).

That is the problem of places like Hawaii -- where now, the only way people think they can win, is to lie, cheat and steal.

Eventually though, you have nothing but a culture and society that rewards and promotes that -- and all the good people leave.

And so everybody remaining preys on everybody else in a final vicious cycle -- until people become desensitized to the brutalities of people getting battered in the streets and every court decision is an outrage and violation of all one's sensibilities.

Generally, the best and the brightest see these things and refuse to cooperate and play these games. It is the very mediocre types who think they are the best and the brightest and think they will win at these games not worth winning -- because they don't know any better but to conform to the established pattern.

That's what the great heroes of cultural lore do -- transcend the present rotten establishment and create something better -- and not like the countless technocrats, think that it is just enough to rise to the top of a rotten system.

That kind of striving is worthless -- but seems to be the problem of life in Hawaii anymore. It's sad and hopeless.

So it really doesn't matter who is on top -- as the fact that such a society really needs to be challenged at its very premises in this day and age, with all we know about human institutions and behaviors -- instead of maintaining the old feudal and tribal ways, and primary concern of who is at the top, and then, how ruthless they are to remain there.

That's what the regimes of Saddam Hussein were essentially all about -- or Al Gore's presidency; If he could not be at the top, that he would do his damndest to see that nobody else could be, nobody else could have the prize he coveted and thought he was destined for.

That is the sickness of ambition without talent, ability and insight.

Take Nothing For Granted

The beauty and value of times like these, is the reminder that one should take nothing for granted, because the change you want, may be worse than what you already have -- and could at the least, be very different than what one expected.

The world is a very different place from what it was only a year ago. Then, oil and other commodity prices were still heading up in what seemed like an unending forever, and then last summer, began to fall with no resistance. By late summer, the real estate industry finally admitted that the imminent resumption was actually nowhere in sight, and then at the beginning of fall, with the kickoff of the election push, the bottom fell out from the financial institutions that were the bedrock of business and the economy all over the world.

Those who up to then had been seemingly the most prosperous and affluent, saw their fortunes vanish into little, if not nothing. In a span of a few weeks, people who had worked and built up their fortunes over a lifetime, saw them become pennies on the dollar -- with such suddenness, that many are still in denial about those realities. The rules of the old game have changed -- irrevocably and unfamiliarly to those who thought they knew “the only game in town. “

So now, everything they know is wrong, and they may not know how to learn the new rules, or learn anything at all -- because their original programming wasn’t to learn -- but to conform and obey. They were not given the luxury of a real education to do their own programming -- and so when old values, knowledge, and realities shift, as they have done for eons of time, they are left with only an empty despair -- wondering if they have been hopelessly left behind, merely to relive their memories of times in which they were with it.

That’s how it’s different this time -- for virtually everyone. Change is not gradual but sudden and thorough, not just laying off keypunch operators but entire industries formerly regarded as the foundations of American life. What is it Americans do now? Do they build cars, houses, computers, financial institutions?

Probably one of the most telling signs of the times is that our institutions of information, the mass media, is at the center of reformulation and reconstitution of society at this time. That is how most attain their own sense of anxiety, uncertainty and even fear -- which is largely transmitted now in these viral networks, rather than from one’s own actual experiences with their own realities.

So the great advantage in these uncertain times, are those who derive their sense of being from the actuality of their own experiences, rather than the mediated ones of mass publishing and broadcasting, by which we had the illusion of shared cultural experiences that were only implanted false memories.

But now that these institutions of repetition and reinforcement are no longer around to reward and punish us with their presence, the advantage goes to those who have real lives -- and not just the false memories of implanted knowledge and memories.

Those are the only things that were ever real.

Homeless in Hawaii

Sand Island is probably the perfect place for the homeless.

It makes a whole lot of sense rather than the previous governor's plan to relocate Waikiki to Sand Island.

Obviously, that was a mistake. Sand Island is perfect logistically -- close to all the social service agencies and nobody else wants to be there. It's already a campground at the end there -- with showers and bathrooms.

They could put aside some land for the homeless to grow their own food or steward the land, and make something out of that place. I'm not just for putting the homeless there so they can trash it. I think they could create a viable community and lifestyle out there.

It shouldn't be a place that is lawless and without rules. The residents are going to have to make some -- and become socialized and human again. That's the worst part of homelessness -- is that there is no community and all those people are living in isolation from one another.

I have nothing against the camping lifestyle -- as a way of living -- but it should be a superior adaptation than the dregs of homelessness and despair. All that kind of survivalist lifestyle -- camping, hiking, bicycling, farming, fishing -- can be done at the highest end of human ingenuity, as many are doing already.

Many of these people realize that if they used their disability checks on rent, they'd have nothing to live on. So instead of paying rent, they use that money for things so they can live a meaningful existence otherwise. You don't need a mansion in Kahala or Diamond Head. A tent will do -- as long as you have a viable community, which they need to develop, and in doing so, the homeless won't be a problem in Hawaii anymore but may actually be the answer to a people that don't know how to create any value but begging from the federal government for handouts.

It’s not healthy for any society/community to have lost its sense of self-reliance as Hawaii has and become totally dependent on other cultures and societies to provide everything for them -- while they lose that connection that the reason there is the present abundance is that somebody saw the need for it and created it with whatever they had to work with. Those are sustainable and viable societies -- and not just chanting in the old ways and remembering traditions of the past, to remain in the past. There are problems that can be solved in their present living -- if they are allowed to do so, unbound by the suffocating tradition of conformity to the old and conventional.

It takes a fairly high degree of resourcefulness to be “homeless,” but they shouldn’t be wasting all that resourcefulness just in preventing themselves from being wiped out by the mainstream culture, as is the emphasis right now. In many areas of the world, the nomadic lifestyle is respected in that way. Not everybody should be required to buy an overpriced house just to remain on the island.