Tag: complacency

Beck and Call

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

People can be complacent, imagining that others will always be around even at their beck and call. People do not imagine that another might disappear into thin air, either with or without a puff of smoke. If you are institutionalised in say academia there is an assumption that you will remain therein and readily contactable, on tap. No-one foresees that you will go off into the wilderness to live as a yogi. They can’t treat you just how they see fit and you must suck it up. You can be the “dependable”. One click of the fingers and you are always there.

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We are accustomed to watching “24 hours in A&E” and the interviews with relatives bang on about how important family is and that it is unwise to take time and people for granted. They are clearly prompted by the interviewers with scripted questions. The answers are formulaic, fairly repetitive and preachy. When I hear people say that they must not take things or people for granted it does not ring true to me. What they mean is, “Phew, when  this crisis is over, we will endeavour to go back to pretty much how we were.”

You can work out if I am being cynical or simply accurate. What is your take on human nature?

So many people do take others for granted perhaps to be picked up and used as and when. I know from my own experience that many people have used me and, in my desire to help, I have actually done them a massive dis-service. I have disempowered them and robbed them of the lesson of using their own efforts.

If I have any regrets in this life, this is one of them, disempowering people by trying to help and make their lives easier, doing things for them. This leads in many cases to being taken for granted.

Grants however can be withdrawn…the complacent and entitled rarely expect this.

There is a type of person who imagines everything, everyone is at their beck and call…They can get upset and have a tizzy when this proves not to be the case.

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What happens when you snap your fingers, metaphorically or otherwise?

Do you get?

Do doors open?

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Humanity Needs a Reboot – Probably a Cataclysm

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

As the end of one earth birth year comes and another starts, I tend to reflect and have a guess at what may be to come. The most obvious for me (us) might be a pair of replacement hips which offer the possibility of reduced pain and enhanced mobility. There is no guarantee, I could also cark it. Physical plane life looks relatively simple with little deviation from the current trajectory on compound, though with reduced gardening.

What is so obvious to me is that humanity is not focussed on the big climate elephant in the room. Running lemming like into its orgy of acquisitional hedonistic show-and-tell materialism it is distracted and complacent. It allows the petroleum industry to sports wash and sabotage plastics conferences. It has cheerleaders in the USA. AI won’t be much use as the reservoirs empty; the forests burn and the cities flood. The crocodiles can feed on corpses. But let’s hype the hype and feed the energy-vampire water-sucking server farms, it is good for the wallets of the mega-rich. It keeps humanity distracted with robot Olympics and more energy voracious ‘phones and the endless petabytes of vacuous images.

Were anyone to ask me what humanity needs, I would say a complete reboot. I don’t mean this in the sense of flogging a dead horse movie franchise further to death. I mean a complete and utter reboot, a new operating system and a complete new age. I can see no way of this happening without a massive and global scale cataclysm. The old ways will need wiped out. People will need to think again and learn from their wastrel past. It seems that it cannot be a slowly stepwise process. In needs shock and awe to wake humanity from its slumber. The scale of the cataclysm needs to match the scale of the problem. It needs to be big. I have mentioned before that a nuclear winter is possibly a solution for global warming. Humanity is currently calling forth cataclysm. It is sleepwalking into it and gobbing off all the while.

Were anyone to ask me what humanity needs this would be my reply and my advice.

Going Through the Motions of Life

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

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Must have opened my front door at eight o’clock or so
And stopped along the way to buy some Chinese food to go
I’m sure I had my dinner watching something on TV
There’s not, I think, a single episode of Dallas that I didn’t see
I must have gone to bed around a quarter after ten
I need a lot of sleep, and so I like to be in bed by then
I must have read a while
The latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style
It’s funny, but I had no sense of living without aim
The day before you came

And turning out the light
I must have yawned and cuddled up for yet another night
And rattling on the roof I must have heard the sound of rain
The day before you came

Benny Goran Bror Andersson / Bjoern K Ulvaeus

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Whether we know it and accept it or not in our coterie, in our slumber, a sudden change to life can exist just around the corner. Something can upend and change much of that which we hold true and perhaps long-lasting. It might be as simple as a cancer diagnosis, being caught on kiss-cam in flagrante delicto or the arrival on the doormat of an unexpected DNA test result. Suddenly the trajectory of life and our assimilation thereof changes. The universe throws us a curve ball, chucks a spanner in the works and Bam!! Life is no longer what we assumed it to be.

Many are pretty somnambulant and any kind of wake up call can be a shocker. Others are hypervigilant always scanning and perhaps anticipating, thereby manifesting. Most in the comfortable West are going through the motions of life, it is relatively benign, doing similar things, without fearing an IDF bullet or kamikaze drone. They may even be pursuing a successful career assuming that is important.

Yet there it is, just around the corner, something which might shatter their complacency. Someone might turn their lives upside down. It does not have to be a movie script or an ABBA song.

I have recently been going through the motions of all these medical exams. I have not really pressed for them. I have followed the suggestions of others. At anytime some whopper could be revealed to me / us. In our house we are used, accustomed to, medical surprises of an unpleasant nature, which give us something new to contend with and endure. If there is any kind of expectation on my part it is that things will not be “just dandy”. In a self-fulfilling way I do not expect to be listened to or taken seriously. Therefore I cut my communication back to the very basic level, quasi monosyllabic even. If somebody actually listened to me, I might fall off my chair. Yet they could find something else untoward in their testing on the guinea pig which is me.

I sense in me and what I know somethings that could completely re-order notions of reality for someone else should they be exposed fully thereto. I have been very careful not to start something where I cannot follow through.

Without being all Nietzschean and super-man, no red underpants outside the tights, I do not feel encompassed by herd or shoal. What I have done to myself has changed me in ways which are not obvious yet are profound. I am not held to societal concepts in the common way nor do I contravene the basic laws in the country where I live. I look the same and at first pass behave the same. Inside I am wired differently. I am less perturbed by the crises of life. And in no way do I subscribe to the notion that life needs to be fair. My lot is my lot. I do not have concepts of deserving better or worse. It is what it is. I expect virtually nothing, I have few if any, wants desires or demands. By and large I have no wish to inflict myself on others. I have no axe to grind or vengeance to sate. I am not overly sympathetic to the petty wants and moans and whinges of others. They are just overly dramatic and manipulative. Perhaps I am cold and heartless, a cold fish. I am not a bleeding heart or hand wringer.

Provided that I limit my interactions to the most basic, the most mundane, I cause no pain, no suffering, no discomfort. I am thus well within my boundaries. I have a kind of clarity which I suspect many might struggle to live with. They need some sense of hope, some narrative to life, too. They do not see that the universe is a bleak unforgiving and potent place. Our minuscule which we deem important is insignificant. This notion, if fully attained, can be hard to bear fully. We may note it, put it to one side and then carry on as if nothing has happened. Human mind struggles to reconcile the infinite with the mundane, which is itself all too finite in space and time.

I struggle these days with compassion, finding it and expressing, that is. I see humans justifying and arguing about their right to visit brutality and death upon others as a deterrence, their just and bloody revenge. When, ever, in human history has death and slaying ever deterred death and slaying? I see gluttonous people ignore the burning planet to acquire more profits and to consume like hormonal locusts. I see the historical lessons from totalitarianism tattooed deep into the blood vessels of humans ignored and repeated. I see jackboots and caps, propaganda and division.

I see a comfortable numb complacency on all sides. People going through the motions of life, not rocking the boat nor upsetting the applecart. I see humanity walking half asleep, earphones in, staring at their shiny narco-screens, veins itching for the next electronic ping of social interaction. I see people without much in the way of purpose heading slowly, lemming like, towards an unpleasantness the scale of which they have no concept of.

Looking at the news, I have become inured, accustomed to the ceaseless death toll ticker in Gaza, the nightly drone count in Kyiv and the predictable soap box rants from DC. I don’t care how much Starmer increase taxes or if the Bank of England changes the interest rate by 0.25%.

The world, humanity, has lost its way, big time. Humanity is going through the motions of living. It is not however going anywhere meaningful…stuck in a rut…like a stuck Status Quo long player vinyl record, again and again and again…

Group Control and Decision Making

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It is not unusual for groups of people to gather together and try to control what an individual outside of that group is doing. They may even have the illusion that said individual is keen or desperate to join their group as per the famous Garry Glitter song about gangs. Groups by their nature have real difficulty seeing and assimilating perspectives outside of the rarefied air of their Olympian group. We Gods know. The group may even believe that they know what is best for the “lucky” individual. Being quasi-corporate they can only see a quasi-corporate “answer” to whatever the imagined problem may be.

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They can get quite complacent if something approaching within-group consensus is found.

The problem is that they can be very mistaken and totally unaware. There is very little one can do when a group has made up its mind. Nietzsche is attributed this quotation.

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“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

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You can decide for yourself regarding some of the “sanity” currently coming out of the USA.

Groups may consider it sound to offer the lucky person a fait accompli. Having discussed only amidst themselves they may not consider how it might wash with an individual outside. Such a thing happened with the so-called peace efforts expecting Ukraine to suck it up and be grateful. The individual is then blamed and scapegoated for not accepting the divine arrogance of group omniscience.

“That pesky pleb should count his lucky stars!! He should be very grateful!!”

This phenomenon can be found on all sides in academia, industry, business, politics and amongst the righteous “they” down the pub.

Groups do not always make the best and most inclusive decisions because they cannot see outside their own Venn diagram walls. A collection of frogs at the bottom of a well, even though it may agree amongst itself, has not seen a pacific sunset nor has it gone on a silent retreat in the mountains for three years. It might imagine itself more knowledgeable and experienced than it actually is.

Groups with corporate mind always want to deal with other groups in which the socio-political hierarchy is known. They are obsessed with hierarchy and group positions. They struggle with even the notion of a non-affiliated individual. Group to group interaction can be even less inclusive. There are often power struggles and a great deal of negotiation. It is so often about power and preservation of status quo. It is about control.

The object of negotiation can be totally unaware of the blessings, he/she is about to receive.

People are people and the tendency is to do the same shit over and over.

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The Tendency to Underestimate

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This tendency can be followed by overreaction and disproportionate over reaction at that. One might point at Pearl Harbour, 9/11 and the recent Hamas attacks. There was underestimation prior in each case. If something catches people unawares it is an act of terrorism if “they”, do it, or an act of cunning if “we”, do it. Placing thousands of indiscriminate pager bombs in Lebanon to maim and kill Hezbollah was “clever” and in no way terrorism… “Terrorism” depends upon which side you are on. The “allies” firebombed Dresden, hardly an altruistic act.

People, countries, who are prone to arrogance tend to underestimate others. I’ll speculate that Trump has made a miscalculation concerning how people feel concerning the USA and his actions in particular. We shall see.

It is possible that people have underestimated me or that they have overestimated me or that they have judged me spot on. I have perceived that from time to time I have surprised people. I have done things which they did not see coming. I may be mistaken. If they had me sussed, they would have foreseen.

The problem with words like underestimate is that they are linked to competition, winning and even conflict. “Never underestimate your opponent”. The estimation is tied up in an oppositional scenario, there is a presupposition, a desire for victory.

When I was a younger man, I thought I knew a lot more than I actually did. I was full of bullshit and prone to evangelising about science, thermodynamics and veganism. I have hindsight now. But back in the thrall then, I was certain and dogmatic. People in the thrall lack a wider awareness. They do not know what is beyond their ken and may be arrogant and conceited about their self-diagnosed omniscience.

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Not so long ago someone “told” me some things about Castaneda and that The Guardians do not exist. He was adamant. As usual I was direly in need of education. People have told me many things. I’ll estimate that in general I get told way more than I am asked. The assumption is perhaps that because I am not a soap-boxing gobshite, I know little or nothing. I do not feel the urge to show off.

I could say that I know no-thing but nobody would understand what I mean by that statement nor get the experience behind it. They would not think to ask what I mean. They might tell me.

People can be markedly unaware as to the extent of what is unknown for them and yet feel entitled to opine thereupon.

I have mentioned the blue books opus in this blog. There may be those that think it to be made up hippy shit. If the contents are real and even quasi-factual then it would be unwise to underestimate the so-called hierarchy, those others call The Guardians of the Race. The Tibetan suggests they differ markedly from Joe Bloggs buying a steak slice at Greggs and from those having a BYOB works event at 10 Downing Street.

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People can pooh-pooh out of arrogance and that can be a miscalculation. There is a tendency to pooh-pooh as a knee jerk reaction which may stem from a sense of entitled complacency.

The Tibetan mentions masters as having taken the fifth initiation, this means that even after they become a nirvani there is work to do. If you have never met a putative awakened Buddha, it might be wise not to slag them off, if only on the off chance that they are real.  It might be good to spread your bets.

But of course, those who are fond of the sound of their own voices, when they find themselves in a bit of a hole, tend to keep on digging. They may be unaware because of their underestimation that they have indeed fallen into a hole, a trap of their own making. Even when someone hands them a spade or a shovel, they may not cotton on to the hole hypothesis. Dig baby dig.

This tendency to underestimate is widespread. It pertains a little to an arrogant sense of entitlement.

“Mr Ghandhi, India is British my good man…”

I have never met a “know-it-all” who actually does.

Perhaps one day if people keep telling me what I am, what I know, what I am thinking, what my motivations are and who I am, I will learn.

Then they will be right…

And I can finally sleep soundly…

Proof of Telekinesis – Pennies

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Many people do not believe in telekinesis as a real thing, an observable phenomenon. Yet they are able to use their mind to counter the gravitational attractive force between the planet Earth and pennies. Reality exerts a pull on said pennies causing them to ground, to fall to earth. Yet people are able to deny, refuse, fail to accept, act dumb, fail to see, fail to understand, not appreciate or otherwise be unable to perceive something true and sometimes obvious.

The penny does not drop, not because pennies do not obey gravitational law, but because people use their mind to elevate them, slow the acceleration.

On a bed of contrary reasons and justifications the penny is held near stationary in space. Complacency and dogma act as a treacle, a thick gloopy liquid which holds the penny up. Many famous scientists who do not believe in telekinesis are highly skilled in the art. They can stop pennies dropping for a very long time. Yet if you asked them, they would say that telekinesis does not exist.

There are many historical examples of telekinesis.

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Confirmation bias is one of the best techniques for telekinesis. We see only what we want to see, what is convenient. This helps us to keep the penny elevated.

One day that penny can drop and the sudden realisation so-caused can be difficult to assimilate and comprehend. All that effort at telekinesis is not let go of quickly or quietly. People even after the penny has dropped for the first time are able to re-elevate it for a while. Because to accept that the penny has dropped is to acknowledge that one’s omniscient superpower has failed. There are implications.

Complacency is a good telekinetic technique. It can keep pennies from falling for quite a while. Unfortunately, complacency is a bit fragile and not really a good buttress against reality.

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At the moment there are pennies dropping all over Europe about how reliable long held alliances are. There remains a lot of wishful thinking, but that which was once dependable is no longer.

Some people are quicker on the uptake than others and less prone to penny telekinesis. Others are highly skilled in the arcane art of levitation.

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Are you any good at telekinesis?

Can you stop the pennies from dropping?

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100 Toads and Weird Dreams

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We are having a bit of a warm and windy spell and the toad count in the pond has gone from three to well over one hundred in the last two days. They may be a mix of toads and frogs. I’ll do a rough tally tomorrow. There seems to be more females than last year.

There has been no disturbance of Coypu witness sticks for three nights in a row.

I don’t know if Trump is deliberately being thick or if Putin has some dirt on him. Lavrov and Putin have been around a long time, KGB / FSB are a tad more subtle than ranting on social media. The USA has a long history of complacency. They are cocksure and full of themselves. Then something bad happens which they do not anticipate and then they massively over react like an offended teenage gang member. I don’t think some in the USA understand that they are “tolerated” as opposed to welcome. BRICS must be well happy. A country which consistently reneges on contacts and agreements is not trustworthy anymore. The “deals” are no longer worth the paper they are written on.

Where things go from here is hard to say, but Trump is not winning friends outside the Kremlin.

I continue to have weird dreams on quasi-grandiose subjects. I would rate the chance of me ever sat at table with Uncle Boris as vanishingly small.

I have taken a view of non-intervention. In the past I have provided a lead for some people. I have noted that when I stopped doing this, they had no idea how to interact with me. It is funny, there appeared to be some kind of vacuum. They were kind of waiting for me, I did nothing so nothing happened. In the past so many of my attempts were rebuffed, I have stopped trying.

It is said that Bodhidharma sat for nine years in a cave staring at a wall.

I have kind of stopped inflicting myself on others.

I wonder what Trumpian soap opera will be in the next episode / instalment?

Wasn’t “Dallas” a thing mostly of the eighties? It is a bit old-fashioned.