Tag: entitlement

Geocentrism and Perception

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

For many centuries the powers that be and the so-called wise held a view that the heavens rotated around the centre of the universe, aka Earth. Looking out from Earth it was assumed that we were the very epicentre of all God’s creation. This understanding has been proven wrong by the use of modern electromagnetic astronomy. Yet people were adamant that the world revolved around them and any disagreement in public could be fatal, a taboo punishable by excommunication, shunning and execution.

This innate human tendency towards self-diagnosed omniscience persists to this day in various forms.

One could postulate that a self-centred world view is very common. This holds for institutions and individuals. Moreover a kind of gravitational attraction is assumed. Say for example you were a Harvard or an Oxford university you might assume that would be scholars of merit would be irrevocably attracted to you, both to share in your divine reputation and the chance to participate in highbrow scholarly intercourse. People see things from their own point of view. To some a “Hogwarts” school dinners form of collegiate catering may be attractive to others it is not.

Those with power and reputation might assume that this is attractive to others and these exert a quasi-gravitational pull. Moths are drawn to the candle flame. Seen from the inside one sees an attractiveness which externally may not hold. A self-centred perception may lack accuracy.

I have seen some of the mythos associated with a university I worked at briefly. It was held in high regard by some less so by me. My perception was based upon experience and not PR or mythos.

Some people are very corporate in their thinking. Imagining that some corporate or institutional identity is attractive. I once went to an Accenture “do” while I was a start-up founder with a lot of dosh in the bank. All the young guns were full of themselves and very Accenture on-board. All they could see were the internecine pecking order, rankings and power struggles. They knew best. They did not leave a good impression on me. I thought that they were a bunch of wankers. These ambassadors for Accenture left me thinking that the organisation was full of bellends. I wanted no more to do with it ever.

When you are caught up in an institution, church or cult it is very easy to become enamoured and imagine oneself the best thing since sliced bread. The group perception internally may differ significantly from that held externally.  For example other Buddhist groups may think that the Dzogchen and Bon influenced Tibetan Buddhism is bad for Buddhism as a whole. Although the Dalai Lama is arguably the most famous Buddhist one might question as to the type of being this attracts towards Buddhism. The difference between high Tibetan ritual and Thai Forest simplicity is marked. There is a cultural agenda in Tibetan Buddhism which extends past sutra and towards a national historical identity. I don’t know to what extent reflection is made. Evangelism of any kind suggests an imagined innate superiority of world view which must be shared with others. A similar story might hold for STEM advocacy in schools. Everyone must be blessed by the all-encompassing wisdom of the STEM doctrine and creed. All hail the standard model. Blessed be its name.

When you are within the encircled wagons out on the wild prairie armed with your trusty Winchester rifles, it is easier to kill the Apache. After all he is the ignorant savage and you are the God fearing pioneer enacting justified ethnic cleansing in the name of the Lord. It is your divine right to drive the indigenous off their lands. They need your conversion to go to heaven.

Humans can believe whatever it is convenient for them to believe and their ability to seemingly justify slaughter and murder to themselves continues unabated to this day.

When you look in a geocentric, self-centred  manner anything out there is an enemy to be conquered and slain. They must revolve around you or die.

Mathematically whether that be with spherical or cartesian coordinates perception starts at the origin, the self, which is placed at the centre of the world, the centre of the known universe. Many imagine that the entirety of creation revolves around them, their wants, their needs and their petty grudges and complaints.

Although historically Geocentrism has been determined to be inaccurate, a poor model of reality, many fail to see that their whole view is self-centred. Me-centrism. They fail to see that they too are old fashioned and archaic in their notions of world. This observation applies to even the most intelligent amongst us. Intelligence can confer a sense of entitled arrogance. Those on Olympus after all, know what is best for us plebs.

Many people whose perception is very self-centred imagine that it is right and dandy that this should be the case.

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Does the entire universe revolve around you, are you the very centre of all creation?

Are you the flame to which all moths are irresistibly drawn by your magnificence?

Some General Observations

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

I have met a number of people who think they know more about dreaming than me.

A number of people seem to believe that I can benefit from education by them. I am in severe need of their knowledge / wisdom and they feel sufficiently generous to learn me.

Many people are convinced that they know best and are always right. They can be adamant.

It is not unusual for people to gob off on subjects about which they know little. There are a lot of “instant experts” out there.

As a rule people will only do what seems to be convenient to them. It is very unusual for anyone to put themselves out.

People believe that high-kudos institutional affiliation is a marker of depth and extent of knowledge. Who you know can be more important than what you know.

People believe that “they” are the arbiters of truth. Peer pressure and acceptance is very important to them. Belonging to the herd, tribe, shoal, cult, party, institution or society is seen as vital. One must belong to some grouping or other.  “We” know better than “they”. God is benevolent to only “us”. We are special.

People are terrified of missing out and being socially ostracised.

People are very fickle.

People put things off and practise escapism  / avoidance until such time as they learn the meaning of complacency via hindsight and retrospect.

People are very self-centred; they only do what suits them and advances their imagined  interests. Genuine selfless compassion centred altruism is rare, altruism for public relations show is common.

Those in power by association or by position will always seek to conserve that power at whatever cost and for as long as is possible. Even when it is foolish so to do.

Letting go is not something which people do easily. The clenched fist clinging on is much more common than the freely open palm of offering.

People worry and stress much more than is warranted. This is because they are obsessed with the socio-political pecking order which them deem reality. They are masochist and insist on suffering lifetime after lifetime.

People imagine that they are hard done by and say stupid things like “it is not fair that Jack got cancer..” They are unwilling to take responsibility for the karmic effects in their lives and play an endless blame game…

In the west people like to complain and moan and find fault and whinge and blame and play stupid dramas and seek revenge and throw sand at each other in the sand pit and then sulk to mummy, a lot. This is not in proportion to the relative ease of their life circumstances. There is an ungrateful sense of entitlement which pervades.

In general it is always someone else’s fault. Quite often I am to blame for all of their woes.

It is all my fault after all…

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…

Something Which You Later Rely On

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Postulate: There is a growing tendency for a whole bunch of people to have a profound sense of entitlement and to take very many things and people for granted. They somehow deserve this inexhaustible bounty, it is their due to which they are entitled, owed even.

In the UK the police have powers of arrest and search subsequent to cursory inquiry. These powers for stop and search were misused historically. As a white now 60 year old male with a “posh” voice and good manners, it is unlikely that I will have any run ins with UK police, were I there in that country. I would not hear the following.

“You do not have to say anything. But, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

I have, when younger, had interactions with the police, several of which might have resulted in at least a night in the cells maybe more. Because I was civil, even when well off my face, I was not detained nor beaten up. I could say that I was lucky. My mother used to say that I can be charming. I am white, not brown, I wear no religious trappings, and my face is not covered in tattoos. Although I did not rely on it, my relative privilege helped me out. Here in France, I could not rely upon the command of English and UK based savoir faire.

The gendarmerie make checks here from time to time on cars. On one such occasion we were flagged over in our right hand drive Peugeot which the wife was driving. The officer came to my window, the normal one for a driver here. I showed him my carte de Sejour and French driver’s license and we were on our way. Odd.

I am more wary of the police here, because they are armed and there is a communication barrier. They do shoot “criminals” or “terrorists” here promptly and there is little public outcry. I have found that the French do not respond well to being challenged or disagreed with. They tend to react, then think. So, I would be ultra-cautious.

I am conscious as an immigrant that my right to remain is conditional and could be easily revoked. Consequently, we are very comprehensive in meeting our legal and tax obligations. We keep “kilograms” of justificatory paperwork, a marathon paper trail. Our right to stay card expires a year today. We have heard nothing about how to renew our “right” which was granted under the “Brexit” withdrawal “agreement”. A shift to the political right here could change everything. We could get booted out.

So, we have booked a short trip to Jersey to feel how we might feel to be surrounded by English speakers for the first time in six years. I am not relying on a renewal. We have a loose contingency which involves a move to a cheap part of the UK. Given our health challenges neither of us take health for granted because we do not have good health.

At the moment Trump is alienating people around the globe, feeling entitled so to do and perhaps taking for granted that others will continue to suck up. He is not a purveyor of goodwill. There may be irreparable damage to relationships ongoing. I am not sure he has thought things through fully, if he has, he does not care. I think it likely he is being reactionary and still resentful of anything Biden related. He may estimate that his “allies” in terms of nations, will always be there.

He is exhibiting a sense of entitlement. He perhaps thinks that the USA is entitled to Panama, Greenland and Gaza sur mer. The USA is entitled to preferential trade terms even though their livestock are riddled with anti-biotics.

In this he is mirroring much for humanity at large. He mirrors a ME-first orientation, expressed as US or USA first.

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In the past I know that I have helped people and been of use to them. I did this in a non-transactional manner, for free if you like. There was no game of itchy backs. I’ll speculate that I have been taken for granted on numerous occasions. I don’t feel upset by this but I have noted a marked surprise when I have disappeared and could no longer be relied upon. The grant, if you like, has been withdrawn. People can be complacent that the things or people they take for granted will always be there.

The universe is impermanent and people can fail to appreciate the loan of gift which it temporarily confers.

I am aware of a supposition here in that the medics are working to a French life expectancy of ~83-4 for me, whereas my gut feel is that I will in no way last that long. If I say this out loud it might get a strange “reassuring” response / reaction. This life expectancy is to an extent taken for granted and people even plan to it.

People can think that they are owed a long life, that they have all the time in the world. However, the sands in the egg timer do run out. When someone dies “young” the newspapers report it as a “tragedy” that they were “taken from us” prematurely. They wail and wring hands. Death is an entirely natural process. There is no tragedy. Many die with regrets about things which they could or might have done but failed to do, perhaps because they lacked courage. They might live in the land of “if only”.

People above all take alloted time for granted and as a consequence they squander and waste it. One day tomorrow never comes. It is then too late.

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Do you think that the universe owes you?

Are you getting all that you are entitled to and deserve?

Are you hard-done by?

Is life not fair?

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