Ultimately we all have a multitude of cognitive filters, some finely woven and carefully discriminating, other as coarse as a heavy metal screen at a stone crushing plant. We pass everything we see, hear and experience through these filters before actually computing what we just encountered. Mix in heavy dollops of cognitive bias, wishful thinking and selective hearing and the results is often a cognitive Molotov cocktail with an already lit fuse.
Now imagine engaging in an earnest conversation about an emotional issue with a terribly conflicted and self interested third party acting as the messenger/translator between the principal parties. If that’s not bad enough, now that the factions are separated by the third party, it is now perceived by all interested parties (including the ones who consider themselves the innocent victim) to employ deception, dishonesty, propaganda, feigned sincerity and abject apathy as a negotiating tactic in an attempt to leverage any and all poker chips to their side of the table. Continue reading Straight from the Horse’s Mouth→
“Just when I thought I was out….they pull me back in.” - The Godfather 3
God bless us everyone
We're a broken people living under loaded gun
And it can't be outfought
It can't be outdone
It can't be outmatched
It can't be outrun
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
Cognitive Dissonance rises to the surface and rears its ugly head when reality (itself rarely perceived fully and clearly) doesn’t match our expectations aka beliefs. What occurs at that point, and how it plays out, is entirely up to the person, or group of people, experiencing the dissonance.
Though nearly all of us would be hard pressed to admit the following, in so many ways we live in a dream world created both by external forces intent on controlling us as well as our own self imposed cognitive distortions and ideology. The end result is nothing short of insanity. The primary reason we don’t recognize our insanity is because everyone else is insane, therefore insanity is accepted as ‘normal’ and fully integrated into the hive mind. Continue reading Wash, Rinse and Repeat. Cognitively Captured via Perception Management.→
From time to time Mrs. Cog accuses me of being a curmudgeon. And while I'll never admit she's right (she is) it didn't seem correct to leave an article discussing riots and dissent at the top of this website during a holiday meant to bring family, friends and loved ones together.
Instead we wish to give thanks to all of our members and casual readers who have supported Mrs. Cog and me these last three years. Without your readership and support, this 'quirky' blog would not be what it is today....successful.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” – The version of the Serenity Prayer adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous.
“Do. Or do not do. There is no try.” – Yoda
Updated on 11-8-2016
A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth, both for those who wish it to be the truth because it fits their (programmed) mindset, and those who practice what I describe as ‘garbage in, garbage out’ non critical thinking. Setting aside the desire to expand upon the definition of ‘truth’, if the purpose of the lie (and the intent of the liar) is to shape reality via propaganda dissemination (basically to gain advantage) might not the lie also be directed towards those who know it to be a lie?
As silly as that statement may appear on the surface, it is reasonable to inquire exactly how a known or suspected lie may significantly shape the reality of those who at a minimum may not know the truth, but can smell a lie a mile away. The answer comes by way of how we react to the lie and not the lie itself. Continue reading Seeking Calm in the Middle of Chaos→
(Plato had much to say about modern day ideological blindness.)
Nearly everyone thinks of the United States of America as a place, a physical location, some place you can live, visit, touch and see. And nearly everyone is wrong.
The United States of America is an ideology, a thought meme, a belief, a political religion, a concept and an idea. I am reminded of this every time Mrs. Cog and I head southeast down the mountain and cross over from Virginia into North Carolina. Other than a few road signs and a change in the pavement (clearly two different companies at two different times from two different directions paved right up to the border and no further) there is no discernible difference. Continue reading Shadows on the Cave Wall→
