All posts by Cognitive Dissonance

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Animal Spirits and Over Extended Markets

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Animal Spirits and Over Extended Markets

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Cognitive Dissonance

 

 

Animal spirits is the term John Maynard Keynes used in his 1936 book “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” to describe the instincts, proclivities and emotions that ostensibly influence and guide human behavior, and which can be measured in terms of, for example, consumer confidence. It has since been argued that trust is also included in or produced by "animal spirits". – Wikipedia

 

Voltaire is alleged to have said "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." Those are wise words indeed and the subject of a future article. For now, though, I wish to modify Voltaire slightly to express my own point of view.

“To learn what controls us, simply find out what we don’t wish to discuss…at least not directly.” – Cognitive Dissonance

I attempt to view us silly humans as would a space alien orbiting Earth in order to observe our terminal insanity from a safe distance. While I freely admit disassociating myself from everyone else is nearly impossible (I can’t just flip a switch and stop thinking like a deeply conditioned and biased human) I still give it the old college try. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Or to quote Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

I just love that one. Continue reading Animal Spirits and Over Extended Markets →

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post, Patreon Content

Mother Nature Shows Off Her Stuff

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Mother Nature Shows Off Her Stuff

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Cognitive Dissonance

 

 

Mrs. Cog and I live on the edge of the Blue Ridge Plateau here in Southwestern Virginia. And by on the edge I mean literally on the edge. Our back property line ends where a very steep wooded drop off begins. Five more steps over the property line and it's a one way trip down for well over a quarter of mile.

I call it the ridge.

Continue reading Mother Nature Shows Off Her Stuff →

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post, Patreon Content

Control the Narrative and You Control the People

Control the Narrative and You Control the People

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Cognitive Dissonance

 

It is extremely difficult to get where you are going if you don't know where you presently are. And you can't know where you are if you don't know where you have been. Control the narrative and you effectively control the people.

When my son was young (we are talking over 25 years ago when he was around seven years of age) one of the ways I would keep him occupied when on car trips was to place a paper road map (aka a narrative) on his lap and ask him a multitude of questions for the duration of the trip.

The first question when starting a trip was, "Where are we on the map?" Essentially I was asking him to physically and mentally locate us in the present on a two dimensional representation of reality. And unsurprisingly this was initially difficult for my son, since he lives and plays in a three dimensional world. I encountered similar difficulties as a student comprehending plane (two dimensional) geometry. But unlike other students, I quickly understood solid (three dimensional) geometry because it mimicked real life as I perceived it.

Then I would ask "Where are we going?" This was the future, a point in time not yet experienced. Because our perceptual point of view has not yet experienced this (or any) future, the future is infinitely variable. My son had some difficulty with this concept because in his mind the future was set (we’re going to Grandma’s house) but had not yet arrived. While the narrative map represented an infinite number of possible futures, his task was simply to locate one…Grandma’s house. Continue reading Control the Narrative and You Control the People →