Impotence and Denial: The Desperate Virtue Signaling Voices

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Cognitive Dissonance

Regardless of whether we are speaking of individuals or groups, what is not said is often far more important and enlightening than what is. How and why we self censor while conforming to the collective hive mind speaks volumes about whom and what controls, or at least greatly influences, our thinking and beliefs.

While those engaged might argue otherwise, virtue signaling is all about displaying our cognitive compliance to the group think of our adopted tribe or herd. Virtue signaling usually does not require actual activity or productive effort towards whatever we are signaling about, thought it also doesn’t preclude it, only that we inform the clan we are right thinking and obedient to the hive mind. In form and function, it is very similar to the movement of herds of animals and flocks of birds.

On the surface this makes perfect sense, allowing the individual to share in the rewards (physically, emotionally and monetarily) of being a cooperative and accepted member of the group. Even today the opportunity for safety and prosperity rise when we join a group rather than live the solitary life, even if our group is defined as a nation or religion. Living alone in the Outback for example, particularly for those not well adapted, is not conducive to a long healthy life.

But just as the hive mind demands uniformity in speech and thought, so too does it command certain thought and speech to be verboten and not to be broached other than in passing and in a derogatory manner. Continue reading Impotence and Denial: The Desperate Virtue Signaling Voices →

A Near Death Experience: Back from the Brink

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Cognitive Dissonance

In an odd sort of way I am familiar with death, having danced around its perimeter all my life. A few of those waltzes can be attributed to close calls, near misses and other assorted near fatal brushes with death. But those were different from what I wish to describe in this piece.

A head on collision at 50 MPH (before the era of airbags and mandatory seat belts) unintentionally riding a motocross bike off a forty foot cliff, accidentally walking off the roof of a two story building or nearly having my arm swallowed by a whirling roaring mechanical beast, to name just a few, is just not the same as cardiac arrest and cessation of respiration.

While they all might have scared the hell out of me, with a few leaving me severely wounded or scared for life, they are not comparable to the near death experience(s) (NDE) I’m about to discuss in this article. Continue reading A Near Death Experience: Back from the Brink →