All posts by Cognitive Dissonance

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post

Politicians’ Privilege

Politicians’ Privilege

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Cognitive Dissonance

 

 

Imagine for a moment you work for a small or medium company, multinational corporation, utility, regional bank or even a local, state or national government or agency. You have a decent job with average pay and benefits, but for whatever reason you feel it may be time to move on. Doesn’t matter why, just that you wish to do so.

Time to hunt for a new job.

A competent manager (yeah, I know, but stick with me here) fully understands that at any point in time, 10-20% of her/his employees are casually, or seriously, looking for employment elsewhere. It’s called turnover and the HR department is quite familiar with the concept. That very same manager also knows some amount of ‘work’ time and resources will be devoted to (some might say stolen by) their soon-to-be-gone employee during their job search.

I’m not saying it’s right, just that it’s a present-day reality. It’s also one of many reasons why your work computer, and you, are increasingly under surveillance by your employer. One must always remember (at least according to the Supreme Court) we surrender certain inalienable rights when on the premises and/or in the employ of our paymaster. Continue reading Politicians’ Privilege →

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post

Shaking the August Stick

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Shaking the August Stick

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Cognitive Dissonance

 

 

Sometime towards the end of the third or fourth week of August, usually after one or two cooler nights brings them out in droves, Mrs. Cog and I go in search of a few sturdy August Sticks. While in a pinch anything can be used, a broom handle minus the broom, an actual stick fallen from a tree or a length of small diameter metal or plastic pipe, experience has taught us the best August Stick is a thin four to five-foot-long piece of bamboo repurposed after a summer propping up some top-heavy pepper plants.

It’s happened to each and every one of us at some point in our lives. We’re walking down a sidewalk or path in the woods, under some trees or overhanging deck, or turning the corner of our house when we plow face first into a large sticky spider web. Because we don’t actually see it until we’re fully entangled, we don’t know if a spider is now stuck to our face and body and is getting ready to counter attack.

Ugh! Continue reading Shaking the August Stick →

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post

Empire in Decline – Propaganda and the American Myth

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Empire in Decline - Propaganda and the American Myth

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Cognitive Dissonance

 

 

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive…ourselves.” - With apologies to Sir Walter Scott.

 

If only life was as neat and orderly as my ancient history text book showed it to be. There it was on glossy paper, spread out across several sets of adjoining pages, maps of the ancient and modern world. Sometimes there were time lines top and bottom, along with countries helpfully outlined and identified. Underneath their modern English names were one or two older names in smaller stylized script, often including exact beginning and end dates. I remember one in particular caught my eye. “The United States of America” followed by the year 1776. But with no end date indicated, it looked like unfinished business to me. You’ve got to love those historians and their precise dates.

Of course, in reality there are no exact dates for the birth and death of city/states, other than in the historian’s mind. Children continue to be born, the old still die, and life goes on under ever changing circumstances. But you are rarely informed of the subjective nature of historical events when you’re young and impressionable, so they’re presented in the history books as cold hard facts. The last thing the reigning Imperial Empire wants is to appear uncertain about prior eons, epochs and echoes in time. Continue reading Empire in Decline – Propaganda and the American Myth →