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.
