Even When the Sociopaths Lose They Win
By
Cognitive Dissonance
How exactly do you cook a nutritious meal if all you have are spoiled ingredients? The answer depends upon your definition of nutritious and who is eating the meal……and, of course, your level of hunger and growing desperation. It is telling how much less discerning we become when the hunger pains boom in our belly and our mind becomes ever more focused on the single minded obsession of relieving our pain rather than pursuing our pleasure. Although at some point down the slippery slope relieving our pain is pursuing our pleasure.
If I carefully tend my garden, making certain the soil is thoroughly turned and pulverized, the seeds and seedlings properly planted, the area fertilized, weeded and watered and yet my garden’s yield is poor year after year after year, at what point do I begin to question the basis for my assumptions? And clearly there is an assumption of a better yield if I continue to do the same thing and expect different results.
Perhaps the soil is too acidic or alkaline, the area in shadow too long or the crop selection not suited for the soil or geographic location. The issue might be any or all of the above, or it might be something entirely different. Only a fearless and thorough examination of both the garden and gardener will reveal the systemic faults, and thereby the remedies to be employed.
It is a common belief in the West that revolution, at least when ‘successful’ (which usually means a forced change in leadership) produces reasonably good outcomes for the population at large. I contend this is wishful thinking and a deliberately seeded misnomer designed to obscure and conceal the ugly recognition that most often the new boss is quite similar in method and madness to the old boss. Change via revolution should not be conflated with better, nor should it be assumed better is the inevitable outcome.
The paradox of revolution springs from one central source, albeit a source widely dispersed and with many reverberations. Even if the revolutionaries wear white hats and are genuinely interested in fomenting ‘good’ change, with ‘good’ usually understood to mean ridding the country/region of the parasitic leaches and sociopaths along with the madmen at the top, changing the patsies throughout the governmental power structure doesn’t root out the sociopaths embedded within the country’s elite, essentially the King’s court along with several of the King’s men.
Since the King serves at the pleasure of his court, killing the King does little if anything to root out the source of real power in the country or region. Like tics dug in deep under a dog’s fur and attached directly to the economic blood supply, the established power base must either be thoroughly dislodged, thereby risking utter economic collapse, or a deal made to accommodate their continuing presence in order to enable the newly crowned King time to organize and govern.
Regardless of whether or not damage was done to the infrastructure and overall economy during the revolution, the new leadership often opts to cut a deal with the existing elite in order to quickly consolidate power and demonstrate to the population some sort of progress towards restoration of commerce and an increased standard of living. This very act of questionably necessary compromise and accommodation means the ‘good’ imagined by the revolutionaries has already been sidetrack and subverted, though by how much remains to be seen.
These issues are further compounded since the global elite do not respect national boundaries in the same manner you and I are forced to do. Money’ is fungible and convertible and quickly moved by those who possess both large quantities and international financial contacts. This means the elite can apply significant external pressure using a variety of means to compel the revolutionaries to concede on many business regulations, tax concessions and the selling of national assets if they wish to receive external assistance from the blood sucking tics.
Basically the economic hit-men are sent in and the revolutionaries are read the riot act. Play international ball or we will take your ball (and possibly your country) away. Facing Hobson’s Choice, either they dislodge the elite and become the next Cuba or North Korea, isolated from most of civilization and it’s economic and financial opportunities, or they join the ranks of the corrupt and in the process profit handsomely from their hard labors ‘liberating’ the downtrodden. It is easy to see how this self serving decision can be rationalized away.
This scenario doesn’t even take into consideration that in all likelihood the revolutionaries already hitched their wagon to a group of elites (internal or external, it doesn’t really matter) during the early stages of the uprising in order to gain military and financial assistance. That bill comes due immediately upon demand, thereby assuring the economic hit-men easy access to the top. In most cases the tics are already deeply embedded within the revolution.
This brings us to an important corollary to my theorem. With a global and local population thoroughly conditioned with the slave mentality of respect, or just plain fear, for self declared (elite) authority along with severe generational Stockholm Syndrome, even before the revolution begins to take hold the revolutionaries quickly realize in order to win the population over, or simply to neutralize it, they must employ the exact same herding and bullying techniques as the present, and soon to be previous, status quo leadership uses to control the native population.
Essentially the vast majority of the existing population is already suffering to one degree or another under the present day rule. And they are doing nothing to free themselves from their oppressed condition. Other than the very small minority who will join the rebellion when hope surfaces with the insurgency, the majority will remain either neutral (meaning frozen in fear glued to their propaganda mind control devices) or will rise to defend their shepherd……or at the very least their meal ticket. The ultimate enemy of a revolution is not the oppressive government it is attempting to overthrow, but the general population it is trying to 'free'.
This virtually assures if and when the revolution ‘succeeds’ the new boss will appear quite similar to the old boss, since it is nearly impossible to resist using an extremely effective herding technique once the revolution has gained control of the civilian population using the very same techniques. While some of the citizens will welcome the leadership change, for they labor under the mistaken belief good times are just around the corner, for the most part the recently elevated revolutionary King will face a suspicious and even hostile civilian population, especially if the controlling propaganda memes are interrupted by the recent regime change.
All the more reason to ruthlessly quell dissent and consolidate power by making deals with the elite devil(s) while using strong arm tactics on the general population, something the slave mentality will generally applaud as needed and necessary to ‘restore law and order and make the streets safe’. Ultimately a population conditioned to believe only a higher authority can save them from themselves will beg for an authority, any authority, to fill the vacuum left behind when the last figure head authority was deposed.
While over the ages there have been hundreds of slightly different permutations of the above scenario endlessly played out as one after another revolution rises up only to quickly fizzle out, assuring an endless stream of sociopath patsies rotating through the halls of power, the basic blueprint rarely changes regardless of the social, economic or technological ‘progress’ achieved.
The Blueprint for Slavery - Killing each other to benefit the master.
As disturbing as this concept might be for those minds who consider themselves free, we still live, work and play under a form of slave plantation organization. No - the US is not fundamentally different, though this is most certainly the controlling meme, one of outstanding exceptionalism. What makes the US unique (or at least first) is the rousing success the embedded tics had in developing the next iteration of the slave plantation system, one where the slaves were given limited freedom of choice in exchange for greater participation and productivity. Even now this experiment is coming to a close as the profits dwindle……and with them the slave’s choices. In a sociopath’s world, nothing assures eventual collapse more than unparalleled success.
The biggest difference between the slave toiling away on a 19th century Deep South cotton plantation and the modern ‘educated’ self determining ‘free’ debt addled office, factory or service worker is the degree of mobility, living standard, and belief in our own freedom. Not to mention our rock solid belief in the ‘guarantee’ of our basic ‘human’ (slave) rights. Ever wonder who exactly is making, and supposedly fulfilling, that guarantee?
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” - Wolfgang von Goethe
I am fairly certain the prior statements will elicit either violent emotional triggering in rebuttal (denial is often the first line of cognitive defense) or a quiet calm as the slave mind quickly overcomes the sudden rise of cognitive dissonance by differentiating itself from the rest of the herd……as it always does in order to tolerate its captivity. Ironically the latter self subterfuge is the favorite refuge of those of us who consider ourselves awake and aware.
From a practical point of view, while the modern slave enjoys many ‘benefits’ only dreamed of by the slaves of the Deep South, the ‘benefits’ enjoyed by the elite modern slave master which are derived from the exponentially higher productivity of the modern slave far exceeds any concessions the master has made to the slave. Concessions I might add that can, will and are being quickly rescinded.
Even though “We the People” believe our selves already free, and the level of technology salted throughout our modern lives tend to confirm our delusional thinking, this technology also serves as the robust chain that binds us to our plantation. The massive and still growing global surveillance state (not just in the USA but throughout the world both East and West) assures the controlling elite not only the means to track and eavesdrop, but to implant the latest mind controlling memes and narratives directly into our minds. Upgrades and updates are just a finger swipe away. The endless variety of news and information sources available at our fingertips virtually assures each of us will be told exactly what we wish to hear, see and think.
With the mind of the master now firmly implanted in our pocket or purse, the concept of revolution can be quickly derailed or co-opted among the great unwashed masses. While this doesn’t dissuade the truly disaffected from pushing back at the margins, it does severely limit the number of minds willing to be freed from the controlling matrix. A conditioned mind always returns to its core dependency for affirmation and confirmation of the correctness of its debased state.
It can be competently and convincingly argued, at least when dealing with a mind willing and able to see all sides of the issue, that far from being free and independent, the modern wage slave is far more indentured to his or her servitude than at any other time in history. What this means is that any revolution, in addition to all the issues outlined above, has a much steeper hill to climb than ever before if it is to eventually ‘succeed’.
Just as enlightening to recognize is one simple fact. Similar to the situation where unless all the head lice are removed at the same time, the infestation continues, so too if the sociopaths are not removed in mass globally with one fell swoop of civil uprising, the infestation continues. While the controlling sociopaths share the same self survival impulse as we mere mortals, they do not share our propensity to live and let live. Therefore they will quickly and efficiently sacrifice fellow elite sociopaths in order to sate the blood thirsty mobs, thereby assuring (or at a minimum prolonging) their continued control of the slave nation.
Because the general population lives within the fiction of the controlling meme, meaning the mostly false narrative deeply embedded within our minds of what is real and what is not, as long as the changing of the guard produced by revolution remains within the controlling mind meme narrative nothing really changes for the slave population other than in the most superficial manner. Instead of a ration of 20 units of chocolate each day I have been assured a raise to 100 units of chocolate per week. Thus even when the sociopaths lose they still win.
I got my raise. Who wants to barter?
After hundreds, even thousands, of years of failed revolutions and endless rounds of rotating sociopath leaders, maybe it is time to question the very premise of ‘revolution’ and what exactly is happening here. Since you and I cannot force change upon the world with the snap of our fingers, the only path out of this paradox is to break free from the controlling meme and recognize our own participation in, and endorsement of, the slave plantation state.
This is not to say attempting to protect ourselves from the manipulated herd or the layers of well armed muscle surrounding the sociopath leaders is pointless and futile. Nor should we passively let go when the gathering tide is tugging at our feet. But to blindly assume any response from you or me is either doomed to fail (for example assuming you can’t fight city hall) or expected to succeed (such as being armed and awake in the redoubt) and all points in-between, is at this point utter insanity on our part. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is - well, you know - insane.
To assume I and millions of others can unravel thousands of years of social conditioning and manipulation in mere months or even years if only we were to do ‘something’ is the very definition of self delusion, serving only to set myself and others up for eventual failure. The source of my urgent impulse to action, which usually consists of little more than high frequency vibrating in place similar to a deer in the headlights (an extremely unhealthy state of affairs I might add) is an at times irrational fear for my ‘self’ once my eyes have glimpsed first light and begin to recognize the layers of (self) deceit and treachery which encompasses the modern slave state.
When this is combined with an often falsely perceived close proximity to the soon-to-be mad-as-hell hungry hoards when first light is involuntarily thrust upon them, this bitter cocktail goads my mind into believing something must be done right now or all is lost later. With the brain now effectively short circuited and disconnected, and the body operating solely on fear induced adrenaline, hence the high frequency vibration, we become our own personalized sub sect of the mindless masses. And right there my friend is the ultimate source of history’s rhyme, the co-opted revolutionary mind leading the forever blind.
The dirty little secret dear reader is glaringly obvious once accepted; this ‘belief’ that we must fight fire with fire, that lines must be draw - this far and no further, that time is of the essence and the end is so near, is part and parcel of the overall controlling mind meme. To paraphrase the Architect as he spoke with Neo, “You think you are the first, but you are not. There is a long line behind you and an even longer line ahead.”
There is an unbalanced equation inherent (more accurately described as deliberately implanted) in our programming which results in a tragically poor yield to our endless revolutions. It might be the soil or the crops, the light or the gardener. Then again it might not. The only apparent choices available to us are a product of the controlling meme and are patently false unless they are recognized for what they are. Only our acknowledgement and full acceptance that we willing participated in this macabre dance can invalidate the false choices and open new doors. Either we create our own reality or we exist as subjects of theirs.
To deny these basic and self evident truths is to deny us our ultimate freedom, the freedom from self. This is the source of our power and the elite know this, thus the reason they are so desperate to ramp up their subjugation and control. Their power is simply our power brilliantly co-opted, and all we need do to take it back is snap our fingers and they are suddenly naked and exposed. I love the smell of elite desperation in the morning.
This is not false hope, but rather obvious truth. However, unless “We the Individual” can overcome and surpass our thoroughly conditioned and manipulated ‘self’, the game will never change other than at the most local of levels and for the shortest periods of time. There is a reason we rats are always caught in the trap. When we finally ask of our ‘self’ the only pertinent question that matters - why do I continue to play the fool in the slave master’s game - then we can begin to recognize the only path out of this maze is to be found when we finally look within.
02-07-2015
Cognitive Dissonance
Fantastic piece as usual CD. (Minor quibble on the use of “tic” for “tick” but it only happens a couple of times)
For the past week or so I have been contemplating the following line of reasoning: If the only stable form of government is oligarchy, and the US federal government has been stable for quite a long time, is it therefore necessary that it be some form of oligarchy? If so, and the romantic illusion of self-government is a necessary facade, how does this oligarchy sustain its hegemony, and what challenges does it face in so doing? It would be naive to think that there would not be shifting alliances within the pool of oligarchs that would result in palace coups & internecine conflict. The stars of some oligarchs are rising while others are setting; not every oligarch is a winner, even though for the serfs it’s still “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
Getting involved in picking sides in one of the oligarchy’s games is just another distraction from the present moment, the only place true change can happen, within myself. Ultimately there is no garden, just as there is no gardener; the perceiver and the perceived merge into a single subjective experience. All I can seek is a greater knowing rooted in my true self.
@Zenscreamer
I’ve developed a facial tick just thinking about my article’s tics. :-)
Seriously though…….it is damn near impossible being your own editor, and your spotlight of my ‘tic’ is the perfect example. It usually takes me days (and sometimes much longer) to write an article. I re-read the same sentences/paragraphs endlessly until I am happy with the structure, language, concept, placement etc. By that point I no longer even see the errors, including simple spelling or usage errors.
Mrs. Cog tries to help, and during the final draft will point out obvious errors. But since she is my greatest fan she is usually reading the article for enjoyment and not as an editor. I love her for that and can’t bring any fault to that approach.
I attempt to put the piece down overnight and then read it again the next day so I ‘see’ it with somewhat fresher eyes. It doesn’t always work, especially when it is an usage issue I’m not aware of. Worse, I wind up adding things I thought of overnight and re-infect the completed piece.
Up north where I come from they teach you about those damn tics in the dawgs. My biggest problem is I spell with a dyslectic northern accent. It ain’t easy being Cog. :-)
Cognitive Dissonance.
My beloved husband, and my two gifted children are all dyslexics and I have a glimmering of the challenge that they face in composing text — on various occasions I have seen each one of them manage to misspell a word while directly transcribing from a text right in front of them, and of course homonyms are the absolute worst to try to eliminate. I know what you mean about no seeing errors in you own writing; that is almost impossible.
About 15 years ago when I was creating an educational website for a nonprofit, I was sent vetted and edited text to work from that I had been instructed to code with no text alterations. Generally I would correct minor typos if they managed to get to me, but in one case I sent the entire thing back to the clients and insisted it be re-edited. The title of the piece? The Greenhouse Affect.
Once again, thank you for a thoughtful, insightful essay.
Very powerful piece. I am both frightened and angry. It’s very disheartening to learn that your whole life, everything you thought was reality is really just “fog”. I am just beginning my journey and I’m terrified of the truth but I refuse to put my head back in the sand. I refuse to live life in a state of “fog”. I am grateful to have found this site. Thank you.
andrea75 said…..
“I am both frightened and angry. It’s very disheartening to learn that your whole life, everything you thought was reality is really just “fog”. “
You are describing what I have termed ‘first light’, a process of initial discovery that can last at a minimum months and often several years. The length of time it takes is not related in any way to emotional or intellectual weakness. In fact I feel it is just the opposite. Only psychopaths can quickly adapt to a radically changed world view principally because they have no emotional investment in the prior one.
The problem isn’t necessarily one of learning new information and more about letting go of not just old information, but how we have been taught and conditioned to think and believe it is all interconnected. We have been deceived at the most basic level with information that we have willingly integrated into our lives. To then find out not only is it entirely different, but it was done in order to rob us of our ability to make personally productive decisions is shocking to say the least. Not only were we robbed, we were conned, beaten and bloodied…….and we never were fully aware of it even as it was going on.
Our ego’s are deeply bruised and this helps to fan the flames of outrage. At the same time we finally recognize we have been sleeping with the enemy and the very fact we are awakening might actually increase the danger we are in. All of this conspires to both frighten and anger us to depths we did not know existed, which in itself is another self discovery that turns the stomach.
The key to recovery is to attempt on a daily basis to pull back and grasp for greater perspective. We must push away the fear if we are to gain greater understanding. Fear is the mind killer. Once we begin to do this on a regular basis we are firmly on the road to recovery and personal growth.
Cognitive Dissonance
Rather than join your intellectual “circle jerk,” I prefer to use my gift of seeing the simplicity on the far side of complexity and strike while the iron is hot. A few of our high-profile elite are temporarily fouled in an egregious blunder of immoral and criminal behavior. The case of Jeffrey Epstein et al. is quickly moving to tabloid news where this oh so rare and oh so valuable opportunity to punish swiftly, severely and publicly will be gone, furthering the belief and conditioning of the masses that we are powerless.
OUR elite preying on OUR children? What could be of greater national concern? Epstein is NOT the only criminal here–these girls were minors. I wonder how aggressively the DOJ will pursue the sick bastards listed in his “little black book,” (which may include some of their own). Using the acronym “DOJ” is SO inappropriate in this case because it allows our minds to too easily skate past its meaning–DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE!
With all your thinking, if you don’t act, it amounts to nothing more than mental . . . well you can see where I’m headed, right?
gADDget
Wow! You just signed up to Two Ice Floes and already you are insulting the house. I assume you have read the rules of the house you are insulting. In case you have not, here they are.
https://twoicefloes.com/comment-and-forum-guidelines/
Interestingly here is rule number one.
We welcome an open dialogue and encourage the community to be respectful of each other regardless of how passionate they are about what they are speaking of. In my opinion telling the community in your very first comment “Rather than join your intellectual “circle jerk,”…….” is not being respectful.
We await your gifted dissertation on what exactly it is you are ‘acting’ upon and we are not. Please be civil when you do so.
Thank you,
Cognitive Dissonance
Please accept my sincere apology both to you, the editor and author, and to this forum for my previous post. My crude and arrogant manner MAY have been appropriate if I were writing to today’s main stream media, mistakenly accusing them of dereliction of duty regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case. I say “mistakenly” because I still, when not thinking, believe they should be serving the common good–not that ever they have or should have. Whom do they serve? The answer is the same as always–follow the money.
Now I’d like to explain why my post contained such a narrow topic in response to “The Paradox . . ..”
Change generally occurs through three causal events: evolution, revolution and cataclysm. Because evolution and cataclysms are viewed as natural events, the tendency is to believe revolution is the sole method of correcting political system failure–once it is finally recognized by the majority, which is generally long after leading indicators appear. As a new and diligent (though not young) student of Russian history, and particularly the Russian revolution, I recently began to wonder myself if revolution, as far beyond the realm of possibility as it seems for a developed (civilized?) nation, was in our future. Your essay has saved me much valuable time in helping me quickly dismiss this as impractical–not that regrettably, it can’t or won’t happen. But I was left asking myself, then what? I then felt you stopped short of offering an alternative–and felt a bit irritated–actually MORE irritated because that was the state I was in when I arrived here.
Unfortunately, my response was written in haste shortly after having posted similar comments to several MSM sites that featured recent articles on the Jeffrey Epstein story, where the connection would have been obvious. Having changed venues, I made a number of mistakes that I am now hoping you accept my apology for–the most egregious being not first thanking you for valuable insight into why revolution is to be adamantly discouraged if and whenever the topic comes up–and it will, then clearly making the connection from my post to your essay.
Though I can’t make use of your “nutritious meal” metaphor to help make my point, your “garden” metaphor can (eventually!) be extended beyond your intended purpose to serve it. I firmly believe that in criminal matters where in addition to a “smoking gun,” you know the history of the involved parties, have recent mental health assays, witnessed the entire current event (and preferably the immediately preceding events), actually saw the bullet leave the barrel, enter the victim and can prove the gun did not briefly leave the perpetrators hand (therefore not “alleged”), NOW using your garden metaphor–you have a pernicious weed to pull and MUST act swiftly, severely and publicly.
If as citizens, we demanded that whenever our corrupt social and political elite fit the ever so rare criterion above, we acted accordingly; then given enough time our existing system of government would self-correct and serve us reasonably well. It may not be perfect, but there is NO known and time tested better alternative.
In summary I believe Jeffery Epstein et al., should be surgically extracted from society and government and smashed like the blood-sucking “tics” that they are.
Sincerely,
Your newly civil student
P.S. Because I may have been graced with additional time—which I admittedly do not deserve based on my first post, I wish to save you further effort by acknowledging that this narrowly applied suggestion in no way solves the corollary issue of the subject abuse by our financial elite.
P.P.S. More than likely here—I am preaching to the choir, so I plan to necessarily resume my less than gracious manner when elsewhere. Cheers!
have found that the Russian revolution is a superb example supporting what you state so well in your essay. Initially though
believe there is no finer or more completely documented case (much of which is newly available) supporting the nearly assured result of a well intentioned political revolution that you have explained so well.
Please ignore the last two sentence fragments which were editing oversights.
Evolution, revolution, cataclysm..these are all at the macro level. There is another. Transformation. If it happens to a society it is because it happened first to the individuals in that society.
gADDget:
As a newcomer myself, it takes me considerable effort to ‘stand down’. And I’m still very far from that which I seek to be; which is ‘now’, here, at this moment. More than a few breaths are needed. I’ve found TIF to be a calm eddy; reflection, mindfulness, practical guidance, introspection – a much needed respite from the madness outside and within. And as such, as Boethius (Consolation of Philosophy) relayed, medicine is best delivered in measured doses; towards the revelation of Truth.
Assholes like J. E. are Legion. Like the movie Predator, the observant eye can see the ‘mirrored’ enemy for what it is. It is personally revolutionary.
I caught this on Peak Crackers via Zen Gardener awhile back – a good first dose for me.
Thought I’d share.
http://www.zengardner.com/planet-lost-assholes/
SF
@ Stay Frosty
This is a general statement and not directed towards you or anyone else on this forum.
As I see it, the biggest problem facing those of us who are beginning to ‘see’ the illusion is falling into the self perpetuating and self defeating insanity of anger, the rage against the machine for creating the lie and anger with the self for having been fooled and seduced. And anger towards others for not seeing what is now glaringly obvious to us.
While it is entirely understandable to feel these emotions, at some point one must recognize the self destructive black hole we have entered if we cannot bring ourselves to overcome, or at least push through, this emotional and spiritual dead end.
So while I have no fundamental problem with videos/articles/comments exposing the illusion in all its facets and permutations, if the author of the video/article/comments cannot personally take the next step towards sanity, then those coming behind will never be taught there is more than just raw anger and dissatisfaction involved in the pursuit of awareness and understanding.
This is why Mrs. Cog and I created Two Ice Floes, to explore through personal experience and introspection how to live in both worlds without going even more insane than we already are.
Cognitive Dissonance
Just now getting around to reading this. Right on! It reminds me of the old movie War Games where, like the game of tic-tac-toe, the only way to win is to not play. Sort of like Mrs. Cog’s recent post about money – don’t need it!
I really like your stuff, both internal and external.
“Do you want to play a game?”
Thank you for the high praise. I have been away from the keyboard for several weeks now dealing with a heavy helping of life and have not been able to write much of anything. Hopefully I can turn it around over the next few weeks.
Cognitive Dissonance
Good day! I am glad you checked in. This an older post. I didn’t know what kind of attention it would get.
It is hard to overstate it’s importance because it goes to the the root of what keeps humans dysfunctional – resistance. By some strange kind of alchemy we all (can) become like what we fight against. Whenever I touch on this subject I am reminded of the guy who murdered the doctor because he was performing abortions. If that isn’t irony I don’t know what is.
We have some good examples for the alternative: MLK, Ghandi, Jesus, Socrates. When I am called on to “turn the other cheek” I hope I have the vision/willingness to walk that path, because it only has the power to transform.
As a start, though, it is good to see how ineffective/counter-productive the alternative is.
Peace..
Purplefrog