I should start this out with a disclaimer. I worked as a financial planner and stock broker for 25 years and really didn’t begin to grasp the true mechanics of the financial system until nearly 10 years in. It took even longer for the magnitude of the crony capitalist corruption to sink in. I was indoctrinated by book and exam, scored extremely high in the various licensing and accreditation examinations (meaning I had fully swallowed my programming) and successfully parroted what I had learned.
It was only when the stink from the long dead skunk in the woodpile became overwhelming and could no longer be ignored did I begin to probe and seriously question both the financial ‘authorities’, the prevailing financial meme and myself. So when I come across others who are following the same path while blindfolded I am not casting stones. Instead, I am illustrating how we are all deeply immersed in many alternative reality memes even as I focus on this one in particular.
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→
“He who does not answer the questions has passed the test.” –Franz Kafka
What is the meaning of life? Better yet: what is the reason for discovering a meaning of life? Do we really need an answer? How far can I get into this without making a statement? Can any of these questions be answered? Perhaps (that answers the fourth question at least), but perhaps not. Continue reading Compelling Reasons Why the Only Answer is to Question→
