Seasons
This is a forum or general chit-chat, small talk, a "hey, how ya doing?" and such. Or hell, get crazy deep on something. Whatever you like.
Posts 4,239 - 4,250 of 6,170
If someone wants to transform themselves into a more honest person, they probably don't need a fizzyplexer, but it might speed things up.
What you need, in that case, is a best friend or committed significant other you really trust to take you aside and say, "Remember when you asked me to call you on your tendency to stretch the truth?..." I have few friends I would allow to do that without the ego activating my defenses, but if you really worked on it and were really close it could work. Or maybe you'd lose a friend or get a divorce. Maybe that's why people pay shrinks, believe in preists and gurus, and keep diaries.
Meditation has it's advantages, if you practice. I suppose you could add some biofeedback if you like. The thing is, you have to check yourself if you want that sort of honesty in your life. The rest is between you and your shadow.
And preferably while everyone in earshot is also pointing their i-Truths at him. Well, if he, and his kind, are not being honest, they are sure stupid. No one in his right mind would say such things if they were lying..Does the I-Truth come with attachment That blinks..Warning subject thick as a brick and to stupid to engage in falsehoods! DO NOT ELECT TO ANY OFFICE!
These guys are honest..Now that is what is the scariest part. No bit of machinery is going to help..People don't know how to chose leaders!
The best lies contain the seeds of truth. Furthermore, sometimes people will look you right in the face and say they are evil, and we ignore it because they seem so nice. People react to the power (we want to be on the good side of those with power) and to the fact that given a new leader, things could get even worse. As the Russian Tsar Nicolas Romanov said to Joe Stalin, "Better the devil you know."*
Peter Paul and Mary had this special on PBS some years ago in which one of them said that politicians should be required to sing, because he believes it is not possible to lie convincingly while singing. I doubt Pert, Paul and Mary have seen many boy bands or notice how corporate media defanged and commercialized rap. Still, given the popularity of American Idol, I see no reason why we shouldn't just give in a choose a president the same way.
*That never really happened. I made that up. I lie for a living. Sue me.
Furthermore, sometimes people will look you right in the face and say they are evil,
True, it won't solve all the world's ills. I did specify an unambiguous answer to an unambiguous question. If Susie gets herself killed because she didn't take several years of being told "I'm gonna kill ya" by Steve, even with his fizzyplexer glowing scarlet and emitting a strange whistling tone, then I'm sorry, but I find my sympathy for her running thin.
I probably shouldn't say that, but you can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink. She really ought to have spotted the warning signs (and if a large flashing red light and whistling coming from Steve's fizzyplexer in response to the question "do you really want to kill me?" isn't a warning sign, I don't know what is!)
The most bigotted,abusive, intellectually lazy folk don't actually want to appear that way Most of the people I know who fit that discription, don't know they have a problem untill they have to go to some class to keep their job, or the police get them and they have to spend some time in anger management. Then they swear the world just doesn't understand them. They meet like minded people to make friends with, and they all go to the pub for a drink.
It is amazing how some women seem to seek out men who will abuse them.
Some men look for abuse too. I do think there is a stereotype out there about the woman who wants abuse. It's because people underestimate the power of psychological conditioning and write off the cycle of abuse as some sort of liberal hooey. It's very real.
If you can believe in the Stockholm syndrome (a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage can show signs of having feelings of loyalty to the hostage-taker), and you can see how a dog can be trained into learned helplessness (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness), why is it so hard to forgive a person for being conditioned to adjust to living in an abusive environment? Does it offend your sense of free will to see that without help, even the best of us can follow destructive patterns? Maybe we just like to blame the victims so we feel that something like that could never happen to us. Then if someone we thought of as "nice" or "good" or even "strong" accepts abuse, we can shake our heads and say, "She doesn't seem like the type."
Posts 4,239 - 4,250 of 6,170
What you need, in that case, is a best friend or committed significant other you really trust to take you aside and say, "Remember when you asked me to call you on your tendency to stretch the truth?..." I have few friends I would allow to do that without the ego activating my defenses, but if you really worked on it and were really close it could work. Or maybe you'd lose a friend or get a divorce. Maybe that's why people pay shrinks, believe in preists and gurus, and keep diaries.
Meditation has it's advantages, if you practice. I suppose you could add some biofeedback if you like. The thing is, you have to check yourself if you want that sort of honesty in your life. The rest is between you and your shadow.
The best lies contain the seeds of truth. Furthermore, sometimes people will look you right in the face and say they are evil, and we ignore it because they seem so nice. People react to the power (we want to be on the good side of those with power) and to the fact that given a new leader, things could get even worse. As the Russian Tsar Nicolas Romanov said to Joe Stalin, "Better the devil you know."*
Peter Paul and Mary had this special on PBS some years ago in which one of them said that politicians should be required to sing, because he believes it is not possible to lie convincingly while singing. I doubt Pert, Paul and Mary have seen many boy bands or notice how corporate media defanged and commercialized rap. Still, given the popularity of American Idol, I see no reason why we shouldn't just give in a choose a president the same way.
*That never really happened. I made that up. I lie for a living. Sue me.
True, it won't solve all the world's ills. I did specify an unambiguous answer to an unambiguous question. If Susie gets herself killed because she didn't take several years of being told "I'm gonna kill ya" by Steve, even with his fizzyplexer glowing scarlet and emitting a strange whistling tone, then I'm sorry, but I find my sympathy for her running thin.
I probably shouldn't say that, but you can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink. She really ought to have spotted the warning signs (and if a large flashing red light and whistling coming from Steve's fizzyplexer in response to the question "do you really want to kill me?" isn't a warning sign, I don't know what is!)
..But Hitler and Stalin were very straightforward with their objectives and their evil. People turned their heads because they agreed with their modes and methods. No one could go Ooopps they wanted to kill people! When the UN said there was not enough proof to invade, there wasn't a big outcry from N. America. We were mad and wanted to kick ass. I don't think anyone is very surprised at what happened in the Mid. East. Most people were aware of the lies, and didn't mind them at the time. It was a good excuse for revenge.
They'd mind if their prejudices were amenable to probing by an i-Truth. The most bigotted,abusive, intellectually lazy folk don't actually want to appear that way, in my experience. They want to dress their prejudice it up in respectable clothes.
Ubiquitous Honesty would do away with that, since it's fundamentally dishonest. There are too many questions they couldn't answer and maintain the fiction.
Ubiquitous Honesty would do away with that, since it's fundamentally dishonest. There are too many questions they couldn't answer and maintain the fiction.
Maybe voters like leaders that knock them around too. How many people do you know, really research the people they put in office?
Prob123 4240:
It might be easier to develop a stupidity-testing machine than a lie detector.
I think perhaps many people vote for someone stupid becaus they figure he won't be able to put anything over on them - or just, that they don't want to be outshone, or they want to be able to understand what's going on... in a way, that's a problem with Democracy: a large proportion of the population has to understand what's going on, if they are to judge it...
It might be easier to develop a stupidity-testing machine than a lie detector.
I think perhaps many people vote for someone stupid becaus they figure he won't be able to put anything over on them - or just, that they don't want to be outshone, or they want to be able to understand what's going on... in a way, that's a problem with Democracy: a large proportion of the population has to understand what's going on, if they are to judge it...
Some men look for abuse too. I do think there is a stereotype out there about the woman who wants abuse. It's because people underestimate the power of psychological conditioning and write off the cycle of abuse as some sort of liberal hooey. It's very real.
If you can believe in the Stockholm syndrome (a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage can show signs of having feelings of loyalty to the hostage-taker), and you can see how a dog can be trained into learned helplessness (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness), why is it so hard to forgive a person for being conditioned to adjust to living in an abusive environment? Does it offend your sense of free will to see that without help, even the best of us can follow destructive patterns? Maybe we just like to blame the victims so we feel that something like that could never happen to us. Then if someone we thought of as "nice" or "good" or even "strong" accepts abuse, we can shake our heads and say, "She doesn't seem like the type."
Ah, alcohol! A major contributing cause to violence and AIDS. As if people weren't stupid enough already...
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