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By Brad
This Page Updated 2-05-2014
Hello, my name is Bradford, but you can call me Brad. I am from America. I do not know Illya Woloshyn, but I made this page because I am a fan of The Odyssey television series from 1992.
"A person cannot find the truth by being presented the same thesis over and over. It is necessary to examine the antithesis if one is to find the real truth, or synthesis." - Brad, webmaster of Illyawoloshyn.com
"If it wasn't for lies we'd get no news at all." - Jay
"It's not what you know it's who you know that counts." - Flash in an episode of The Odyssey called "Checkpoint Eagle"
"School Is The Tool To Brainwash The Youth." - Jaden Smith
FailingEducation.com Updated 1-16-2014
SATICE.COM Updated 1-16-2014
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This is a fan webpage about the meaning of The Odyssey. But first, I have an important message about free speech and the internet.
8-19-13
Creeping Censorship of The Internet:
In this world in which the media is controlled by massive corporations, isn't the internet is a bastion of freedom and free expression? Well over the years, I have learned that even the internet is not as free as you might think. In fact there is now a creeping but severe censorship of the internet that is beginning to take place. But let me first explain how I came to realize this.
I first started posting my often political thoughts and comments on AOL message boards many years ago. at the time, there was a feature that allowed you to send a copy of your replies to people's posts to people's email. In fact it was just a little check box. At first, using this feature, I had some interesting debates with people. But then over time, people started complaining. They were like, "How dare you send me a mail at my personal email address." Very soon, AOL removed the feature that allowed you to automatically send a copy of your reply to someone's post to their email. But this in itself may not necessarily be censorship, just user preference for non-debate, but what follows are descriptions of increasing degrees of censorship.
Also when I was posting on AOL message boards, I eventually began to realize that my posts were all disappearing after a few hours. I really don't know whether AOL was deleting only my posts, perhaps because they disagreed with them, or whether they were deleting everyone's posts, possibly to make room for more. Nevertheless, I found this situation intolerable and I stopped posting on AOL.
Soon, I discovered another type of message board, which I will call a moderated message board. On this type of message board, the discourse is always one sided. For instance, people are often allowed to post their pro-religious comments and rhetoric, but say anything against organized religion, and the moderator will remove it for being 'inappropriate'.
Finally there is perhaps one last type of message board. For a while, I had posted my thoughts on IMDB message boards. But over time, more and more of my posts began to vanish, at random lengths of time. At first I thought that my posts were being deleted by a group of moderators, possibly for being somehow off-topic, in their minds. But then someone explained to me, how it supposedly works. You see, although they are really not supposed to, anyone is able to report a post as being inappropriate, even if they merely disagree with it. Apparently, after the report button on a post gets a certain number of clicks, the entire thread vanishes without a trace. People with warped minds might call this 'Democracy', but I would call it something like 'Peer Silencing'.
As a final reason why free speech on the internet is in serious trouble, I will give one more example. You see, where as controversial or politically incorrect posts on message boards will easily be deleted, either by moderators or by your peers, It is still possible to make an actual webpage on the internet which is protected by the First Amendment, supposedly anyway. Yet we are now hearing that the actual internet itself is on a severe decline. Fewer and fewer people are going to actual independent web pages, and more and more people are migrating to big message board and social networking sites, controlled by massive corporations. We already know that censorship of anything controversial or disagreeable to some group is rampant on message board sites. Personally, I don't have much experience with social networking, but I think we can assume that there is or eventually will be severe censorship on these sites as well. So unless the decline of the internet and of independent web pages reverses, we will soon find that the electronic world would be not a place of free expression, but a place of totalitarianism.
Finally there is one more thing I would like to add. Just an hour or two before getting to this point in my writing this article, I had an interesting dream and woke up. Of course the meaning of dreams is often sketchy, but in this case I thought it might possibly be worth mentioning. You see, I had a dream in which it was explained that people's natural tendency to use improper spelling, grammar, and punctuation, in defiance of what they were taught in school, will in the end, make it much more difficult for internet chat rooms to be censored and controlled by those in charge. So you see, there is a perfectly valid reason why people in chat rooms do not use the proper English, for example.
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The Odyssey is considered an Adventure-Fantasy television show with some Science Fiction themes, for children. However, I consider it to be much more. The Odyssey is vastly different from most other television shows. I believe the odyssey to be unique because it depicts many things from an opposing viewpoint. In other words, the themes in the odyssey are often the antithesis of the themes presented over and over in most other T.V. shows. A person cannot find the truth by being presented the same thesis over and over. It is necessary to examine the antithesis if one is to find the real truth, or synthesis.
Here are some examples of how The Odyssey is the antithesis of most television shows and movies. The first example is that the main character in The Odyssey is not depicted as "the savior of humanity" as are the main characters in many other movies and T.V. shows. Instead, The main character in The Odyssey, Jay Ziegler, is a good guy, yet he is said to be "The Wrecker", which is the antithesis of a savior. But there are other differences as well. The downworld in the Odyssey takes place in a totalitarian state, where as most T.V. shows take place in a supposed Democracy. Also In The Odyssey, an abandoned school is called "The Hall Of Darkness" as opposed to a hall of learning or wisdom. and, In one episode, someone is awarded the prize of being the best tester not because they were the most intelligent, but because those in charge needed someone less intelligent and that person seemed to fit the bill. Finally in most Television shows, characters will frequently and casually say, "I love you" and "Your my best friend" to one another. Not so in The Odyssey, or in real life. In fact, I don't believe that the phrase "I Love You" is even used once in The Odyssey in a romantic sense. I personally think this reflects the reality that love doesn't really exist and that in popular culture the word "love" is actually a code word for something else.
One more word about The Odyssey for now. One of the most important aspects of any T.V. show is the acting. The Odyssey has a vastly different acting style than most television shows and movies. Whereas the quality of acting in most conventional films and shows is judged by the ability of the actors to keep plain, expressionless faces, even while in the midst of their greatest scenes of turmoil or triumph, the actors in the Odyssey actually do show real and accurate human emotion. Personally, I would rather see actors who depict emotional states accurately, like in The Odyssey, rather than Hollywood actors who are trained to be stiff, and to show emotion only in small subtle ways. You might ask, why Mainstream Hollywood actors are supposed to act stiff and expressionless? If an individual were to act stiff an expressionless in a job interview they would be criticized for it and probably thrown out. The answer is twofold. One that Hollywood actors are supposed to act in the opposite from how people act in real life, and two is that those in charge want to control the people in the population who are different by feeding them nonsense that will prevent them from succeeding in life. The odyssey on the other hand will teach a person how to express emotion properly so that they may do well in a job interview and succeed in making friends. The Odyssey is truly dangerous to those corrupt people who are in charge and want to remain in charge.
Finally, I have to admit that this new page is only preliminary. Here are some examples of Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis Triplets. The first one is from The Odyssey, and the other ones are ones that I have made.
Fractal: "What's important is not your Ouija board. What's Important is A. Hypothesis, B. Antithesis, and C. Synthesis.
Medea: "I knew that."
Fractal: "Thesis: Jay by his very presence will wreck the world."
Medea: "I already said that"
Fractal: "Antithesis: Jay by his very presence will not wreck the world. Neither the antithesis or the thesis concur with the empirical realities of observation. Jay was in the world a long time without it getting wrecked. However there does appear to be a link between him and the world falling apart. Synthesis: Jay wrecks the world when he leaves it."
Medea: "oh, of course!"
Now here are some that I made.
Thesis: Most Students learn in High School
Antithesis: Most Students do not learn in High school.
Synthesis: Most students become dumber in American high school because they do not have to learn since their tests are graded on a steep curve and their scores get manipulated upwards.
Thesis: Learning in school is all that matters and its okay to be a nerd.
Antithesis: Learning in school is not all that matters and it’s not okay to be a nerd.
Synthesis: Having a lot of friends in school may increase someone's future earnings more than actually learning in school. Being a nerd will seriously hurt someone's chance for success.
ABC NEWS - Popular Kids Paid More As Adults
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/popular-kids-earn-adults/story?id=17553363
Thesis: America is the land of freedom and opportunity for all.
Antithesis: America is not the land of freedom and opportunity for all.
Synthesis: The only thing that will give you freedom is having money, and America is designed to give opportunity to those who are all the same, not to those who are different.
Thesis: Being different is beautiful to people.
Antithesis: Being different is not beautiful to people
Synthesis: Being different is ugly to most people and they only want to associate with people who are all the same.
Thesis: School Knowledge is Power
Antithesis: School Knowledge is not Power
Synthesis: not only does the mostly obsolete knowledge taught in school not equate to power, but it will not even qualify you for a job.
Thesis: There is such a thing as romantic love.
Antithesis: There is no such thing as romantic love.
Synthesis: Romantic love is a myth invented by the French Troubadours. It is not real. Indeed, The word "Love" in most popular songs is nothing but a cleverly disguised code word for sex.
Romantic Love Is A Hoax
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/CY-HOAX.html
Thesis: America is a Democracy
Antithesis: America is not a Democracy
Synthesis: America is a state where money rules and where people who are different are bullied and ostracized and excluded from society.
Thesis: The mass media tells the truth about most things
Antithesis: The mass media does not tell the truth about most things
Synthesis: The mass media tells the opposite of the truth about most things.
Is the Opposite of what a person believes what comes true?
In the years after I got out of school, things were so different than what I was taught to expect, that I developed two theories. The first theory I developed was that school and the media tell you only the opposite of the truth. The second theory goes further and suggests that it is the nature of the universe itself that is to blame. This second theory says, that for everything a person believes, the opposite comes true. This second theory deserves significant credence in my opinion, and should be a way of thinking for those who know that they have been falsely indoctrinated and brainwashed by the system, because this way of thinking will help to deprogram brainwashing and counteract the false expectations that a person was instilled with. Either way, one thing is clear. Those who believe they will be living in a democracy with freedom and opportunity for all, will find that they are living in a totalitarian state. This may be true for two additional reasons. First, those who are indoctrinated to expect the highest form of democracy, will find out that even democracy is a relative term and in modern times the system is still highly flawed. Secondly, those who are all the same and expect little from life will be granted diplomas and degrees even if they didn't learn in school, where as those who are different will have difficulty even if they did learn. This is because school and college are designed to socially promote those who are all the same. The majority of people therefore get socially promoted and they are none the wiser to the fact that this is not a democracy. Indeed, I say that real life is just like The Odyssey, the government is totalitarian and school is actually The Hall of Darkness.
The Oasis Theory Busted:
Growing up, I thought that school and the news media were an Oasis of pure knowledge in an otherwise insane world. I even subscribed to the theory that a person can lose almost anything in life but they can't lose knowledge, so knowledge must be of higher value. Of course, all these beliefs turned out to be fallacy. First of all, I eventually found out that much of what was taught in school was nothing but brainwashing and propaganda to make one believe they are living in a democracy with freedom and opportunity for all when they are not. Secondly, even though I learned in school while the other kids didn't, I found out that the knowledge has no value to society, contrary to claims by the media. It turns out that school contains just as much harmful indoctrination as anything else a person might be exposed to, and frankly, if you are taught garbage knowledge that supposedly can't be lost, it is still garbage. And although the science and math knowledge I learned in school seems to have been factually correct, this doesn't change the fact that it is worthless to society. But this is a complex society that we live in, and if knowledge is worthless to society, then it will not help a person make money. One need only see the vast number of advertisements for various herbal remedies to realize that there is more money to be made in pseudoscience than in science itself. This is truly a backwards society that we live in.
The People In Charge Prefer Dummies:
Lastly let me say that it certainly seems that the people in charge of society prefer dummies. Indeed, some of the richest people are billionaires who make their money by deciding what stocks to put people's retirement money in. Yet studies have shown that even a dumb pet cat, can pick stocks better than these billionaires. Watch "The Brad Exchange" for more info. And for an example of why the people in charge prefer dummies, watch "The learning curve". People who think too much will end up being figuratively paralyzed or trapped in stone. It was proven during the atom bomb project of the 1940s, that dumb people make better workers. You see, they had two groups of people operating the uranium enrichment machines. One group was people with merely a high school diploma, and the other group were the people with PHDs. The less learned workers were able to operate the uranium enrichment machines much more efficiently because they followed the instructions blindly, where as the PHDs, were much less efficient because they wanted to question and diagnose every change or irregularity they found. I believe that today, the college curriculum has been changed through the adoption of the practice of grade inflation and grading on a curve, to ensure that even today’s college graduates do not have much more knowledge than high school graduates, thus ensuring that they would be dumber, better workers.
Of Dummies and Fake Chinese Technology (UPDATED):
I recently bought a made in china flash drive that was supposed to be 64GB. However, when I received it, I found out that it is clearly fake, because it could not be reformatted. After an hour or two of testing the capacity, My fear was confirmed. The drive was only about 6 GB. I guess this should not be too surprising, considering the price of the item on ebay was below average. After contacting the seller, I was given an immediate refund, because knowing the item looked suspicious to begin with, I had made sure I bought from someone with a return policy. But what is surprising is the dozens of positive feedback given to the seller of this item stating that the item is a good product and is exactly as described. Clearly, at least 98% of the people in America are too dumb to know when they've been duped. The same could be said for the claims by the American elite that we live in a democracy and that learning in school will help you succeed in life. All of us in America have been duped by the American elite about the very nature of our society, and less than 2% have the intelligence to even realize that they have been duped. Unfortunately, there is no refund policy for the constant propaganda and false promises about the supposed American Dream.
9-11-2013
Recalling A Memory From Long Ago:
Recently I was thinking about some things, and I again thought about something I vaguely remember thinking one time when I was in high school. I remember, one time when I was in high school, I briefly thought, "What would I do in the seemingly very unlikely case that it turns out that the stuff I am working so hard to learn is not worth that much to American businesses?" The answer I thought to myself at the time was, "In that unlikely case, I guess I would have no choice but to speak out." Well surprise, surprise, I eventually found out that nothing I was taught in 12+ years of public schooling matters to employers. I now realize that public school was all a big fraud, and now I am speaking out.
Also, when I was growing up, I was always given the impression that knowledge was supposed to be freely available. As an examples of this, I was taught about many major historical figures who were self-taught. But looking at the world today, I can see that to learn any job skill requires that a person pays tens of thousands of dollars to a college, university, or career center. Indeed, employers will not even let you in the door without a sheepskin from one of these institutions. Even colleges that offer degree programs online still charge about the same as colleges with physical classrooms. Realizing all this, I came to one clear conclusion. America's institutions of higher learning constitute a huge modern-day racket, who's goal is to control the labor market while raking in mandatorily huge sums for tuition.
FailingEducation.com - America's Failing Education System
9-13-2013
Elaboration Of My 'Opposites Universe' Theory.
(C)Copyright 2013 By Brad
Ultimately so far, I have come up with only two possible theoretical explanations for what I have experienced in life. Explanation number one, is that there is a vast conspiracy by America's elite to tell people the opposite of the truth about everything that is important at each stage of their life. If this explanation is correct, it is nevertheless the case that the only person who seems to have been negatively affected by these lies is me, as no one else seems to have bought into any of them. Explanation number two, is that every time I happen to believe something, hope for something, want something, develop a habit, or work for something, the universe itself changes on a quantum level to ensure that the opposite of what I believe comes true and that any work I do is for naught.
Let me give some examples. Example number one, I develop a habit of learning in school. For a short while, I am recognized for this accomplishment. Then when I get to high school, the rules all suddenly change in subtle and devious ways, to ensure that actually learning things no longer helps. Suddenly, I am bombarded with propaganda that "knowledge is power" and I fail to recognize the fact that the objective of learning had suddenly been taken out of school, until I finish high school and find out that no one in the real world cares about or recognizes school taught knowledge.
Example number two, I am repeatedly taught in school and constantly told by the American mass media that America is a great Democracy with freedom and opportunity for all. Unwittingly, I begin to believe this. But after I become an adult, I find out that America is really a form of totalitarian state and that there are really no opportunities for me.
Example number three, at a young age I am led to believe that there are such things as love and friendship, and that they are obtained by being nice to other people and that these things will somehow make a person happy. I believe I want these things therefore I try to only be nice to the other kids instead of making fun of them. Instead of the other kids being my friends, they begin to bully me. Much later I find out that so called 'friendship' is actually about being socially dominant, not about being nice. Also I find out that romantic love doesn't exist in this universe. In fact, people in real life may often talk about how they 'love' someone, but if you keep listening you soon see that they are not talking about love at all but are actually talking about sex.
Indeed, there are many more examples of how at different times during my life, I was led to believe one thing, and then the 'rules' of the game were suddenly changed on me. And each time, I didn't realize that the rules had been changed until it was too late and the damage had already been done to me and my life. Indeed each time this happened my realization of the truth was critically delayed by powerful propaganda and lies told to me by the American mass media, teachers, textbooks, and by my peers and other people. However, the fact that other people do not seem to have been negatively affected by this propaganda, except perhaps by becoming dumber, but not poorer or less happy, and that looking back, even my peers seem to have almost magically known not to buy into any of it, and whenever the rules changed my peers were suddenly able to seamlessly adapt even though if you asked them they would never admit to knowing anything about what the rules actually were, all seems to suggest that at each point in my life it was actually the entire universe and everyone in it that suddenly changed around me. How can this happen you might ask? Well the explanation starts with basic science and quantum theory. But frankly if any of you have been able to follow this up to this point, you are truly among the few, because in this particular universe I now find myself in, language skills and reasoning skills are severely lacking amongst most people.
Now for a short history that might help explain some of my theories. I was innately interested in science at a very young age. I was told that as a toddler, I would take things apart with a screw driver to see how they worked, and that one time I memorized an entire children’s book, and I could thus pretend like I was reading it even though I was too young to have learnt how to read yet. I remember My favorite toys were building blocks, because I always wanted to try to build things. In Kindergarten and early grade school, I would get up at six in the morning, far earlier than I had to, so that I could watch Mr. Wizard on T.V. because I was so hungry for science knowledge. Also during grade school my family got a computer, and I soon learned how to program it. Also, I was never able to believe in a god, because the question, "If God created the universe, then who created God?" had no logical answer.
However, the thing that most pertains to my theory of "opposites universe" is this: At a very young age, when I first heard of the concept of "randomness" I was extremely fascinated and perplexed at the same time. I thought, "how could anything be decided in a truly random fashion, if seemingly by the definition of true randomness there is no underlying mechanism for deciding?" Thinking about this as a young kid, I hypothesized, "Maybe there are an infinite number of universes, one for each random possibility". Of course, I thought this before I learned to many of the principles of classical mechanics and long before I even heard of quantum mechanics. Later I would learn that some people would attempt to explain all random events using a combination of classical mechanics and chaos theory, which led to something called the Butterfly Effect according to popular culture. However, I was never really interested in that interpretation of theory(an interpretation which today’s physicists consider to be bogus), and I was again fascinated when I began to learn of quantum mechanics, knowledge of which seems to have been long withheld from popular culture until relatively recently, and which seems to have made the determinism of classical mechanics obsolete.
You see, in quantum mechanics, there is no known mechanism or predictability associated with the determination of random events on the tiniest level of the known universe. As far as we know, these events are truly random. However, there is one caveat. These random events do not actually occur until an 'observation' is made, and the quantum wave function collapses. So here is my theory. It is very difficult to define what constitutes an observation. So perhaps what actually causes quantum wave functions to collapse is human thought and human belief, which incidentally are what make up human consciousness. Indeed, it may be that what we perceive as consciousness is actually the collapsing of quantum wave functions.
However, if mere thought could cause wave functions to collapse, than one person's thoughts might be able to change the universe for everyone in it in drastic ways. First of all I think it would be absurd to think that one person's thought's would have the power to change things for everyone. And secondly, my observations of the nature of the universe changing around me at times, indicate that no one else is aware of these changes.
Enter the Theory of The Quantum Multiverse, which I had never even heard of until after I graduated from high school and I was reading articles on Wikipedia. You see, in this theory, there are actually 'many' universes, each of them different. Some of them would be only slightly different, and others would be greatly different. You see, this theory had been proposed as a possible solution to the perplexing meaning of randomness and perhaps other issues in quantum mechanics. For instance if there were two possible different outcomes from the collapse of a particular quantum wave function, then instead of arbitrarily deciding which outcome occurs, it is said that both possible outcomes actually occur, but in two different universes. Considering the vast number of elementary particles/waves both real and virtual in the universe, it would seem the number of universes required would be truly staggering. However, it is said this number would still not be as large as infinity. Nevertheless, This Theory of The Quantum Multiverse is very similar to the theory I came up with to try to explain randomness when I was just a kid, before I had even heard of quantum mechanics.
So ultimately what I believe is that the process of human thoughts causing quantum wave functions to collapse must also be combined with the quantum multiverse theory. In other words, when a person thinks something or believes something, they are essentially thrown into a different universe within the quantum multiverse.
This theory would explain many of my experiences in life. For instance, once I began to learn a lot in school and from reading, and to believe that knowledge was power, I was thrown into a different universe where nothing I had learned meant anything to other people. And when I began to believe America was a democracy, I was thrown into a universe where America was totalitarian. And for the last example, when I began to believe that there was such a thing as love, and/or want love, I was thrown into a universe where love does not exist. In other words, every time I believed something or even just learned something, I was thrown into a different quantum multiverse where it was no longer true. In fact, you could say I live in "opposites universe", where the opposite of everything I believe or think is what comes true, and where if I really want something, I usually can't have it. You may say this sounds like 'hell', and believe me, it is not particularly pleasant, however, remember too that getting everything you want is also said to be akin to 'hell'.
Truly, I usually would hate to reference a truly terrible show like Star Trek The Next Generation, with its stiff, unemotional, robot like acting, However, there are some vague similarities between what I am going through and what Beverly Crusher went through when she was trapped inside of a static warp bubble. However, whereas the people inside of the warp bubble with her were not actually real, because they were not part of the real universe, I am not saying that the people in this universe with me are not real. In fact, the people in this universe with me are fully real, because they are a part of the quantum multiverse which is the real universe. However, although they would be fully unaware of this, they have been in essence altered in an opposite manner to my thought patterns. But again they would not be aware of this nor likely would they be aware of the fact that every possible alteration of them exists in the various universes of the multiverse. You see, it is true in some sense that all of us started out together learning the same language, and the same ideals. But every time I started to believe something or started to think I could depend on something, I was moved to a different quantum multiverse exhibiting alterations of these people that went opposite to my thoughts and beliefs. After all this time, and all of these 'jumps' to areas of the quantum multiverse further and further away from where I started, it is unlikely with the particular alterations of other people in this particular universe, that anyone else would be able to understand me, my language, my ideas, and my ideals to any great degree. In other words, I am essentially trapped here in this opposites universe, doomed to live out my life essentially alone, with no one else who can possibly understand me. And unfortunately, according to the theory of how quantum mechanics works, there is no way I could undo the collapses of various wave functions to get back to the universe I started out in.
9-17-2013
What is better, hope or fear?
Most childhood education programs in America attempt to instill an extreme degree of hope for the future into their child students, even if this hope is unjustified or based on lies. But even worse, hope is not really a useful emotion. In fact, hope has much in common with things like wishes and complacency. If a person has hope, that means they are most likely thinking that they will just keep doing the exact same thing they have been doing and that it will somehow magically lead to things getting better for them. Truly, this form of hope is akin to madness.
Fear on the other hand, is a much more powerful emotion than hope. If someone has fear, they will have a motivation to look at what they are doing and to consider the possibility that they might be overlooking something important, or that they might have the wrong idea about certain things. Someone who has fear rather than hope, is more likely to try different things rather than to keep doing the same things over and over. Success is not about trying to do exactly what other people tell you to do from childhood through adulthood. Nor is success about trying to do the same exact thing over and over even if it is not working. Success is about discovering what you want to do in life and then trying many different things until you succeed.
Indeed, in school they teach you to have hope and to try doing something again, and again, and again, even if you don't succeed at first. However, if you are having so much difficulty trying to do something, chances are you are doing something wrong and you need to try something different. In fact, you may even have to change your goals or your mindset. Instead of "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" it should really be, "if at first you don't succeed, you may need to change your mindset and think outside the box". To tell the truth, I am not really a fan of giving up, but, even giving up is better than trying the same failed approach over and over hoping it will somehow work.
It is a tough world and one needs to have fear of the consequences that they could fail because they overlooked their alternative options. But, the only person any individual has to prove themselves to is them self. however oneself should be a tough judge. If you know you are good at something you should admit that to yourself, but there is a lot more to life than being good at just one thing.
9-17-2013
The Nature Of Knowledge And Success:
It is true that we live in a society of idiots. It seems to me that the vast majority of professions and professionals in America are dubious. Except for certain engineers, certain doctors who are general practitioners of medicine, and perhaps certain technicians who repair things, no one else seems to have any real intellectual knowledge. Everyone else seems to BS their way through life and concern themselves only with finding ways to deceive and control people. Since most people do not seem to have any real knowledge, the purpose of college seems to be not to learn, but to acquire a sheepskin that shows certain institutions are on their side. People in many professions cannot be entirely trusted to help you or to work for anyone but themselves.
So the question is, what does a person need to do to succeed? First of all, simply having knowledge will not cause you to become successful. The things most people tell us are outright lies meant to control us. We are told "knowledge is power" precisely because that statement is not true. Simply having intellectual knowledge does not make a person powerful. To become powerful a person must do two things: One, gain some control over people either by getting them on your side, or by manipulating them, or both. And two, acquire money. Indeed, simply having knowledge does not affect anything. As an example of this, think of raw data on a computer hard drive with the computer turned off. For knowledge to be effective, you need to have two things. First, you need to have a program or in human terms a way of thinking that processes the knowledge into a useful output. And secondly, you need something to control with this output. At the most basic level, this something to control is your own body, but as extensions of your body, you may have other things to control, such as money or capital, or a machine. One who controls money or capital for personal gain is a businessperson. One who controls a machine, or even just their body in hopes of personal gain, is best described as an artist or artisan. Indeed, I believe that all human careers can be classified into the two categories of either businessperson or artist. A businessperson will first use his money as a tool to acquire more money. Then he will use this money to get people on his side. An artist on the other hand will first try to get people on his side. Then he will use the fact that people are on his side to acquire money, often by selling his artwork to those people.
What about me? Well I do not have a sufficient amount of capital as is required to have a business. Even if I did have some capital, government rules would prevent me from being able to use it for most business purposes until it reaches a critical mass. Therefore, by definition, I must be an artist if I want to become powerful. As an artist, I have my body to control, as well as a preferred machine, which in this case is my computer. As I write this on my computer, I am essentially using my skill as an artist. I am using my way of thinking, in essence an internal program, to process my knowledge into this text. In order to succeed as an artist, in this case, the text I am writing would have to have the effect of getting people to be on my side. Of course, people may decide to be on another person's side either because they are genuinely impressed by that person or because they are dishonestly manipulated by that person. In my case, my program, or way of thinking is not at present coded for using dishonesty. In other words, my writing would have to genuinely impress people for me to succeed. However, I also realize that it is very difficult to impress people when you are being honest, because most people are impressed only by what they want to hear, and only by things that happen to agree with their beliefs. Nevertheless, in the case that people are impressed by these writings, that would elevate my status as an artist. With people on my side, I could for instance write a book, and people would buy it, or I could perhaps even find employment. Then with some money I could become a business person, though I might have to also remain an artist for a time to keep people on my side at least until my wealth reaches critical mass. Of course this entire scenario is not necessarily something I certainly believe will happen, it is just a hypothetical example I am using to explain my theory on success. Chances are that in order to succeed as an artist, I may have to try many different ways of thinking for generating my artwork, and I may have to try other completely different types of artwork, such as writing computer programs. Ultimately, whatever type of artwork I make, or whatever 'methodology' I use for making it, my theory states that I can only succeed if it gets people on my side.
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10-8-2013
A Quote From The Odyssey About Verbal Codes:
words in brackets [] are added either because the actual words are too difficult to understand or because they are needed to make sense of what is being said.
From Episode 2-12 'Who Do you Believe'
Synopsis: There is a wall separating the kids' world from the adults' world. Jay wants to go over the wall to find his father. 'The Fat Man' is a kid who runs an outpost near this wall.
kid named 'The Fat Man’: Grownups are not just big children. They are aliens, they live in a world of strange codes and half truths.
(next Downworld scene)
Flash: I say we just climb over
kid named 'The Fat Man': You can't, there's a test.
Medea: How boring, there's always a test.
kid named 'The Fat Man': See that pot, its coffee. [If She] Believes you’re a grown up, she'll pour you a cup. Then and only then can you cross.
Jay: If anyone wants to quit now, I'll understand.
Flash: Piece of cake.
Robot Woman(to Flash): Hiya handsome, I bet you have to beat them off with a stick.
Flash: Who, monitors? Where?
Robot Woman(to Flash): Go to your room, no desert for a week.
Flash: [She] tricked me.
kid named 'The Fat Man': You have to think like a grownup, not a human being.
Jay: Try again, I'll help.
Robot Woman(to Flash): So I look at my check and the government got more than I did.
Jay: Try saying 'tell me about it', not like you want her to tell you about it, like your saying 'don't bother me'.
Flash: tell me about it.
(Robot Woman pours flash a cup of coffee)
Flash: cool! (leaves through door)
Robot Woman(to Alpha):So I says, to the big lug, I says, why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home.
Alpha(to Jay): what does that mean?
(Jay whispers inaudibly to Alpha)
Alpha: Why buy a cow if you can get the milk for free?
(Robot Woman pours Alpha a cup of coffee)
Alpha: That didn't make any sense. (leaves through door)
Medea: (walks over to robot woman) Don't give me any lip sweetheart, poor the Java and save the blab.
(Robot Woman pours Medea a cup of coffee)
Jay: Sometimes I think Medea's part grown up herself.
(Medea leaves through door)
kid named 'The Fat Man' (to Jay): Wait, can I ask why this is so important?
Jay: I wanna know the truth.
(Jay walks over to Robot Woman)
Robot Woman(to Jay): Who you gonna believe?
(Jay has a flashback to when his father left)
Robot Woman(to Jay): Go to your room.
Jay: If it wasn't for lies we'd get no news at all.
(Robot Woman pours Jay a cup of coffee)
My Analysis:
This is just one of many examples of how characters in The Odyssey talk and act much like people do in real life, where as characters in most other television shows and movies act in an opposite fashion from real life. I think it is likely that most people in real life, both children and adults use among other things certain verbal codes that are different from what is depicted in most television shows, movies, and even in books.
10-8-2013
An Explanation of the Verbal Code and the Antithesis in the Mass Media:
For most of my life, because of what I was taught in school and because of what I saw on T.V. I did not know how to relate to other people. Then a number of years after I after I became an adult and was 'released' from school, my way of thinking started changing. Eventually I re-discovered The Odyssey(television series from 1992), which introduced me to the principle of the 'antithesis'. Then one day, someone said 'what's up?' to me, and I didn't know what to say back. One of the reasons why I didn't know what to say back was that most people on television don't say 'what's up', and even when characters on television do say this, it is often the case that no one answers them. However, I realized that I should say something back, I just didn't know what to say. Fortunately, someone else who I didn't really know either, explained to me that if someone says "what's up?", all you have to do is say "what's up" or "sup" back to them. Of course if this had happened earlier in my life, before my way of thinking I had gotten from going to school and watching American T.V. had changed, I would have most likely flatly rejected this person's advice on what to say. The reason is that in school, they teach you that a question must always be followed by an answer, never another question. However, after learning about things like the 'antithesis' principle and perhaps even such things as 'verbal codes' in The Odyssey, I realized that all is not the same as it seems or as I was taught in school and by watching American television. Therefore, the next time someone said "what's up" to me, I was able to say "what's up" back and actually begin to relate to other people.
Of course, we must ask, why is it that so often on American T.V. and in movies, when someone says "what's up" or even "hi", that everyone else ignores this person and doesn't say anything back right away? The answer I believe, is that the people who make most television shows and movies may actually have a nefarious secret agenda of trying to introduce "bugs" or errors into the viewer's ways of thinking or acting. This is meant to harm people who do not know about the 'antithesis principle' and thus do not interpret most things in an opposite fashion from what's depicted. But there is more actually to this story. You see, because most people tend to think and act in an opposite manner from what is shown on most television shows and movies, if the mass media began to show people saying "what's up" or "hi" and then having others respond properly, it is likely that people would actually stop saying those things to each other in real life. This is because it is human nature for most people to want to have some kind of verbal code that has not yet been fully exposed by the mass media. But again, the mass media does not usually even admit that these verbal codes exist, because like I said, they have a nefarious agenda, just like the teachers and administrators in school seem to have. Indeed, if these institutions and organizations do not even depict human verbal communication accurately, it would also make sense to assume that they do not depict economic activities like making money accurately either. Indeed there are many other examples of things in the mass media that run contrary to real life, such as the acceptance of violence by characters depicted in the mass media, and the tendency for characters in the mass media to forgive other characters even after they have been betrayed by them in some way. So one, violence is not acceptable to society even though it is often shown in the mass media. And two, people in real life will almost never forgive you if they perceive that you have betrayed them in some way, or perhaps merely even said something that gets them angry. And finally one more thing about the issue of violence. Whereas children's shows do not usually depict a lot of violence but adult shows do, society is actually reversed from this. Most school children are actually much more violent to each other than most adults are to other adults. That is because when a school child is a victim of violence by another child, this is often shrugged off as mere bullying, but if this happens in the adult world, it is considered a crime.
That said, I don't blame all kids for the way I was treated, just the particular ones I went to school with. And of course I blame the educational institutions and most of the popular mass media for being equally unhelpful.
Indeed, My experiences in life as a child seem to indicate that most children when they encounter another kid who does not know the verbal code very well, will be more hostile and less helpful to that other kid than some adults would be in the same circumstance when dealing with other adults. I know this because other kids bullied and ostracized me, and none of them were willing to help me understand their way of interacting to the slightest degree. That said, I don't want to in any way give the impression that my being bullied and ostracized as a child is the only social issue I am worried about. It is only one issue out of many issues. However, because most people don't listen to reason, I doubt that too many people will try to take any of those issues seriously.
10-8-2013
Mini-Essay: T.V. and School will hurt you Socio-economically.
Growing up, I mostly watched shows like Star Trek The Next Generation, various family sitcoms, and various nonfiction shows because that is what was on T.V. Of course today, I realize that people on those fictional shows did not talk or act anything like people do in real life. And I have also come up with the theory that knowledge is only given out in nonfiction television shows or even in school after it has reached the point where it had become obsolete and can no longer be used to make money. This is partly shown by the fact that most nonfiction shows still seem to talk mostly about the now ancient World War 2 era and the industrial era between roughly 1914 and 1945. We may be told that services now make up most of the economy by far, but we are not taught hardly anything about these services in school or on television. Maybe some of this is starting to change, as there are now some 'reality' shows about the restaurant business, which is a service business. However, The restaurant business is typically not nearly as profitable as many other types of service businesses.
10-8-2013
Mini-Essay: The Lack of Reason and Ideals In Real Life
When comparing unrealistic shows like Star Trek TNG with much more realistic shows like 'The Odyssey', we can see certain major differences. One of the major things one notices is that on Star Trek TNG, other people are extremely susceptible to the power of purported 'reason'. For instance, if there is some kind of crisis, all the captain often has to do is give some kind of long winded 'rambling' speech and suddenly all of the other aliens or people in the federation or on his ship will support his viewpoint. The Odyssey however is vastly different. For instance, in an episode of 'The Odyssey' called 'No Fair', Jay was caught taking down a poster apparently so that he could take it with him to help him on his journey. However, what he did was a crime, and we can see that in real life, if someone commits a crime, they will not be found innocent just because they make a speech that expresses ideals which no one else cares about or understands. And it is also shown that someone will not be granted leniency for being different or for having 'special' knowledge. So ultimately what one has to understand is that in real life, most people do not listen to 'reason' nor do most people have any particular ideals.
10-8-2013
Some Miscellaneous Thoughts:
1.) Finger and Macro were against Jay the entire time during The Odyssey because Jay was different, and being different he could have changed things or caused things to change, which would have or did threaten and erode their power.
2.) Many American movies and T.V. shows will depict a main hero who is physically stronger and more outgoing who could not 'save the world without the help of a nerdy genius scientist. Unfortunately science doesn't usually work that way.
3.) Many scientists on American T.V. shows and movies are shown becoming successful by 're-inventing the wheel', which is a waste of time in real life. By contrast In one episode of 'The Odyssey' the goal is to obtain technology such as a motorbike from the other side of the wall, rather than to reinvent the motorbike from scratch.
4.) On certain horrendous sci-fi shows like Star Trek The Next Generation and Stargate SG1, main characters are often depicted losing their minds due to alien influence and as a result of that being put in the funny farm, harming others, or in one case of Commander Data going haywire, basically hijacking the Starship Enterprise. Yet at the end of each of these episodes, the character who went haywire is always given back their full rank and status and is also strangely still trusted in the future. In reality, this would never happen. Anyone who lost control to alien influence would in reality be permanently striped of their rank and most likely sent to prison. In real life, Commander Data would have been sent to be permanently confined to a research facility after he went haywire and hijacked the Enterprise.
5.) Characters like Captain Picard on Star Trek TNG almost always take the 'wait and see' approach, and fail to act until it would normally be too late for ship and crew. By contrast, politicians in real life often take the pro-active approach, however they often over-react and propose potential 'solutions' that are not fully tested or analyzed. Nevertheless for an individual in real life, using the pro-active approach is usually much better than using the 'wait and see' approach. I am not talking about things like investing but about handling real life challenges.
6.) To correspond with the media usually telling the opposite of the truth, it is also true that most people believe the opposite of what the media tells them.
7.) To correspond with school telling the opposite of the truth about sociopolitical subjects, most students seem to unlearn the ideals of Democracy taught in school rather than to learn them.
8.) I should elaborate on why there is no such thing as romantic love In real life.
9.) I remember something from a television show called "Earth Final Conflict" in which it was said that basically, human life involves more pain than happiness. I need to find the exact quote but I may have to go through up to 45 hours of programming to find it.
10.) When I said that Fear is Better than Hope, I was talking not about short term fright, but about a long term fear of failing to consider potential future difficulties and to try many of your available options. I am also not talking about 'worry' because that is merely an unpleasant emotion that people have when they feel helpless. I am only talking about the motivational aspect of fear that causes one to consider all of their possible options and alternatives.
11.) I don't have any statistics on how many people saw this webpage but I estimate it is between 20 and 100. My failingeducation.com page supposedly has about 3000 hits. However, I have heard that many hackers may know how to increase the visibility of a webpage. However, I believe they may tend keep this knowledge as a 'trade secret' the way most people do with knowledge that has any real use or value. Therefore I was thinking that I may have to try to 'infiltrate' the hacker 'communities'. I should mainly try to increase the visibility of FailingEducation because there may be wider interest in that one to begin with. Perhaps I can eventually copy some of my Philosophies on here to that page.
12.) I was thinking that my life, like most people's lives, is limited in length. However, I would at least like to sow the seeds for a resistance movement against U.S. lies, tyranny, and injustice before I die.
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My review of "The More You Know (1989)"
written by me on 26 August 2004:
Example of 90s Socialist Propaganda
"The More You Know" was a series of so-called public service commercials during the 90s featuring rosy propaganda that glossed over difficult social issues. Good-looking television actors were the centerpiece of the commercials, in which they gave their gleaming smiles, talked softly, and acted compassionate. The ads generally had a liberal or socialist leaning and suggested that the solution to all social problems was for everyone to just befriend each other. Also, phrases such as "Knowledge is Power" were promoted without consideration for real social and economic forces. However, this series is a good example of propaganda which today would make people cringe.
Comments 10-10-2013 updated 10-13-2013, posted 10-13-2013:
Looking back at this review I wrote, I am a bit surprised that I criticized the use of the phrase "Knowledge is Power" all the way back in 2004. In fact I wrote this even before I rediscovered The Odyssey(1992). I think most of what I wrote speaks for itself, but I could clarify that the 'compassionate' acting on these propaganda commercials was merely a big ruse or lie, and that if they gave gleaming smiles they most likely looked fake even though they were 'gleaming'. I still believe what I wrote, except today I do not like to use labels such as 'liberal' and I am not sure if people would really cringe at T.V. propaganda, that was really just a hopeful statement hoping that people would learn to cringe at such indoctrination tactics. Today I can't really consider myself a conservative, and even back then I was socially liberal in many ways. But way back then I did watch things like Fox News and CNN and I therefore picked up on the way liberals were always criticized. However, I believe that it was in 2004 when my way of thinking drastically began to change and I began to realize that the mass media and even school had been telling mostly lies. Though in school I must add the the lies were mostly in any of the subjects that could not be considered hard science. That means that they didn't really lie in algebra as far as I know, nor did they lie much in physics, chemistry or biology. But I do believe they did lie or tell mostly useless one sided knowledge in History, Government, Sociology, Psychology, Economics, and to some degree English.
Finally I wanted to say that though the media propagandists would have you believe that everyone should just befriend eachother, it would never happen in this exact manner. This is because many children in particular, whom the public service announcements were often aimed at, are not friendly to one another and would not be influenced to become friendly by any amount of media propaganda. They are concerned about one thing, social dominance, and they will do whatever it takes to become socially dominant.
Why Knowledge Is Not Power: 10-10-2013 updated 10-13-2013, posted 10-13-2013
Of course anyone who is intelligent would like to believe that 'knowledge is power' but it is not true. First of all, there is much knowledge out there that is either incorrect, one-sided, obsolete, or not particularly valuable or important. Secondly, a person cannot use knowledge to buy things the way they use a bank card. Nor can a person use knowledge to issue orders, the way the president uses his position and presidential seal. It is in fact not easy to convert knowledge to power. A person first has to prove they have knowledge, and it is usually not as simple as taking a test. Once a person can prove they have knowledge, they still have to become a salesman and sell themselves to a potential employer so to speak, or they have to come up with an idea and sell it to certain others. So indeed, knowledge does not equate directly to power, nor does it usually convert to power without significant work, effort, salesmanship and persuasion of others.
10-10-2013 updated 10-13-2013, posted 10-13-2013
The Keys To Social Dominance:
One of the keys to social dominance is making fun of other people. It is also possible to gain some social dominance by bullying other kids, but I don't recommend it. But there are other unspoken rules. For instance you should never lose your 'temper' or your 'dignity' so to speak. And of course you don't want to be labeled as completely different in negative ways from everyone else you know, as people will usually like you much more if they think you are the same as them in most ways. But of course there is more. You need to say 'Hi' or 'Whatsup' to other people often, and you must always reciprocate when someone says 'Hi' or 'Whatsup' to you. Plus you need to be able to talk to others and have conversations with them. Frankly simply being 'nice' just doesn't cut it, and doesn't really mean anything either. You have to be witty and know how to make semi-friendly jabs at people without getting them too angry at you or making them think that you betrayed them. Finally, I think it is much easier to make 'friends' if you don't necessarily believe in the idea of friendship or even want friendship.
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10-10-2013 to 10-13-2013 posted 10-13-2013
Some Miscelaneous YouTube Links and My Commentary:
I know some of this stuff is getting slightly off the topic from The Odyssey, but I have to put it up somewhere. Here are some Youtube videos that were not made or put up by me.
YOUTUBE - The Art of Corporate Mind Control
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzRdQEfSUCc
This is a video about how T.V. can be harmful. I think the climax of the video is the part where the people throw thier televisions off the balcony to get rid of them.
YOUTUBE - Sacrilege By AFI With lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3rCAELC4Fs
This is a song/band that I recently discovered. Here is my review of this song, and in particular an analysis of its stance on the issue of religion. Based on most of the words at the beginning, it would seem that the song is strongly against religion. For the most part, the song is against religion in particular because of lines like "Just let your faith die." and "You venerate delusion based in hate." However there are a few lines that have may have a dual meaning so to speak. For instance the line "How is it divine when its flawed design" seems to imply that the universe is designed. Also there are two other lines in the song that in some ways support religion. These are "Oh, please believe" and "For this I pray". Nevertheless, the song does have several good arguments against religion.
Finally a note about a more advanced atheist concept that not even many atheists are yet aware of. A lot of atheists say, "I don't believe in God". In fact they once even had an atheist billboard in my area that said, "Don't believe in God? You are not alone". However, to use the word "God" like that and also to capitalize the first letter is actually giving the concept of a god some support. For instance, would someone say,"I don't believe in Deity"? Of course not. They would say, "I don't believe in a deity". Therefore, instead of saying, "I don't believe in God", I always try to say, "I don't believe in a god".
That said, It is hard to win when you are playing the game of trying to counter language manipulation. You see, religious people have over the years manipulated the English language to give their concept of a god a special place by capitializing the word "God" and omiting the word "a" that would normally precede it. To use the words "a god" instead of "God" would be a step in the right direction, however, many people at first would not understand the change in grammar, just as many people may not even know what the word "deity" means.
Earth Final Conflict 4x15 Street Chase
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byguo57m6FE
Although this episode is said to be about the issue of 'trust', I think it has another important lesson as well. If you watch it through to the end you will see that if you are a 'double agent' or a member of the 'resistance' a well thought out plan of deception is much more effective than spur of the moment fighting or violence. Also you may notice some similarities between The Odyssey and EFC. For instance EFC has the 'Volunteers' who are much like the 'Monitors' in The Odyssey. Also just like in The Odyssey, characters on EFC act and talk more like real people, depicting more realistic emotion and wit than on all other T.V. shows that I know of.
Earth Final Conflict 4x07 Second Wave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSbNSzx3aPg
This is an episode of EFC that features the idea of a verbal code.
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10-15-2013 added on 10-22-2013
Food For Thought:
-For every real problem, there exists a solution. The only limit is whether you have enough time left in your life to find it.
10-15-2013 updated and added on 10-22-2013
How to Deal With The One-Sided Mass Media:
First of all, I am not totally against the idea of a person watching the news for a short while, just to find out what kind of fascist things society might be up to. However, if you watch the news, you should be able to see the various manipulation tactics they use, such as false or misleading headlines or teasers. And you should know that the news doesn't tell the whole truth and does lie. Of course if you watch the news too much, you will get sick of them repeating things over and over for many years, and sensationalizing things of little real significance like shark attacks. But much worse than the news is most of the fiction that is put in the television programming. Most of the stuff that is popular and played over and over on T.V. or cable is meant to condition people in various ways. For instance, Sci-Fi shows and Sitcoms condition people to believe they are living in a democracy and that people are friendly. Furthermore the acting on most fictional shows is wooden and unemotional in order to prevent people who might emulate it from succeeding in real life. Plus, Reality shows often condition people to be consumerists. The commercials do several things such as interupting the show thereby distorting its meaning as an artistic work, and also promoting consumerism. So I suggest to never watch television shows when they are on television, not only because a person should not want to see commericials, but also because a person should not neccesarily want to see the particular stuff that is being essentially force fed to them over the T.V. to propagandize and brainwash them. Instead, a person should seek out things that they want to see, and watch them on blu-ray, dvd, ect. Also, a person who is watching something should not empathize with any characters who do not display normal human-like emotion. If needed, a person must rewatch shows like The Odyssey(1992) and Earth Final Conflict after watching any other T.V. shows or movies so that they could undo some of the brainwashing. And of course one must realize that violence shown on T.V. shows and movies is completely unacceptable in real life. A person must also seek out other types of media such as music, sometimes with the help of others, in order to gain new ideas. And of course a person should also seek out independant webpages made by individuals.
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10-22-2013
Some Other Things To Watch
I recently began watching another series from 1992 called The Tomorrow people, which was made in Great Britain. It may not neccessarily be as useful to real life as The Odyssey because it doesn't really take place in a totalitarian state. However it still seems like it might be better in certain ways than most T.V. shows. There is also a new Tomorrow People from 2013, but, I am not sure it is any good because it may have too much violence and/or bad acting like most American T.V. shows.
Also I recently had a dream that I wanted to re-watch two of the movies that Illya Woloshyn was in, Beethoven Lives Upstairs, and Hush Little Baby. Perhaps I will also watch the War of The Worlds episode and the Are You Afraid Of The Dark Episode. Also I may try to get some other things that he played in.
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10-22-2013
The Value of Suspicion and Paranoia:
It is said that many people who live to a very old age have certain things in common. For instance, they are usually somewhat suspicious of the government, and they may not trust other people easily. And it is true that in certain other cases, a certain degree of paranoia can be helpful. For instance on wikipedia it says that there is some evidence that people who have schizophrenia of the paranoid type for instance, may have a better prognosis than other subtypes of the disorder. All of this seems to suggest that in modern society, a certain degree of suspicion and paranoia, confers a survival benefit. I think this is true for various reasons, one of which is that other people, the media, and even the government often lie. But perhaps an even more important reason why suspicion or even paranoia can be helpful is that the antithesis of paranoia, which is complacency, is in fact one of the worst things a person can be afflicted with. A person who is complacent does not see life and the world for what they are, both difficult and deceptive. The actual deception that takes place in the real world is both more mundane, more widespread, and more encompassing than the deception shown on most television shows and movies. Ultimately, I think I was set back severely in life by watching shows as a child which helped to instill a sense of complacency about society and its motives.
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An Excerpt From FailingEducation.COM:
Bullying, A Part of America's Social System?
"When I was in second grade, I made a friend. Looking back, I see that what happened was that I made fun of some of the other students, and this impressed someone enough to be my friend. However, I remember that in third grade, I most likely saw a public service announcement saying that kids are supposed to be nice to other kids, and I began feeling guilty. As a consequence, I decided to not make fun of the other kids any more. Over the next three years, I lost my one friend and all of my acquaintances..."
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10-22-2013
note: I will soon be making another webpage for my general non-odyssey related thoughts. The webpage will be called SATICE.COM I also plan to move this webpage to a regular web server service for a period of perhaps one year.
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Published 9-1-2013, description updated 11-11-2013
YOUTUBE: High School Bully Time Capsule Scene from You Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB21Hk3XM2Y
This is the famous time capsule scene where the time capsule video was played accidentally. In real life it is usually true that "The Meek Shall Not Inherit The Earth." I wouldn't bother watching the whole movie because in real life those who are bullied rarely become successful, especially with all of the grade manipulation that occurs these days.
At first I was thinking that the way to prevent one's self from being bullied is to 'toughen up' so to speak, as Major Neville said in a season 1 episode of Revolution. This is partly true. However, this may be difficult for someone who is not physically strong, and I am now thinking that in order to not be bullied, one has to change their way of thinking and acting. In order to not be bullied, one has to become aware of the principle of the 'antithesis'. One who understands the principle of the antithesis will realize that the media, school, and even other people usually tell the antithesis or opposite of the truth. In addition, actors on most American television shows act in an opposite way from people in real life and do not show accurate human emotions. Once a person understands the principle of the antithesis, realizes that most of the information they are subjected to is lies and propaganda, and learns hows to express emotion like a real person rather than like the fake people on most T.V. shows, they will not be likely to be bullied anymore. For more information about this, go to ILLYAWOLOSHYN.COM
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TWO VERSIONS OF AN ESSAY ABOUT GUILT:
A Quote From 'The Big Picture':
Fractal: Your fault? You mean you did something wrong and now you feel something?
Jay: Yeah, I feel guilty.
Fractal: Guilty? Guilty? (flips through papers on his clipboard) Guilty... Guilty... Guilty... There's no guilty here, no one has ever felt like you feel.
8-29-2013 and 10-18-2013 added 2-05-2014
Why One Should Never Feel Guilty:
Do kids who bully or tease other kids feel guilty? Of course not. Do presidents and vice presidents who go to war based on pretexts which were later shown to be false ever feel guilty? No, why would they. Do criminals who commit crimes, feel guilty? Well if they did it wouldn't undo any of their actions. Do judges who might sentence someone to life in prison for stealing a slice of pizza fell guilty? Probably not. Do stock brokers who make money even when their clients lose money feel guilty?. Nope. Do CEO's who take multi-million dollar bonuses when their companies are losing money feel guilty? Not at all.
You see, most people never feel guilty about anything. Indeed, professionals are taught the principles of emotional distance, which means they are never supposed to feel guilty during the course of their jobs, even if they make certain mistakes. And indeed, the centerpiece of many religions may actually be rituals to try to eliminate feelings of guilt. And those who are convicted may say they feel guilty to the judge, but no one knows what they really feel. Indeed, one could argue that guilt doesn't exist in the real world. As Fractal said in The Odyssey, "There's no guilty here, no one has ever felt like you feel".
At first when I made my web pages, I felt guilty for saying things that went against the propaganda I was indoctrinated with in school. In fact, this feeling of guilt may be called cognitive dissonance, which was a side effect of going against the brainwashing I was subjected to. The fact that I sometimes feel this cognitive dissonance means that some part of me is still trying to hang on to the indoctrination I was subjected to growing up. On the one hand maybe it is useful if some small part of me retains that indoctrination, just in case society or even the universe completely changes the rules on me once again. Yet, I know deep down that society's indoctrination of me has caused significant harm to my life as well as personal suffering. I know that even by merely believing the exact opposite of society's indoctrination with most issues, I am far more advanced and realistic in my reasoning than I ever was growing up. Nevertheless, I have found that for me, saying things online is far more difficult emotionally than I had expected it to be. Not only is there the issue of cognitive dissonance with what I was indoctrinated to believe growing up, but there is also the issue of occasional worry that I might have been wrong in the way I expressed some minor details, and there is also fear that I might accidentally reveal too much, thereby giving those in the majority of society information on how to hurt me or defeat me. Ultimately though, I have found that because I am by nature a truthful person, the act of saying things online forces me to hold myself accountable to the truth in certain ways, and therefore to reconcile all of the different and sometimes opposing thoughts in my brain to come up with a grand theory that I can live by. Indeed, I would argue that making these recent web pages has advanced my philosophy and understanding of the universe nearly as much as when I first realized back in 2004-2005 that most propaganda tells the antithesis or opposite of the truth.
I realize that it was society who betrayed me, and it was school and the mass media that taught me not just some lies or inaccuracies, but mostly lies and inaccuracies. And that which I was taught which did not consist of lies, was made up mostly useless facts and or skills that are worthless to society. Even my very good English language ability is worthless to society and I can use it for nothing else other than to make my web pages. However, unlike those who indoctrinated me in school, I try to say things that may be useful. However, I try not to make any false promises like others have made to me. And indeed after realizing that no one ever felt guilty for any bad things they did to me, and that people who are successful in life never feel guilty about anything, I have decided that I should never again feel guilty for anything I may say on my web pages.
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1-18-2014 added 2-05-2014
Why One Should Never Feel Guilty:
Sometimes after I add things that I wrote to my web pages, I feel guilty for some reason unbeknownst to be. I have no idea why I feel this way. Perhaps I am afraid I might be wrong about something or perhaps I am afraid that I might reveal too much. Perhaps the feeling of guilt is really a form of cognitive dissonance, because what I am saying which I know is true goes against what I was taught in school. Or perhaps I am merely afraid of being judged. Whatever the reason, I know from past experience that there is no need for guilt since it is an unproductive emotion which almost no one ever feels.
Thinking back, I remember how in second grade I began to feel guilty for making fun of other kids. I don't believe I was bullying them, just making fun of them. Then after I stopped making fun of the other kids, I lost my social skills and any friends I might have had. As other kids bullied me more, do you think that any of them felt guilty? Of course not.
Interestingly, The Odyssey(1992 T.V. Series) deals with the subject of guilt in an episode called "The Big Picture". In this episode, Jay(played by Illya Woloshyn) says he is feeling guilty, and Fractal the scientist looks through the papers in his clipboard and says, "There's no guilty here. No one has ever felt like you feel." I think this reflects the fact that in real life, guilt is an almost abnormal emotion, one which very few if any people actually feel. Like any emotion, feeling guilty is a choice, and therefore one chooses whether they feel guilty or not. Ultimately, I know from experience that whenever I give in to guilt, cognitive dissonance, or fear of being judged, etc., that It will cause me to fail in life. Therefore, I will never again make the mistake of feeling guilty.
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2-05-2014
How The Odyssey Can Help Someone Make Friends:
Growing up, I watched Star Trek The Next Generation on television over and over, because after all, that is what was on T.V. much of the time. In fact, for some reason, I looked up to characters like Captain Picard and Data and began to try to emulate them. As a result of this, I became nearly incapable of expressing positive human emotion. In fact, just like captain Picard and Data, I would almost never smile or show any human-like emotion myself. This certainly contributed greatly to me not having any friends during most of my school years, because after all, other people in real life don't want to befriend anyone who acts like Picard or Data and doesn't even smile. No, other people want to befriend only people who show emotion and who they can empathize with.
Eventually, several years after finishing school, I rediscovered The Odyssey from 1992 through the power of the internet. Particularly in season one of The Odyssey, the characters may smile and show very realistic emotions. This is a stark contrast to the un-emotional robot like acting on most American T.V. shows. Watching The Odyssey, I began to regain my ability to express emotion and to make friends. For a little while, I even had some friends. Of course, one can only make friends if they both show emotion, and interact with other people regularly. I have to admit that at the present moment I don't have any friends because I don't have the opportunity to interact with other people. If only there were more shows like The Odyssey and fewer like Star Trek TNG when I was growing up, things might have been different for me.
Finally, there is one other element to making friends. This involves talking and acting the correct way in real life. For instance, on American T.V., if a character doesn't like something, he says it's "ridiculous". But we all know by now that in real life, someone who uses the word "ridiculous" will be mocked and made fun of himself. Characters in The Odyssey by contrast, take their difficulties in stride. They don't go on long winded tirades about how something they don't like is "ridiculous". In fact, I don't believe that characters in The Odyssey ever use the word "ridiculous". There are many other examples of how characters in The Odyssey talk and act more appropriately in the correct manner that people in real life are expected to act. All this means that watching The Odyssey will help someone make friends in real life.
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