Death of Hypatia®

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  • Know Thyself Post #41

    Know Thyself Through LITERATURE:

    Try this:

    Look on your phone and see how long you spent on this screen yesterday.

    In the X hours and X minutes you spent looking at your phone yesterday, what did you learn about what YOU think?

    This could be difficult as, I’m making the assumption that what you looked at were other people’s opinions or regurgitated propaganda. Did you learn about YOU?

     

    You can listen to Animal Farm by George Orwell in about 3 hours and 10 minutes.

    In 3 Hours and 10 minutes you could learn what YOU think about: Equality, Inequality, Fraternity, The Nature of Man, Society, Dictatorships, Class Divide, Socialism, Communism, Greed, Commercialism, Democracy, Propaganda, History, Community, and The Banning of Books (Between 1952 and 1957, the CIA, in an operation codenamed Aedinosaur, sent millions of balloons carrying copies of the novel into Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, whose air forces tried to shoot the balloons down, the SAME book that was ‘challenged’ multiple times in the US and was banned 1987 by A superintendent in Bay County, Florida, at the middle school and high school levels. Which the Board overturned due to complaints per the Constitution)

    Bonus, in a fraction of the time you wasted yesterday, tomorrow you could learn what YOU think about a lot of shit without commercial interruption, at YOUR pace, and without giving a flying f%$^ about what other people thought about it.

     … more “Know Thyself Post #41”

  • WIBCI Post #41

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from LITERATURE?

    WIBCI: You knew what you thought of the world more?

    If you aren’t exactly sure what you think about the world today and where you stand in it, I recommend reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

    It’s a dystopian novel that I find eerily similar to a state which our leaders are trying to emulate today.

    In the novel infants are subjected to ‘Neo-Pavlovian conditioning’  a concept where human babies are conditioned through electroshock to shun books and flowers.

    One of the students witnessing this conditioning raised his hand….:

    “Although he could see quite well why you couldn’t have lower-cast people wasting the community’s time over books, and that there was always the risk of their reading something which might undesirably de-condition one of their reflexes, yet, well, he couldn’t understand about the flowers… Why go to the trouble of making it psychologically impossible for Delta’s to like flowers?

    Patiently the DHC explained; if the children were made to scream at the sight of a rose that was on grounds of high economic policy. Not so very long ago, essentially or there abouts, Gamma’s, Delta’s even Epsilon’s had been conditioned to like flowers. Flowers in particular and wild nature in general. The idea was to make them want to be going out into the country at every available opportunity and so compel them to consume transport.

    ‘And didn’t they consume transport?’ asked the student.

    ‘Quite a lot.’ The DHC replied. ‘But nothing else.’ Primroses and landscapes, he pointed out, had one grave defect; they are gratuitous. The love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, any rate among the lower classes. To abolish the love of nature, but not the tendency to consume transport. For of course it was essential that they should keep on going to the country even though they hated it. The problem was to find an economically sounder reason for consuming transport than a mere affection for  primroses and landscapes. It was dully found. ‘We conditioned the masses to hate the country,’ concluded the director, ‘But simultaneously we conditioned them to love all country sports. At the same time we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus, so that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport. Hence those electric shocks.’

    ‘I see’ said the student, and was silent, lost in admiration.”

     

    What do YOU think about this?

    Next time you watch any sport, notice how many adds are on the field, on the walls surrounding the field, and on the players themselves. This doesn’t seem so out of the realm of possibility does it?… more “WIBCI Post #41”

  • WIBCI Post #40

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from HISTORY?

    WIBCI we didn’t keep repeating it?

    ‘It will be enough for me,…if these words of mine are judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or other and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future…

    My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last forever.” Ktema es aiei: “a possession forever”

    -Thurcydides (Athenian historian and general c. 460 – c. 400 BC)

    What do YOU think about history repeating itself? What do YOU about today has been repeated? Why do YOU think we didn’t learn?… more “WIBCI Post #40”

  • Know Thyself Post #40

    Know Thyself….

    Have YOU ever REALLY looked at YOU own eyes? Go to a mirror and really stare into them. Study them.

    Do you think there is anyone whose eyes you’ve REALLY looked at like this? Is there anyone whom you could recognize just from their eyes? Next time you are sharing personal space with someone whom you really like, study their eyes and see if you really ‘recognize’ them, and will you from here on out?… more “Know Thyself Post #40”

  • Know Thyself Post #39

    Know Thyself….

    I think there are two type of people:

    1. the type that when asked if they like a food they haven’t tried, reply ‘no’
    2. and those that say ‘I don’t know yet’

    Which are YOU?… more “Know Thyself Post #39”

  • WIBCI Post #39

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from HISTORY?

    WIBCI the word IMMIGRANT wasn’t a dirty word? When were YOUR ancestors immigrants? When did YOUR lineage switch from immigrants to citizens? Lucky it wasn’t today huh?

    What do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #39”

  • WIBCI Post #38

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from HISTORY/WRITTEN WORD?

    The Tragedy of the Commons, is the concept popularized in 1968 by ecologist Garrett Hardin as an economic problem where individuals exploit shared resources for personal/selfish gain leading to overuse, demand outstripping supply, overuse and depletion.

    In the story there is a lake that supplies food for a nearby village. There are four fisherman and the lake has 12 fish; each pair will produce a full size fish overnight. If each fisherman takes one fish each day, there will remain 4 pairs of fish that will have 4 fish overnight, equaling 12 fish and therefore; the lake will continuously supply the village with food every day.

    If one fisherman takes two fish the lake will quickly be depleted and there will be no food for the village.

    AKA

    What’s good for all of us is good for each of us.

    Imagine if our current leaders understood this…………

    What do YOU Think?

    Watch this Great video on ted.com… more “WIBCI Post #38”

  • Know Thyself Post #38

    Know Thyself through PHILOSOPHY:

    ‘Service to others is the rent you pay for your room on Earth.’

    – Muhammed Ali

    Do YOU agree?

    What rent have YOU paid?… more “Know Thyself Post #38”

  • Know Thyself Post #37

    Know Thyself….

    Can YOU keep a secret? Don’t just answer, think about it.

    Do others think YOU are someone who could be trusted?

    Does it matter to YOU?… more “Know Thyself Post #37”

  • WIBCI Post #37

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from HISTORY and POLITICS?

    “The ultimate moral test of any government is the way it treats three groups of its citizens. First, those in the dawn of life — our children. Second, those in the shadows of life — our needy, our sick, our handicapped. Third, those in the twilight of life — our elderly.”

    -Hubert Humphrey (U.S. Vice President from 1965 to 1969)

     

    How do YOU think our government treats these three groups?… more “WIBCI Post #37”

  • WIBCI Post #36

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS learned from LITERATURE?

    “Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.”

    -Pearl Buck (author of Good Earth etc.)

    What do YOU think is the test of a civilization?

    How do YOU think we care for our ‘helpless members’?… more “WIBCI Post #36”

  • Know Thyself Post #36

    Know Thyself through POLITICS:

    Jimmy Carter (U.S. President from 1977 to 1981) said:

    “A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It’s a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.”

    Do YOU think we are strong?

     … more “Know Thyself Post #36”

  • Know Thyself Post #35

    Know Thyself through LITERATURE/WRITTEN WORD/LYRICS:

    ‘I’ve been waitin’ on a war since I was young
    Since I was a little boy with a toy gun
    Never really wanted to be number one
    Just wanted to love everyone

    Is there more to this than that?
    Is there more to this than that?
    Is there more to this than that?’

    – Foo Fighters Waiting on a War

    Do YOU ever feel like this?…………… more “Know Thyself Post #35”

  • WIBCI Post #35

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: we learned from PHILOSOPHY?

    WIBCI: we understood and took control of fear?

    The real destroyer of inner peace is fear and distrust. Fear develops frustration, frustration develops anger, anger develops violence.

    Dalai Lama

    The whole secret of existence is to have no fear.

    Gautama Buddha

     

    Do YOU feel that when you think about your future, is it with excited anticipation or fear? I believe the external world inserts the fear and knowing yourself diminishes it, what do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #35”

  • WIBCI Post #34

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from WRITTEN WORD/LITERATURE/LYRICS?

    ‘They laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same.’

    -Kurt Cobain

    Are YOU more different or more the same?

    Are the people YOU admire in the ‘public eye’ more different or more the same?

    Are the people YOU admire in personal life more different or more the same?

    … more “WIBCI Post #34”

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