Open Thread -02-23-24 - Rolling Along
Sometimes I'm amazed at how the world just keeps rolling along.
I remember first learning about the end of the world. It was in the early 60s. Nuclear war was imminent. A president was killed in broad daylight for all the world to watch. There was a jungle war to prevent those damn dominoes from falling. "This is the end" filled the radio airwaves.
The Weekly Reader. Remember that? There was a heap of gloom and doom for a little boy to absorb. That's where I first heard about climate change, it was, back then, supposed to be the start of a new ice age. I also learned about the problem of finite cheap energy in the form of oil and what may happen when we run out. There was also whispers of global famine and other fear inducing articles.
Books and movies about dystopias and disasters and destruction made me think about survival. I thought about how I may survive certain catastrophes. I bet most of us have. We've all been taught to fear from a very early age, "Don't touch that hot stove"! "Don't look at the sun"! "Don't pet that bear"! Fear is needed to keep us alive. To a certain extent.
11 seconds
Those are some of my earliest recollections of "end of the world" scenarios. The common denominator woven through all of this is fear. No wonder humans are a paranoid species. I guess maybe that was bred into us as we stood upright on the savannas. Many a terror could jump out of the darkness and carry one away. We as a species still hold those archetypal horrors, I'm convinced of that. I guess that may explain some the gloom and doom and fear we've so often encountered down through the years.
I see no need to go over the subsequent litany of gloom and doom from the 60s and the 70s to the present. My point being that we've all been exposed to it throughout our lives.
The last three or four years though, have seen the fear ramped up exponentially. It's everywhere. The media oozes it, especially the internet and television. Our politicians use it like a cattle prod. What an instrument of psychological manipulation it has become.
With all the various vectors of possible doom bombarding us it's amazing that we aren't all crazy. On second thought, that may explain a lot of things. Fear has become a weapon. Fear is the mind killer.
I wonder though, after all these years of overexposure to gloom and doom, if actually, the end is any closer than it's been since I was a wee lad, despite all the insistence that we are one second away from destruction on that ominous clock of doom.
I look back at the many times in my life I've supposedly been "one second away", and lo and behold, here I am in the here and now, still sucking air.
When I think about mankind's odds for the future, I'll bet on the human spirit. Maybe we have to go through these times of trials and tribulations to get to a better side. I think the old ways of thinking are dying. May they rest in peace. For the sake of our children's, children's, children.
I bet, in the end though, the world keeps on rolling along.
Antidote for doom and gloom: double entendre intended.
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
you all been keepin' those doggies rollin'?
Remember this one?
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Gunsmoke reminded me of this from the same era.
Keep Rolling compadre.
We're all being branded...
slowly stripped of our constitutional rights. Fear is a tool of tyrants. Tools wear out and become useless. There is hope, my friend. Hope that the induced fear will wear out and people will awaken to a better world. A better world for all and not just a select few.
Good morning Johnny et. al., y'all. Thanx for the ot, JtC.
Ya got me thinking a bit about fear and, of course, types, sources or causes thereof. It is a survival mechanism, but also a killer. Our fangs and claws wouldn't have gotten us very far and fear is part of what helped us to survive, but it can also help kill us. One can categorize it in several ways, one that I'd like to toss out is somewhat tied to physiology.
You come around a corner in the trail and there is a rattler, bear, lion or scary looking individual with a machete and you are suddenly hit with a very real fear and fear reachion; the physiological run or fight response. The hair on the nape of your neck and forearms stands up, you flush and maybe also chill, your scalp tingles and your eyes dilate and your mind races or time slows down. This is the lizard brain calling, your medulla oblongata, you are in deep shit and have to react and react properly like fuckin' now man. If you were a rabbit, btw, one of your reactions might be to just die, they do that, and some humans would maybe have a heart attack. Not much to talk about there.
You're out for a stroll and suddenly realize that you don't know the whereabouts of your car keys, house keys, wallet, or checkbook or think you left the oven on or back door open. You have this dead sinking feeling in your gut, a sense of impending doom, but not charging rhino doom. I figger this is the good old vagus nerve and maybe your gut biota talking. Bad shit is in the offing and you have to figure out what to do about it and do so, but this is not an emergency, not in the charging rhino sense. You formulate a plan and set about doing it and your brain and gut argue back and forth until it is resolved.
The bad man might get elected and fuck things up for all of us, or the financial system might crash and lead to looting, rioting, possible civil war and such, or all these asshole neocons might finally start a nuclear war and even if you survive things will be butt ugly for the foreseeable future. This is your brain. This sure as shit isn't an emergency, not even of the lost wallet kind, not even "I really need to pee" territory. This is, frankly, bullshit. Whatcha gonno do? What's your action plan and what are the first steps? First, tell your brain to shut up with that shit. There is nothing you can do. Do not worry about things you cannot change or effect.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Yes, yes, yes...
those that wish to control us long ago figured out how to manipulate the lizard brain's fight or flight aspect. It's used to scare us into submission.
The awakening happens when those triggers are recognized and turned off and the fearmongering no longer works.
Thanks el, great addendum to this piece, that was.
Fear is exhausting.
I can only be afraid for so long, then I suddenly don't give a shit.
Then, I feel embarrassed that I was afraid to start with. What a damn waste of time!
I am afraid of snakes, not nukes.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Heh. 'Specially not space nukes, I spose. n/t
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Space sharks...
with nukes mounted on their heads. Now that's what I'm asceered of. Keeps me up at night.
We can do something about snakes...
nukes not so much. Unless, of course, you go walking around Texas right at dusk with shorts and sandals on, in total disregard of the copperheads that lie in wait.
I know you know what I mean!
That can happen.
I can verify at least one instance.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Fear is the mind killer...
and so makes people nonthinking and easy to manipulate. TPTB control the media (narrative) and so purposely amplify the fear: orange man bad, Putin bad, Russia is putting nukes in space, and so on.
Did you catch this interview with Mike Benz? Well worth the time to better understand how we are being done unto. Everything You Need to Know about the Government’s Mass Censorship Campaign (1 hour)
The national security state is the main driver of censorship and election interference in the United States. "What I’m describing is military rule," says Mike Benz. "It’s the inversion of democracy."
Understanding what is being done, even when it is tragic, helps reduce fear by increasing awareness.
Hope all is well in your world. A beautiful day here.
Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The amygdala...
does shut down the rest of the brain in a fight or flight situation. It's the primal brain. Those that want control long ago figured out how to tickle it to garner the response they want.
I did watch that interview a few days ago. Good stuff, although I still don't know what to think about Tucker Carlson. As the old main stream media dies out, we will be presented with a new cast of gate keepers. Carlson, Musk, Rogan, I just don't know yet.
Things are great here in east Texas. Spring has sprung early with some pretty high temps already. I hope that doesn't portend another hot dry summer.
May you have a beautiful day, everyday, there on the mountain!
There is fear, and then there is fear.
As everybody here knows, I have lived in a constant state of something resembling fear since the first time I was shown "Duck and Cover" in grade school in the early 60s. True fear definitely used to drive me, perhaps for the first 10 years or so. Then, outrage fatigue set in, helped recently by the Obama illusion of improvement. And now all this. I have my white-flash nightmares happening several times a week once again, just like the old days; just as I have since that first viewing of Bert the Turtle. But they are no longer driven by fear as such, but rather a numbing *certainty*.
I will not live to my full natural span. I *know*, in my heart of hearts, that I will die by violence. It may be the white flash, it may be by the house burning down around me, it may be by a drunk driver, it may be by walking into a crossfire during a bunch of people ballistically Freedumbing one another. Hell, it may be by committing fellatio upon a 12-gauge, and pushing the trigger with my own hand, if things go further to shit and there's no further reason to keep at it. I just know that I will never be granted the opportunity to die peacefully in my sleep.
I suppose that I'm playing into Da Gummint's hand here, since their tacit plan is clearly for all of us over-60 useless eaters to simply vanish, so that they can keep our hard-earned Social Security "entitlement" to fill the accounts of the wealthy arms merchants. There's nothing I can do about that. That ship sailed with Reagan.
I really envy those who still think that their generation will be The One That Makes A Difference. Knock yourselves out! I thought that we Gen Jones types might have a shot with Obama, early on. But no... Bernie put the final stake in the heart of that vain, overworked hope.
Can't afford to retire, and having lost everything twice now, I'm asset-free- so there's no chance of playing financial games for gains. I'll be completely out of debt in just a couple of months, woo hoo- but even that long-dreamed-of achievement feels like dirt in my mouth.
The cavalry isn't coming to save us, because it has been very carefully arranged such that *there is no cavalry*. There never was. There's the real American Dream for ya, right there. I'm literally just marking time, until I'm ended by whatever means.
It'll be spring soon, and after Memorial Day they'll put the J-boats back in at Cherry Creek Reservoir. That'll be good- so that my wife and I can rent one for a day or an evening, sail out into some of the quieter parts away from the idiots with the muscle-boats, drop the hook, and have a glass or two of wine. I'm looking forward to that. Maybe we'll even make it that long.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
There's a quote...
from the movie Fight Club: "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero". That's the fate we all face.
In my opinion, in the short time we have, the best we can do is to live life to the best of one's ability and according to one's prerogatives, and everyone else be damned that wants to stand in the way of that. I know it doesn't always work out that way, but that's my ideal.
Dropping a line and having a wine or two sounds great, that's what life should be about.
Thanks for dropping in, my friend.
work until you die is the fate we face
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the golden retirement carrot that was dangled in front of us
no longer is a thing. Pensions? Bought out and dissolved.
Social security? Does not even come close to inflation.
Maintaining a semblance of stature gets more difficult as
the body wears out. It is all we are left with. The once great
'murican dream transformed into a nightmare right before
our eyes. All so a few greedy f*chs could horde more.
Good luck