Tr1v14l Pursu1ts: What do I want?

Maxims, rules of thumb and other observations on human cognition and sociocultural affectations

This will be added to on an irregular basis...

What is said to humans directly is received with skepticism and considered with dubiousness while that which is heard in passing, especially that which most conforms to their mentality or prejudices, is readily believed.
Humans have a certain cognitive latency between exposure to new information or experiences and the ability to think dispassionately and intellectually about it.
Humans have a certain cognitive spectrum starting with the moment of exposure to new information or experiences and ending with some point at which the thing is effectively "in the past" for them.
This cognitive spectrum is linked to the emotional process often referred to as shock, anger, denial and acceptance.
The more and faster information or experiences are presented to people and the closer the quarters and the lesser the distance between people, the more their early reactions in the passionate emotional stage are reflected back to them in the manner of responses to those reactions from others in light of those responses.
The more outrages which are suffered without sufficient time to allow emotional bleed-off, the farther the bar for subsequent reaction and outrage are pushed, and the more further events must progress before reaction and outrage.
It is possible for serious detriments to eventually sit below this threshold for long enough for their damaging effects to build and multiply until their entire society undergoes some reactive convulsion.

Friday, May 02, 2008

What do I want?

I want you to stop looking down and look up.

I want you to stop thinking the worst and think the best.

I want you to listen to that little voice in the light in your heart.

I want you to stop fighting it.

I want you to stop running from it.

I want you to run to it.

I want you to embrace it.

You are not evil.

You are good.

You have boundless capacity for greatness.

The smallest one of you can be the biggest difference and forever unknown but without you the world would falter.

Someone never took Adolph Hitler aside and mentored him and made a better impact on him than his abusive father.

The result was one small man in one small critical place and millions dead.

You could be the one small person in one small critical place and millions alive and happy more than ever would have been.

Practically... stop going through life asleep at the switch. Use your mind, exercise it, take it for long walks through beautiful books, conceive of silly things, make up your own mind for yourself and remember that like your bed you must sleep in it. Put in some throw pillows and a new comforter. Get a reading light for it. Pay attention. Think.

A terrible thing is coming in our sleep. Something wants us to sleep. Nothing you've ever heard of but always feared. It's that little thing in the corner of your eye when you look at yourself in the mirror. The part of you that scares you. The part farthest from the bright light in your heart. Can't you hear the darkness? Can't you hear the rush of that static hiss of the very air in a silent dead room? It's coming. The static is coming. Don't let yourself go silent inside.

Think.