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.
Bookmark and Share

Friday, January 16, 2009

Rice is predicting a world free from tyranny and I am waiting for Elvis to get here…

The Associated Press: Rice departs predicting a world free from tyranny

Rice said her own story — the first black woman to serve as secretary of state — showed how far the United States has come in making its ethnic, religious and racial diversity a catalyst for social progress.

"And that's why I know that one day there is going to be a world in which every man, woman and child will be free from tyranny," she said.

And Barack Obama’s election is why I know that one day is very very far off. In the name of crass venal politics, the first black president of the USA was chosen to preside over a nation that his backers made out to be buried under a mountain of problems that no one can solve to the point no one has any hope that trying is even worth it, and made out that he will solve it almost as soon as he enters office even though the man himself has basically said “whoa, no way, MAYBE two years out” and then presented a policy of even greater spending than that which he criticized his predecessor for, which he and his backers have all made out is the primary reason for this mess.

It’s as if someone said the Atlantic Ocean needs to be emptied, it can only be done with a teaspoon, the person who filled it was a reprehensible monster for doing so, and the person selected to empty it out is going to do it by dumping in another' ocean worth of water first and have it all done in less time than it took to fill it.

SAY FUCKING WHAT?!

Bareback O’Rama will be a prescient name for me to have chosen for him. I get the feeling that in a few short years he will in retrospect have been much better off as a swimsuit model or on a resurrected Baywatch. One of those.