You Are Feeling Sleepy, Sleepy

I freely admit that I'm a knowledge junky. I said "knowledge", not
learning. Learning is a process of assimilation or in other words, you
absorb and make it your own. Knowledge is understanding what you have
assimilated. Knowledge demands that some assimilated information must be
discarded as erroneous.

These errors might be due to lack of adequate data, personal biases in the
interpretation or (sound of approaching thunderstorm please) purposeful
manipulation to decieve. Free thought permits, NO, demands that all
information must be weighed, calibrated and compared to existing and
tested knowledge base.

Testing of learning is fairly simple. At the testers disposal is multiple
choice, fill in the blank, essays and manual manipulation. All of these
are classroom techniques. Testing of knowledge is far different.

If a person has knowledge, they know the outcome for every stage of a
process before they begin. The human element is effectively discarded. All
the variables are accounted for or an experiment is run just so the
variables can be identified and either eliminated or accounted for in the
experiment. Knowledge is tested by application.

Now that I have chased off all the oxygen thieves, I had probably better
get down to the issue at hand.

Everyone has heard of Pavlov's dogs. Ring the bell, dog salivates. It is
conditioned response. Over time, every response becomes instinctual and
the subject has no conscience idea of the action they have effected.

Insert disclaimer here!

If you are an idiot, I will smile, nod my head and walk away. I just don't
care what you think. Therefore I won't post web-links to support anything
I say unless I feel like it. Do your own research! Everything I say or
opine is subject to change as new data becomes available. Knowledge is a
pursuit that has no end point.

We now return you to our normally scheduled program.

Homo Sapiens is just another animal and conditioned response is the norm.
Punishment is the mechanism for unacceptable behavior. Respect
authorities. Stand behind your leader. Know your place. Yada, yada, gag me
with 18" pipe wrench.

There is a syndrome that affects many people in hostage situations. They
develop a love-hate relationship with their captors. The hostage resigns
themselves to dependancy of their captors and hates themselves for being
weak.

Depression becomes the inevitable result without serious intervention.
Drugs are commonly prescribed and counselling is mandatory. As counsellors
aren't cheap, the financial gain promotes long-term therapy. Any pursuit
of rapid mental reallignment of the victim is verboten. The argument for
long-term therapy hinges on the possible shock to a person who has already
suffered a shock. In medicine it has been said, "The difference between
medication and poison is the dose."

Depression is a self-reinforcing state of helplessness. The victim
immerses themselves in a state of self-pity and accepts it. What might
have been human is now a trained animal. (Cue in howls of self-righteous
anger and fade in chanting "you can't understand, you can't understand.")

Ah, but I do. Been there, done that. My self-medication of choice was
alcohol in liberal quantities. Self-analysis coupled with shock and awe
brought me out of it every time.

So just where the hell am I going with this?

Citizenry throughout the developed world is wallowing in self-pity. Even
the US government takes advantage of it. If the individual believes they
are impotent to change the direction of their life and their vote is
meaningless, everything remains the same.

We were conned into consumerism and attendant debt. Our government
supported and pursued national debt as good for business. We, the
citizens, learned through conditioning that Senator Snort brings home the
bacon. Nobody was willing to admit that government redistribution is just
theft and carries a high handling and shipping charge.

Whether it was Social Security, Welfare or Unemployment Insurance, the
object was to develop a hostage crisis for all participants unable to live
outside the system.

So how do we live outside the system? The easiest method is what the Army
termed "the problem solving format."

Step 1. Correctly identify the problem. This is the most difficult of the
steps. Symptoms are NOT the problem.

Step 2. Determine ALL the possible solutions. This MUST include even the
most unpalateable solutions.

Step 3. Select the best solution.

Step 4. Implement

Step 5. Analyze the outcome and make any changes needed. For many, this is
just as difficult as step 1. The first difficulty is accepting less than
optimum outcomes. It failed, therefore I failed so I should just accept my
sorry lot in life. Doctor, will you refill my prescription? Another
difficulty is bull-headedness. This has to work, this will work, I'll
force it to work, ... etc. Believing the experts is a fool's errand.
Nobody can grasp your anguish, ethos or dreams as effectively as you.
Physician, heal thyself.

We have become victims and exhibit all the symptoms. We accept our sorry
lot in life. We self-medicate or refill our prescriptions for
anti-depressants. We have conned ourselves into believing this is as good
as it gets. We turn to government for guidance. Recall the check-writing
scandal in Congress? They can't balance their own checkbook, the nation's
checkbook and toss good money after bad. They nationalize private debt for
the big players for your sake, but don't nationalize your's. The business
of government is tax and spend their way to re-election.

We have let ourselves become pawns in a chess game without knowing who are
the players. We have learned exactly what the players want us to think we
know. There can be no know without understanding. Remove understanding and
the know becomes exposed for what it really is; belief.

We have let the illusion become our delusion. "You are getting sleepy,
sleepy. We are from the government and we are here to help you."
Please deposit $2.5 million for the next re-election campaign. There is
still so much work to be done. Nobody dares ask, "Why would a logical
reasoning human continue to pay for non-performance by an elected
representative?" The chronicly depressed see themselves as dependants of
their captors. Now take your meds and shut up.