Nassim Taleb said he doesnt read newspapers. He said ( I paraphrase because I dont remember the exact quote ) if you dont understand why you should bother with them, look at one from a year ago and you will understand. Nothing written there will matter to you at all. The internet is alot like that, and nearly all Curr3nt Th1ngZ are like that.
Covid accelerated online addiction manifold, I believe.
Deemed an "unessential" worker, still gullibly trusting in the expert class, I initially completely bought into the narrative of an extremely deadly virus rampaging throughout the world. With nothing but time on my hands, I scoured the internet searching for the latest information--a process which never ends and is very difficult to break. Internet-addled is the new drug-addled.
It is, it will attract a similar stigma, and besides there is much to do IRL in these times of restoration. I gradually gave up, and did what you did at first. I had little bairns to bother me anyway, and at night I listened to Kevin Michael Grace, who gave me all the keeping up I needed.
During COVID I did an experiment. For two weeks I intentionally consumed no media - no internet, TV, radio, newspapers. I even attempted to avoid reading billboards.
Do you know what happened?
COVID disappeared.
Literally, there was nothing there. Nothing. No pandemic, no danger, nothing to worry about. My wife and I would wander around deserted town centres, walk the countryside, the streets, go on extended day trips.
Nothing.
After a couple of weeks I resumed consuming media. Almost within minutes I was back in a pandemic with all the fear, anxiety and rules bearing down on me.
Except I wasn't. I now understood the power of narrative. I started to wake up to all the mind control techniques that are used against us. I could see it for what it is.
I suspect many others had similar epiphanies as a result of pandemic narrative. TPTB got high on their own supply and pushed too far. The genie is not going back in the bottle.
Great info Frank. It’s hard not to be guilty of some of that. I did some things when I was much younger. One of those was ingesting copious amounts of psychedelic agents. I can’t help but wonder if it perhaps insulates me to a degree.
I absolutely take in a lot of information from a lot of different sources. I find the volume leaves more clues. That being said, it does eat up a load of time. You have to make sure you are also exercising one’s body not only your mind.
We all do too much of what we shouldn’t, Luke, because we like it. It is good to bear in mind what’s bad for you and why, however, as it helps for better habits.
I have started reading fewer news myself, as quite a few things came up as expected. It is not that I am smart in any sense, but rather the situations were so obvious that anyone with a clear mind can see the coming troubles. Yet, most people do not believe what they see. I tried to spend more time exercising and thinking about potential solutions. I feel that is more interesting than keeping up with all the news, when most of them are just symptoms of a few core issues.
I think you’ve done well to come up with an overview which makes the details both predictable and unsurprising. This provides immunity to SHOCKBAIT.
I have to keep up more than I would care to because I have to write about SHOCKING DEVELOPMENTS as a j*urnalist. Most of them aren’t. Some are. There is more appetite for SHOCKING headlines and indeed for DOOM than for genuine developments of interest.
I think this has a lot to do with the fact our system has been designed to prevent real change and so people expect it to continue to deliver. I don’t think it can. lol
The internet used to open your mind, now it does melt your brain. I gave up on papers and media a long time ago. If I read something I deem significant I’d look for the source and make my own mind up. I don’t watch TV or listen to the MSM radio. I still get sideways glances when if asked I say I didn’t the programme you are talking about. If the conversation still mentions TV, movies etc I then say I don’t watch any of it. I’m then asked, what do I do as if I have the huge cultural black hole in my life. I concede I do watch football. As bad as it is and it’s getting worse I watch it as my one aspect of my old life I still persist with, but it’s getting to be a struggle.
There’s nothing wrong with watching the football. It’s a question of how much you become what you consume. I have an old Leeds scarf in my hobbit hole, which is a certain sign of my addiction to suffering, for example.
People may view you with incredulity for not being programmed but a lot of it really is just an algorithm of make belief: governance by media. There is entertainment but it is important to consider what you are expected to entertain having consumed it.
Tedious indeed Frank. It is utterly exasperating to me. When you find a gem of a documentary or video of a speech I find that much more informative and relevant because it IS! The media is there to distract us from this, from truthful, factual content. As always Frank, enjoyed the content, context and perspective of this article. Leeds eh? May have to question my subscription 🤔
I do like watching good things, and there are good things to watch - just as there are good things to read. We are awash in trash however, and I think it safer to ignore almost everything in our so called culture. It’s hard not to see most things as an advert - because they are.
Fantastic read brother really appreciate the insights. Reminds me of this quote from Epictetus
"When we blather about trivial things, we ourselves become trivial, for our attention gets taken up with trivialities. You become what you give your attention to."
Oh I love Epictetus and that is high praise indeed. The tutor of Aurelius talks like a wise uncle - and his remarks seem disturbingly contemporary. Epictetus is always relevant and he tells it like it is. Well said RBB. Sorry it took me so long to reply, my son has been in hospital and is still unwell.
Brother will be praying for your son! May the Lord Jesus Christ, our great physician, bring healing to him quickly while guarding his heart and mind. May all the folks that care for your boy see him through the Lord's eyes, use the talents and gifts that God has given them to heal him, and be sensitive to his needs. May the Lord richly bless you and your family.
Outrage Addiction, once contracted and practiced continuously, is 90 percent incurable. The 10 percent that go into remission (never cured ) can only make it through asking for divine assistance.
If you try to discuss this pandemic with someone immersed in it, you will be met with them talking over you and not listening .
The best you can do is to influence those you love.
Satan is winning. Outrage Addiction is his lead off batter.
Every cult has its fanatics. I think what you’re on about here is to do with moral inversion - where people infuse beliefs with intense meaning, and see any threat to them as personal (as they identify “as” their beliefs).
You could say mass culture promotes this sort of trans-sanity - and I agree that it do.
I think when the music stops those still dancing do seem visibly odd. If there is hope for an end to the old machinery of global belief there is hope for this moment. And there is.
Indeed, the assertion of addiction is correct. Addiction is brain chemistry and emotions are chemistry. Addiction to such things as outrage, anger, violence, depression etc. are very real.
They are safe feelings to feel when directed at socially approved targets. Trump supporters, transphobics, racists etc. You feel great plus you get brownie points.
Reasoned arguments against their positions are easily rationalized as hate since the initial flare is one of fear or anxiety at being challenged. Being able to put that feeling away just be believing you are racist, sexist etc. must be appealing, and addictive.
Alas I see more and more addicted to their toy rectangles. On the street, queueing, waiting for a bus; anything but boredom. You will be familiar with the Yale(?) study that established many people would rather electrocute themselves than sit alone in an empty room with no distraction.
I feel a strange combination of sympathy and disgust. The level of addiction to devices I see is considerable. But every now and then I will be in a cafe and see a young woman or an office worker with a book. Unlikely candidates who challenge our assumptions. Not all are lost.
But I do wonder what our consumption based world is doing to us.
Oh no, all is not lost. I think this will peak, like every other hoo-ha, and many people will prefer not to go crackers when they find out that this is the product of the process.
Though it pains me to praise you, you are quite right JD.
I thought of you yesterday when reading dear old Kenneth Clark. He said how feudal types saw birds as symbols of freedom, being able to move at will unlike themselves. Even in the middle ages, people like you were promoting Operation Pigeon it seems.
Lulz. I am of course right but it should be acknowledged hownever that although the glorious Pigeon is essentially a dove and thus also a Holy symbol, the villeins and serfs were not overly fond of him as they were kept by the local Lord for year round meat; squabs being produced all year in a time when mostly only breeding livestock were kept through the winter, with a big slaughter in the autumn and a dearth of meat in the hungry gap of late winter and spring, and les pigeons predated on the poors’ crops they were permitted to grow on their furlong strips.
Nassim Taleb said he doesnt read newspapers. He said ( I paraphrase because I dont remember the exact quote ) if you dont understand why you should bother with them, look at one from a year ago and you will understand. Nothing written there will matter to you at all. The internet is alot like that, and nearly all Curr3nt Th1ngZ are like that.
The one year later thing is a superb technique. Looking at celebrity news five years later even more so. It is beyond irrelevant.
I consume none of it. Once you break away it becomes almost impossible to consume.
*shouldn't*
Covid accelerated online addiction manifold, I believe.
Deemed an "unessential" worker, still gullibly trusting in the expert class, I initially completely bought into the narrative of an extremely deadly virus rampaging throughout the world. With nothing but time on my hands, I scoured the internet searching for the latest information--a process which never ends and is very difficult to break. Internet-addled is the new drug-addled.
It is, it will attract a similar stigma, and besides there is much to do IRL in these times of restoration. I gradually gave up, and did what you did at first. I had little bairns to bother me anyway, and at night I listened to Kevin Michael Grace, who gave me all the keeping up I needed.
During COVID I did an experiment. For two weeks I intentionally consumed no media - no internet, TV, radio, newspapers. I even attempted to avoid reading billboards.
Do you know what happened?
COVID disappeared.
Literally, there was nothing there. Nothing. No pandemic, no danger, nothing to worry about. My wife and I would wander around deserted town centres, walk the countryside, the streets, go on extended day trips.
Nothing.
After a couple of weeks I resumed consuming media. Almost within minutes I was back in a pandemic with all the fear, anxiety and rules bearing down on me.
Except I wasn't. I now understood the power of narrative. I started to wake up to all the mind control techniques that are used against us. I could see it for what it is.
I suspect many others had similar epiphanies as a result of pandemic narrative. TPTB got high on their own supply and pushed too far. The genie is not going back in the bottle.
Great info Frank. It’s hard not to be guilty of some of that. I did some things when I was much younger. One of those was ingesting copious amounts of psychedelic agents. I can’t help but wonder if it perhaps insulates me to a degree.
I absolutely take in a lot of information from a lot of different sources. I find the volume leaves more clues. That being said, it does eat up a load of time. You have to make sure you are also exercising one’s body not only your mind.
We all do too much of what we shouldn’t, Luke, because we like it. It is good to bear in mind what’s bad for you and why, however, as it helps for better habits.
We all know people who never came back off the mushrooms. These days if you melt down you might become an influencer.
People with chronic twitter addiction = "twitterphiles"
I have started reading fewer news myself, as quite a few things came up as expected. It is not that I am smart in any sense, but rather the situations were so obvious that anyone with a clear mind can see the coming troubles. Yet, most people do not believe what they see. I tried to spend more time exercising and thinking about potential solutions. I feel that is more interesting than keeping up with all the news, when most of them are just symptoms of a few core issues.
I think you’ve done well to come up with an overview which makes the details both predictable and unsurprising. This provides immunity to SHOCKBAIT.
I have to keep up more than I would care to because I have to write about SHOCKING DEVELOPMENTS as a j*urnalist. Most of them aren’t. Some are. There is more appetite for SHOCKING headlines and indeed for DOOM than for genuine developments of interest.
I think this has a lot to do with the fact our system has been designed to prevent real change and so people expect it to continue to deliver. I don’t think it can. lol
The internet used to open your mind, now it does melt your brain. I gave up on papers and media a long time ago. If I read something I deem significant I’d look for the source and make my own mind up. I don’t watch TV or listen to the MSM radio. I still get sideways glances when if asked I say I didn’t the programme you are talking about. If the conversation still mentions TV, movies etc I then say I don’t watch any of it. I’m then asked, what do I do as if I have the huge cultural black hole in my life. I concede I do watch football. As bad as it is and it’s getting worse I watch it as my one aspect of my old life I still persist with, but it’s getting to be a struggle.
There’s nothing wrong with watching the football. It’s a question of how much you become what you consume. I have an old Leeds scarf in my hobbit hole, which is a certain sign of my addiction to suffering, for example.
People may view you with incredulity for not being programmed but a lot of it really is just an algorithm of make belief: governance by media. There is entertainment but it is important to consider what you are expected to entertain having consumed it.
I find a lot of it just tedious these days.
Tedious indeed Frank. It is utterly exasperating to me. When you find a gem of a documentary or video of a speech I find that much more informative and relevant because it IS! The media is there to distract us from this, from truthful, factual content. As always Frank, enjoyed the content, context and perspective of this article. Leeds eh? May have to question my subscription 🤔
Haha yes, Leeds. Number one when it mattered.
I do like watching good things, and there are good things to watch - just as there are good things to read. We are awash in trash however, and I think it safer to ignore almost everything in our so called culture. It’s hard not to see most things as an advert - because they are.
Saving this one for the archives
Fantastic read brother really appreciate the insights. Reminds me of this quote from Epictetus
"When we blather about trivial things, we ourselves become trivial, for our attention gets taken up with trivialities. You become what you give your attention to."
Oh I love Epictetus and that is high praise indeed. The tutor of Aurelius talks like a wise uncle - and his remarks seem disturbingly contemporary. Epictetus is always relevant and he tells it like it is. Well said RBB. Sorry it took me so long to reply, my son has been in hospital and is still unwell.
We will add your family to our family Rosary.
Oh thank you Peter! God bless you and your family.
Brother will be praying for your son! May the Lord Jesus Christ, our great physician, bring healing to him quickly while guarding his heart and mind. May all the folks that care for your boy see him through the Lord's eyes, use the talents and gifts that God has given them to heal him, and be sensitive to his needs. May the Lord richly bless you and your family.
Oh thank you RBB. I have prayed for him - little trooper that he is - and he has borne his cross bravely so far. I am so grateful for your prayers.
Amen!
This is absolutely wonderful article! A refreshing style which cuts through the dogma in a world where almost everything is the same. Superb!
Thank you Andrew! I am glad you liked it.
Nailed our life
If you still have a life you haven’t melted yet! Stay sane my e-friend.
Outrage Addiction, once contracted and practiced continuously, is 90 percent incurable. The 10 percent that go into remission (never cured ) can only make it through asking for divine assistance.
If you try to discuss this pandemic with someone immersed in it, you will be met with them talking over you and not listening .
The best you can do is to influence those you love.
Satan is winning. Outrage Addiction is his lead off batter.
You’re right though - Satan has his army and it is made of volunteers.
Every cult has its fanatics. I think what you’re on about here is to do with moral inversion - where people infuse beliefs with intense meaning, and see any threat to them as personal (as they identify “as” their beliefs).
You could say mass culture promotes this sort of trans-sanity - and I agree that it do.
I think when the music stops those still dancing do seem visibly odd. If there is hope for an end to the old machinery of global belief there is hope for this moment. And there is.
Indeed, the assertion of addiction is correct. Addiction is brain chemistry and emotions are chemistry. Addiction to such things as outrage, anger, violence, depression etc. are very real.
They are safe feelings to feel when directed at socially approved targets. Trump supporters, transphobics, racists etc. You feel great plus you get brownie points.
Reasoned arguments against their positions are easily rationalized as hate since the initial flare is one of fear or anxiety at being challenged. Being able to put that feeling away just be believing you are racist, sexist etc. must be appealing, and addictive.
Hatecoding prohibits the argument from reality.
“If you’re not insane there’s something wrong with you”.
Addiction is a struggle for the freedom from responsibility.
Alas I see more and more addicted to their toy rectangles. On the street, queueing, waiting for a bus; anything but boredom. You will be familiar with the Yale(?) study that established many people would rather electrocute themselves than sit alone in an empty room with no distraction.
I feel a strange combination of sympathy and disgust. The level of addiction to devices I see is considerable. But every now and then I will be in a cafe and see a young woman or an office worker with a book. Unlikely candidates who challenge our assumptions. Not all are lost.
But I do wonder what our consumption based world is doing to us.
Oh no, all is not lost. I think this will peak, like every other hoo-ha, and many people will prefer not to go crackers when they find out that this is the product of the process.
Yes, I suspect so. I do think many will need help to give up their toys though.
I call it "licking their mental lollipops"
That is quite an image 😵💫
lol yes it is. I shan’t forget that in a while.
The most refined lollipops are self licking, originally called the self licking ice cream cone.
Though it pains me to praise you, you are quite right JD.
I thought of you yesterday when reading dear old Kenneth Clark. He said how feudal types saw birds as symbols of freedom, being able to move at will unlike themselves. Even in the middle ages, people like you were promoting Operation Pigeon it seems.
Lulz. I am of course right but it should be acknowledged hownever that although the glorious Pigeon is essentially a dove and thus also a Holy symbol, the villeins and serfs were not overly fond of him as they were kept by the local Lord for year round meat; squabs being produced all year in a time when mostly only breeding livestock were kept through the winter, with a big slaughter in the autumn and a dearth of meat in the hungry gap of late winter and spring, and les pigeons predated on the poors’ crops they were permitted to grow on their furlong strips.
Remember how irrestible the magic eight ball was? At least we asked our own questions.
I do, and now we have no ball - only its dark black goo and an endless stream of "answers" too.
"Answerslop" you might say
Tilted on “Maybe” like an inky shipwreck
What a marvellous image
"Kindly let me help you, said the monkey, safely putting the fish in a tree."
-Alan Watts
Watts happenings’es heres?
DaInternet is a tool - nothing more, nothing less - how we use it is up to us. My go to scripture usually ends up here - Hebrews 5:11-6:2. ..read it!