Awareness is the way out.

Even the most propagandized, corporate captured, patriotic, colonizer friendly American voter has to know something is up, something is amiss to have the same two candidates in back to back presidential elections, with one candidate being the front runner for a third consecutive election.

No one ever went broke under estimating the intelligence of the American people.

America is the most propagandized country on Earth by such a wide margin. North Korea only gets it from the government. In America, our citizenry gets it from the Military Industrial Complex, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Wall Street, and Corporate America literally every time they look at a screen. And screens are everywhere now.

People who are pro Trump and pro Biden…know something is aloof here.

But to think about it, to question it, is the end of bliss. Because ignorance is bliss.

As the late great George Carlin (the original, not the AI remake) would say… “the owners of this country” …and… “it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it”…

The populace is so docile and scared in America that the money in control of the political duopoly that is American politics won’t be bothered to change the wrapper anymore. It’s all Ronald Regan anyway. If they could, they would put him as an AI on the ballot, and that’s probably not far off.

There is an counter force. Vote third party. Vote local. Organize to push ballot initiatives and referendums. Politics is bottom up. All politics is local is the old saying. That’s the long game. The long game is the only option. And the only thing we have less of than patience is attention.

If people are struggling to pay their rent and bills at historic levels, if income inequality is at historic levels, then why would the populace treat the presidential election like anything other than another reality tv show. A reality tv show host is a duopoly front runner for the third election in a row after all.

When the majority of people are completely identified with their ego and thinking mind, then they are reaction junkies. Unaware there is a space between stimulus and response. So they can be trained like animals. They can be taught to react when certain buttons are pushed regardless of repetition. They will salivate no matter how many times the bell rings.

So they’ll fall in line to vote against the lesser or two evils in the most important election in their lifetime for the third decade in a row. Then wonder why nothing changes, why they have more debt, less money, more work, less leisure, more rules, less rights, more fear, less love.

Manufacture of Consent

That term has fascinated me from the moment I heard the term.

Same goes for Social Conditioning.

I used to think people were willfully ignorant to these concepts. As I got older, I come to think it’s more of a combination of naïveté and fear.

We’re hard wired to conserve our energy and effort. This has been, is, and will be exploited by those with power and influence against those without them to keep it that way.

Control.

It’s all about control. Influence. Manipulation.

To do what?

Benefit those in power.

That those with the most have such a scarcity mindset is sad.

The fact that their scarcity mindset causes so much undue suffering to the masses is something worse than sad.

There’s something about the phrase it is what it is that I never liked beyond a joking context. I love the it is what it is memes. But in day to day life, it mildly rubbed me the wrong way.

One day while watching YouTube I heard Eckhart Tolle say “It is as it is” and something clicked/stuck.

What’s the difference between these two phrases? The meaning I internally assigned to them. Just because one clicked with me and the other didn’t, doesn’t mean there’s an actual difference.

Tolle went on to explain that when something happens, we can acknowledge the situation, internally and/or externally as it is. This is what is happening. It is as it is. Now, what is my reaction going to be? How will I respond to this?

Choosing a response that is beneficial, rather than detrimental isn’t dependent on saying to oneself, “It is as it is”, but it has certainly helped me. Cultivating the inner space between stimulus and response, to think or say anything constructive, that is mandatory work for all of us.

If we are reaction junkies, then we do ourselves a disservice and essentially give our power away to anyone or anything that inconveniences or challenges us. And challenges never stop in life. One need not be a sage or old or even have much life experience to have learned that…repeatedly.

Cultivating enough space between stimulus and response to say five words can be a tall task for many. It certainly turned out to be a long term goal for me. On some days, it still seems like a long term goal. I know there was a time, a long period of my life, where I was unaware of the space between stimulus and response and therefore by default gave my power away to any and all external events or shifting internal moods.

Meditation, philosophy and spirituality practices have all been a tremendous help for me. I would classify my meditation and philosophy practices as life savers. Meditation, philosophy and weight training are the three things I recommend to all human beings regardless of age.

Spirituality can run into immediate resistance from the agnostic and atheist types so I usually skip it and focus on the pragmatic, immediate benefits of practicing meditation, physical exercise, and philosophy.

Meditation and philosophy have helped to teach me about the thinking mind, emotion, and human nature. Those three lessons/concepts are almost always able to be plugged into situations that cause me to pause and say “it is as it is”. Being unaware or willfully ignorant of the thinking mind, emotion, and human nature often makes situations worse, and makes viewing negative situations as challenges impossible.

Although being able to say “it is what it is” and laugh it off, is pretty zen too.

Seven(ish) years ago I bought the notebook that was going to change everything.

I’ve been happily surprised this has become a meme around the new year. I suppose taking some relief that so many other people made & make the same mistake I did.

I am just now, a few pages away from finishing that notebook/journal.

Why didn’t the notebook change everything? I’m no authority but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with seeking something external to change something internal.

Rereading my old journal entries is one of my new years resolutions. It has been a missing piece of my journaling practice for as long as I have been journaling. Both Tim Ferriss and Ryan Holiday have spoken about the need to revisit old writings. As it is important to revisit old or long held thoughts to see if they’re still applicable or even beneficial.

I’ve never consistently reread old journal entries. Maybe here or there, spread out over my entire writing life. A fraction of a percentage. But as I’ve been reviewing old journal entires, some a decade old, some a few months old, I’ve immediately and consistently seen the value in doing so.

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Perspective. It puts my thoughts, opinions, and experiences that I chose to put onto paper in a different perspective. It helps to show what I was struggling with then and if I’m’ still struggling now. It puts a different perspective on my own voice. On my own thoughts. On what’s going on in my head. On the voice going on inside my head.

Compassion. We all have our issues and shortcomings. Much of what I’ve journaled about during my life has been about mine. Seeing the consistent underlying theme of my personal issues and shortcomings wreaking various levels of havoc on my life while I fight the good fight to keep my head above water while on the right path…has bred more self compassion and empathy for others.

Determination. To see how long and how frequently the same issues and shortcomings have been influencing the quality and direction of my life, there is a controlled, pragmatic increase in determination to take action and build habits to combat and conquer these issues. Or at least break the vicious cycle.

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An inner spark for inner change. Buying a notebook only changes one’s account balance. Rereading old journals only takes up time. It’s the choices and actions that come after that count. Just like with everything else.

But it starts and succeeds from the inside out, not from the outside in.

Wage slaves with Stockholm Syndrome that wrongly identify themselves as capitalists love to use theory as a defense to the practical horrors and injustices of late stage capitalism that we’re currently living in.

The most frequent meme of this is when they use pictures or scenes from capitalist economies as a visual aide to show the theoretical horrors of socialism.

Those types also like to ignore the socialized aspects of many developed, first world countries throughout Europe and South America. They play dumb when you bring up Universal Basic Income and the results of the studies and trial programs that have been enacted over the past decade. They play dumber when you ask them about tax cuts and bailouts for billionaires and corporations.

What’s the difference between feudalism and historic income inequality and wealth gaps under capitalism?

Technology.

Humanity posses the technology to ease the burden of work of the individual so they may devote more of their life to things other than “earning a living”.

Yet the small minority of people with the greatest concentration of wealth, resources, and therefore power choose to use this technology as a weapon against the masses rather than an aide by forcing competition amongst the people and the technology that can do their jobs better, faster, and cheaper.

What of the people at direct risk of homelessness and starvation because of technology being weaponized against them rather than being put to use for their benefit? Well I guess there’s always prison. And prison labor is the cheapest labor of all.