Imagining the Best

There is a theory that you can attract things you want, or don't want, in life by consciously picturing them. I can only guess that others, especially worriers, have a tendency to picture the worst. In most matters I'm not a big worrier. I do have my areas of paranoia or concern though.

It seems that the more I dwell on the worst of my condition, the more it perpetuates and becomes entrenched. I know that the big move across the universe was begun with the realization that it could be done. It took a lot of effort to make it happen. All part of the big picture goal which was to climb out of the pit. Vague as that may sound, that is exactly how it felt. A dark sticky tar ridden pit with steep slippery sides.

Now that phase one or so has been accomplished, I have discovered that continuity of effort is required in order to prevent falling into the new pit that stagnation brings. No way I want to deal with that again. Hell no, I won't go.

Anyway, now I want to formulate a clearer better picture of how I think things could be, and should be, for a healthier more stimulating life. Variations of the word stimulate have been so rampant lately, the word is nearly in the category of those which bring a gag reflex. Even so, that is the best term for this context. It works in concert with passion, I think. Passion tends to require an object. We're not just going for the typical significant other scenario here, although the proper love goddess has got to fit in there sooner or later.

Where I am, the kinds of friends I already have, and much else is uncannily close to what I imagined when I tried to visualize what circumstances I wanted to find at the end of my journey. Coincidence? I wonder. Actually, I think the friends are better and more understanding and inspiring than I imagined.

I'm only saying this to help me get away from thinking about unwanted views of my future self. If I imagine those, I will soon be that. I'd rather do better.

It's one thing to draw opportunities to yourself, but another to actually make something of them. Good things come my way frequently, and people tend to treat me really well. Better than average it seems. But I often find I drop the ball or get confused at that point. The result is I run and hide until I'm forgotten or reviled. I used to, anyway. That is a pattern that has to go.

So, settling on the scene I want for the future is important. It helps the actions of today which will bring it become easier to initiate. It involves work, setting, people, health, and more. There are plenty of things to be accomplished, many of which would benefit the lives of others, and could make me rich enough.

Feah Its Own Bad Self

What a brat I am in some ways of looking at it. There are mitigating circumstances I suppose. As much as I think our new dictator president is the enemy of my basic values and the freedom of the individual, I guess I am at the point where "Yes I can" should replace my feeling of "Oh sh..., I'm f....d". I know it is silly to bleep out my own expletives but I don't want to tinge tender children's outlook if they accidentally stumble on this. Maybe, if they are young enough not to be aware of the implication, the local adult will tell them it means "Oh shotguns, I'm fermented". I don't know. I figure some language should be kept kind of reserved. Like canned beans. In case of emergency.

Bobby was saying something about passion that hit a nerve and rang a bell. That triggered other thoughts about broken hearts, why, how, and what now.

All of what followed at this point has been deleted in one fell swoop. It was too maudlin and not productive. I think there is more sadness created by things not done than by action taken. I've not done too much serious damage. Except to myself. I suppose, in terms of what ifs, that constitutes a cost to society due to the withholding of more important contributions I could have made to my fellow ingrates. There's a bit of satisfaction in that.

Passion for life is worth cultivating when possible. I miss it. For a minute there in my adult life, it was white hot. That's a far cry from today's tepid existence. I'm not satisfied with that so I keep trying to get some fire burning. In a way, I've made progress. That lust for life was ice cold not so long ago. Little sparks flare up here and there. It must be annoying to others who know me. It's annoying to me. Oh well.

Who would have guessed there is a secret waterfall just off the dirt road to my cottage? I decided to hike/walk down to the bottom and back up today. What a scenic walk. On one of the curves up toward the top, I heard the sound. I followed it a short way off the road, and there it was in a bunch of huge boulders; a little waterfall rushing out of the rocks. Fair volume of water there, gpm-ly speaking.

Dogma is a bitch

More often than not when someone is wanting to make a new form of control over others materialize, arguments against the move are characterized as "outdated ideology", or some other form of ideology. I think they are confusing ideals with dogma. In this sense they are often classing a set of ideals as unfounded dogma, but using the term ideology.

Ideology in and of itself is not a bad thing. I tend to think in terms of the definition of ideology that suggests it is a system of beliefs. Or the study of ideas guiding beliefs and systems of behavior, etc.

Recent trends in discussion of matters which pick the pocket and dampen the spirit tend to lean toward the dogmatic while specifically eschewing anything that might be classed as ideological. It is really a splitting of hairs which begs the question. One example is the angry assertion that the cause, effect, and degree of global warming have been indisputably proven and that is that. It has been set forth from the realm of dogmatic dictate rather than honest analysis of scientific studies and discoveries which might temper or change the conclusions.

The same can be said of present economic discussion, as well as matters involving war and international charity (foreign aid). Tedious as it is to really grasp the problem, I think one would need to examine the process of our development, dispassionately, in detail, for the last 100 years or more. The trouble is that in the realm of business, commerce and monetary policy the various factions jump the gun in defense of either capitalism or socialism without considering the corrupt aspects which hide behind each of those ideologies.

Those, like myself, who favor somewhat unfettered capitalism, tend to ignore the process (unlike myself) by which self proclaimed capitalists became something other than that through changes in government structure which allowed them to control it, thereby reaping tax dollars. When you go too far in that direction, it is no longer what I would call capitalism because it is not a free market; those who pay you do not have a choice.

Socialism by definition removes the choice of an individual to spend his money as he chooses. It is a controlled market, if a market at all.

Both cases rely on dogmatic pronouncements regarding the better good. That is what makes it such a joke that Republicans call themselves capitalists. Their performance when in power proves that they are not. Democrats rarely class themselves as capitalists with any degree of sincerity. Those whom I have known in business tend to consider themselves realists, so they play those in power in order to gain from governmental policies, contracts, and preferences. As one owner of a large advertising firm once told me when I questioned the socialistic rhetoric of a candidate he was actively (monetarily) supporting, "What they say is irrelevant. You back the winner and he will look out for you. He owes you. It's all about who wins".

Never has it been clearer that dogma is being used to manipulate money behavior and the lives of individuals. The more you pronounce a thing to be true, the more people will believe it, with or without evidence. In the general population, global cooling could easily have been pushed as effectively as global warming. People would find that they could sense it themselves. Weather cycles of any significance span more years than most human lives.

The other side of that coin is that it doesn't do much good to ignore byproducts of what you do. Balance in the discussion is astoundingly absent. Hysteria is dangerously given the stamp of sanity.

All you have to do is consider what is an infringement of the rights of others, an assault, or a deception, use the law to prevent and prosecute such crimes, then back off. Let people be free. That requires that we go back to the idea of protecting the individual in the sense of ensuring the rights of the individual to decide his own fate. We now assume that it is best to let the government decide in the name of the collective.

The trouble is that what is set forth by those in power as for the better good is neither proven nor necessarily true, and rarely born of a real desire to promote the "better good". It is just a way to cloud the greed for power and wealth at the expense of those not in power. That would be most of us; not in power. We sorely need to get back to the idea that government is supposed to act only with permission of citizens, not the other way around.

The massive move toward citizens requiring permission from government for almost everything they do is not a good thing. We are continually required to prove innocence without provocation. All in the name of the better good or the security of society. I feel less secure under such a boot.

Although it may be considered idealistic to define right and wrong and the limits on what can be dictated by those with guns, it is a necessary thing. Either a person has a right to live in peace as he sees fit, not forcing others in any way, or he does not. There are naturally times when one's desires have to be tempered because they'd overlap the territory of another's rights, but a lot of freedom can be had without such line crossing. What has happened is that overreaching ideas of "cost to society" have been stretched as far as the "general welfare" clause of the preamble to the US constitution.

I'm curious how those, who discount criticism as steeped in ideology, class their own ideas and agenda. The thing that bothers me the most is that throughout the present turmoil in which many have lost most of their net worth, there seems to be a staunch refusal to look back to the first dominos that were toppled which may have finally led to this. The string of dominoes has been falling one by one for longer than I have been alive. That is true in monetary matters, international affairs and individual freedom.

What makes it so hard to see in this country is the racial history. The move toward racial equality tends to make it tougher to see the larger trend toward wholesale restriction and removal of rights in general. Most people of all races seem unaware of that, and I find that scary as hell. Racial preference in the way of legalizing second class status has changed. The fires are continually fueled but in reality you don't have to be a white male to be president or the secret rich guy whose dirty work I do. It is unfortunate that such a thing as letting everyone be free has somehow been played in the larger game of subjugating all of us to a point we only read about in sci-fi fiction only a few decades ago.

Don't Bring Me Down

That's what I keep having to tell myself over and over these days. I'm only a thread away from full tilt bozo, and I am trying to convince myself that it is best to stay this side of the line.

When TV works and I decide to watch it I'm able to keep up with the Jack in the box saga. Jack, the Ronald McDonald of Jack in the box, was hit by a bus and is in a coma. He/she/it is a humanoid figure with a giant ping pong ball head. It appears to have shattered like an egg. I'm concerned for his recovery and I never even set foot in one of his fast food emporiums, let alone ventured into the drive through. I've seen it in movies. Usually the drive through is the butt of a joke. Poor Jack.

So, helpless as I am to cure the comatose Jack, I contemplate locating his fictitious hospital so I can camp out holding a candle in pious vigil. It would give meaning to my life. Perhaps Jack is but a metaphor for my own existence. Or something.