Crazy

Do you ever have those days when you get the distinct feeling that the whole human race is just plain bat shit crazy? Yep. Those are the days when you probably really are pretty close to right.

Personal Demons Beware

Be ever mindful of what, or even who, may serve as an unconscious surrogate punching bag in your life. Because a dog once abused by a man in uniform actually accomplishes nothing (but the recurring perpetuation of a crime) by attacking every postal carrier it encounters thereafter. After all, even a thousand wrongs can never make even a single right, much less punish demons long since past and no longer tangible, or even punishable beyond the scarred boundaries of a tortured mind.

Be who you really are

Sometimes, you just have to say (or show by example) what's on your mind, and then stand back and see how others react. And then you start to find out who everyone out there really is.

"Social" Media is actually just High School, all over again

Believe it or not, I've actually had to delete (and mark as SPAM) about 7 or 8 "friend" requests in just the past few hours today alone on Facebook. Come on, people, it's not a game to see just how many connections you can add to your "friend" list, you know. But then again, I guess it is for some folks.

However, in general, if a friend request appears to be someone that you definitely do not know, and have never laid eyes on before in your whole, entire life, you may want to think twice before accepting. Especially if you take a look at the person's Timeline and the content doesn't appear to go back very far.

Likewise, if there are any discrepancies whatsoever that you can readily see after even just a brief visit to the individual's page (such as the fact that their profile pic shows a hot young girl who just happens to be showing her more than ample cleavage in all her profile photos), etc., etc., then, well, you might not be a fool for approving that particular FB friend request, but then again, you might also want to be just a bit more careful.

Or maybe not.

After all, being a supposedly "social" network, Facebook is a lot like high school for a whole lot of people, I'm afraid. I mean, the more shameless socializing you can do to increase the chances of getting your face in the student paper or the yearbook, the better, right? Uh... not always. Although, come to think of it, in the past, I personally have sent a few (a very few) friend requests to authors I admire, and several other accomplished folks that did not previously know me from Adam, but when those individuals refuse to connect with me here on Facebook, it's all good.

So even if celebrities and the like do deign to connect with little old me on this or that social media platform, I try not to bug them. And if, over time, I see from their posts that they may actually have political views that I may not happen to agree with (or worse yet, they turn out to be anti-American shills, bogus, wannabe "celebrities," drug legalization advocates, or God forbid, even hardcore atheists who hate religion in general, etc., etc., etc.), then I eventually just come to the sobering conclusion that, even though I may have enjoyed one or two of their public works (liked the nifty little meme they shared, read their book, etc.), we probably wouldn't actually make the best of friends if we were to ever meet in person.

So, c'est la vie! Bon voyage. Live and let live. Or die. Whatever the case may in fact be. It's all the same to me.

The bottom line is that a lot of scammers and fake account holders send out friend requests hoping to get a closer look at the personal information of as many Facebook users as possible. Shady folks like that even tend to create a number of bogus accounts using fake profile photos swiped from real people. Worst of all, some of the unsuspecting victims who may end up falling prey to these scammers may actually be our real friends. Hence, the need to be very, very careful about whom you accept as a "friend."

Just something to think about, you know. ;)

Digging for dirt may actually only end up getting oneself well and truly "stoned"

The hard cold truth is that it really doesn't take all that much digging into just about anyone's personal history to find something mildly (or even [Gasp!] overtly) shady. Anything at all. So believe it or not, it's really not all that hard to unearth just enough good old fashioned terra firma to hold over someone's poor, hapless, unsuspecting little head.

But please, before we proceed, please do, kindly... think about it. Think it over really, really carefully before you find yourself seeking to engage in what may, in truth, amount to nothing more than shameless social blackmail. Seriously; is clandestine (or even bald-faced, overt, out in the open) social shaming really ever the right way to go? Even and especially nowadays, in the highfalutin era of "me too?"

I mean, as the Book of John so aptly puts it, "So when they continued asking him, he [Jesus Christ] lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (John 8:7, King James Version)

At any rate, I think that one may safely be able to glean (at least partially, anyway) why Bob Dylan so curiously (but perhaps also quite adroitly) pointed out in one of his immortal classic songs, "Everybody must get stoned."

But then, I myself am a lifelong teetotaler, so I am most definitely not herein referencing but only one example of a timelessly classic Dylan tune because I actually think that that particular much celebrated artist might actually have been trying to suggest that just anyone should engage in casual drug abuse.

Well, sure, maybe a then much younger and as yet less worldly Dylan was indeed talking about dabbling with often harmful chemical substances. Because, after all, it really was the drugged up 1960s back when he first recorded that song, but I honestly think that he was actually suggesting, in a very, very clever way in fact, that, in this little Life of ours, no matter how good (or bad) one may appear to be, there will always be petty, spiteful people in our midst who may hate and/or envy others, even to their very own detriment.

And usually for all the wrong reasons.

Thus, sadly, all those pesky "gifted" others may, perchance, simply appear to be prettier, smarter, stronger, more talented, etc., etc. to such an extreme, that this or that jealous little person or other will actually nurse their misplaced ire to the point where they will inevitably stop at absolutely nothing to eliminate any and all presumably viable competition.

Although sure, there are any number of viable reasons why someone or other may seek to target any one of us at any given time, but in general, it's often for all the usual (mostly wrong) political, social, and/or personal reasons that often clearly dishonest, negligent, pathetically envious, or just plain mentally deviant people, may indeed end up working so very, very hard to get a bad old fashioned "leg up" on someone or other whom they've decided to target for summary elimination.

But hey, don't take it from me. Think on it. Think on all of this perhaps merely empty, or simply superfluous, philosophizing. Think it all over really, really carefully. Take as long as you need, in fact. Because as good old Dr. Zaius himself once put it (perhaps much, much more aptly than even the ever wise and inimitable Bob Dylan), "think well, before you act." (Beneath the Planet of the Apes, 1970)

And speaking of the once almighty witch hunt infamously known as the "MeToo Movement," and social blackmail in general, if you haven't already, take a look at just how low down and dirty some folks really can get when first they "practice to deceive."

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.”

~ Marmion, by Walter Scott

And last but never least, whatever you do, take some solid advice from another one of my all time favorite singers, the John Mellencamp, and I guess, if ya can, go right ahead and "get a leg up." Just... please don't do it at someone else's expensive, huh? Or is that actually what the human social landscape is really all about to begin with? Hmm. But I sure do hope that that nasty old zero sum equation isn't in fact all there actually is to Life down here in the humble mud of Planet Earth.

That Little Spark of Celestial Fire Called Conscience

Conscience, and the genuine sense of humility that can only be taught by suffering, are really what makes the man (or woman), you know. Because it's actually when any one of us gets too big for our very own britches that we tend to lose sight of the bigger picture, and our true place in the grand scheme of things.

Because it is often at the very height of vanity that we tend to be surrounded by the usual coven of obligatorily attentive sycophants and yes-men, who may very well grin and bear our arbitrary outbursts of self-righteous rage, but lest we forget that it is then that the king may truly be bereft of clothes.

It is then that he becomes little more than a pauper, impoverished of even the benefit of simple truths that those of more humble stature tend to take for granted. In fact, our very first president was offered a crown on many an occasion. And yet, every single time, he refused it.

So perhaps it was actually the numerous setbacks and outright failures that George Washington suffered throughout his life, and specifically when he was often forced to retreat after being outgunned or outmaneuvered time and again by often better trained British forces, that eventually made him so very fit to become the true father and very first president of our great nation.

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."

~ "110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation"

On the Nature of Human Limitations

You see, the very first thing you've got to figure out in this life is who the good guys and the bad guys really, truly are. You've got to do your very own homework. You've got to study all the relevant facts that you can possibly accumulate, and then, and only then, can you make reasoned and informed choices for very own individual self. I mean, everybody knows that, right? Or do they?

Well, we all know that there are always a veritable bevy of people who may not be terribly bright, so seem to have nothing better to do than spew slanderous, dishonest, self-serving venom, propaganda, and pure, unadulterated lies from every conceivable side of any issue.

Worse yet, most people simply cannot sort through all that mental, verbal and societal subterfuge. So most folks just end up becoming part of the cacophony of conflicting information, half-truths and outright disinformation.

But that's not the only reason why so many people tend to traffic in pure, unadulterated malarkey. No, quite often, they do it for "business," to make as much money almighty as humanly possible.

Even more troubling, some individuals greedily soak up, and then willfully disseminate, outright falsehoods because they're just plain bored. Or they may simply pass misinformation along for the sake of entertainment - which is at the true heart of most wacky conspiracy theories to begin with anyway, you know.

Simply put, it's awfully, awfully entertaining to fancy oneself "smart," with all sorts of harebrained notions about how the Earth is supposedly flat, or that NASA and the entire government of the United States somehow managed to fake the moon landing. Yeah right. Gullible much?

The fact of the matter is that a whole lot of people simply obfuscate the truth for all sorts of self-serving (and often clearly delusional) reasons. They do it for mass media ratings. They do it for fame, which usually goes hand in hand with fortune - or so we are all led to believe anyway.

But perhaps most shameful of all, people engage in lies and deception for shamelessly political reasons, all designed to get power and control over the masses. Because ideology (religious zeal, etc) is often what gets most people worked up and/or motivated to specific ends. That's also where race baiting comes in, unfortunately.

In other words, many many otherwise well-meaning folks simply get inadvertently swallowed up in wholesale mass-media generated deception because they're outright misinformed. But also, unfortunately, because many people are simply naive, or at the very least, tend to be easily swept up in the vicious mob mentality that has often caused the very worst crimes in the long, often sad annals of human history.

Worst of all, the masses are susceptible to misinformation and outright lies, because as limited human beings, we're all more than capable of being shortsighted (or just temporarily blinded) enough to not even see the big picture in the first place. And all of the above, unfortunately, is just part of Life. It's the way most people simply are: limited.

Fear is the True Opiate of the Masses

There are two kinds of Fear. There's the Fear that is real, clear and present, naked in all its horrific extremities, right before our very eyes. That Fear is immediate. That Fear is true. It calls for action. It calls us to either face it head on, or be conquered and enslaved by it.

And then there is false fear, which is the Fear of the unknown, or the unknowable. Lest we forget, that there is always someone in our midst, usually many, many someones, in fact, who seek to USE false Fear to jerk us around. They want to get us to do their bidding, to pull our strings and make us dance like otherwise lifeless, soulless marionettes. All for their entertainment. All for their own selfish personal, psychological needs, wants, and cravings.

Because Fear, either the first or the second kind, be it true or false, is invasive. Fear is predatory. Fear is parasitic. Fear is therefore a tool for the power hungry. Fear is the true opiate of the masses. And that is why so many misguided people try to use it to get into our heads. And far too many people are just weak enough to let all that Fear take up permanent residence inside their skull.

On the Nature of Personal Pain

It is often nearly impossible to help anyone who is in the throes of violent, self immolating pain. The best one can do, rather, is to step far enough away, so that the flames are, at the very least, unable to spread. For there is no help like self help, and there is no self help without self awareness. And sadly, some people just seem to prefer the flames.

On the Nature of Exceptionalism

In the Real World, one simply cannot always "go along to get along." Because the Real World, quite simply, does not always work that way. Nothing does. More often than not, complexity and variety are the rule, not the exception. And only those who have the strength and sheer moral fortitude to stand alone in the face of adversity can ever truly be considered exceptional.

On the Nature of Superficiality

Think about it; if you really are "better" in some way than everybody else, you don't really need to advertise your virtues, because it's already obvious to everyone who's actually paying attention in the first place.

Like how, all the girls that aren't quite as pretty seem to have an irrational hatred for the girl who actually is the prettiest one in the class; a truth that is already painfully self evident.

In other words, if you've got to advertise all the time, or go out of your way to put others down to lift yourself up, you probably don't really have (or fear that you don't have enough of) what you're trying to sell the general public on anyway.

So "saving face" doesn't really generate face, or any kind of genuine social clout. In most cases, it just makes you fake. And only the dumbest, "fair weather friend" kind of people are going to play along or buy into all that superficial BS anyway.

The Only Truly Genuine Currency in Life

"Lying to save face" is deficit spending. It's borrowing from Peter, based on shameless falsehoods, to pay Paul. It's like spending counterfeit money to keep from losing something you obviously have far too little, or even none of, in the first place. Because "the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth," is the only truly genuine currency in Life.

On the Nature of Coping and Crutches

At some point, a "coping mechanism" can become "a crutch." But therein lies the rub. Because most people really aren't honest with themselves about where one ends and the other begins.

On the Nature of Bias

Actually, what I think is real, real interesting, is how, when certain groups of clearly biased people whine about not being treated well enough, they more often than not just end up putting their own prejudices and self-seeking tendencies blatantly on display in the process.

Check the Facts, Ma'am (or Sir)

In fact, "the more you know" (or at the very least, the more you even bother to actually check your facts), the less prone you tend to be to buy into and spread all the politically correct BS that most people unconsciously soak up from popular society, and then blindly regurgitate, as if spreading half-truths and misinformation with the greatest of ease were actually a genuine sign of any kind of worldly virtue to begin with.