Chimps… just like Humans…

A truly amazing video. I found it by accident. A gang of chimps attacks a member of their own tribe, which is quite unusual among chimps. Generally, they attack the rival tribes.The targeted monkey is thought to have had poor social skills. Now… isn’t that happening among humans? All monkeys go with the flow and participate in the attack, all except one, which shows concern for the beaten chimp. It seems that chimps are not only capable of brutal aggression but also empathy. Or are we projecting our own characteristics on animals? This is quite interesting.

Counting the Grains

“Rabbit’s clever,” said Pooh thoughtfully.
“Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit’s clever.” “And he has Brain.”
“Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit has Brain.” There was a long silence.
“I suppose,” said Pooh, “that that’s why he never understands anything.”

Vision
Joana, the heroine of the movie “Agnosia”, suffers from a peculiar illness. She’s blind but not because she sees nothing but because she sees too much. Her mind has no filter and her little brain is constantly flooded with the stimuli it cannot process. As a result, she’s in the state of permanent confusion, not able to recognize people and objects around her. One would think that if you see more, you’re wiser. Not in the case of Joana, though. Her problematic “gift” cripples her, she cannot even walk properly. You can almost pity her when you see her crawling on the bathroom floor.

Her father produces unique lens for telescopes. Before he dies, he tells Joana his industrial secret. For her, it’s only a string of meaningless numbers but it’s a treasure for her father’s enemies. When he dies, they use her deplorable condition to extract the secret from her. As Joana sees and doesn’t see at the same time, she’s not aware of the dangerous conspiracy going around her. Her mind, preoccupied with the insignificant details, can’t see the bigger picture, can’t focus on what is the most important. As a result, her father’s empire is taken over, her relationship with her fiance is destroyed and, finally, she dies shot at the steps to the cathedral.

Stratification
A petty mind is like a weapon in the hands of a madman. You can never know the day and the hour when it strikes but you can sense the approaching disaster. If you take a ride with a staggering drunkard, you can be damn sure it will be your last ride. The same is with someone who has his head up his ass. If you give in to your own delusions or the bullshit narratives of other people, you will have to pay, if not now, then in months, years or even decades.

You can delude yourself that you are a special snowflake, that you are better and smarter than others. If you can’t see further than the end of your nose, if you can’t predict the consequences of your actions, if you live only here and now, you are a mere pawn on that chessboard called life.

Wisdom
Some time ago, there was a big scandal in Poland that triggered a national debate about religious freedom, the rights of doctors and patients and democracy, in general. A respectable doctor refused to perform an abortion of a terminally ill child because of his Catholic views. That was hardly surprising, because he had a legal right to do this, however, he also had a legal obligation to send a woman to another doctor. He not only didn’t do this but also lied to the woman that her child was healthy. When she finally learned her child was going to die, it was too late for an abortion. The doctor was punished but it hardly compensated for the woman’s false hopes and her suffering while she watched her child die.

Many Catholics tried to make a martyr out of the doctor, saying that he was loyal to his Church, that he followed the rules of his faith, they quoted the pope and the Saints, and atheists, as usual, blamed the religion for close-mindedness of its adherents. It’s a pity that the doctor forgot the most important imperative of his faith – to see God in another human being. Seeing “God” in another person is nothing more or less than simple human empathy, the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes, to feel what she feels, to understand what she thinks and how she may suffer.

There is a fundamental truth in the words “The kingdom of God is within you.” If its religious meaning is put aside, then it simply means that the depth of your mind is the source of wisdom, the unconscious mind that is the dwelling of intuition and the deep empathic understanding of things.

The corruption of knowledge
Knowledge can be found in books and in the heads of other people. It’s easy to lose wisdom in the stream of facts and insignificant details. Other people’s ideas are like the noise which deafens you to the barely audible inner voice of wisdom. Studying will never replace experience and there can be no insight without being in tune with other people.

As there are many narrow paths to wisdom, there are also many highways to stupidity. Just like a cockroach infesting the poor and the luxurious kitchens, stupidity doesn’t care about a religious label. Neither does it care about a social status or a university degree.

The swines and the pearls
It’s been said many times that the nine Satanic sins are the sins against reality. They are punished neither by God nor the Devil, but by life. If you try to build castles in the sky, you risk that, eventually, you will be dragged down to face the desert of the real.

One of such sins is solipsism; deluding yourself that other people share your views and values, that they understand your more or less lofty ideas. Most people are mediocre and even if they appear to be intelligent, it’s because their heads are full of other people’s ideas. Talking to them is like throwing the pearls before the swines. If you try to be honest with them, if you open your heart, they will crucify you or, worse, drag you down to their level of petty and pathetic bullshit.

That some things should be left unsaid was well understood by women in the past, who locked their diaries in safe and secret places. It wasn’t so much the fear of compromise as the awareness of the fact that most people are prone to passing judgements without even bothering to understand. Talking to such people is like talking to the wall. Whatever you say will fall on deaf ears.

While the wise look at the horizon, the fools sit on the beach counting the grains of sand. It’s a prerogative of an idiot to take everything under his magnifying glass, to adhere to his religion, ideology or philosophy with an unshaken pedantic scrupulosity. In that way, the things that are really important get lost among the things that only appear to be important. Like T.S. Eliot wrote, we lose wisdom in knowledge and knowledge in information. Sometimes, reason can make us blind, like the poor Rabbit, like poor Joana and many others.

The Savior

Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy – the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation. – Eric Hoffer

There comes the time in your life when you realize it is impossible to put together the shattered glass or that the diamond you cherished for so long is only a piece of trash. You can hold the sham in your hand and still delude yourself it is a gem or accept the bitter truth and throw it away.

Disillusionment has many faces. Each will haunt your memory for days, months or even years and hurt like a knife stabbing your chest. Whenever your dreams are shattered, the part of you dies. The reality you must face is too often gloomy, unfriendly or even scary. This and the painful realization that you have been deluding yourself for so long.

When the guy you were in love with turns out to be someone else than a prince in the golden castle, when your dream job turns out to be a nightmare, when your friends reject you, when you lose your religion and when you see you’re not as perfect as you thought you were, bafflement, bitter disappointment and remorse are likely to follow. How could I be so stupid? How could I be so blind? I was in love. I was totally enchanted. I trusted my friends. I thought I could do that. Perhaps, I disappointed my friends. I was not a good wife. I could be more attractive. I could do better…

Cold evaluation of yourself and others is definitely in order, though not before you bury your dreams and illusions and let the grief pass. They deserve the mourning like the dead children, because they were part of you. Then and only then can you move on.

Every wall is a door. The end of something is the new beginning, an opportunity to look inside. The God that can save you will come from the darkest depths of your mind, your inner voice, your real self, real, not imaginary, not illusory and that voice will lead you along the path, your own path of life. The feeble voice so often unheard because of the loud and persistent gabble of experts, religious leaders, authority figures and all those who think they know the best how you should live your own life.

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.

One Way Ticket to the Blue

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, when mice ran after cats and lions were chased by rats, and the whole world was fucked up, somewhere in the Wonderland, there lived a little elephant. This elephant was no ordinary elephant, because he suffered from a strange illness. Everything he saw was pink. So he strolled around singing cheerfully to himself:

Oh what a wonderful pink pink world! What a beautiful pink sky, pink trees and pink grass! Wherever I go I see pink elephants!

Other elephants from his herd had enough of this insanity and decided to call in a vet. Soon the vet arrived holding a jar full of blue pills.

Here you are. – He said to the eager elephants, giving them the jar – Give your comrade one blue pill every day for three months. And after three months he should be all right.

Wut? – Said the elephants when the doctor rode away – We will have to put up with his stupidity for another three months? Come on. Let’s give him all the pills at once and tomorrow he will be like a new elephant.

The next day, the elephant woke up and looked up at the sky. Oh what a beautiful blue sky! – He exclaimed as his comrades cheered. Then he looked at them and looked around. – Oh beautiful blue trees and blue grass! Hello my blue brothers and sisters! What a wonderful blue blue world!

Oh my God! What have we done?! The poor elephants were consternated. Don’t worry. – Said the leader, the old elephant – It’s not so bad. At least, he’s got one thing right.

Mindfuck can occur when the input of new ideas exceeds the capability of the mind to consciously assimilate them. Whenever exposed to new ideas the mind needs some time to ponder on them, to chew on them, understand them, filter them, deal with cognitive dissonance and so on. This is why education, gaining genuine knowledge takes years of diligence and commitment.

While education involves conscious learning, mindfuck is an unconscious process. It usually occurs when the person is extremely willing to accept a new set of attractive, albeit complex, ideas, but is too dumb to understand them. Another cause for mindfuck is an overflow of the too abstract and difficult ideas which cause extreme confusion in the mind of the victim. As a result, the victim gets it all wrong. And last but not least, mindfuck is a result of the manipulation by the mindfucker.

What are the symptoms of mindfuck? Deja vu is a key word here. When you listen to the mindfucked person, you have the impression that you have heard/seen/read it all before. This is because the victim of mindfuck constantly parrots other people’s ideas, while at the same time being totally convinced these ideas are his own. You can’t have a rational discussion with the mindfucked person, because he, himself, has no fucking clue what he’s talking about. So instead of answering your arguments he will repeat the same shit that got stuck in his mind over and over again. God forbid you try to call him out on his bullshit or he will try to scratch your eyes out. He’s that enamored with his new ideology, which he accepts uncritically.

Mindfuck is a terrible disease of the mind that can be deliberately spread by mindfuckers to further their diabolical agendas. As mindfucked people are drones unable to think for themselves, they can be used by the mindfucker as tools to achieve whatever aims he desires. The mindfucker doesn’t choose his victims at random, but carefully selects them using various tests, games and quizzes. Stupidity is one thing he’s looking for in his victims, vanity is another one.

The first thing the mindfucker checks is whether you’re retarded enough to buy his crap. He will deliberately lie to you and tell you bullshit, just to see your reaction. If you fall for his bullshit, he will move to the next stage – manipulation.

There are various techniques the mindfucker uses. The most popular and effective one is flattery. Come on, who doesn’t want to be praised? The mindfucker will stroke your ego, trying to convince you you’re someone special, a unique snowflake, a well of wisdom. He will praise your looks, your intellect and character. He will also tell you you’re his best friend or that you’re like a brother or sister to him. This form of manipulation is extremely painful for the mindfucker because he has to kiss your ass, though he actually hates you. The mindfucker feels the utmost contempt for his victims, whom he regards as stupid and brainless donkeys. At this point we could even feel some compassion for the mindfucker, who has to suppress his true feelings. Let us not forget that the mindfucker is a human being too.

When the method of flattery fails, the mindfucker has other methods like humiliation, insults, subtle threats, guilt trap, playing the victim card etc. They are less effective than flattery because they usually make the target go into a defensive mode. Let’s not forget about confusion. The mindfucker will try to deliberately confound and confuse you. He will keep telling you things that will make your head spin. When being called out on this, he will pretend nothing is happening.

When the mindfucker manages to successfully manipulate you, he will move to the final stage – indoctrination. Though the mindfucker often pretends to be a mentor or a teacher, it is not in his interest to make you any wiser. He will sell you nice sounding bullshit, epic slogans and catchy phrases, without going into the true essence/nature of things. There are two words that the mindfucker absolutely hates. One is “No” and another one is “Why?” He will discourage any questioning, saying “God wills it”, “It is to be lived and not debated” and so on.

And finally, when you buy your ticket to the blue, when you exchange one nonsense for another nonsense, you can go around and share your newly acquired “wisdom” with everybody interested. Stupidity is contagious and the more stupid people there are around the happier the mindfucker is. After all, stupid people are easier to rule.

The little elephant is silly, naive and childish. He sees the world through rose-colored glasses. His older and more mature comrades are pretty tired and fed up with his silly idealism. The doctor promises no miracles. The elephant will have to bear with his stupidity for three months before he gradually gains wisdom and sees the world as it is, in its true colors.

There are no shortcuts on the path to wisdom. It’s a long difficult way full of obstacles, adventures and dangers like Odysseus’ travel to Ithaca. Like a pearl wisdom is born from pain and suffering. All the mentors, religious groups or esoteric orders that offer you an easy and pre-prepared road to wisdom are the siren’s song steering you away from your destiny – coming back home.