Rationalizing vs. Rationale

Logic can be used to make what sounds like a good argument to justify opinions or actions. This is rationalization. An argument that sticks to proven facts and real evidence is more likely true. This is rationale.

Website reference.

 The associated website is spiritwill.info. Access it from any browser.

It separates Willed action from thoughtful (Mind) action.

The Flow - Poem

 I love to watch the water in a brook:

Flowing fast over a rocky bottom,

Flowing slower closer to placid shore.

To the ocean, or lake, it's flowing.

Nevertheless, water's fate is certain,

The only changes are in where it goes.

Vapor, rain, sleet, snow, within a body,

What purpose it serves, only Heaven knows!

What purpose life serves, only Heaven knows!

Like water, it is in a fluid state,

A state in which life's dependent on fate,

Changeable according to where it runs.

Rocky bottoms, smooth sailing, even both.

Could be across the land, sea, or air.

Sometimes where it does go may not seem fair,

But it is also the story of life--

In peace, smooth sailing, or difficult strife--

What ever--it finally comes to rest,

And learns that the flow was only a test--

Like water subject to what's coming next.

Complex physical/mental attributes.

The human being is overwhelmed by the complexity of the physical body and overestimates his/her grasp of the complexity of the mental body. No one is as smart as they think they are.  

Capitalism/Socialism/Communism

Socialism is wide socially oriented rule.
Communism is narrow dictatorial rule.
Socialism is NOT communism.

After spending years examining complex issues, their reduction is accomplished by observing results.
Beyond obfuscating blather are these summarizing descriptions.

Capitalism creates problems,
Socialism solves them.

Investments

Why are the surreal investments of stockholders valued more than the real investment of stakeholders? 

Wall Street parasites

Saying Wall Street and its machinations are the economy is saying the parasite is the host.

parasite noun 1. An organism that feeds on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.   2. One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others.

Favorite books, movies, authors, etc.

FAVORITE INFLUENCES
      Emanuel Swedenborg
      Edgar Cayce
      A Course in Miracles
      Unbiased spiritual studies

FAVORITE MOVIES
      Casablanca
      Lawrence of Arabia

      Bagdad Cafe

      The Snake Pit

FAVORITE BOOKS
      The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
      Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
      Series: A Course in Miracles
      Thinking: Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
      Aztec by Gary Jennings
      Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
      Series: Junior Classics, 10 volumes
      Series: Dune by Frank Herbert et al.
      Series: Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
      My Antonia by Willa Cather
      Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
      Maus I & Maus II by Art Spiegelman

FAVORITE AUTHORS
      Frank Herbert
      Philip K. Dick
      Ann Rule
      Steve Hamilton

FAVORITE POETS
      Wallace Stevens
      William Blake
      Rumi

FAVORITE POEMS
      Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens
      Like This by Rumi
      Songs of Innocence: Introduction by William Blake
      Peter Quince at the Clavier by Wallace Stevens
      Things I Didn't Know I Loved by Nazim Hikmet
      The Lamb by William Blake
      The Tyger by William Blake
      Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing... by Rumi
      Ode on the Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth
      Edward, Edward. Ancient Ballad, author unknown
      Love Dogs by Rumi
      The World Is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth
      Auguries of Innocence by William Blake
      The Idea of Order at Key West by Wallace Stevens
      I have lived on the lip... by Rumi
      The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats
      Sonnets 18, 29, 110, 129, 130, 138 by William Shakespeare
      The Thought Fox by Ted Hughes
      Spring and Fall (To a young child) by Gerard Manley Hopkins
      Come to the garden in spring by Rumi
      Attunity by Russ Bedord
      The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
      The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot
      Composed on Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth
      My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
      Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
      Miniver Cheevy by Edward Arlington Robinson
      La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats
      London by William Blake
      Death, Be Not Proud by John Donne
      The Garden of Love by William Blake
      Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats
      Musee des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden

      Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins

      The Gift by Russ Bedord
      The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell
      The Silken Tent by Robert Frost

      

Free Market

How do subsidized and deceptively marketed products create a "free market"? The US market is not free, but "authorities" say so. It reminds me of the aphorism: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. But if authorities think the pig is beautiful, it is presented in the language of beauty. Yet it's still a pig.

Solve problems or retire issues.

Seeing a concern as a real problem suggests that there is a real solution Seeing a concern as an issue pretends that resolving the issue is the same as solving the problem that caused it. Too often, the issue is made to go away with expedient action while the problem remains. As long as the problem remains the issue  returns, sometimes with a different symptom and different appearance.

Evolution

Don't believe in evolution?

Don't evolve.

Thomas Jefferson quoted.

Paraphrased and quoted:

He feared that the rise of a new form of absolutism was more ominous than the British rule overthrown in the American Revolution. He distinguished in his later years between what he called "aristocrats and democrats." And he then went on to say "I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial[,] and bid defiance to the laws of our country." He also wrote "I sincerely believe... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."

                                                                     ~ Thomas Jefferson

(From Noam Chomsky's book : Power.)

We were warned more than two hundred years ago about corporations and banks, and their subversive intent has been pursued for all that time. They might be given credit for persistence, I suppose, but not credit for persistent, narrow minded ignorance. This defiance of democracy has been made to appear "democratic." It is not.

Capitalism

Capitalism is supposed to raise net worth, but if the net worth of society is lowered while the net worth of a few is raised, this is not capitalism. What is it? My view—the system is authoritarian, not democratic—some unwise decide for the many. (See the blog with the Thomas Jefferson quote.)

Darwin & Cooperation

The quotation (with underlines added):

There can be no doubt that a tribe containing many members who...
were always ready to give aid to each other and sacrifice themselves
for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes,
and this would be natural selection.                     ~Charles Darwin

Since Darwin actually wrote this, why is it assumed that he believed
the opposite—that takers would win in the long run? 

Communication

To some, communication is transmitting. To others it is receiving. Communication is not only transmitting and not only receiving. It is a two-way shared process of sending and receiving words, moods, thoughts, expressions, etc.—whatever a medium can carry.

Denial: When helpful & not helpful

Denial of truth implies approval of mistaken thinking, which is not helpful.
Denial of mistaken thinking implies approval of truth, which is helpful.

When truth is "known" and insight shows it wrong, the "truth" was based on mistaken thinking.
Mistaken thinking is due to an error. Errors manifest as mistaken behavior.

Some say there are many truths, and that one might be truer than another. This implies one most true, which means ultimate truth exists, truer than all "beneath" it. But a "most true" implies that lesser truths are at least partially false. Partially false can exist—can partially true also exist? I think not. Ultimate truth is absolute—no conditions exist that undermine it with the falsity of mistaken thinking—it's just true.

This is the kind of truth referred to in the first two sentences above.

Developing proof

When thinking things out, the mind wants proof. Proof is developed from its opposite—being able to see the error nurtures the ability to see the truth. Below is the procedure that develops proof from error.

The mistake of generalizing, (your path is the same as everyone's) sometimes applies solutions irrelevant to the problem, encouraging Superstitious thinking. To correct this, try to see true relationships.

Seeing true relationships means that a problem needs to be ENCODEd correctly.

Personalizing means that everyone else's path is the same as yours. Because everyone has a different experience, this is not true. Thinking that everyone is the same leads to Naive thinking.

To prefer meaning avoids naive thinking. INFER.relevance by preferring meaning.

False constructs build convincing cases that should be viewed with suspicion. Building on false constructs leads to Esoteric (Exclusive) thinking, where special (though limited) knowledge claims to know THE answer.

Building structure depends on true MAPping.

Making invalid connections—with bad comparisons, wrong connections, and invalid contexts to possible results encourage Reactive thinking. To react accurately, APPLY validation.

Reasoning emotionally, giving false credit, and outright denial all have the effect of giving false credit to elements with little relationship to resolving the concern. Thinking a certain way is called Categorical thinking. To avoid categorical thinking, PROVE: Give credit where credit is due.

Blind acceptance of a recommendation or principle, jumping to a (wrong) conclusion, and prejudice all are the same: Emotional thinking. Emotional thinking causes a jump to conclusions that may have nothing to do with reality. The goal remains resolve, or SOLVE the situation, or problem. Choosing the correct result assumes that one Chooses wisely.

Summarizing the proof process:

Encode: See relationship.

Infer: Prefer meaning.

Map: Build structure.

Apply: Validate.

Prove: Give credit

Solve: Choose wisely.

For detail on how to open the door to a review of a habit, got to www.spiritwill.info

Song of Division - Poem

(This is against self-justifying greed.)

Neither nor, either or—
I swear there is a difference
You slobs work for the good of all
I work for recompense.

Now that capitalism means
Fairness and truth don't matter,
My responsibility is to see
My wallet get fatter.

Individualism!
That is the word to live by—
Getting suitable benefit
Means I take, you give. Why?

Some of us are better,
Plain as the nose on your face.
If you don't see it, too bad—
Losing is no disgrace.

Money and property
Accumulate to those with taste:
Imagine losers with either—
It would be such a waste.

Not wasted in my hands—
Sensibility's a buffer
Ignorance insulates me from
Knowing things much tougher.

My justification?
I have taste— I said it before:
Desires that must be satisfied.
Wants you cannot ignore.

The fact is: I don't see
Or care about what I cause.
There are winners. There are losers,
Obeying nature's laws.

It's a law of nature,
A simple way of keeping score:
Your starvation and death mean nothing
As long as I have more.

I am a patriot
I am for the Land of the Free.
You wonder what we're fighting for?
It is for me, me, me.

Congress over-reacting!

Only two (2) (that's tight, only two) of 22,000 deaths in Toyotas last year were vehicle malfunctions: the rest were driver malfunctions. Why is congress wasting time on recalls (which demonstrates conscientiousness) with important things to do--FOR THE PEOPLE (which is real conscientiousness).

Also, a tear stained lady said her Lexus involuntarily went 100 miles per hour, she was so scared, and: "why is Toyota so greedy?" Couldn't someone who drives an expensive Lexus also be called greedy?

Believe in something

Act in agreement or in opposition, but always in agreement with what you believe—IF IT HAS BEEN PROVEN TRUE. Always act for your own best interests, which most do, but with a view that, in the long run, is against their best interests. Any way, believe in something, IF IT  HAS BEEN  PROVEN TRUE!