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Most people fail to appreciate the fresh opportunity that each day brings them. Their programming requires them to snort derisively at concepts like the one above. After all, the systems of this world are built upon the assumption that mankind is weak, stupid, and generally inadequate to a moral existence. As a result, most people have become addicted to bad news.

Nonetheless every day is a fresh start, a situation created by nature itself. So, please consider this:

What if, just once, you got out of bed and imagined that you were a fresh being in the universe? And more than that, a good, creative, potent being.

What if you imagined yourself free of obligations and intimidations, charting a fresh course? What if you looked at your life as if it were beginning anew?

Is it an intolerable thought that you should put aside your well-groomed fears, wake up to a blank slate, and hold that position for just one day? And if we can’t allow ourselves this one productive entertainment, what has happened to us?

You Don’t Actually Suck

Our opinions of ourselves are usually out of touch with reality. To prove that, you need only to slow down, clear your mind, and fill in a few blanks:

Can you remember a moment from your childhood when someone was notably kind or loving toward you? You have at least one, yes? So, in detail, what was it like and how did you feel?_______________________________________________
Can you remember a time you stood up for someone who was being unfairly insulted or abused? What exactly did you do, and how did it make you feel?_________________________________________________________
Can you remember a time when you did something because it was right, even though you knew you’d suffer for it? How did it feel to push through the fear and do it?_____________________________________________________
Have you ever done something out of nothing but simple, honest benevolence? How did that feel?_____________________________________________

Did you answer these questions? Did you relive the experiences a little?

You see, you don’t actually suck. You’ve merely been made to believe so… by people and systems who profited from your bad-news addiction.

What’s Life For?

You are alive, and this life you possess doesn’t have a preset direction; it’s you who choose where to direct it. Our lives have the meaning we give them, and we give them meaning through exercises of will.

You have immense capabilities, but only you can choose to use them. If you spend your entire life reacting to darkness and threat, you’ll never learn to be a potent being. Instead, you’ll stay in a tight little shell, talking about everything bad that happens in the world, seeking more and more bad news because it justifies your shell.

Does that sound like a good way to spend a life?

When? Ever?

So, when do we pull away from the carnival of bad news? When do we lift up our eyes and consider the radical possibility that we have good things in us too? When do we dare consider our virtues and abilities… and start using them as a first choice?

For most people the answer is “never.” Not once in a complete human lifetime. And that’s tragic. In fact, it’s premature death. Most people aren’t specifically choosing this of course – it’s a choice thrust upon them by authority – but it ends with them never living by their own light. Instead, they find a “doesn’t hurt too badly” groove and plod along until they tip into a grave.

But what if we picked a day and chose to live as if we were wonderful? If you’re so deeply terrified that that will lead to doom, make it your day off or a vacation day. Get up and spend that day as if you were a luminous being. Flatly pretend if you must, but do it for a day.

Is that really so evil a concept that you can’t consider it? Even a five-point Calvinist, committed to the “depravity of man,” has to admit that Jesus defended David for saying, “You are gods.” Is that not enough to justify a one-day experiment? And if not, doesn’t that void the gospel of John?

So, when is it that we choose to wake up and be wonderful, just for one day?

Pick One

Every tomorrow is a new day and a new chance to be wonderful. So pick a day and wake up to a blank slate.

Turn away from the knee-jerk objections that ram their way into your mind; they can have the other 364 days.

Try being wonderful. You might like it. Pull out your calendar, pick a month and day, circle it, and then do it.

* * * * *

A book that generates comments like these, from actual readers, might be worth your time:

I just finished reading The Breaking Dawn and found it to be one of the most thought-provoking, amazing books I have ever read… It will be hard to read another book now that I’ve read this book… I want everyone to read it.
Such a tour de force, so many ideas. And I am amazed at the courage to write such a book, that challenges so many people’s conceptions.
There were so many points where it was hard to read, I was so choked up.
Holy moly! I was familiar with most of the themes presented in A Lodging of Wayfaring Men, but I am still trying to wrap my head around the concepts you presented at the end of this one.

Get it at Amazon ($18.95) or on Kindle: ($5.99)

* * * * *

Paul Rosenberg
www.freemansperspective.com

Few things repulse me more than someone born with a genius brain who then uses it to befuddle others and turn them into tools.

A leaked video from Google showed up on my screen this morning. At first I was thrilled that we’d have evidence from the inside, showing what’s really happening at the home of “Don’t Be Evil.” But as I watched the video, my emotions changed dramatically.

This video, which was made for Google employees((I do not believe Google’s response that this was merely a tool for generating discussion. That ranks with “the dog ate my homework” for lame excuses after getting caught. I’m flatly ignoring it.)), was designed to confuse them into supporting their employer’s plans and to feel like they were smart for doing so. That pissed me off.

So, I’m going to decipher this video. Please read this brief explanation and then watch the video yourself. They’re admitting to precisely what Jonathan Logan and I wrote in The New Age of Intelligence, but the admission is wrapped in bullshit that makes people feel smart.

So, here’s what was said, all the quotes below are precisely from the video:

The video begins with a lesson on biology. Then (1:20) they jump from epigenetic theory (interesting stuff, though not precisely understood) to data produced by a girl on a smart phone… data that Google sucks from her, mainly without her realizing it.
They rightly say that the data taken from this girl (or anyone using such phones) “describes our actions, decisions, preferences, movement, and relationships,” then compares this data to a “ledger,” being “a constantly evolving representation of who we are.”
Next, the video goes into more biology, saying that “the driving force behind evolution was not the individual but the gene.” It goes on (2:52) to say that “the individual organism is a transient carrier, a survival machine for the gene.”
Now comes a big jump: While showing us the ledger book (and remember, that’s essentially you) they talk about making it “richer… by introducing more sources of information.” (3:12) Then they ask, “What if we thought of ourselves not as owners of our information… but as transient carriers?” So, you are a “transient carrier” of data, like a hard drive, and the ledger is, for lack of a better work, a precise copy of your soul (or psyche or whatever).
They further say that this digitized soul should be given “more inputs.” (3:15) That means that they want to add things to your life and mind. They’re not explaining what or how yet, but they’ve got their foot in the door.
Now (3:40) comes another leap: “Google would be responsible for offering suitable targets for a user’s ledger… topics would likely focus on health or environmental impact, to reflect Google’s values as an organization.” As the discourse continues, it says (4:01), “… if one of these options allows the ledger to move closer to the user’s goal, it is offered up to the user. Over time… the user’s behavior may be modified.”
Then (4:40) the video jumps to what might happen when “the notion of a goal-driven ledger becomes more palatable….” Here they’re admitting that people would be repulsed to know what’s being done to them. And so, it will take time before this becomes “palatable.” This is an echo of a comment from Eric Schmidt (a top-level Google boss), who said he wanted to get Google’s policy “as close as possible to the creepy line.” Here, however, they expect us to get used to creepy, after which they can get what they really want.
The video then describes what happens if you’re not sucking up the right information for Google’s goal. In that case (4:50), they’ll custom design a device for you, according to your “taste and aesthetic sensibility.” This results in “a custom object to trigger the user’s interest.”
At 8:39 the video moves forward into “behavior sequencing,” a reference to sequencing DNA. What they’re talking about is identifying every single thing, internal or external, that drives your behavior. This sequencing ends (7:50) with a system, “which not only tracks our behavior but offers direction toward the desired result.”
The video concludes with a Do it for the children narrative but with college-level vocabulary and sympathetic images.

So, let’s recap:

Google sees you as a “transient carrier.” (#3 above.) That is, the data you produce is the essential being, and you’re a mere “container.”

You, robot.

You shouldn’t really own your ledger (your most essential self), and they should insert information into your life. (#4, #6)

We’ll tell you what to think.

Google will choose what you should want and will modify your behavior accordingly (#5). How? By offering you new options or even designing custom devices that you won’t be able to resist (#8). They will make sure “your behavior” is “modified.”

Look at this shiny gadget you really need… and it’s free if you take a short quiz!

If this seems creepy to you, don’t worry; you’ll warm up to it over time. (#7)

It’s okay; you’ll come to love Big Brother.

Google will guide you to what’s best for you (#9). You can trust them; they love us and know what’s best for us all.

Look little girl; I have candy in the car.

This is how Google sees you, and whether you want to believe me or not, this has already begun. And please understand that Facebook does the same… and that the NSA sucks it all in.

But, hey, the accounts are free! Right?

* * * * *

A book that generates comments like these, from actual readers, might be worth your time:

I just finished reading The Breaking Dawn and found it to be one of the most thought-provoking, amazing books I have ever read… It will be hard to read another book now that I’ve read this book… I want everyone to read it.
Such a tour de force, so many ideas. And I am amazed at the courage to write such a book, that challenges so many people’s conceptions.
There were so many points where it was hard to read, I was so choked up.
Holy moly! I was familiar with most of the themes presented in A Lodging of Wayfaring Men, but I am still trying to wrap my head around the concepts you presented at the end of this one.

Get it at Amazon ($18.95) or on Kindle: ($5.99)

* * * * *

Paul Rosenberg
www.freemansperspective.com

Tag: news

A New Day, a New Chance to Be Wonderful

You Don’t Actually Suck

What’s Life For?

Pick One

Google’s Mendacity: The Selfish Ledger Decyphered