Normalcy Bias VS Sanity

There's something that's being bothering me for quite a while that I never could account for until recently. It's the fact that people don't seem to remember anything. Have you noticed this?
Here are some examples.
1. In 1972, one person with an ordinary job could support a family of five. Twenty years later, in 1992, that had become unrealistic. Today, most households, even those with two incomes, are accumulating credit-card debt to cover their basic living costs. The generation now coming of age can't afford to leave their parents' homes, and many are staying in school just to buy time. We also have the phenomenon of "working homeless", that is: people with jobs who can't afford a home.
And yet, we believe that the economy is cyclical. We believe that the down-turns are followed by recoveries. I haven't seen a real recovery yet. What I've seen is 3 steps back, then 1 step forward. do that 3 times and you've gone back 6 steps. that isn't a cycle; it's a downward spiral. Next stop: austerity. (You should look up the meaning of austerity if you don't know it.) Notice how no one is asking how long this austerity will last. I'm guessing, until the sovereign debt goes down. So, never.
2. Chem-trails.
They weren't there 30 years ago, I promise. And we did have planes back then.
3. Computers.
PCs were invented in the '70s but you had to be able to program them yourself. According to Wiki, in 1981 an "attractively priced" PC sold for 1,795. US dollars. So, few could afford one. I got my first PC in 1990, a rebuilt, second hand one. It had a monochrome monitor, and ran in DOS. That's only 21 years ago, and PCs have transformed our lives completely.
4. Privacy.
When I was a kid, my parents would say to us, "go outside and play." So we did, and we'd be gone for hours. Our parents didn't know where we were or what we were doing, and that was normal. I loved the freedom and privacy I had as a child. Today, if you dared to do that, someone might call the police and you might have trouble getting your child back. Now, children expect to be watched 24/7. I think that's sad. We used to value our privacy. Now we believe if we're not doing anything wrong, we shouldn't object to being watched. Tell that to the Bilderbergers, I say.
5. Food.
I can remember when fruit-scented soap didn't smell more edible than actual fruit. I remember when tomatoes tasted like something. I remember when egg yolks were bright yellow and chickens were not obese. And I remember when there were no such thing as safety seals. We just assumed our food and medicines were safe. Imagine that!
6. Mass drugging.
It's difficult to find out how many people are on some sort of mood-stabilisers, like antidepressants or anti anxiety meds, but I'd guess its at least 20%. Why do so many people now need drugs in order to function in society? We're even drugging our children now in huge numbers. We don't seem to care what its doing to their developing minds and bodies. My heart goes out to those kids. We're destroying their futures, just to avoid admitting that everything is not OK. I had ODD when I was a child, still do. Thankfully, they didn't have a cure for it back then, or I wouldn't be talking to you today. Something to think about perhaps. The sad truth is, the people who are being drugged, and the ones sprawled on sidewalks, stoned out of their minds, are some of the sanest of us. They're the ones who couldn't adjust to crazy-world.

Hopeful this snapshot of "now and then" proves that the last forty years have been a time of great and accelerating change. I can remember it, and I'm hardly the oldest person on the planet.

Something is ruining our memories. I'm going to make a case that the culprit is normalcy bias. I looked up normalcy bias on the internet, and the only definition I found, repeated in several places, was, in my opinion, unsatisfactory. So let me propose a more useful definition of normalcy bias:
"A bias in favour of normalcy".
Normalcy means: a state of being that is typical.
Bias means: unfairly prejudiced, for or against.
So normalcy bias should be defined as: unfairly prejudiced in favour of a state of being that is typical. I know that's not official, but I want to talk about bias in favour of normalcy and I don't know what else to call it other than normalcy bias.

Our ability to foresee the future depends on our ability to remember the past. If we could remember anything, we'd know where we're headed. If we could remember our own pasts, we'd realise we've been lied to. Normalcy bias works both ways in time. It impairs memory, as much as it does foresight. It is definitely not based on previous experience or it's lack. If it were, then normalcy bias should lead us to expect massive and accelerating change, and continuously worsening quality of life, since that is what we've actually experienced, right? But we don't. We expect an endless and unchanging repetition of the perceived present. Why is that? And if normalcy bias isn't based on past experience, what is it based on?

Well, I think there is a direct and inverse relationship between sanity and normalcy bias. For the sake of clarity I'm going to define sanity as: a mental state, free of erroneous belief. If you are sane, you believe what is true and not what isn't. An individual or a society that bases it's values and behavior on erroneous beliefs is insane. The farther a society strays from sanity, the stronger normalcy bias becomes. Because, if it's norms were based on true beliefs (sanity), then bias would not be needed to maintain them.
Given the actual state of the world, I think its safe to say our civilisation is insane. I propose that normalcy bias is a psychological defence against the realisation of this very unpleasant fact. None of us should assume that we are sane, given the fact that we were raised in an insane society. All hope isn't lost though. If we could face our predicament, we could start to become sane. Insanity is caused by erroneous beliefs, so the way back to sanity is to start challenging those beliefs. One of our best tools for doing that is memory. Have the forecasts that were based on our normative beliefs been proven accurate? If you believe there will be a full economic recovery, is that expectation supported by your past experience? If not, you must either question your normative belief or forget your past.
Its not an easy choice, I know. Any step towards sanity is a step away from normalcy. We are hard-wired to want to belong. I miss feeling that way, even though I never really have. That's part of being human. But, the more people who find the courage to take those steps toward sanity, the easier it will become. Those who have already begun are here to support you, no questions asked. If we don't do this work of becoming sane, we will destroy ourselves and most won't realise what we're doing until its too late. On the other hand, if we choose to, we could make sanity the new normal.

Jehovah's Witnesses Say The Darnedest Things

My first video blog:

A Suggested Demand For The Occupation

It is not for me to say what the demands of the Occupy movement should consist of. But if it was up to me, this is what I would say.

To the mainstream media, acting governments, and TPTB,
You say you want to know what the occupiers' demands are. Fair enough. Here is one:
We demand that you respect the rule of law, and apply it fairly. The following persons stand accused of crimes against humanity and numerous other sickening transgressions: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Tony Blair, Benjamin Netanyahu, Stephen Harper, Queen Elizabeth II, Henry Kissenger, Joseph Ratinger (aka, Pope Benedict XVI). The evidence against these persons is more than sufficient to convict them. We demand that they be arrested and prosecuted. They must be tried publicly and by jury. This is not a complete list, but you can start with these, and more names will follow. This is not the sum of our demands. Honouring this demand will not end the occupation. However, if you fail to honour it, we will not disperse willingly, or consider any other solutions that you propose.
Yours
Ours sincerely,
Humanity.

A Message to the Occupy Movement

I would like to ask the Occupy protesters, "Who are you trying to influence?" It's not a rhetorical question. I hope it's not your governments. They are working for the 1%. They knew you didn't want them to give all your money to the IBCS (international banking crime syndicate). They knew, but they didn't care, because they don't work for you. They work for them. Surely their actions have proved this. Your governments have also used violent force to suppress your protests. By their actions, they have made their true loyalty abundantly clear. They couldn't address your grievances without condemning themselves, so it isn't going to happen.

I hope you're not pleading your case to a criminal justice system. The judges and prosecutors were appointed by your governments to serve their common masters. They have made it very clear that the 1% are above the rule of law. The 1% brazenly admit their crimes in public, in print and on camera, and nothing happens. The inexcusable inaction on the part of prosecutors and judges has made them directly complicit in these crimes. Don't expect any of this to change from within.

I really, really hope you're not appealing to the 1%, because they truly don't give a shit about you.

None of these groups can fix what is wrong because their survival depends on preventing it from being fixed. Any solution they offer is a trick. Don't even speak to them. There is only one source of power that can respond to your legitimate demands, and that is the 99%. The message has to be intended for us, not them. We need to talk to each other. We need to decide what is important and valuable to us, and then work out how we are going to act on that.

If there is an award category for "worst invention of the year", it should go to the "human microphone". What a terrible idea! Why would you do that? Whoever came up with this is working for the enemy (or might as well be).

First of all, it sounds awful. It ruins the flow of spoken communication, making its content difficult to follow. Everything takes at least twice as long to say and, it's just plain creepy. I can't be the only one who finds it extremely unpleasant.

So what if there's a bylaw against using microphones without a permit? I'm pretty sure the Occupiers are already violating several other bylaws. I suppose the police could battle their way to the microphone and try to take it, but not without it being widely viewed on You-tube. The movements could organise a microphone replacement fund if necessary.

It shouldn't just be assumed that amplification is needed, or even good. Is it really preferable that a single voice should be heard by everyone at the same time? Consider that all other conversation is made difficult, if not impossible. Might it not be better to have multiple speakers' places, conveniently spaced so as not to overlap? Natural consensus is best achieved through dialogue, in small scale discussions. People should mill around and talk to one another, consider many different ideas. There is time for that. And consensus should take some time to develop if it's going to be wise consensus.

Know Your Enemy (part 1)

These protests sweeping the globe today, what are they about? I've heard a number of different answers. Some say it's the greedy bankers, some the corporations, or the corrupt government officials, or the monetary system, and these are all part of the problem. There is a more basic culprit, though. Failure to address this underlying cause will, in time, nullify any other gains. It always has before.

Essentially, our enemy is the tyrant. A tyrant is one who rules others by force, or the threat of force. You can't fight tyranny by opposing it. The only way to be free of tyrants is to remove the conditions that support their existence. The existence of the tyrant depends on that of the slave. They are two sides of the same coin. Neither can be without the other. It is a mistake to believe that the tyrant is guilty and the slave blameless. Living under tyrannical rule doesn't make you a slave; your willing cooperation does.

If we wish to be free of tyrants, we must cease to be slaves. It's the only thing that will serve. It should be our foremost concern as individuals. If you have lived your whole life under the rule of tyrants, your mind is full to brimming with slave-programming. You need to become aware of it in order to remove it. The following are descriptions of slave-programs, which you may, or may not, be conscious of.

Money:

One justification for money is: "Those who contribute most to society should receive commensurate rewards." I refuted this belief on the grounds of morality in "The Way of the Gift". It is also an example of slave-programming in that it disguises awareness of the socio-economic injustice of the tyrant/slave relationship. In practice, it is very, and increasingly, unlikely that you can ever become wealthy enough to comfortably stop earning an income. The main way you become rich is to have rich parents, or marry a rich person. Alternatively, you could be a genius, or a psychopath, or the winner of a lottery or a large legal settlement. None of these is within your control, and even if acheived, your wealth would be peanuts compared with that of the top tyrants on this planet. And it is frankly insane to argue that anyone's contribution is that much more valuable than anyone else's.

Another belief that justifies money is: "People won't work unless they have to. People won't do anything beyond what's barely necessary without "incentives". That belief is also slave-programming. It is very widely believed because it appears to be true within any society based on a tyrant/slave dynamic. Most people can recall instances where irresponsible members of a group became a drain on the others, causing resentment and disharmony. If you train a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell, it does not logically follow that it is in the nature of dogs to salivate when they hear a bell. If you condition a human being to out-source responsibility to an external authority, which you must do with slaves, he will behave irresponsibly. That doesn't mean all humans are naturally like that. Sovereign human beings, meaning those who choose to be neither slaves or tyrants, are aware of their responsibilties as well as their rights. (Too bad libertarians aren't.) The effect of this programming is to get the slave to believe he needs the tyrant.

To be continued.

Summer? What Summer?

This so-called summer has been the worst I can remember. Ever. Chris has started calling it "sum-week" because we've only had that many warm (not hot, mind you) days. Global warming, my ass! These pictures were taken in mid-April:

This is Port Hardy. Snow is normally rare here in the winter.
By the middle of August, the blackberries are usually ripe to bursting. Here they are as of today:

Every time we do have a sunny day, we get this:

See how they spread:

WTF! And less than an hour later, we've got this:

This happens all the time. It's not like Port Hardy has a big, busy airport. It is puny. It can't even accommodate a jet. Yesterday, Chris saw chemtrails in the sky at 5:00 AM. It was still dark. I find it hard to believe that commercial flights out of Port Hardy would start so early. This sucks.