Severed Souls (Part 1: The Atlas Dilemma - To Shrug or Not To Shrug?)

What's the connection between Terry Goodkind and the Atlas Shrugged dilemma?

Fuckin' Badass, cognitive dissonance.

[After fighting tyrants, evil, darkness, black magic, superstition for 13 novels...]

Zedd: “I ask myself all the time, what is there to live for anymore? I can’t live in peace. My whole life, until I quit and fled to Westland, was spent in a life-and-death struggle with that evil. It never ends. I am tired of it, tired of the struggle, tired of the withering plague of hatred, tired of everything.
“That is why I say you need to quit and enjoy what you can of your life while you have it, while you still can.
“Give it up, Richard. Go and live for yourself. Forget the rest of the world. Let the inevitable happen as it will. In the meantime, turn your back to all the hate, take the joy you can, and live for yourselves. Just as I did, you will find that after a time the savage streak in mankind becomes a distant memory and unimportant. Let it become unimportant to you and Kahlan.”


At a time like this (Passion Times), this is a central question. What do you do?

SHORT:

It's simple, really. You can't hide. You make a difference, or you don't.

LONG: 

There's a lot you can do.

From empirical evidence, 

1.

Stay away from people who have real coercive power. (AKA Don't sleep with the enemy. Don't do Faustian Bargains.)

Why? 

• Because they may well become moral dilemmas for you. 
• You run the risks of them turning on you if you ever take a stand.
• Once you accept some evil into your life, others will follow and it will be easy to accept them too.
• It's not as good as it seems.

2.

Know your enemy, know your friends.

If you know more about them than they do themselves, good for you!

3. 

Find out what you can do for freedom.

"Ask not what freedom can do for you, but rather, what you can do for freedom."

Off the top of my head...

• Free currencies! Bitcoin! Precious metals! Alt currencies!
• Free software! Go open source! Help out! Firefox!
• Free economy! Go startup!
• Free communications! Encrypt! Tor! Firechat!
• Free the minds of your fellow humans! Encourage them to resolve their personal issues. "Government is based on violence. Violence violates the non-aggression principle and is therefore immoral. Government is immoral."
• Free social networking! Go and talk with people in real-life!
• Free yourself! Free your body, mind, spirit! Resolve your issues! 

4.

"Give me freedom or give me death" 
"Take your freedom and forget about dying for freedom"

Wakeup call - The people who said this centuries ago wanted a government. 

Freedom is not given. You take it, or snatch it from tyrants who hate your freedom.

Begging for freedom is like fighting a war for peace, sex for abstinence or having nothing for dinner. It's contradictory, and hence logically wrong.

5.

Remember to Laugh!

Even the Soviets had a sense of humor. In fact, communism/socialism is well-suited for extreme humor. Of course, comedy was also an extreme sport in the Soviet Union.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_political_jokes#Gulag_Archipelago

Incentives...Incentives...

What incentives are there for freedom? A stateless-society?

The more government intervention, the more incentive to appeal to government.
The more choice government provides, the more incentive to stick to the government, the less incentive to create a stateless-society.
The better a government manipulated economy is, the less incentive there is for a free-market.

The incredible part of this is that no controller, leader is required. This arises naturally. There is no need for a deliberate conspiracy.

Interesting problems

1. Is the current state of affairs at Occupy advantageous to the HK Police as a gov agency?

More Crime, Instability

Violence is advantageous to the Police. For one, they get to show off their toys. And they get to buy more pepper spray, weapons, train more personnel etc etc.
And what happens after the cleanup? More people join in. What after that? Police can then use more violence. And so on...

Huge incentives for starting violence.

Low Crime, Stability

With ever-decreasing crime, police would just shrink and eventually disappear. As we all know, the golden rule of running government agencies is always spend all your budget and never be defunded.

No incentive for decreasing crime.

So why does HK have relatively low crime? It's not because of the police. That's because of the free market that incentivizes value-creating economic activities.
How do you increase crime? Destroy the free-market. Make it hard for people to improve their own circumstances through moral means..

2. How much incentive does social welfare have in getting people out of poverty?

3. How much incentive does the CDC have in really stopping Ebola?

4. How much incentive does the military and the industries dependent on military spending have, to not go to war?

5. Where does this put democracy? If democracy, in the end, in support of such an incentive structure?

Conclusion

Policing by government agency will always eventually corrupt itself, because it has all the incentive and none of the costs to do so. Incentives override everything else.

All governments get bigger.

Reason doesn't stand a chance head-on against incentives. If the choice is between suffering for being good and a million dollars, dollars generally win. Instead, reason must start with the disenfranchised.

Conflicts of incentive against reason makes it hard to think straight.

Conspiracy theories are good as an emotional driver, in getting people to think. Such theories are personalizations of natural phenomena. Once one reaches a good understanding of the nature behind bad systems, such are no longer necessary.

As long as morality and moral people, organizations does not control the incentive structure, we are all, unconsciously under the control of immorality. From the most subtle (manipulation of interest rates) to how much more government personnel are paid relative to their free market counterparts, to every agency of every government, you can speak sound rational arguments all day and have no real impact in the end.

Money talks.

If you believe in the free-market, you should work to become successful what's left of the free market.

Halting Problem Proves that Lethal Robots cannot correctly decide to kill humans.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/11/19/1619207/halting-problem-proves-that-lethal-robots-cannot-correctly-decide-to-kill-humans

Neither can humans.

The only correct decision is to not kill humans, lol

What does it take to be a good developer? (Empathy)

Empathy.

Why? To develop good code, one must understand what code is already there and what the requirements are. The emotional motivation must be consistently present - it cannot merely be "the rush of excitement" at finishing a task or project, or enjoying working in a team (because what happens if you have lots of independent work to do?).

Why am I writing this? Because I'm not driven by logic or reasoning. In fact, I am emotionally sensitive. And so, where I lack interest in logical analysis, empathy motivates me.

I have been both motivated and demotivated by adrenal drives and team drives. Therefore, I have learnt to take that as the icing on the cake and nothing more.

The empathy I am describing is incredibly beautiful. At its core, empathy with a creation made of your own brainwork is perhaps the highest expression of self-love and mental integration. It's where logic and reasoning and love intertwine.

I Know How Umbrella will End

Umbrella Movement/Occupy Central : Step up your game (or lose it all)!

I can tell you with confidence how Occupy Central/Umbrella Movement will end.

HK will get its democracy.

Possible moves

• Government
• Oppression.
• Low-level - Intimidation, Hired Thugs
• Useless. Drives public support lower. Makes gov position harder to defend.
• Mid-level - "Non-lethal force"
• Tried so many times. Only firms the resolve Occupiers, members of the movements.
• High-level - Lethal force
• Gov came very close to trying this.
• Mid-level force backfired, so high-level force will backfire far worse.
• May be used to try and stir up a real riot.
• Creates a rally point for all future movements. (eg. TianAnMen Square)
• End of Negotiations. Negotiation will be made impossible.
• Networked people will simply end the government. We can end the BS about "Support the police" (awfully like "Support the troops" by the way). Anyone still unclear about what government is will be completely clear about it.
• Everyone forced to take a stand - Be slaves or take a common moral stand, push for anarchy. (I don't know which. I think given the events occurred, people will take a stand - because there's nothing to lose.)
• Ultra-High-level - Think East German secret police
• What comes after "High-level" oppression, if people don't take a stand, or become fragmented.
• We won't want to live like this.
• Serves as negative motivation to avoid.
• Negotiation
• With HK Gov
• HK Gov insists it can't do anything. What the officials really mean to say is "I will never risk my cushy government job for a risky cause like democracy." 
• Useless.
• Occupy doesn't know how to talk to them. 
• The right way is...don't talk to them. Get them to talk, then call them out on their immorality and leeching off of productive people. Get straight to the point and never, ever invoke the law - which is and will always be the Gov's home-turf, not yours.
• With Beijing
• The CCP knows what they do is immoral. They hate you and they are absolutely honest about it.
• "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" - Mao. Coercion is their language. You don't have anything to initiate force with. You don't speak their language.

• People
• Lose Interest.
• This would be a real threat, if the government somehow managed to stop doing things and getting them wrong. However, the government doesn't seem to be able to do that...sooo we can forget this.
• Normalization. If you wall people in long enough, they could get Stockholm Syndrome. However, the option of escalation and free civil participation exist, so Stockholm Syndrome is avoided.
• Infighting, Neighbor against neighbor.
• As of now, people are holding it fairly well. The social norm has been established - anyone who initiates use of force has automatically lost. If anything, there is not enough debate going on.
• Escalation. Grow the movement
• Self-explanatory. Obviously increases chances of getting a better deal.
• Occupy more minds.

Stalemate.

Government's not letting go (Democracy requires government, obviously). People can't let go, or can always try again.

Solution.

What must the solution be like? (And why democracy/universal-suffrage doesn't fit the bill entirely.)

• Must not rely on Government.
• Crowdsourcing. Crowdfunding. Grassroots.
• All-inclusive.
• All humans (aliens, tourists too) are welcome! :)
• Non-violence. (Adhere to non-aggression principle, with minimum, passive self-defense)
• Decentralized. Distributed. Able to be completely P2P.
• Infinitely Scalable. Cost per supporter acquisition is constant, constantly lowered.
• A counter-example would be riot-police. The costs of dispersing a small group is low, but explodes to impossibility if the group approaches the total population of the area. (IE cannot disperse a riot that involves almost all HK people.)
• Based on universal, Compatible with current values.
• Non-aggression principle.
• Volunteerism (Naturally arises. Not universal.)
• Free trade, expression.
• Simple.

There is only one solution. 

• Go for Statelessness. 
• Until people realize this, government (Beijing and by proxy, HK) is not really being pressured. Occupy will have to stay there, essentially indefinitely.
• Democracy is a dangerous trap that nobody has gotten out of before, except to go into totalitarianism. I don't think anyone would want to put effort into walking into a trap, if they knew it was a trap.

There is no doubt this is a time of tough decisions, breakthroughs, tests of will. I think we have the will. We are just locked in by our lack of understanding.

What can we do?

• Convince people one by one?

To be Continued....

Share your thoughts! 

Conspiracy theories at the top of HK Youtube??

Conspiracy theories going mainstream? :)

Halloween: Psychology Edition

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/15/science-of-fear-why-we-love-to-scare-ourselves_n_5976266.html

1. Beneath the fun and social, Halloween is here as self-medication (social-medication) for fears, phobias, worries, whatever negative. Through dressing up, some seek to dissociate, laugh at ourselves and our fears. Others call it "unleashing the alter ego"...

2. And since many people have common fears/issues (the so-called collective fears), we would be sharing the human experience.

3. Can "Social-Medication" eliminate all childhood issues?
At the moment, no. One can argue that it is not engaging enough or all-encompassing. Social media is also fairly voluntary. The deeper level, of course, is that the most pressing problems that inhibit individual potential also inhibit good social life. So the people who need this most may also be getting the least of it.

If you really have the relevant fears, go get some therapy!

4. Most of the stuff associated with Halloween are very dark.

• Theme: Death. 
• Death is no doubt the biggest part of Halloween and a HUGE topic in psychology. Whether it's ghosts, spirits, demons, mummies, Grim Reaper or undead, death is clearly the greatest part of halloween. 
• Most people have a fear of death that goes unresolved until...death. So naturally, coping mechanisms are developed to enable people to cope with these issues. With the decline of religion (from when it was mandatory), Halloween has become a popular alternative. Being frightened and then feeling OK again is a great way to get temporary relief.
• Appropriate Response 1: Get therapy! Yes, I think everybody should have a therapist. A "life coaches", counselor or psychotherapist.
• Appropriate Response 2: Realize "Death, by definition, means unconsciousness. You may be conscious of the dying process, but will not be conscious of your death or the world thereafter." (I have known that for as far as I can remember.)  Knowing this, you have 2 choices.
• Go live and do what you are here to do, whatever it is!
• Carry on with whatever you were doing, free from existential fear.
• Obligatory Rand: "I don't die, it's the world that dies!" - Ayn Rand. The world has no meaning to you if you don't exist anymore, if you don't have a brain nor a mind to process it. While Rand was no Buddhist or nihilist, this compels you to detach yourself from everything that is the world - to do your best to draw in the sandy beach, then let the waves wash your drawing away. It makes you realize the infinite freedom and wonder that the world is, in a far more profound way, than most western religion and philosophies. In the context of Objectivism, it is the recognition of the logical fact that the individual is the prerequisite for society, civilization and the collective we call the world. There is no society, no world, no morality, without the individual. 
• Theme: Being Forgotten.
• Why do people believe in an afterlife? Why do people entertain the possibility of ghosts?
• Ghosts and spirits mean afterlife. And that's secretly optimistic. Outside of religion, people want to believe there is something after life.
• Ghosts are direct manifestations of unresolved psychological trauma, emotionally significant events. WoooOooooOOooo....
• Theme: Violence. (+ Death = Murder)
• Have you been to the Peak recently (Oct 2014)? It's like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre up there, with the Fright Dome at the top!
• Violence. What kind of violence? Do people have an innate fear of this? WHEN are people afraid of violence?
• What kind of violence? The kind where the aggressor successfully hurts the victim. Where victim is helpless.
• Do people have an innate fear of violence and violent death? No. It can be overcome, understood, or simply not exist if well-raised. Which some don't.
• When are people afraid of violence/aggression?  If completely defenseless, helpless. If they feel alone. If they feel that nothing good (eg. good afterlife, martyrdom, good for a cause...) will come out of it. 
• So...how does Halloween help people deal with violence?
• We know there is violence in the world that we haven't and feel that we cannot resolve.
• Foreign wars.
• Governments.
• Abuse of children.
• Halloween is a way of expressing unresolved fears. On a deeper level, Halloween is an opportunity to throw all those fears into a portal and forget them...until the next Halloween. 
• Appropriate Response:
• Realize that violence is very rare in most first-world countries, despite what you see in media, movies.
• Presuppose happiness and wellness.  
• Stay fit and healthy. 
• Be confident in your body - aggressors generally don't pick on others stronger and more confident than them.
• Theme: Magic.
• What is magic, really? 
• Magic is that which does not exist in the real world.
• Something for nothing.
• Consciousness OVER reality. (eg. Spoon bending...with mind power)
• Insanity.
• Why do people want it?
• People feel that there are needs unfulfilled in reality. Fantasy...
• It's lots of fun, funny, in a crazy kind of way.
• Escapism.
• Appropriate Response.
• Understand what magic really is, what values and virtues it holds true.
• Be aware of "magic" thinking - irrationality in yourself.

Most people don't go that deep into Halloween, just as people who celebrate Christmas are not theologians, philosophers and historians. Nevertheless, this is what's beneath the surface.

Go crazy, have fun, and never trivialize these issues. They have deep roots and needs to be addressed accordingly.

On this All Hallow's Eve, I wish you all a very Psychological Halloween 2014!

To be continued....next Halloween.