Opposites and limited thinking

I am dropping the sheep/wolf dichotomy. It is a good picture, but a false dichotomy.

On the other hand, all dichotomies are false. Did you ever think of that? No two things are ever mutually exclusive, not to mention opposites. Black is not the opposite of white, it is just lack of light. Evil is not the opposite of good, it is just lack of empathy or perspective. Liberal is not the opposite of conservative. Green is not the opposite of red. Christian is not the opposite of Muslim. Sweet is not the opposite of sour. A man is not the opposite of a woman.

Thinking in opposites has been one of the most limiting trends in thinking to infect Western culture. It is so limiting it is actively damaging. When you think in opposites you can't learn or change you mind, because you believe that you would then have to change everything you believe about a given thing.

Renaissance

Apple's iTunes service has added many TV shows (at the great price of two bucks per show, no ads), amongst them the biography channel.
I have not watched TV now for a couple of years, and I love not having it. Even with TiVo, you're still a bit slave of it.
One of the few things (that you can't get on DVD) I miss though is the biography channel. I am just watching the bio of Michelangelo.
Talking about Renaissance, it is not just a hard word to spell, it is also an interesting concept. Why would a renaissance occur? I doubt anybody knows.
But I think we are having one right now. Possibly an even greater one than the one half a millennium ago. It is harder to spot, because it is planetary rather than limited to a small spot in Italy, but I really think we have unprecedented expansion spiritually, intellectually, and artistically right now for humankind. It is indeed Interesting Times, in all the ways that term can be understood.

Show biz

Joe was working in the circus, shoveling up the dung after the elephants.
Joe complained. He complained loudly, and continuously. On and on and on and on. Finally a friend said to him: "Joe, you never quit whining. If you don't like shoveling dung, why don't you get another job?"
"What!?" said Joe, "and quit showbusiness?!"

A type of people

The card above is from here, and is only tangentially related to the post below.
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I've noticed a certain kind of people who are really rare. They:
1: are multi-creative.
2: are intelligent.
3: think a lot.
4: have perceptions others usually don't.
5: need a lot of time alone; the bulk of the time every day.
6: don't sleep well, at least at this point in history.
7: have a strong drive for production and communication, and if it fails they often get depressed.
8: they may seem lazy because of this, or because they think a lot.
9: have problems getting along with others because others don't get them.
10: are interested in abstract ideas.

I know several of them. Do you know any? Are you one? What are they? What could we call them?

Strips

After the retirement of Watterson and Gary Larson and the death of Schulz, Doonesbury is just about the only great strip left. But occasionally you'll find one day of a strip which is really funny.
Also, while humor is thin on the ground, some of them are wonderfully drawn, like Get Fuzzy, 9 Chickweed Lane, and Liberty Meadows.
I've realized that for some reason great writers are much more scarce than great visual artists. It's a weird thing. I notice it both in comics and in films.

A spell

(Written by Silvia Hartmann)
Silvia's 60 Second Wealth Boosters!
58. Understanding Money
This is a spell. Read it out ALOUD, three times is the charm.
Snap your fingers, tap your feet or clap your hands to find the rhythm; that makes it much more powerful still!

A powerful force
in the world of man
I open myself
to learn all that I can
I now lay aside
all I thought that I knew
and I learn all there is
bright and true,
fresh and new.

I don't judge any longer
free myself of the old
and I call on the force
and the power of gold
tell and teach me
and reach me
so that I might
use this power for all
that is good, that is right

By the future and past
by the sun and the rain
by the stars and the sunrise
that will come yet again,
let my knowledge and wisdom
of money now grow
this is my will,
so now, make it so.
-----
Silvia Hartmann

MindMillion - Earn More, Spend Wisely And Succeed!
http://MindMillion.com
The Spirit Specialists Await!
http://EmoTrance.com

The publishing revolution

Talking about that "long tail" again, a very important aspect is the self-publishing revolution with print-on-demand. Believe it or not, I wrote this article in 1999!

Comics

I've decided to finally start reading some comics on the web.
Here are some of my faves.
Do you know other good ones?

Eu and US

I love Europe, and the USA currently seem rather hostile to liberally minded people. (By liberal I don't mean left-wing, I mean progressive, the basic definition.)

But one thing pisses me off... well two things:
1: Taxes are twice as high here.
2: Prices on everything are about 50% higher on average.

Even the most successful people in Europe live only in moderate comfort, whereas a merely average lawyer or whatever in the USA earns filthy money, pays half the tax, and pays much less for what he buys.
What is this about? How does it happen?

I am suspecting the reason is that Europe is so much more socialistic than the USA. Supporting all the big non-productive population has to be paid for somehow, and taxes in various shapes pervade everything and drives up cost of living for everybody.

Socialism seems to be the price for civilization and empathy in a population. I hope we get over it some day.

Freedom, trains, and David Bowie

Following up on a comment on the last post: some people prefer trains running on time over freedom. This is in my view one of the biggest problems mankind has.
(I think they have been unfree for so long they no longer would have any clue what they would use freedom for.)

A Danish friend of mine, unaware that it was An Expression, back in the eighties was very impressed that Margareth Thatcher "had made the trains run on time". He thought it was a literal statement.

Talking about Expressions, is "it gets you a table in restaurants" one?
David Bowie said it in an interview, about fame of course. (He added that this was about the only thing to be said for it.)
Even if it is an expression, I am sure it is literally true also.
And so my question is: if a restaurant is actually full, and David Bowie or George Stephanopoulos comes around, what does the manager do? Does he go up to one of his loyal customers and say "sorry, but you're out of here"? Does he say "This meal and your next ten are free if you'll leave right away"? What does he do?

Celebrity is such a strange thing. Why are people so deeply interested in somebody's private life just because they are famous? (And I notice they are only interested in their private life, not in what these people actually do that may actually be important.)

Freedom and quality

"The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish."
-- Robert Jackson

... Indeed yes. On the other hand, while less freedom certainly diminishes the amount of rubbish, the funny thing is that it has never diminished the percentage of rubbish! (The logical conclusion is that less freedom immediately cuts down on the quality offerings of anything.) - Eolake Stobblehouse

The "long tail"

Thanks to my friend David for reminding me of "The Long Tail", which, similar to my last post describes a wonderful development which could only happen with the Internet. (I remember when there were people who said that the Net was a gimmick without cultural significance. What a riot.) Basically where before the economics of mass production forced everybody to experience the same culture (the big hits), this is becoming less and less true, the culture is diversifying even more every year as both production and distribution is becoming easier and cheaper. I think in the long run this is invaluable for our cultural and spiritual development.
"The freedom of the press belongs to he who has one." Well, today everybody has one. This blog is not costing me a dime, and I have an audience of a few thousand readers five seconds after I type in any thought that occurs to me. Ya gotter love it.