Tag Archives: modern philosophy

Misinformation Train

Daily, individuals are bombarded by all kinds of information about people, events, and theories. Currently in the news, there is talk of car-sized drones above New Jersey, a murder/assassination of a healthcare CEO, and the constant fear of what could potentially be called Word War Three. These are just a few examples. This is the age of unlimited communication with the internet and dozens of news stations bombarding us with both useful and, more often, useless information.

How many really care how Snoop Dog cooks his bacon?

Trying to sift through all the pointless articles to find real news can be a challenge. Even when we find “legitimate” news, we are left with conflicting or bias explanations, distorting the facts. The truth is always elusive. CNN focuses on attacking the conservative minded people while Fox News bashes the liberal audiences. It is a media war that continues to rage and become more volatile on a daily basis.

Dispelling misinformation can be a nearly impossible task. Humanity needs to accept that there are always agendas being played out, conspiracies in the works, brutal fights for power and really bad boxing matches on Netflix. Truth is the hardest thing to see through the thick fog of misinformation. Yet it is there!

One must ask themselves, what is good? What is positive? What benefits humanity the greatest?

There are so many distractions that pull us from the truth. Unfortunately, I am not even sure Occam’s razor can cut away all of the garbage that encloses the truth. So why is it so hidden? Humanity wants to shield itself from accountability and conviction. Hide the truth, then make your own morals that benefits you, the individual, not humanity as a whole.

Wokeness thrives on hiding and distorting the truth in order to move its own agenda of denying accountability. Even if you take God out of the equation (theoretically), humanity cannot survive without a moral structure. For example, there are people who want pedophilia to be a “sexual orientation”. Unbelievable. This act is detrimental to children and emotionally damages them for the remainder of their lives. Nobody would benefit from this behavior if it was accepted. Instead, it drives humanity down a road of self-destruction.

I understand this is an extreme and disturbing example, but the same case is truth for rape, murder, enslavement, theft, genocide, etc. These acts push society closer to chaos and has no benefits to humanity as a whole. Within the philosophical ideal of utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill puts forward the “Greatest Happiness Principle.” In this, actions are “right” in proportion as they tend to promote happiness and “wrong” as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

This “happiness” is not based on the individual, but rather on humanity. Moral actions will benefit all people while immoral actions are the ones that hurt people, even if the person or persons acting benefit from it.

Our goal should be to strive to reach the higher “good” for the human race as a whole. The less suffering, the more we will find happiness in living. The “anything goes” attitude will lead to the destruction of civilized society. Cut through the garbage that the misinformation train dumps on your doorstep.

Be the insurrection.

Solving the Cube

As a teenager in the 80s, there were so many memorable items that came out to entertain us. We worked out to Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons via VHS, the CD player slowly took over vinyls, high top sneakers, MTV, and leg warmers, to name a few.

We were also introduced to a mental torture device- the Rubik’s Cube. How many hours were wasted trying to line up colors on a block? More than I care to admit.

Solving this puzzle is like trying to make sense out of life. It is not impossible, but it can be difficult. People approach solving a Rubiks many different ways. This is just like how we approach life’s meaning differently.

Some people will analyze and make careful turns, spending more time thinking than acting. Others will constantly spin the sides, hoping that they will solve it by dumb luck or by accident. Of course, there are people who will give up and say it is impossible. Deception also takes a role. There are those who will peal off the stickers and replace them to make a completed cube, attempting to impress those around them.

You can take all of these methods and apply them to how people approach morality. Do we sit back and analyze, rarely acting? Jump on the bandwagon of the latest idea and hope that we will find the answer? Or, worst of all, do we peel the stickers and shape morality to fit ourselves?

It takes a steady balance of insight and action to solve this puzzle and living the moral life.

I challenge you not to ebb and flow with the times,  nor give up due to it feeling like a “hopeless” cause. Focus on what is good and right, thinking and acting that way. Don’t peel the stickers to shape something that fits you. It is a dangerous path to take, one that will do more harm than good. 

Find your center and align your blocks around that.  It is not impossible to solve the cube, just as it is not impossible to solve moral living.

“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions.” – Albert Einstein

Difficult Motivation

This is a day and age where we can easily dive into a pool of hopelessness and depression. Everything around appears to be crumbling at the seams and spiraling out of control. People are faced with inflation, war, hate, weather disasters, and crime filled streets.

Motivation can be hard to come by. In reality, many have already given up, retreating to quiet corners and closing their eyes, hoping it ends. Others stand up and try to make a difference only to be crushed under the weight of conformity and wokeness

Will you continue to let society control you and your life? It is very easy to just sit back and complain that the world is a mess. You can say, “there is nothing I can do about it.” Yet, we can do something about it. Dig deep find that motivation to make a stand for what is right and moral. Righteousness will always shine in the darkness of adversity.

In a world of darkness, we must rise up and say that we will not be imprisoned by the corrupted values of our society. Be the ones who will not conform and live in fear. Our faith must always be uncompromising and barbaric. There is right and wrong; moral and immoral, and we need to eliminate the moral “grey” area including these fluid ethics this country waves around at us like a cheap carnival prize. Society loves that moral grey area, planting their feet firmly in its mucky ground, looking to suck you down into its putrid stench.

It is time to fight back and make a stand! Be prepared to be resisted. Making this moral stand will make enemies and could label you an outcast. It is a hard road if we choose not to conform and enslave ourselves to this compromised existence. How do you know if you are travelling in the path that is right? You will face constant opposition.

I will close with a quote from Winston Churchill:

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

Nothing is more powerful than raw, focused motivation. I challenge you to be the difference and don’t bow down to the woke idols.

Climb Aboard! We Will Show You the Way.

Once again, we are at that time when our lives are bombarded by politics. Every four years, we elect a president who is always preceded by a vicious campaign of personal attacks and name calling. Each candidate has a plan to “help” the nation’s citizens.

Is anyone else tired of the exhausting circus? I know that I am.

We become obsessed with our politicians, wanting them to make changes and improve our lives. We are so focused and dependent that we also look to them for moral direction. Don’t forget, they are humans like you and me. They have no authority to give moral direction. Human thinking is flawed and corrupted with power and control being a huge temptation.

There is the old saying; absolute power corrupts absolutely.  It seems almost cliche to the point that we state it like a punchline to a joke. Yet, I like to state that with more power comes more temptation to abuse that power.

Putting our faith and moral direction in the hands of our politicians is a huge risk; dare I say, an easy way to trick ourselves. The trick is that we let another flawed individual or group guide our ethics as we travel through the raging river of existence. Why risk trusting a navigator who may drive the boat into the rocks or even toss you over to make the boat lighter?

Don’t get into the doomed ship and be chained to an oar, hoping to see the light of day as you row the vessel to an unknown destination under the command of a control hungry monger.

Buy the kayak and direct your own way through life. Be an individual, not part of an enslaved collective rowing under the monotone beat of a drum.

One response to “Climb Aboard! We Will Show You the Way.”

  1. dutifullygrande0152c653d Avatar
    dutifullygrande0152c653d

    Yes I am tired of all the lies and bashing.Human thinking is flawed and for me I will not get on board the boat of destruction , I choose the kyak for the moral direction through this life. My faith is in the One who made me!

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Bigfoot in the Backyard

Many years ago, when my kids were not driving cars and working full time jobs, I decided to have a little fun. When I was growing up, for the longest time I believed that my grandfather fought in the French and Indian War and still had a piece of arrow stuck in this chest from that conflict. Many years later when I was older and wiser, I realized it was a part of his rib that was protruding not an arrow and that the war took place in the 1700’s, long before he was born.  Come to think about it, according to him, he fought in the British in the Revolutionary War, the trenches of World War One and sailed on battleships in the Second World War. The man always had a story, most of which were not true. He was just being a grandfather and telling tall tales to amaze me.

 So, what did this older and wiser me decide to do once I had kids? I decided to pay it forward.

At this time, my family and I lived in a townhouse apartment in Midwest. My wife and I made a challenging decision to homeschool our children, which was not an easy feat, but we feel it was the best decision and, as a result, our children have grown into amazing adults. While teaching, we would also record educational programs to help with their studies. On one of these programs, the mystery of Bigfoot was the topic. My boys were fascinated! An eight- or nine-foot hairy man playing hide and seek in the woods. It was absolutely astonishing to them especially when some of these “sightings” were reported in Kentucky, one state south of us!

A few days following this program, we had a day of rain which made everything muddy outside. This apartment had a small fenced-in patio out back with a sliding glass door. Suddenly, I was struck with a great idea. I went out back that evening after the kids were in bed and dipped my hand in the mud. Carefully pressing it on the outside glass of the sliding door, I slowly moved it around to create a large handprint. Bigfoot was making a visit to our townhouse here in the city. It was a masterpiece! I cleaned up and went to bed anticipating the following morning.            

The next day, the handprint was discovered, and the house was a bustle. Bigfoot must have come to Indiana and made it to our backyard! The kids analyzed the print with the wildest look of amazement in their eyes. Next came all the questions and I did my best to answer them in with as much ridiculous information as I could. When the dust settled, the question of what Bigfoot eats led to the next phase of this plan. I told them that he ate twigs, rocks and dirt. I know, ridiculous answer. That day, though, they gathered all these things up and placed them in a frisbee that was repurposed as a plate.

I tell this story to show that things are not always as they seem. Many of us still think with our minds like a child and trust that people in authority positions are telling us truth. We may be grown adults, but a lot of times we think like children. We look for answers and direction from others, but when we do that, we run the risk of being misled. Why is it we want someone to tell us how to behave and what to believe? We desire to have someone tell us that bigfoot is real and all the time telling ourselves that we are free thinkers. We want answers that are buried deep, but we don’t want to take a shovel and dig it up.

One needs to break out of this child-like mindset and realize that things may not be what they seem to be.

Pick things apart.

Question everything.

Years ago, when I went to college, I entered with a very weak mindset that had been shaped my entire life by those around me. Confidence shrouded me like a cloak of the finest material. Suddenly, I realized that I lacked a foundation to stand on. I only believed those things because others told me to. They left me the muddy handprints on the sliding glass door.

The process began as I cast everything aside and began building a new mindset by starting with a new, strong foundation and investigated where I stood in this world. It was a harrowing task, but I left behind of my child mindset and formed beliefs that have been weighted, vetted and tested.

This is the first step: Toss it all out and start with the clean slate. Don’t take anything as true and let yourself feel lost. This is the beginning, but one of the most challenging things you will ever do. Don’t take the child’s mind and rebuild it, instead break it down and replace it.

Don’t be a follower or a leader. Be the individual!

A Condition with a Bleak Prognosis?

Many people have written about what has been known as “the human condition.” Humanity is riddled with struggles and plenty of faults. It has become its own worst enemy and continues to tear itself apart with no hope in sight.

To deal with problems, we wage war both physical and verbal, enforcing our will upon others. Many conflicts cover the pages of human history, all to enforce one’s will onto another. People verbally attack (sometimes physically) others, never accepting a difference of opinion. Wars continue to rage today due to nations wanting to enforce their will upon another group or nation.

“If you don’t agree with me, then you are wrong and need to change your opinion or there will be consequences.”

We are definitely in a war here today in this country and honestly, in this world also. There is a strong divide, and both sides have “weaponized” morality and are constantly attacking, degrading, and festering a climate of hatred. Right and wrong has migrated into a hazy grey that leaves morality as an abstract concept.

We find ourselves lost in a forest with a broken moral compass; unsure of which direction to go. Do we look to our nation’s leaders for direction? Can we find morality within the walls of religion and the church? Maybe morality resides somewhere deep within our soul, and it looks different for each of us. It could be that there is no morality or ethics. Do we exist in anarchy and create this concept to maintain order in an otherwise chaotic world?

I know, I know… so many questions and but no answers. Yet, that is where we must start. One must recognize and properly address these questions before answers can be found. Society has locked us into a mindset and tell us how to think and to not question. Our minds are not free to think and explore as we believe them to be. Instead, our minds are trained and conditioned to think a particular way that is a form of control over the mind. Many who realize that we can be controlled this way, exploit it and take control of how we live our lives.

The time has come to rise up against this way of thinking and challenge the disease that creates this seemingly hopeless human condition. It is an insurrection of the mind, if you will. We must address the disease and then work to cure it, for it cannot be cured without fully understanding how it controls us.

The intent of this blog is to diagnose the human condition and find a “cure” in order to live our best life in this confusing, chaotic and controlling world. I am not asking you to agree with me or like what I have to say. All I ask is that you raise the questions to yourself and not accept everything you have been taught at face value. Explore deep within yourself! It is time for an insurrection, rising up against the fabricated principles that are enslaving our conditioned minds.

The insurrection of the mind.

CJH