Friday, January 29, 2010

Expanding the Taxonomy of Male Classifications


Eveybody's favorite Christian Libertarian anarchist blogger, Vox Day, recently posted about Roissy and his practice of classifying men into the Alpha/Beta dichotomy.

VD wrote a pretty good taxonomy that definitely expands on what many critics of game and Roissy have always pointed out as Roissy's ideological weakness in using only two definitions of male behavior on the spectrum of male value in the sexual marketplace's hierarchy.

Before I present Vox's list, I do want to note that I think Roissy's focus on a Alpha/Beta dichotomy is useful as an intro for people who have never heard of "game" in the first place to gain a solid understanding of the differences in male behavior and demeanor.

Vox's expanded taxonomy seems to be a pretty good breakdown that accounts for all of the variations people always seem to question Roissy about. Roissy's comments are often filled with queries about behaviors such as "Is this "beta" or "alpha?" Am I a "greater beta" or a lesser alpha." Etc.

Perhaps Vox gives us a more useful taxonomy here:

Alphas - the male elite, the leaders of men for whom women naturally lust. Their mere presence sets women a-tingle regardless of whether she is taken or not. Once you've seen beautiful married women ignoring tall, handsome, wealthy, and even famous men because that ugly old troll Henry Kissinger walked in the room, you simply can't deny the reality of Alphadom. Example: Captain Kirk, Big from Sex in the City. Suggestion: Do you see a scoreboard? Right, so relax already!

Betas - the lieutenants, the petty aristocracy. They're popular, they do well with women, they're pretty successful in life, and they may even be exceptionally good-looking. But they lack the Alpha's natural self-confidence and strength of character. They're not leaders and they're not the men to whom women are helplessly drawn. Most men who like to think they're Alphas because of their success are actually Betas. Most Betas won't change their game because they don't really have any need or reason to do so. This is probably the easiest social slot in which to find yourself, since the Beta enjoys many of the benefits of Alphadom without being trapped in the Alpha's endless cycle of competition. Example: Brad Pitt Suggestion: Have some compassion for the less naturally fortunate. Try to include them once in awhile.

Deltas - the great majority of men. These are Roissy's Betas. Almost all of you reading this are Deltas despite the natural desire to believe that you are a brave and bold Alpha snowflake notwithstanding. Deal with it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a Delta, it's just a simple statistical and observable reality. The sooner you accept the truth about yourself, the sooner you will be able to control your unconscious inclinations and modify your behavior in a manner that will help you achieve your goals. I've gone out of alphabetical order here because delta symbolizes change, which most Deltas are capable to some extent. Hence the synthetic alpha instruction set known as Game. Example: Probably you. Suggestion: Never forget that there are plenty of girls on the girl tree.

Gammas - the obsequious ones, the posterior puckerers, the nice guys who attempt to score through white-knighting, faux-chivalry, flattery, and omnipresence. All men except true Alphas will occasionally fall into Gamma behavior from time to time, this is the behavior and attitude that Roissy is attempting to teach men to recognize and avoid. The dividing line between a Gamma and a Delta is that the Gamma genuinely believes in the Gamma reality to the very core of his soul whereas the Delta is never truly comfortable with himself when he behaves in this manner despite being thoroughly indoctrinated in it by his culture. Example: Probably you if you've found yourself complaining about your lack of female companionship over the last two years. Suggestion: Remember that the statement "all are fallen" applies to women too. She isn't any more naturally pure or holy or ethereal than you are.

Lambdas - the gays. They have their own social hierarchy. They can fill any role from Alpha to Omega, but they tend to play the part rather than actually be it because the heterosexual social construct only encompasses the public part of their lives. Example: Neil Patrick Harris. Suggestion: Straights will be more tolerant if you keep the bathhouse behavior behind closed doors.

Sigmas - the lone wolves. Occasionally mistaken for Alphas, particularly by women and Alphas, they are not leaders and will actively resist the attempt of others to draft them. Alphas instinctively view them as challenges and either dislike or warily respect them. Some Deltas and most Omegas fancy themselves Sigmas, but the true Sigma's withdrawal from the pack is not a reaction to the way he is treated, it is pure instinct. Example: Clint Eastwood's movie persona. Suggestion: Entertain the possibility that other people are not always Hell. The banal idiocy is incidental, it's not intentional torture.

Omegas - the losers. Even the Gamma males despise them. That which doesn't kill them can make them stronger, but most never surmount the desperate need to belong caused by their social rejection. Omegas can be the most dangerous of men because the pain of their constant rejection renders the suffering of others completely meaningless in their eyes. Omegas tend to cluster in defensive groups; the dividing line between the Omega and the Sigma is twofold and can be easily recognized by a) the behavior of male Betas and Deltas and b) the behavior of women. Women tend to find outliers attractive in general, but while they respond to Sigmas almost as strongly as they do to Alphas, they correctly find Omega males creepier and much scarier than Gamma males. Example: Eric Harris Suggestion: Your rejection isn't entirely personal. Observe the difference in your own behavior and the way the Betas act. And try not to start off conversations with women by sharing "interesting facts" with them.

"Science" and the Epidemic of Obesity


Two articles came out this week that coincide perfectly with much of the dietary-based topics I've previously blogged about extensively.

First up, The Great Cholesterol Myth which gives a great rundown on how and why saturated fats and cholesterol have been systematically demonized by so-called "scientific studies" and eventually became the official policy of the Government/media zeitgeist that trickled throughout society to eventually become "conventional wisdom." This has lead to a whole host of consumer choices whereby most people thought they were eating healthier but were in fact contributing to the very diseases they thought they were preventing by following the conventional wisdom.

As Michael Chrichton once said in a lecture - (I)n my experience, we all tend to put a lot of faith in science. We believe what we’re told. My father suffered a life filled with margarine, before he died of a heart attack anyway. Others of us have stuffed our colons with fiber to ward off cancer, only to learn later that it was all a waste of time, and fiber.

Here here. I can't believe people eat "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!"

Scientific hypotheses don’t get much simpler than this: the cholesterol, or diet-heart, hypothesis, which has broken free from the ivory towers of academia to impact with massive force on society.

It has driven a widespread change in the type of food we are told to eat, and consequently the food that lines the supermarket shelves. Many people view bacon and eggs as a dangerous killer, butter is shunned, and a multi-billion pound industry has sprung up providing ‘healthy’ low-fat alternatives.

At the same time, millions of people are prescribed statins to lower cholesterol levels, and each new set of guidelines suggests that ever-more lowering of cholesterol is needed. When it comes to explaining what causes heart disease, the cholesterol hypothesis reigns supreme.

But as the US editor and critic HL Mencken put it, ‘For every complicated problem there is a solution that is simple, direct, understandable and wrong.’ This is how we might view the diet-heart hypothesis: just because it is dominant does not mean it is right, and just because it looks simple does not mean that it actually is.


The second article gets into the details of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and it's role in causing hyperinsulimia, diabetes and obesity...and also ties in the role of sugars and carbohydrates in raising dense, artery clogging LDL cholesterol.

From my own anecdotal experience, I have a young 22 year old male relative who came down with a painful case of gout. He went to the Doctor, who simply prescribed him some maintenance medication and told him to take it whenever he had a flair up.

I told him to just cut out HFCS sodas and juices, and to read the labels of anything he ate and make sure it didn't have any HFCS in it, and I bet his gout would go away.

He listened to me, and it went away in 2 weeks.

That stuff really IS poison. Just because it's from a "plant" doesn't mean it's healthy!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Awareness is Percolating


I've been reading various forums of a wide variety of different topics on the internet ever since I got my first computer and logged online back in 1997...with the Manosphere (btw - great all encompassing term for MRA/MGTOW/MRM/FRM/PUA blogosphere) being only one subject matter I discovered in the last 4 years or so.

Up until recently however, I've noticed that in just about any forum regarding whatever topic it's supposed to be focused on, like NFL football, martial arts, science fiction, news websites etc., most participants generally adhere to the politically correct, mainstream, blue-pill mindset on most every topic. Feminism, misogyny, and "equality" are pretty much taken as articles of faith by 90% of the people online.

Issues regarding domestic violence, divorce, adultery, cuckoldry, slutty behavior, non-jugementalism, the family court system, and all the other topics we in the Manosphere are used to discussing and such almost always had a lockstep conformity to the Matriarchy's cultural zeitgeist.

But as of late, I noticed the tide has slowly but surely turning. Awareness is percolating. While most people still don't recognize the full truth in light of the media and the culture's imposed vision of feminist-based mind control, I see more and more people looking at particular issues and raising important points that contradict the mainstream ideas of the Gynocracy. The cognitive dissonance between observed reality versus the socially engineered indoctrination is starting to manifest more and more amongst the brainwashed sheeple.

Take for instance this little news item reported on the NFL tabloid-esque website ProFootballTalk.com, about San Diego Chargers Linebacker, Shawne Merriman:

"Merriman "excited" about fatherhood, "shocked" by lawsuit"
On Thursday, San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman announced on Twitter that he's going to be a father.

"Wanted to wait until after the season to share some exciting news," Merriman tweeted. "I'm going to be Dad. I'm so excited."

But in speaking to the San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday, Merriman's excitement turned to "shock": That's the word Merriman used to describe how he felt when he learned that the mother, Tiffany Horne, filed a paternity case against him in San Diego Superior Court.

"She's a great friend of mine and has been for almost six years now," Merriman said. "There's no denying of any kind of paternity. For this to be even taking place is a shock."

The case is under seal, and there are conflicting comments from lawyers for Horne and Merriman about what kind of case it is. Horne's attorney said, "It's not a paternity suit," while Merriman's attorney called it a "standard paternity case."

Merriman says he thinks the lawsuit stems from a breakdown in communication.


Of course even the tabloid styled website like PFT reports this news item in the neutral, non-judgmental tone of our age of permissive promiscuity and shameless bastardy. But the point I'm making here is found in the comment threads of PFT. A few commenters sound like the regular bloggers and commenters in the Manosphere!



Hey Dummy!
You know someone for 6 months, you knock he up, and you are a Professional athlete, you get served papers? CHA CHING!!!!!!!!
CHILD SUPPORT!!!!!!
Keep up the excitement, you should be real excited giving $15,000 or more a month to a baby youll hardly see. Way to go dummy.................................
LIGHTS OUT!!!!!

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She sees $$$$$$$$$$$$.

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She was "Horne" for Merriman's money!

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Gold diggers! Mount up.

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She's not interested in what's your pants anymore, Shawn... now she wants what's in your wallet!

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Sounds like most of society today. Merriman "shes a great friend" ... I thought you were supposed to have kid with your wife and have a family e.g. the foundation of society.

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I'm pretty sure Merriman could have the best communication skills in the world and he'd still get hit with this lawsuit. Mom is looking to legally document Merriman as father and arrange court-ordered child support. None of this dicking around with "talking" and whatnot.

One wonders what would happen if the courts stopped looking at men as wallets and codified the responsibility of pregnancy as solely that of the mother (after all the law is almost there now anyway re: Row Vs Wade) , whether you'd see a lot of decline of the phenomena of golddiggers and a drop in the single mom birth rate. I'd think it would be guaranteed. But hey, let's not do something to stop unaccountable behavior or anything.

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It's all about child support. Probably a very good move because we all know the well documented history of black athletes and children.

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oh i love when "great friends" turn into "money-grubbing whores"

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This is about money -- lots of tax-free money.

The guideline in CA is that child support for a single child is 20% of the non-custodial parent's after-tax income. Merriman just ended his deal at about $2 million per season, so his after-tax income in 2009 was about $1 million. Based on this, the guideline will be about $200,000 per year, or about $17,000 per month, tax-free to the mother. The court will enter an order along those lines to take effect once the child is born.

That number will also go up proportionately when Merriman gets tagged (as a restricted free agent) or signs a new deal.



Of course, there are a few comments of folks that regurgitate the femtard/white knight/mangina sensibilities...

...but even a just a couple of years ago, you never saw comments of this sort on non-Manosphere sights!

Awareness is percolating.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Our Brave New World Order: Redeux




In January of 2009, I made this post entitled "Our Brave New World Order" that used Neil Postman's comparison and contrast of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984 as a starting point to come up with the many ways in which Huxley's vision of a future dystopia has already come to pass.

12 months later, Jim Quinn, a Lew Rockwell.com columnist, has done the same thing...but with more details, including statistics, graphs and tables to make the same point that I had arrived at intuitively.

As Lew Rockwell.com put it in their hyperlink to Quinn's Brave New World - 2009 article, "Read Orwell and Huxley to understand America."

He leads off with a great quote from Huxley:

"Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history."

~ Aldous Huxley


This is precisely what I think whenever I encounter people that express the idea that we human beings as a society, are "more advanced and evolved" than our forbears of the past.

So many people mistake technological advancement and luxurious existence afforded by technology for the evolution of a 'better humanity.'

Such fools never realize that it is precisely through the use of advanced technology that they are controlled, enslaved and they don't even realize it.

Quinn than goes to draw the parallels between Huxley's fictional society that governs cultural sexuality and reproduction with our current reality:


The novel takes place in the year 2540 in London. The disturbing aspect is that we are now in the year 2009 and much of Huxley’s vision has come to fruition. At the heart of the World State’s control of its population is its rigid control over sexual mores and reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are controlled through an authoritarian system that sterilizes about two-thirds of women, requires the rest to use contraceptives, and surgically removes ovaries when it needs to produce new humans. The act of sex is controlled by a system of social rewards for promiscuity and lack of commitment.


Of course the primary difference is that we don't have an authoritarian system that sterilizes 2/3rds of all women, nor do they require women to use contraceptives. That is not really necessary. Turns out that through indoctrination via mass media culture and institutionalized conditioning (our entire educational system), the system of social rewards for promiscuity and the lack of commitment have been more than enough to institute voluntary adherence to the elite's population control agenda.

As Quinn notes:

The United States has restricted population growth through a number of methods. Abortion on demand was made the law of the land in 1973. Since that date 50 million abortions have been performed in the U.S.

---

Over 12 million women in the U.S. use the pill (available since 1960) on a daily basis in order to avoid pregnancy. The morning after pill was introduced in 1999. Planned Parenthood, created in 1916, has 850 locations in the United States offering easy access to abortions and other forms of contraception. The net result of these government-supported efforts has been to cut the birth rate in half in the last century.


There is no need of authoritarian enforcement of a population control agenda if you can influence the masses to accept it willingly and eagerly on their own. This is precisely what the feminist agenda set out to accomplish, population control, both literally and figuratively.

Quinn also drew parallels between the caste system of Huxley's novel and the conditioning members of each caste received to America's current socio-economic caste system:

Those in control of America also use conditioning and teaching to keep the lower classes in their place. The ruling elite send their children to exclusive private schools, grooming them for Harvard, Yale and Stanford. This guarantees they will be given the high-level positions in business and government. After decades of pumping billions of tax dollars into public schools while instituting politically correct diversity programs to dumb down the curriculum, the ruling elite have conditioned a vast swath of Americans to care more about Tiger Woods’ driving and night putting skills than about the National Debt or the insidiousness of Federal Reserve–induced inflation.


Oh yes, as a country, we most certainly have been deliberately dumbed down by our public school system.

Quinn's next point compares the Bread and Circuses to distract the masses of Huxley's novel and our current entertainment-industrial complex:

Another technological method of keeping the masses tranquilized and distracted in the Brave New World is through high-tech sports and entertainment. Sport is a pillar of the World State consisting of various games and activities which use high-tech equipment. Another key aspect of entertainment is the "feelies." Users rest their hands on metal knobs protruding from the arms of their chair, allowing them to feel the physical sensations of the actors on-screen (usually in sexually-themed films). The mass production of HDTVs, CD players, Laptop computers, Blackberries, iPhones, iPods, luxury automobiles and other electronic toys distributed to the masses through easy credit policies has successfully distracted the populace from the pillaging of the country by the Alphas at Goldman Sachs. The feelies of today are 24-hour cable TV with 600 stations, downloadable movies, an unlimited amount of free porn on the internet, strip joints, and prostitution. Sports addicts can attend baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, wrestling, boxing, auto racing, and Michael Vick sponsored dog-fighting events year round, or watch it on TV 24 hours per day. With mindless jobs and unlimited distractions, the preponderance of citizens are as docile as sheep.


We the Sheeple indeed!

Quinn than compares our wasteful, consumer culture to the same mentality in the socially engineered culture of Brave New World:

Our economic advancement has been marketed to Americans as "true happiness from consumption." Every need can be realized through material gain. Success as a society is measured by GDP growth and the façade of prosperity. In Brave New World children are conditioned from birth to value consumption with such platitudes as "ending is better than mending," which means buy a new one instead of fixing the old one. America has become the definitive throwaway society.


The wasteful consumption and throwaway mentality are often used to indict "Free Market Capitalism." I believe that true free market capitalism worked just fine when Americans used to have a much different attitude towards consumerism, thrift, savings and valuing what you did have and making it last. The 'disposable' economy is the direct product of the subversion of free market capitalism into our current reality of "crony capitalism" or corporatist fascism.

The mass media is owned and controlled by mega-corporations run by the Alphas of our society. Colleges graduate thousands of people with the skills to manipulate the uninformed masses through advertising and propaganda. What passes for news organizations are just propaganda machines for a particular point of view. The public is distracted by the seemingly major differences between the two main political parties. The reality is that both parties are controlled by banking and corporate interests who pay for the laws that benefit their interests.


This is precisely the hardest point to try and get so many people to understand - that our two party system is a grand sham of political theater, and that both the donkeys and the elephants are not as different as the Corporate Government media complex would like you to think...remember:

Government Regulation + Industry = Cartel

Cartel = Corporatism

Corporatism = Economic Fascism


Quinn than compared our current reality, our technological advancement and material wealth with even recent previous generations:

The United States is the richest most powerful country in the history of the world. Our poorest live better than the aristocracy lived 100 years ago. We have indoor plumbing, air-conditioning, heaters, clean water, automobiles, trains, jet airplanes, televisions, CD players, portable gadgets galore, free public education, fast food, gyms to work off the fast food, movies, the internet, restaurants, bars, concerts, sporting events, casinos, home improvement stores, grocery stores, discount stores, Wal-Mart, clothes stores, jewelry stores, dollar stores, churches, Disney World, Las Vegas, and Graceland. These are the "things" that are supposed to make Americans happy. Going into the woods alone, like Thoreau, to think is frowned upon. The propagandists sell the American public happiness in the form of material goods and services. If you don’t feel happy, take a pill. If you aren’t happy with your appearance have plastic surgery. If your spouse isn’t making you happy, cheat or get a divorce and try again. If your neighbor outdoes you by getting a $20,000 kitchen remodel, get yourself a $40,000 kitchen remodel. Happiness is a 6,000 sq ft McMansion with 5 bathrooms, a pool, game room, and Jacuzzi for your family of three. Having your neighbors see you driving a BMW 750Li will surely make you happy. Wearing a Rolex will definitely make you happy. If you die with the most toys, you’re still dead. Until reading a book to your three-year-old at bedtime is valued more than staying at the office until 10:00 pm to complete an investment offering, our society is destined for decline.


Destined? We are already well on our way along that particular trajectory!

In reconsidering Neal Postman's comparison and contrast of 1984 and Brave New World, Quinn concludes:

Our civilization has fused the worst of both novels. Many people in our country aren’t capable of reading a book. Supposedly educated people have no interest in reading a book. The government withholds or manipulates information that is spoon-fed to the public. Trivial meaningless information floods the airwaves, keeping the public continuously diverted from seeking truth. The truth is lost in shades of grey and purposeful misinformation. Supposed differences between the ruling parties distract the public from realizing they are being fleeced by those in power. Government has used fear to create agencies and departments that have taken away our liberties and freedoms through Orwellian surveillance techniques. Our dumbed-down culture of hero worship, material pleasures, and ego enhancement is the representation of triviality. The Alphas have used our fears and desires to distract us from their plans to dominate and control every aspect of our lives. Their success is all but assured at this point.



Brave New World was written in 1931. So much he described has come to pass, I no longer think it was some sort of coincidence. Huxley most definitely had some kind of exposure to the inside knowledge of the plans and machinations of the Global elite and their goals in socially engineering the Brave New World Order we all live in today.


Thursday, January 14, 2010

A Game Concept Demonstrated on American Idol



Yes, as I've admitted before, I watch American Idol.

On a tangential note, Uzem & Luzem's comment on that thread was pretty good, and he's absolutely right, I shouldn't feel the need to have to explain why I watch this show...nevertheless, I do feel that need to explain myself because I know that I often write about how Television programming in general consists of mostly feminist drivel and propaganda used as a brainwashing device for social engineering much of our society's present pathologies, and that I typically only watch football and MMA.

In addition to being a musician myself who enjoys watching real musical talent manifest in other people, I also find A.I. to be a pretty insightful look into the current state of our culture. The entitlement mentality, the narcissism, the solipsism, and the vanity are in abundance amongst the many hopeful auditioners...but than we also see glimmers of hope - jewels amongst the rabble - real people with admirable personalities, qualities and talent that still exist amongst the masses of dumbed down sheeple in our BraveNewWorldOrder...but I digress.

So what is this "game" concept I'm referring to here? Other than the most obvious, which is of course, that Simon is the perfect example of an "Alpha" personality that certainly has "Game," one particular audition really stuck out for me on Monday nights show, the first of the new season, in Boston, MA.

Auditioner Andrew Fenlon provided a perfect example of how a good looking, handsome man (my wife said he looks like a young Rob Lowe) with bad social skills...no self awareness or clue about social dynamics, quickly kills female attraction with his interpersonal ineptitude.

Watch the following YouTube clip and you'll see what I mean.



Andrew swaggers into the room, apparently brimming with confidence. Randy Jackson is the first to react to his presence with a "YYeaah!" You can hear it in Jackson's voice "Now HERE'S a DUDE!"

Note Kara DiGuardia's initial reaction when a tall, handsome man walks into the room with a swagger of the confident Alpha... you can hear DiGuardia's appreciation for his physical appearance with her enthusiastic "HELLLLO!"

Than watch Victoria Beckham sit up in her seat and say "Hi!" with a look of interest on her face. You could almost hear both women's thoughts "Aaaahhh, finally, we got ourselves a looker!"

Than the dude opens his mouth and comes across as a George Sodini type of psycho. His attitude and demeanor are precisely what even pre-teen girls recognize as "CREEPY." He alternates between socially autistic anger and contrite apology when Simon calls him on his demeanor.

While I can't find the clips of his pre- and post- audition interviews with Ryan Seacrest on YouTube, there was something about this guy in those clips that made me think that he was an act...a put on, to deliberately spice up the show. Nevertheless, I do think the reactions of the judges to his initial appearance and subsequent anger at his attitude were real.

This was in fact a very good demonstration in the differences between male and female attraction cues.

Men are primarily visual...most men would have no problem having sex with a woman whose looks were movie star grade, but who's personality was terrible. Such a woman is the perfect candidate for the pump and dump.

But from a woman's perspective, physical appearance is NEVER enough. An off putting demeanor, or a "creepy vibe" will quickly turn a woman's initial attraction into a gut-wrenching, seething disgust and contempt. While DiGuardia claims her anger is based on this guy's impatience when other people wait years for the same chance sounds plausible, I think this reaction from her demonstrates perfectly a female's visceral reaction of disgust at the idea of being fooled by the appearance of an Alpha who has the social skills of an Omega.

At the 3:27 point of the clip, DiGuardia pretty much says as much...

"You know what Simon, you have an attitude, but you're at least charming!"


If this dude would have been ugly and acted in the same manner, she probably would have laughed at him rather than get so upset at his lack of "charm."

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Harried Husband Excuse


I dodged two bullets this morning while driving in to work.

The second bullet was a typical event in which traffic during rush hour came to an unexpected stop and I missed being rear ended by a van by mere inches. That was a close one.

But the first bullet is rather amusing in hindsight...

After dropping my wife off at work this morning, I did a "Hollywood" stop at an intersection, and got pulled over by a law officer. I also didn't have the most recently updated proof of insurance card in my vehicle, and the officer informed me that I had been speeding after failing to come to a full stop at a stop sign.

He began to lecture me on how my driving was reckless and a danger to pedestrians and other drivers...and he wanted to know why I was driving like that.

I lied.

I said that I was dropping my wife off for work, and that we were late, and that she was yelling at me for making her late, so that after dropping her off, I was a little amped up, and not driving safely because of that...and that I was sorry.

The officer than told me "Oh boy, I know how that one goes. Look, I'll let you off this time...just make sure you don't make her late again. It's hard to deal with an angry wife first thing in the morning."

I said, "I hear ya. Thanks for the break!"

LMAO.

Thank goodness the officer that pulled me over was obviously married to a woman for which he lives in fear of her emotional state...playing on his sympathies got me out of over $300 in tickets and an appearance in court to show my current insurance card.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Yes, They Most Certainly Want You to Be Helpless


I ended my last post with: "Our educational system was designed precisely to condition our children into docile dependency and mindless conformity...the hallmark characteristics of sheeple."

I forgot to add defenseless and vulnerable...just like a sheep led to slaughter.

Reading this post by Talleyrand in which he notes how school indoctrinate students with the following values:

Don’t be a bully (also known as all violence is evil, even when you defend yourself, be a rat instead and go to the teacher authority figure)


This reminded me of an incident I experienced when I was in the seventh grade.

I used to get bullied all the time -- as I've written about before, I was raised by a domineering mother who constantly told me it was wrong to fight, that I should always tell the teachers/school people if I was being bullied or attacked, etc. In one instance, a particular kid used to bully me all the time, and one day I just got sick of it.

I didn't have the courage, knowledge or experience to stand up to him at that age, but when he tried to make me give up my seat on the school bus one day because he wanted to sit next to the window, I simply refused to move.

He began to threaten me, but I was angry and fed up with the bullying, and I just ignored him.

He jumped on me and began to pound on me relentlessly, and I never fought back. I just covered up and waited for someone else to rescue me.

Since this was after school, this occurred while we were boarding the bus while still on School grounds, and the lady bus driver summoned the security guards (who were always stationed at the bus stop area after school) to come onto the bus and 'Breakup the fight' (more like a one-sided beat-down of yours truly).

I will never forget the looks of pity and contempt from the girls on the bus (particularly the girl I had a crush on at the time), and disgust from my friends, as the guards grabbed me and the bully and escorted us off the bus. See, this was a "fight" so I had to be dragged to the Vice Principals office at the same time as the bully.

Needless to say, the bus driver came into the office and told the Vice Principal what had actually happened, that I had not fought back, that this kid attacked me, and I did nothing wrong.

The VP began to berate the bully, he began crying, and the VP literally walked over and began to pat my head and rub my shoulders. I don't remember what she said, but she gave him a 3 day suspension and a month of detention and told him he was not allowed to ride the bus home that day, they were going to call his parents to come pick him up. She than told him to go to the bathroom and wash his face.

When he left, she began to praise me for "not fighting" and for being a good boy etc. I don't remember her precise words, but it was praise. She essentially patted me on the back and reinforced the notion that I was a model student for "non-violence." She called my mom and told her what happened, and put me on the phone with her so that my mom could tell me how proud she was of me for not fighting back.

To this day, the memory of this event fills me with nausea. It's one of my primary motivations I've had in pushing myself to train martial arts for so hard and for so long. That sense of helplessness, weakness and impotence in the face of violence has hurt and scarred me far more than the punches the bully reigned down on me that day.

I was teased by many boys and my friends for weeks after that for being a "wimp" and a "pussy" and a "fag" for not fighting back. It was utterly disgraceful, and I wouldn't even look at, much less talk to the girl I had a crush on for months after wards. That was probably the biggest blow to my 13 year old self-esteem; knowing the one girl I was head over heels infatuated with, was there to witness my humiliation that day. While that boy never did bully me again (I think he got into a lot of trouble with his own parents for being suspended), other bullies knew an easy target when they saw one. The bullying on me over the next few years by others intensified and escalated. It only ended when I finally fought back against a bully when I was a sophmore in high school.

Knowing I was getting bullied mercilessly, my Father took me on the side one day -- well out of ear shot of my mother for fear she would hear him and yell at him for teaching us kids to be violent -- and he told me that the next time I got bullied, I should punch the kid right in the nose as hard as I could. Even if the bully proceeded to kick my ass, it would end my bullying problems, because bullies will only pick on kids that are easy victims who take it.

My Dad's advice worked, I did get my ass kicked, but I did bust up a bully's nose pretty badly, and I no longer got bullied much from that day forward.

I just wish my Dad did not let my mother cooperate with the School system in making me a docile victim several years earlier.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Most People Are Sheeple





Most People Are Sheeple


This little rhyme has been running through my mind as of late.

I think it every time I stand at a crosswalk, and see groups of people standing there, mindlessly waiting for the blinking white "Walk" light before they proceed to cross the street while texting on their iPhones...when any observant person can easily see no oncoming traffic for hundreds of yards in either direction. Do you really need a blinking light to tell you it's safe to cross a street with no oncoming cars in sight?

I think it every time I stand in line at a grocery store and see some morbidly obese person with a cart full of processed, packaged junk "food" products, or the long lines of cars cued up at the fast food restaurant drive throughs. Can you not see yourself in the mirror everyday and make the connection between the junk in your trunk and the junk you put into your mouth?

I think it every time I see someone with an Obama or a "GO Green!" bumper sticker on their sub-compact, hybrid car driving precisely at the speed limit in the left hand lane of the freeway, oblivious to the people behind them trying to pass the even slower senior citizens clogging up the other lanes. Do you really think anyone is impressed by your expressed support for "Our Most Historical President Ever?" Do you really think sporting environmental slogans on your hybrid vehicles are doing your part in "saving the planet?"

I think it every time I hear people discussing how "terrible Tiger Woods" is. Hello....if Tiger had been the one to hit his cheating spouse with a golf club, no one would be calling HIM a victim or worthy of a multi-million dollar divorce settlement!

I am finding myself experiencing a continually diminishing threshold of tolerance for the indoctrinated behaviors and beliefs manifesting themselves in the brainwashed citizenry of our BraveNewWorldOrder.

And it all goes back to the very root of our problem...the institutionalized, bureaucratic system that we call "Public Education" that is largely responsible for churning out a population of sheeple, easily herded, cajoled and controlled by their Tell-A-Visions.



Former public school teacher, and author of Legally STUPiD: Why Johnny doesn’t have to read, R C Murray, uses Orwell's term, Proles, which is pretty much the same thing as "sheeple" in his recent article, Our Prole-Producing Schools.

In order to fix any problem, we have to identify the source of the problem, and although there are at least seven principal malefactors I’d blame for our big government problem, I blame our public schools the most. In fact, I’ve made it my life’s goal to tell all Americans why they shouldn’t have their children in public schools.

For four years I taught in and fought The System, which is not the failure many folks think it to be. For 150 years, public schools have been doing exactly what they were designed to do – produce proles – that functionally illiterate class of people Orwell saw as the “hope” for Oceania, a fictional country ruled over by an all-powerful government called The Party or simply Big Brother. Do you think it’s coincidental the current administration talks so much about hope to his disciple-constituents, the majority of whom can barely read and write and who pay no taxes?


While I certainly agree with R C Murray's main point here, I don't think the goal is illiteracy...after all, you need all the proles -- sheeple -- to be able to at least have somewhat competent reading skills so they can read and absorb all of the official propaganda in print and on Tell-a-Vision. What the schools really do is produce a mass of people who are incapable of original thought...people who mindlessly submit to authority and willingly do as they are told; to know their PLACE.

Individual knowledge and personal beliefs too often conflict with government goals. This is the reason for one of today’s teaching strategies, “Group Learning.” Those diverse learners mentioned earlier cannot understand what they read (if they can read at all), and they can’t explain their thoughts (if they have any) in writing, so they need help. Public schools now place at least one accelerated-gifted student with two or three diverse learners in a “small group setting” in which they “work together” to complete a learning project.

In reality, the AG student does all the work, but everybody gets the same passing grade. No child gets left behind. In Legally STUPiD, I satirically propose “Group Testing” for all standardized tests. One AG student is paired with two diverse learners (a.k.a., proles) who simply copy his or her answers on their score sheet.

It’s a learning experience for everyone. The AG student learns his or her role as a productive member of society whose taxes are necessary to support the non-productive proles depending on him. The proles learn to support politicians who support them with entitlement programs. In a nutshell, this is how our Constitutional republic has become a socialist state!


Now THAT would be an education in how the "REAL" world in today's America works...

Another public school teacher, Jerome Kohn also contributed to today's LewRockwell.com with an article, When a School Gets Sick, which goes into more details on the current situation with regards to the latest initiatives being carried out in our "Public Education" system:

Being a libertarian, I have never been comfortable working in a government-run public school, but a PowerPoint presentation at a recent faculty meeting made me realize just how monstrous the system really is. The presentation was on something called RTI (Response to Intervention), and it began with a slide entitled "When a kid gets sick..." While RTI is hailed as a revolutionary new approach, it is really just an old practice dressed up in new jargon. With both RTI and its predecessor, nonperforming or uncooperative students are identified and treated as if they suffer from some kind of illness.

In either case, the process typically ends with parents seated at a long conference table facing grim-faced teachers, administrators, counselors, social workers and perhaps even a psychiatrist all armed with file folders full of evaluations and test results. The remedy these "experts" prescribe usually involves placement in some Special Education program (i.e. low expectations dumping ground) and sometimes even the prescription of some dangerous mind-altering drug like Ritalin. Few parents ever object to or question these measures. Many parents even insist on them believing this special treatment is necessary to help their "ill" child. Supporters of RTI may protest that they are only trying to help and that Special Education or drugs are only last resorts. That may be true, but they fail to see the stigma attached to the child being labeled and processed like some kind of lab rat, and they fail to acknowledge the record of failure for all of their "interventions." Most important, they fail to even consider that the problem may be with the school and not with the child.


May? I think it's an almost certainty! More specifically, it's little boys who are naturally rambunctious and inquisitive who are simply out of place in the strict, regimented and dumbed-down curriculum of our BraveNewSchools who are deemed "ill" and dosed up on Ritalin.

But everyone knows about how the system does a disservice to the "special education" students...the learning disabled and intellectually challenged students caught in the gears of the system.

I found Kohn's other point much more illuminating in diagnosing the true purpose of our education system - his observations of the "gifted and talented" students. The "achievers." Those kids deemed "bright."

Being labeled gifted means entering a fiercely competitive world of point mongering and grade grubbing. Honor students work extraordinarily hard to please their teachers and other authority figures. In academics, they fight for every point and are always looking for "extra credit." Typically, the parents of these students are also highly involved (i.e. applying pressure) and express tremendous concern about their son’s or daughter’s grades. At parent-teacher conferences, it is only grades in fact that come up for discussion – never learning. For the honor student, getting a "C" (and for some even a "B") on a major test, project or (God forbid!) on a report card brings on a personal and family crisis. It never occurs to these students or to their parents that these grades are merely the subjective evaluations of their teachers who know little to nothing about the person they are evaluating. Indeed, the parents know little to nothing about the teacher doing the evaluating.

Nevertheless, the honor student’s self-esteem and parental approval is completely tied to the teacher-assigned letter grades. In addition to obsessing over grades, honor students also join many clubs and go out for competitive sports. Many times they do this because they actually enjoy such activity, but just as often they join for the same reason they fight for grades – because it is expected of them and because they believe it is the key to getting into a big-name university. The life of the typical honor student is a life of frenetic activity, competition, homework and anxiety. Rarely is there time for reflection, solitude or contentment. Upon graduation from high school, many honor students know only that they are to go to college. As for what they want to do with their lives or what their real passion is, most have no clue. Many will never know.


I remember when I was in 5th grade, and my Mother tried to get me to enter the "gifted and talented" program at my school. My testing scores put me in the top percentile in my class, but the G&T teacher told my Mother that she wouldn't accept me into her class because of my behavioral and attitude problems (I spent many an afternoon in detention or in the Vice Principal's office getting yelled at).

I remember at that time feeling devastated by her rejection. I knew most of the kids in that G&T class, and I KNEW I had the intelligence to match or surpass most of them in educational achievement. Now I laugh at the memory of my rejection. I have always had a problem with mindless submission to authority, and after thinking about what Kohn relates here, I'm now 100% sure the G&T teacher was absolutely right in denying my admittance into her program.

Still, Kohn's most relevant point that resonates with me is this:

As for learning, most adults I know have forgotten most of the subjects they allegedly learned in school (even those they got A’s and B’s in), and what they do remember is usually politically correct nonsense. Witness how many parents are unable to help their children with their homework. We learn only those things we genuinely want to learn.

Forcing students to take classes in subjects they are either uninterested in or not ready for is pointless and only frustrates student and teacher alike. At best, teachers in our public schools are mere entertainers filling the dreary hours of the school day. Despite all the clever classroom activities, worksheets, and projects, how many former high school honor students ten years after graduation can still factor a quadratic equation, prove a geometry theorem or explain and classify the different types of rock in the Earth’s crust? Unless they are professional mathematicians or geologists, who really cares if they can?


This is so true on so many different levels.

I spent 5 years in my State University. I took all sorts of different courses to satisfy my liberal arts curriculum requirements. I had a cumulative 3.6 gpa in 5 years of college...and yet there are only a few classes I attended in which I learned something that sticks with me to this day, 10 years later.

But those things I endeavored on my own to study and practice? Like playing musical instruments, or martial arts? I genuinely wanted to learn those things, and I certainly gave myself a real education in those areas of my interest...no degrees, institutional hoop-jumping and other bureaucratic institutionalization were required for me to seek out a true education.

Unfortunately, it seems the only thing students actually do remember from their government-provided education is the government’s propaganda. One has to wonder, in fact, if such indoctrination has been the purpose of government schooling all along. How else but through indoctrination does one explain people’s willingness to vote to raise their own taxes, sacrifice themselves or their children to the government’s military, or continue to hold to an almost cult-like belief in a system that has an unbroken record of failure? To get a sense of the damage, compare the attitude of today’s typical American with that of our non-schooled ancestors. The spirited self-reliance, daring and individualism that once defined the American character have been replaced by a docile dependency and mindless conformity.


I wonder no longer. Our educational system was designed precisely to condition our children into docile dependency and mindless conformity...the hallmark characteristics of sheeple.