Why Do We Believe The Things We Cannot Know

What matters most to you as an individual?

What do you have real and meaningful control or influence over in your life?

The conflict between these two simple questions is driving modern mankind insane. Why would we believe we should take action regarding assertions we have no way of confirming on issues we have absolutely no control over while—and as a direct result—floundering in the areas that are of great importance to us personally and that are under our control and/or influence?

We see this everywhere and at all times. I see it in myself quite regularly. All of us have things to do that would be to our great advantage that we let lapse and we use that time to form and internalize hardened opinions on something we can't possibly know a thing about. It does not help that our leaders are busy voting on legislation that they have not read and do not understand. We must feel that since our leaders do it, we should too. Now that is #@!&* insane. It's just the craziest thing ever if you think about it. We insist on putting forth propositions based on premises with no evidence. And we do this because we think we have evidence—because we saw it on TV, read about it on an internet news site, or heard about it from people who have similar biases, some of whom are so evil that they commission "studies" to support previously reached conclusions. The energies we put into the thoughts and consideration of things we have absolutely no control over, as the stuff we can influence/control falls apart as it stares us in the face, boggles the mind.

I am starting to think that this is not just phenomenon. I am becoming convinced that some kind of fairy or pixie or mini-drone or gremlin is flying around our heads and when we are not looking they are blowing sh#! in our face that we breathe in and this stuff causes us to self-destruct.  Or maybe the fluorescent lighting is telling our bodies to secrete a hormone that causes hypocrisy (just in case: tongue firmly in cheek!). Whatever it is it seems to make us want to take on the misfortunes of billions of strangers—as if we could do anything about it—by hiring tens of thousands of government thugs with guns, dogs, clubs, and jail cells, when we should be concerned about the expanding blob taking shape in the mirror, or the sullen kid taking up space at the kitchen table furiously thumbing away at the distraction device he has been provided with to help pass the time of his sentence in suburbia, or if you want to get really heroic by becoming good and real neighbors.

We see this nonsense all the time. We are castigated to do something about the homeless by a person who binge-watches Netflix but who have never strapped on a tool belt, or to do something about the environment by people who have not put up a &^%$# clothesline, or having to listen to someone breaking their arm patting themselves on the back because they are helping save the earth from exceeding its carrying capacity by not having children (while their social interests have no possible risk of conception). We are all guilty.

The truly nutty take it a step further. They get "active", i.e. doing things that now cause actual harm—things like protests and marches or engaging in deception—rather than just being pathetically ineffective and hypocritical. These folks have stepped it up to criminal and haughty. That's a heck of a combination.

But there is good news. At any time of our choosing we can stop the drama of pretending to matter on some national or international issue—becasue we don't—and get "active" (goodness, I hate that word) locally: Have a FAMILY! Run for dog catcher, volunteer to put up a neighborhood vegetable garden, or organize transportation for elderly neighbors to go grocery shopping or to have some company. Whatever. Anything is better than social justice warring and virtue signaling. There are lots to do. In our community, it happens all time with no organizational effort required. On a regular basis, there is someone at my door who needs a ride to town, has a calf stuck in a cow, or needs help loading a deer onto a field wagon (we get some strange opportunities engage in real community in my 'hood). And I find myself at least as often knocking on my neighbors' doors to help me get the hay in, or catch an errant horse, or hold up the other end of whatever broke that day—but that's the way it is in small communities. It might take a little more effort to actually accomplish something—rather than virtue signal—in the city or in a suburb, but with a little effort, and if we completely ignore national and international politics, I think some measure of "community" can be had. Certainly more than is had now.

Of course, there is a huge difference between politics and policy and ethics and morality. Discussing ethics and morality are incredibly important for human development. And while confusing the inherent violence of politics and policy for ethical and moral conduct, and the conflicts and social miasma that error creates is the crux of the problem, we do not have to participate in any of this as individuals. The power structure that wishes to consume the energies of our lives to further their agenda can best be defeated by ignoring them, by refusing to fund them, and spending all of that wasted energy and resources "locally". I place that in quotes because most of us do not have a "local" anything anymore, and it was this power structure that stole that from us. We have been convinced to migrate to large population centers so that we can live without family or children, stacked up on top of each other like cordwood while remaining strangers, taxed into submission, breathing the air of traffic jams and office chemicals, in search of "elite employment"—all the while  operating in a complex and nefarious social environment that has as one of its imperatives a need to convince us that we are immortal. (No one sends us a note when we have "aged out"—and we will all "age out" (if we are lucky). This hits some people harder than others going by the demographic data on anti-depressant and anti-psychotic meds).

To date, most of the "localism" propaganda we have been hit with has come from aging hippies (and other aging deviants) in deep regret of a misspent youth—but I have come around to thinking that they are really onto something, in much the way that I think the recent regathering in Quaker philosophy is on to something. But there is a key ingredient missing—a path to the future for the generations to come. No children = no future. People can—and will—argue from the margins: "Lots of children at our Meeting!" But any rational examination of this will only show that we are busy going extinct—again. Aging out. Dying off. By rejecting reality we sow the seeds of our own demise. Condemned to online "retirement communities" of virtue signaling in an effort to compensate for earlier failures. But we have credentials and approvals from the self-destructive power structure, so it's all good!

The cities can flourish temporarily via immigration (well, until they run out of immigrants) from the countryside—but local communities must be self-reinforcing. They must provide their own building blocks of "Community"—children. The evidence is all around us: Well adjusted children and functioning adults come from a culture of respect for family and private property (the accumulation and maintenance of "capital" or "surplus" to be passed on to future generations). Feminism/collectivism and the rejection of family and private property yield empty nurseries, obesity/tattoos/piercings/opioids (self-harm/mutilation), and lots of "crazy aunt in the attic" syndrome—before causing the culture to die out altogether. This is not a rejection of their humanity. It is a rejection of the philosophies and sensibilities that always leads to oblivion. Of course, the individual should be free to pursue oblivion. Now, if only misery did not just love company. But misery does love company, and the examination of this falls under ethics and morality and not dreaded national and international politics and policy.

More soon,

QIASL

















#Simplicity #Integrity #Localism #Community #Feminism #Authoritarianism #PrivateProperty #Liberty #Family #Abortion #Collectivism #Authoritarianism #Family #Quaker #Philosophy #Libertarian