language for manipulation, exaggeration and hypocrisy continues from the moderation problem.
Most human communication is rubbish.
Through observing the increasing numbers of psychological mistakes originating from popular mass media and other opinionators, abelard pinpoints how current language damages society's mental and social fabric.
"The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons." [1]
"Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together
again in new shapes of your own choosing." [2]
"How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.”
“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three.
Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder." [2]
the meaning of survival in the human state
A great deal of human behaviour is driven by blind survival drives.
Humans are becoming conscious, and need to understand how to control those drives, otherwise they will wreck the planet and themselves with it.
The prime inherited drives are to breed and to not be eaten.
Humans are often a damn nuisance to each other.
They form collectives which interfere with their ability to get on with their own lives.
Yet, if they do not form collectives, other collectives attempt to invade and thus otherwise to disrupt their lives.
Thus they tax each other, they tend to war against each other, instead of getting on with their own quiet and productive lives.
Much of the abelard.org website describes the logic of just getting on with your lives.
But then comes the irrationalist, collective pressures.
However, if you are not part of a collective, for instance a nation, you are vulnerable to any highwayman or opportunist dirt bag.
Thus there is a conflict between your independence and your simple wish to be left alone.
These insecurities tend to drive most people to overvalue money and commit all manner of crimes to get their hands on money.
breaking paranoia's positive feedbacks
Paranoia sets up dangerous positive feedbacks.
The black is paranoid of the police, and so acts negative, suspicious, uncooperative.
So the police learn to expect it.
In turn, they become nervous, irritable.
Thence blacks, gypsies or other minorities in turn learn to distrust police (and other would-be 'authorities') .
This is a generalised problem in human behaviour.
It cannot be stopped until people learn better people skills.
Thus, it is better that such skills taught systematically in society.
nightmare! the corruption of language
emotion displaces reason
I doubt that I could ever emphasise adequately the vast amount of fiction and just so stories that parade in the rhetoric and drivel that is served up by politicians and media as commentary upon everyday happenstance. This is all organised by monkeys seeking to enhance their control over resources (and money). It is all wrapped up in a tinsel of adjectives and emotional superfluidity.
Reporters and politicians destroy the language as they encourage people to emote instead of to think.
You may string together longer words to make non-sense, just as you
may string short words,
and vice-versa.
It is time for some lists of fashionable non-words, with their translations. These words are often subjective to the person using them and so intended to influence the recipient to mutually agree or disapprove :
non-word
word
non-word
word
nightmare
minor disturbance
moment of truth
what happens next
disgrace
minor mistake
justice
what we want, frequently money
outrage
minor problem
victim, survivor
upset, looking for sympathy/compensation
perfect storm
coincidence
two events ('problems' happening at the same time
• to be honest
• to be perfectly frank and honest
• to be clear
I am about to lie to you
normally I lie to you
make history
winning a goal in an obscure football game
tragic deaths
I am a good person who cares.
Now a death cannot be mentioned without adding 'tragic' (or else 'sadly')
I need
we need
I want
awesome, super cool,
110%, wonderful,
amazing,
spot-on,
important, hugely massive
good, person or action that is approved of
We, everybody, most people
I, me
the country wants
my constituency....
the party...
I want
[often used by politicians]
cool
(originally, a colder temperature)
I like/approve
clever, good, original to me
self-esteem
encouraging a person to believe that they can do a task that in reality they cannot (a belief that they are more capable than ability warrants)
significantly
massive
greatly
largely
many
most
huge
is not a number
closure
revenge
we're making progress
we're far behind
feisty
badly behaved, aggressive
banter
aggressive comments and chatter
patriotic
common-sense
the adults in the room
agrees with me
I can't wait!
Please, please, don't change channel to something less boring
aristocrats
tax inspectors
policemen
people above the law
someone who does not agree with me
scapegoats
I don't understand the subject, but I intend to bluff my way through
I will blather
that's a good, a brilliant question
patronising
I will now blather, or dodge the question
I've not thought about this but...
... now to dodge or blather
Much use of language involves just so stories. Every salesman seeks supposed advantages for her victim, let alone politicians or even reporters. Thus, the estate agent doesn't tell you about the problem with the drains. Every barrister in court tells you butter wouldn't melt in the mouth of his client, or else the defendant's the worst monster since Stalin. And so it goes on, not a seeking for facts but attempts to distort, confuse, and to gain advantage. Most humans are not very nice, but we do the best we can.
People make up just so stories that embellish, or justify, or absolve their actions - "I am a victim", "I had no choice", or provide 'virtue signalling'. Other , mostly visual, just so stories claim a country's racial make up to be the inverse of reality.
exciting, inciting behaviours in others
Humans spend much of their time trying to excite and incite other human monkeys into doing what they want others to do, rather than encouraging those people (monkeys) to act in their own interests.
Unfortunately, humans are remarkably inclined to states of excitement. This may work for a band of chimpanzees, or a football crowd, but it is not a wise behaviour for reasoning beings. It may even have worked for bands of warring tribes, but it is suicidally self-destructive for modern societies.
narcissism
People are not narcissists, they do not seek control.
These labels are attempts to control the narrative of other people.
narcissistic
"I'd rather they do what I want them to do, not what they are trying to do themselves that they decided themselves to do." All sounds rather narcissistic to me!
detecting fake emotions
While observing interviews and interactions, I am reminded of an amusing but trivial film which illustrates the fake emotions used to manipulate those less capable of independent thought and analysis. Noticeable is the repeated expression, "Put on your happy face."
You may notice politicians and the like nod their head as they say something affirmative and shake their head as they say something negative. A method of trying to force 'the targets' into agreeing with whatever they are saying, however foolish the speaker's assertions may be.
"A feigned smile, such as one we make for a photographer, often continues for more than four or five seconds, by which time most authentic expressions have faded. Feigned smiles also get switched on more abruptly and off more abruptly than a genuine smile."
[paraphrased from Bugental, p.399]
You can see this continuously on the faces of participants of television advertisements.
Isn't it about time people stopped slagging off poor old Herod?
Surely paranoid Putin has already killed more baybees?
And what about
other previous babee (and adult) killers like Hitler or Stalin?
For how long can you hold grudges?
Maybe Maigret has a point, "Hatred is a disease. It makes you enjoy things that must not be enjoyed."[3, with video excerpt and comments]
That includes things like anger, revenge, rancour, resentment, spite, and other physical and emotional violences.
We have quite enough problems with our latest mass murders without dwelling on those of a hundred years ago, let alone 2,000 years past.
We don't need rhetoric to keep alive old fires of hatred.
We need the will to stop those in the present age.
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bibliography
Conduct of Life: A Philosophical Reading by Ralph Waldo Emerson
This edition is an illustrated reproduction of the original edition.
We have not included any paperback editions because the publishers of these appear to think they know better than Mr. Kipling as how to illustrate the stories, or even how to write them.
See also
Movement Differences between Deliberate and Spontaneous Facial Expressions: Zygomaticus Major Action in Smiling by Karen L. Schmidt et al. J Nonverbal Behav. 2006; 30(1): 37–52
I do not believe that this incident or these words appear in the book written by Georges Simenon. As remarked elsewhere, it is a vanity of script writers to believe that they can do better than the original writer.
[Rupert Davies as Commissary Jules Maigret in “Peter the Lett” (1963)]
