No Shortcuts To Sanity

"People with high IQs are not necessarily good thinkers. In fact the possession of a high IQ can often be counter-productive. Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers because they can never allow themselves to be wrong. They often take up an instant judgement position on a subject and then use their thinking to support that position rather than to explore the subject area before making a judgement. The more effective they are in support of their instant judgement the less inclined will they be to change this. The result is clever argument but ineffective thinking."
—Edward deBono, The Happiness Purpose  (p. 68)

Freedom of Will by Cassius J. Keyser

Freedom of Will

by Cassius J. Keyser

[The following piece comes from Keyser's book Mole Philosophy and Other Essays, a review of which by Korzybski was published in his Collected Writings. Korzybski, who considered his great friend Keyser his chief mentor, gave his views the highest consideration. Given the current push against free will by fundamentalist materialists, Keyser's views seem worth a fresh look. 

—Bruce Kodish]

The literature of this old subject is vast. In respect of Dialectic skill, finesse, subtlety, penetration, verbosity, confusion and unconvincingness, it is probably unsurpassed. It fascinates and repels, quickens and fatigues, promises and disappoints—all at the same time. It is too important to ignore, too big and boring to wade through. As something better than a substitute for most of it I venture to recommend a little dialogue which I chanced to hear the other day. The speakers were three, a lawyer, an engineer and a mathematician. 

Apropos of something—I have forgotten what—the lawyer made a remark about somebody being "responsible" for something, whereupon the engineer said to him:

"You astonish me. Do you really believe, as you seem to, in that old dogma—the freedom of the human will, as it used to be called?"

"I do," said the lawyer, "of course I do; that dogma is one of the indispensible bases of Law. Municipal law takes it for granted that people are responsible for their decisions and deeds. Without that assumption Jurisprudence would collapse like a house of cards. Certainly I believe in freedom of the will."

"Well, I don't," the engineer replied. "I once did or thought I did but not now. I've thought the thing through and am a thorough-going determinist. Whatever happens happens when it does, where it does and as it does, of necessity. You know what is meant by the resultant of two or more forces. Well, every event, mental or physical, is the resultant of an infinite number of forces. If we knew thoroughly the state of the Universe at a single moment, we could predict in minutest detail the course of universal history for all time to come."

"That," responded the lawyer, "is a terrible thought, perfectly paralyzing—just think what it means—no initiative, no spontaneity, no chance, no freedom, no responsibility, every victory predestined, every defeat predestined, no merit, no demerit, even the very dream of freedom a predestined dream of a predestined lie." Then turning to the mathematician, he said: "What do you think about it? You have been silent. Tell us what you think. Don't you believe in the freedom of the will?"

"I do in a certain sense," the mathematician said, "but you must permit me to indicate the sense."

"Certainly," said the lawyer, "that is only fair."

"It is much more than fair," said the engineer, "it is absolutely necessary if we are to understand one another."

"Very well then," said the mathematician., "what I mean is this: Suppose you are confronted with alternatives, you are in doubt which to choose, you pause to consider, you deliberate; in deliberating you are exercising freedom or, if you prefer, freedom of will; deliberation is the essential ingredient, at once necessary and sufficient."

"Good," exclaimed the lawyer, "you and I agree. You have said just what I meant when I say I believe in freedom of will."

"You rejoice prematurely," rejoined the engineer; "the question is not yet settled for I contend that that deliberation, each and every step of it and the issue of it, in any given case, are all of them completely determined, as much so as the motion of your body if hurled from a precipice by a sudden gust of wind."

Thereupon the mathematician said to the engineer: "I begin to suspect that we three agree as to the essential facts and are disputing about nothing but different verbal accounts of them. For deliberation is a fact, is it not? I mean that people deliberate. I mean that deliberation does actually occur and is a very common and very familiar phenomenon. You do not dispute that, do you?"

"Of course, I don't," said the engineer, "none but a fool could deny so obvious a fact."

"Very well, then," the mathematicain replied, "behold what it is that we are doing. Our friend, the lawyer, and I point to an instance of deliberation and say: that is an example of the exercise of freedom. You cite the same instance and say: that is a specimen of things determined. But deliberation is deliberation, however we describe it. In your description you have not dragged our conception of freedom down, you have thrust the concept of determination up—you have mightily generalized and even transfigured it." 

"I fear I don't quite get you," said the engineer, "please explain what you mean."

"What I mean is this: You have so enlarged and elevated the usual significance of the word determination as to make it cover not only an inorganic thing's mechanical or chemical reactions to mechanical or chemical forces but also a thinking organism's reasoned selection of one from among competing alternatives; you make it cover not only the bitter ignominy of being buried alive but also the nobility of deliberately consenting to dwell in a colony of lepers to alleviate their suffering. You thus generalize if you like but you must not fancy that, in so doing, you have annulled or even diminished by so much as one jot the immeasurable difference between the things you have thereby huddled together under a single caption. For though you cry that all things are determined, you do not cease to know that in respect of dignity there is an infinite difference between being dictated to and being invited to consider. Since we agree that human beings have a capacity for deliberation we agree upon the essential matter. What is the use of disputing whether deliberation is an exercise of freedom or an infinitely refined specimen of things determined?"

"No use," said the engineer.

"Agreed," said the lawyer.  

From The Stray Thought Bin: Smelling The Flowers

Some folks want to wake up and always smell the flowers, but sometimes you've got to wake up and smell the bullshit.

From the Stray Thought Bin: "To be human..."

To be is to be related. To be human is to be an engineer.

Maps and Territories, Appearances and Actualities: Understanding The Globalist Nightmare!

Jon Rappoport 'Nails It': Leftist celebs flirt with violence, get it on baseball field

(To read about Jon's mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)

Leftist celebs flirt with violence, get it on baseball field   By Jon Rappoport   The shooter, Hodgkinson, is dead. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a congressional staffer, a lobbyist, and a US Capitol policeman were wounded. Without the presence of Scalise's Capitol Police security detail, there would have been a massacre of Republican congressmen.   Political Left celebs never meant for THIS to happen. They were just playing. They were just virtue signaling. Having fun. They're kids in the sandbox. Sure.      Kathy Griffin holds the blood-soaked decapitated head of Trump. Just a joke. Snoop Dogg releases a music video in which he shoots a toy gun at a clown dressed as Trump. Just satire. The prestigious Public Theater in New York City stages Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with a Caesar who looks like Trump, who is assassinated. Artistic commentary. Comedian Sarah Silverman tweets, "WAKE UP & JOIN THE RESISTANCE. ONCE THE MILITARY IS W US FASCISTS GET OVERTHROWN. MAD KING [Trump] & HIS HANDLERS GO BYE BYE." Satire. Madonna tells the Women's March she's thought a great deal about blowing up the White House. But she knows "this won't change anything. We cannot fall into despair." An Oprah moment. Rapper Little Bow Wow tweets to Trump, "Shut your punk ass up talking shit about my uncle [Snoop Dogg] before we pimp your wife and make her work for us." Brief frustration.   Of course. And these are the people who want "social justice." Equality for all. Free everything for everybody. Utopia. Or something.   These are the people who think of themselves of rebels, while they actually work for elite Globalism and its agenda of planetary government and planetary corporate control.   These celebs are clueless.   Chaos and destruction are a phase in the openly planned Globalist takeover. But understanding this is too complex for their simple minds. Following a sequence of thought from A to B to C is impossible.   They think they're "overthrowing the power." But they're just adding to that power.   On the issue of open borders and unlimited immigration, for example, they're a million miles from realizing the true Globalist intent.   In 1969, four years before co-founding the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller and launching an eventual capture of the White House under their created president, Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote:   "[The] nation state as a fundamental unit of man's organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force. International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation state."   The question was: how could nation states be eradicated? And one of those answers is: open borders, unlimited immigration. Change the face of nations. Wipe out all local traditions. Radically alter demographics. Make separate nations an extinct concept.   Of course, a cover story was necessary. It was, and is, humanitarian share-and-care. "We must let everybody in and embrace them."   And another aspect of the cover story---foment wars to create displaced populations who would flee to the West. However, many of the immigrants aren't, in fact, fleeing from war. They're young military-age fighting men who arrive in the West with an appetite for destruction. More chaos in the works.   This is the op.   But the chance of celebrities catching on to this---and speaking out against it, in the age of political correctness---is zero.   Back in February, in the wake of the Berkeley, California, street riots, I wrote: "In the early days of the American Republic, George Washington warned against entangling foreign alliances. Flash forward from 1796 to 2017. Last night, masked thugs emerged from a crowed of protestors, at UC Berkeley, and chanted: 'No borders, no nations, fuck deportations.' And there you have it. A PERFECT summary of the Globalist position. One planetary nation (under one gentle, all-inclusive, loving, iron fist). George Soros would be smiling. David Rockefeller would be chortling."   The presence of Donald Trump in the White House provides the ideal opportunity for unconscious Globalist foot soldiers to ramp up violence, blame it all on Trump, and bring about a major course correction---back to a Globalism much more severe than anything Trump would support---back to Globalism with a vengeance---calling it humane, calling it love, calling it caring, calling it freedom, calling it equality.   The current idiot's delight education system makes it easy for the young to avoid thinking from A to B. No need to figure out what is going on. Just wave the correct banner, throw a brick through a store window, set a car on fire, and demand "social justice." Then pause for a moment and admire the work of a 66-year-old socialist, who tried to wipe out Congressmen on a baseball field. As if that was a contribution toward the making of a better world.   Throw your mind in a garbage can. No need to have it or use it.

Use this link to order Jon's Matrix Collections.

Jon Rappoport The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.

You can find this article and more at NoMoreFakeNews.com.

From the Stray Thought Bin: A Lying Life Is Not A Time-Binding Life

There may be a life-circumstance where the more ethical choice would be to tell a lie. But a life of lying is not the way for a self-conscious time-binding person to live.  

From the Stray Thought Bin: Attention, Attention!

Do you know what you are doing when you're doing it? Learn to give attention to whatever you want to give your attention to—when you're doing it. 

From the Stray Thought Bin—You've Got To Pay Attention

To master GS as a discipline, many of you don't seem to understand that you've got to pay attention to your breath, among other things. 

The Task Ahead

"The task ahead is gigantic if we are to avoid more personal, national, and even international tragedies based on unpredictability, insecurity, fears, anxieties, etc., which are steadily disorganizing the functioning of the human nervous system. Only when we face these facts fearlessly and intelligently may we save for future civilizations whatever there is left to save, and build from the ruins of a dying epoch a new and saner society. ...A non-aristotelian re-orientation is inevitable ; the only problem today is when, and at what cost."
—Alfred Korzybski, Introduction to the Second Edition 1941, Science and Sanity