The Economics Of Pleasure and Pain

All living organisms, from the most primitive virus to the most sophisticated of mankind, demonstrate intelligent realization of five primal motivations, these being:

1. The Creation of Valuable Manifestations, the first of these being the creation and reproduction of self. We are all motivated to express ourselves and realize the fullness of our nature over time. The more primitive the life form, the more reproduction is chemical duplication and the more sophisticated the life form, the more valuable manifestations are of a mental and abstract nature such as in Art or Politics, as well as physical reproduction with far more genetic variables as happens when male and female entities reproduce, in plants and sundry kinds of animals among them  mammals like us. Every living creature of every kind survives by turning something  into something else. This is as true for viruses which turn microbes and human cells into virus factories as well as shoemakers, who turn cows into shoes. All living things manifest some kind of self creation through nutrition and nutrition itself is self creation by breaking something down into elements and then building one self up with the elements thus attained, manifesting this way self creation, which is a valuable manifestation, is it not?

2. The Maintenance and Preservation of Valuable Manifestations, this being the continued acquirement of the means of mechanization of self reproduction and the acquirement of nutrients to enable the perpetuation of self creation. This also means the removal of toxic waste from within the areas of self creation (self manifestation) and the constant removal of materiel detrimental to self creation from the environment, such as dirt and dust and germs and dirty laundry. Cleaning one's self and one's  blood relatives from invasive elements on a routine basis is an act of maintenance seen in higher life forms like cats and monkeys of all kinds.

3. The Multiplication and Expansion of Valuable Manifestations is the logical consequence of creation, preservation and maintenance. As long as these activities are maintained over time, the quantity of organisms will grow exponentially and occupy an ever growing space in the biosphere, as well as maintain self identity for an ever growing duration. One might liken this to an ever growing, self sustaining bubble of reproducing life entities, that share nearly identical or very similar DNA.  Each one of these biological bubbles competes for living space and assets on the level of the individual organisms such as in sibling rivalry as well as on  far vaster scales where each species spreads out throughout the biosphere, enveloping ever more space, changing the nature of the environment by turning everything it can into an extension of its self or into an asset for survival. Everything alive from the level of any kind of living cell is a composite of living entities cooperating in a symbiotic relationship of self perpetuation, suggesting that conflict and the annihilation of other life forms isn't always necessary for increasing self duration. 

4. Multiplication and Expansion inevitably lead to barriers that prevent the increase of living space or the multiplication of the number of organisms. Therefor Attacking Barriers to Expansion and Overcoming Inhibitions to Multiplication is The Fourth Valuable Manifestation. This is less an issue for more "primitive" microscopic organisms that live in the sea, not an issue for the vast majority of viral life forms and becomes an increasing issue for more sophisticated  land based organisms for whom living space is more a survival issue than creatures of the sea. Microbes and viruses overcome barriers to expansion through mutation. Land animals through migration. The development  of means to overcome barriers to expansion is mostly expressed in the affairs of human beings and was most pronounced in the history of past empires up to modern times as warfare and the development of weapons intended to defeat and remove barriers to the expansion of national entities and their political, cultural and economic interests.  Whatever the kind of organism, if it is unable to increase its living space or fails to remove and dispose of its waste products, it will eventually poison itself with its own toxic secretions. This was a means of waging war against walled cities, as in a siege the population was prevented the acquirement of sustenance as well as prevented from removing waste products, causing the widespread of disease. The germs and sundry disease causing microbes were happy about this, I am sure. Today more than ever, overcoming barriers to the expansion of political, military, economic, ideological, technology, surveillance, etc., Valuable Manifestations  into the minds of ever more individuals, is a prime focus for the application of  human intelligence as such expresses itself in social media on the internet. It has all become an activity of the mind. Perhaps it always was?

5. The Fifth  Valuable Manifestation is The Demonstration of the Ability to Defend One's Self and One's Assets from the encroachment of foreign influences intent on turning one's self  into "nutrients" by breaking one's self down into more basic ingredients for a foreign entity's consumption, thus corrupting and destroying one's identity. One can defend one's self through retreat if there is living space available elsewhere, but by the nature of life itself, this can only be a temporary solution.   One can also defend one's self by waging war against the invading foreign influence, first within one's own living space, by using antibiotics for example, when germs encroach or through preventive measures such as vaccines against pathogenic microbes and viruses. On a larger scale one can resort to building ghettos and then deporting and exterminating Jews, if one sees their being as a threat against one's own identity, for example. Manifesting Self Defense is definitely a  necessity, life behaving as it does, endlessly seeking to self propagate and expand at the expense of other life forms when it can't cultivate them and enter into a symbiotic exchange of  mutual Valuable Manifestation as exists between humans and chickens, for example, though some might argue that chickens are being abused as regards the quality of their life when compared to human beings.

We can sum these motivations up by summarizing them as , Create, Preserve, Expand, Attack and Defend.

Now I wish to postulate that these five intents are all it takes to understand the behavior of all living things, but of  particular interest, human behavior.

First it is demonstrable that human procreation produces groups of competing entities on an organic level, as said before in sibling rivalry, as well as on a far more complex, sophisticated and abstract level, as in the rivalry between great business corporations. Whatever be the nature of the asset, once it is deemed an asset, every one is trying to create valuable self serving manifestations of attainment, preservation and expansion of the quantity and  quality of the self serving valuable asset. This is glaringly obvious in relationship to something as abstract as money. If one makes money by producing shoes and exchanging them for money, leather becomes a valuable asset. One strives to acquire leather, preserve that so acquired, expand one's inventory so as to meet the needs of a hopefully growing market and ever improve the quality of leather attained so as to increase the value of one's shoes and finally the sum of money received in exchange for them. One does the same thing with the money received. One strives to ever increase sales locations and volume so as to increase revenue. The greater the interest received for money accumulated and growing in bank accounts, the higher its value. And so and so on.

Once value is assigned to something, whatever it be, however strange its nature, a human being will begin to manifest these behaviors regarding it. On a materiel  level, food, clothing and shelter are examples of things people want more of. But what about something far more abstract, like an education? One values the attainment of knowledge itself for different possible reasons, the foremost and most common being financial. One learns a profession or a trade so as to attain the finances needed to acquire food, clothing and expansive living space, as well as the valuable manifestation of sex and the attainment of a mate and the production of similar versions of one's self, offspring.  Obviously, everything is somehow connected. Values compete in one's mind for attention and energy.

If one likens the mind to the biosphere, one could say different values compete for valuable self manifestation in the mind and to do so, compete with other values, often causing internal strife and conflict. The most vital asset for manifestation in the mind, is attention. Everything we give value to, for whatever reason, biological to cultural, competes for attention in the mind and attention is allocated or inhibited based on the valuable manifestation of different kinds of pleasures or the alleviation of pains, making everything far easier to comprehend, for here we have the most essential values there are, all the kinds of joy and pleasure one can know and experience, , and the prevention of every kind of distress, discomfort and pain imaginable.

No matter what we would like to think about our selves, it all boils down to the economics of pleasure and pain, however abstract these might be. Some people place so much value on spiritual pleasures that they are willing to endure and suffer great physical deprivation to the scorn and amazement of those whose hierarchy of values is opposite. If one values the pleasure of eating above the pleasure of sex, one is likely to grow to proportions that make sex impossible. If one values the pleasures of being respected for one's affluence more than one's moral integrity, one will cheat to get rich.

The complexity of mental activity is do to the allocation of value to substances and abstractions and the consequent manifestation of these primal intents accordingly in the space of one's mind.

Let's say one highly values social contribution but has low self esteem and one harbors the idea that one is detrimental to the well being of one's neighbors. Such an idea might have been acquired from a parent in their attempt to shape the mind of an offspring, by telling them how important it is to get along socially and how worthless and lazy they are when they spend all day watching television. A consequence to this is self destructive attitudes and behaviors as one's "goodness" tries to get rid of one's "badness" as a Valuable Manifestation. The mind is compartmentalized into  spheres of competing priorities and every single moment of mental activity is the allocation of value to that sphere of internal activity which is deemed most productive of the overall experience of pleasure,  based on the economics of pleasure attainment and the lessening and prevention of pain for the duration of life and in every location one finds one's self in.

Its all that simple.

Roosters, Eggs and Chickens Come Together

Everyone has heard the riddle, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?"
The way this question is posed exemplifies the problem of modern science.
Should one answer the question as asked, without identifying it's false premise,
one will encounter strange phenomena, like time going backwards.
Lets say that the chicken comes first, for whatever reason we do.
Probably because to be fully understood, things must have a beginning.
Well if we encounter then an egg that becomes a chicken,
either we recognize we were wrong about the chicken coming first
or we witness time flowing backwards, something we know it can't do.
If we say the egg comes first and then encounter first a chicken
either we recognize we were wrong, or again time flows the wrong way.
But even if we recognize were are wrong, we will encounter the same dilemma,
the first time we encounter a reversal of what we expect.
Now every complete egg laying chicken has a potential egg inside it
and every complete chicken egg, has a potential chicken inside it.
Whether one encounters this or that, makes no difference,
once one comprehends that chickens and eggs are one and the same
but only look different because we can't see them both at the same time.
Just as we can't see both sides of a coin at the same time,
the coin is always both heads and tails, one and the same coin,
but can only be seen in its entirety, in a sequence of observation
that can start on either side, it doesn't matter what comes first.
The chicken and the coin exist outside of time as an idea.
They have a narrative which is the same in both directions,
because they are both complete unto themselves
and immutable as abstract ideas that exist in the common mind.
1+2=3 is just as much true as  2+1=3  as 3=1+2 or 3=2+1
these are ideas that exist outside of time and space as a singularity.
An idea that can be perceived with the sequence being inconsequential,
but can only be perceived in a sequence to be fully understood.
Left to right or right to left is the same thing in an equation.
Top of the coin can be either heads or tails
as long as one looks at both sides
before making up one's mind about the picture on the coin.
Same with the chicken.
One can only understand chickens after seeing them emerge from eggs
and then see them have eggs themselves.
One can only understand eggs by seeing them emerge from chickens
and then see chickens emerge from eggs.
The world inside our minds is made of timeless ideas with no location
but in our minds. Ideas about objects of all kinds
and the symbols that represent them.
Things both real and imaginary. Real like the thought of a kiss,
and the tender feelings on one's lips, or imaginary= like a fairy,
one can see with one's own eyes. But no one else can.
Our minds are full of objects and ideas that can only be conceived
if we hear about them in the telling of a story.
If we hear about them in a sequence of impressions in our imaginations,
words that represent ideas that represent objects,
objects that come together and then become something else.
No chicken can have a chicken producing egg,
without a rooster to come together with! And roosters are chickens too,
but they don't have eggs. And some eggs  become roosters
and roosters are chickens that don't lay eggs.
A little bit here and a little bit there,
the greater the context, the more we understand.
We should never freeze our minds into graven images
of how things just have to be.
Doing so causes heartbreak and despair,
because we cling to our incomplete ideas,
and try to stop them from growing into chickens
because we make a living selling eggs.
Or we run out of chickens because we eat them all
before they have laid us sufficient eggs.
Now a narrative is always just a means
to understand a greater story.
And no story is complete without a lesson learned,
and a moral that stays true, long after the story is over.
An infinite number of stories can have the same lesson
and the same moral learned.
Morals are like equations, they are always true.
If you learn a lesson that says you know before you look,
you certainly haven't heard enough.
Scientists think they know how things should be,
but now they find that things just aren't what they know.
It's either this or that or both depending what you look for.
But they are really both, one and the same.
Timeless ideas that exist no place but in the mind
and  those  give shape and form and sequences of time,
events that happen in synchronized rhyme.
Its more than just music, its the story of your life.

Math and Reason Only Define The Common Mind

    Logic and mathematics describe the way we experience in our mind, a partial revelation of the universe around it. What we experience in our mind of the universe that surrounds it, can only be the basis for a premise about what is really out there,   a premise of experiential facts  upon which we extrapolate and theorize, using logic and math. But all we can be certain about, is that logic and math describe our experiences of manipulating symbols that represent further potentials of experience, potentials that always and by axiomatic truth, can only be realized in the confines of our own minds.
     We presume the existence of radio magnetic waves and sound waves based on mathematical calculations with which we can predict our own experiences in the realm of measurable heat and light and sound. When we do an experiment, we are initiating a chain of events that starts and ends in the realm of the measurable and visible and heard. Our theories and calculations deal with that which happens between the initiation of the experiment and the registration of the result. Theorems describe what we believe transpires in the invisible and unknowable chain of events that we presume takes place in the real universe, the universe we presume exists independently of our minds. All we know for certain is the result of our measurements because that is what we retrieve from what ever is going on, with our senses and in our minds.
    As our minds all share to some degree, the qualities of logic and coherence, the math we use to create formulas that describe the behavior of reality outside the realm of our experience  is common to all minds whether they know math or not. We share the common experiences predicted by math and logic. When experiments yield the same results when performed under the same conditions, the theories that allow the prediction of the results are given validity. This proves the similarity of our minds and how they are constructed, not the true nature of what transpires to information that is traveling between our minds and outside them.  The only information that matters is that which has been perceived, is being perceived and that which will be perceived. Around that string of sequenced knowledge we can weave a magic carpet of speculation that appears to fly from one vista to another. We might come to believe that without our carpet we are stranded, and then never learn that we can fly without it.
    We can only believe that the nature of  the world we hold in common exists independently from us. What is certain is that it binds us together, in that it enables us to share language. We can share our experiences and discover  that however it occurred that we came to be, our minds operate very much in a similar way and we can understand each other effectively and help each other, because we all want to experience integrity of self while sharing ourselves with others, we all want to experience the fullness of our own nature. 
    The belief that there is a universe out there like the one in our minds, a reality that persists in being governed by immutable laws like the reality in our minds, a substantial coherent consistent world  that exists whether or not we exist, is an assumption based on assumptions. An assumption such as the universe existed before our minds came to be and somehow caused our minds to come into being as a very partial and flawed reflection of it's comprehensive truth. We only perceive with our senses a very small fraction of the information there is out there to reprieve. The light we see with our eyes and that registers in our brains is an almost negligent fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum we calculate  is potentially infinite. The only reason the significance of the light we perceive as regards the nature of the universe isn't completely negligent, is that without it we couldn't make assumptions about all the light waves we can't see. The same could be said of sound. Or anything.
   Calculation and prediction became important particularly after man began to cultivate crops. Man then became acutely aware of the cycles of the seasons. His sense of time became more delineated. He began to measure time by observing the motions of the sun and the moon and the stars. He recognized recurrent  patterns and learned to predict seasons of rain. He observed the behavior of shadows and calculated the length of the day with units that represented the passage of time. He also saw other people with minds like his own,  be born and live and die, while the world continued to spin around him imperviously. It is very easy to understand why he would believe that man is transient and the universe is forever.
   Despite this, everything once believed about the nature of the world we exist in, has changed. For thousands of years it has been believed that matter can only be broken down into fundamental units that are of the same nature as their mass.  This was held true for a long time. For example, water could be boiled down to "atoms" of water which could no longer be divided. And so everything else. Recently it was discovered that much of nature is made of compounds that can be broken down into elements that are of a completely different nature than the compounds made from them. The qualities of the  compounds of elements held together in a uniform mass with the cohesive energy of the atoms of different elements are completely unpredictable. It is like this. 2A+1B  should somehow equal extrapolations of 2A1B, variations on a theme, so to speak. But they don't. 2A+1B equal completely unpredictable C.. There is nothing about the nature of C that can be inferred from As and Bs. Now when C is broken down, it always reverts to 2A+1B. This proves nothing but that man's experiences concerning elements and their combinations is logical and consistent even though he has no clue, "Why?"  that is so.
     In addition to this, it was further discovered that there are elements that can be broken down into other elements, that also have different qualities. The idea of a stable building block for all mass just keeps deteriorating like a radioactive isotope, but hasn't been abandoned even today, when it has been demonstrated  that the fundamental nature of mass is as much an infinite field of potentials as a particle we actually collide with. Not only that, the fundamental particles keep breaking up when we smash them together, producing a menagerie of circled and  patterned  motion, though we still have not a clue concerning what is really moving. It isn't and can't be  particles with mass as whatever it is, it doesn't behave the way mass should, according to the theories that are supposed to describe the true nature of mass and not just the way the mind thinks about mass. Science has come to the conclusion that the mass we perceive is actually an illusion of the mind. They draw their conclusions from the logic and math that describes the behavior of mass in their mind and then believe at the same time that the mass in the mind isn't really the same substance as keeps slipping between the ever growing holes in the sieves of their pet theories, the theories they try to catch particles of mass with, to find out what they really are.
   Laboratory experiments consistently demonstrate that the nature of any kind of fundamental particle  we wish to turn into information that we can think with and incorporate into a theorem of prediction is ever more elusive. Laboratory results demonstrate phenomena that exist outside the confines of logic and math, phenomena that completely demolish the idea that we  really know the nature of  the universe that exists within our own minds, let alone the nature of the universe that we presume exists out side our minds.  Scientists want fundamental particles that persist with a consistent definition no matter what you do to them. Without such particles, nothing can really make any sense. Wave functions are infinite and unpredictable. Energy alone can't explain why things behave like solid objects. The fact is, we can smash particles together and they collide and explode, even though that is a mathematical impossibility because nothing can really touch anything else mathematically. But logically things do touch and move each other. Suddenly the simplicity of the  logic of human experience trumps in its importance the theoretical consequences of experiential results that defy logic and experience. Scientists just can't let go of there being particles that exist in nature independently of our minds. Never the less, it becomes ever more evident that particles don't exist until someone sees them.
   Unlike the elusiveness of  the nature of substance itself, our minds are able to maintain the meaning of the symbols we think with and calculate with. This is so for no other reason than we decide it to be so. It is what works.
   In the same way, while our minds are mostly consistent in the way stimuli are perceived and translated into sensations, this is far from absolute. It is clearly evident  that a person can change in the way they interpret as a  sensory perception, a vibration that causes it. When a woman is touched by her husband intimately, she might moan with pleasure. If the same vibration causing motion were to be perpetrated by a stranger against her will, it might cause great emotional pain and distress. The significance of the sense causing vibration is determined by the context in which it is experienced. Just like the results of experiments in quantum mechanics.
    On the other hand, the mechanics of linguistic thought, perceptions in the nervous system, the brain's productions of sensations that represent hunger, thirst, sexual arousal, motion, emotions that represent states of well being or the lack thereof, all these  and more internal workings,  remain mostly consistent over time and are shared for the most part by all humanity. While we don't know why red is the sensation we experience when our eyes  are exposed to a certain wavelength of light, the relationship between the stimulus and the response of color in our eye is persistent over time, until the eye decays. There is commonality, consistence and persistence in the way our nervous system translates vibrations into sensory data. This is the foundation of language.
    In addition to this, sensory data is stored in our minds and used  as an ever greater,  more complex and sophisticated context, to evaluate new data. Our wisdom, if not our intelligence, grows as we age.
Logic and math  define much of the way we process and use information, but intuition and spontaneity determine ideas and decisions that are life enhancing and sometimes life saving, and very often it is impossible to explain logically or mathematically  how these qualities of mind come about.


What is certain is that A must continue to be A for things to make sense.


 Science reveals to us that the only place in the universe that A stays A long enough to use it in a calculation of the future, is in our mind, where it is certain that A exists. 

In the universe "out there", beyond the  relative commonality, persistence and consistence of our minds,

NOTHING STAYS THE SAME LONG ENOUGH TO BE COUNTED AND NOTHING CAN BE COUNTED ON.

False Premises and Logic- How Scientists Go Wrong

False Premises and Logic- How Scientists Go Wrong

Some self evident and axiomatic truths are surprisingly ignored by scientists, physicists in particular. The most flagrant and fundamental of these truths is this. Whatever actually surrounds our mind, whatever is beyond our minds on a time space continuum, before, beyond or after, we can only speculate. What came before our minds began to record memories, what happens after our minds cease to record memories, can only be assumed, no matter how likely  we believe the assumption to be.

What exists beyond the registration of our perceptions can only be speculation. What is obvious is that whatever is going on in our minds, it appears to be only a partial reflection, a fraction, of what is actually going on outside our minds. All of research and science is an attempt to know what happened before we began to have memories as individuals- and historical records as a society, what is presently going on beyond our present perceptions of the space and time we assume surrounds us, and what will happen to ourselves and the selves of future generations. We have developed magnificent instruments that appear to extend our senses to the far reaches of the cosmos. We have developed the means to record the behavior of what we deem to be the infinitesimal building blocks of all the matter we perceive, we have mapped the ocean floors and dug out the ruins of ancient civilizations all over the planet.

    Our desire to know the nature of the universe we presume surrounds us extends beyond the practicalities of controlling it to ensure our own survival. Long before we developed the modern technologies of research we have today, philosophers used the tools innate to their own humanity to speculate about the nature of the universe of which we are a part. This overwhelming curiosity of the intellect to know what is really happening around one's self as well as in one's self, is sometimes stronger an instinct than procreation and the pleasures of the senses, for men have been know to leave far behind all kinds of pleasure seeking and worldly affluence and self propagation so as to clear their minds and contemplate the truth of what it means to exist at all, what influences our existence and how can we ourselves influence our own experience towards the attainment of wisdom and peace of mind.

Having said all this, what remains is the indisputable fact that we know nothing for certain except our own assumptions. 

   Yes, I allow myself to say that I know for certain that I am seeing the color red, or listening to music, or feeling hunger or sad. I know the tenderness of holding a baby and I choose to believe with the same certainty that there is really a baby out there beyond my own skin, a baby with a mind that works very similarly to mine. These are the things I know, what my senses perceive without interpretation or assumption. I do recognize though, that I know these things because they exist in my mind and my mind is so constructed as to contain a dynamic and partial reflection of what surrounds my physical being.

       The fundamental truth ever remains that I truly only know the contents of my own mind and my mind is so constructed that I accept the reality of what I perceive around me as being there as much as I am. I also accept as fundamental knowledge that there is far more out there than I perceive with my senses. Curiosity is a primal instinct and it comes along with the primal knowing that there is more out there than meets the eyes, or can be heard or smelled or tasted or felt with the skin. The seeking after new sensations is what feeds our minds with new information about the world around us and is the process of learning itself.

      In the absence of pathology, the mind constructs itself with mathematical precision and is characterized for the most part, by an ever growing collection of coherent ideas. These ideas serve a tools in the acquirement of more ideas. The ideas one constructs about reading allow one to read new ideas. When we acquire a new idea, it comes together in our own mind as a duplication of an idea we might assume exists external to our own mind. It is as if there is knowledge out there which we assimilate in the process of learning. If what we experience in our own mind is an imperfect duplication of the idea "out there", we are unable to use it as a tool in the acquirement of more new ideas. Until our own mind duplicates exactly the knowledge deemed to be held in common, it is unlikely that we will be able to add to it, let alone make use of it for our own interests. We are all ignorant to some degree and helpless in some field of endeavor.

       One thing remains true, the laws of logic and language that dictate the construction of ideas, the rules of mathematics, determine to what degree ideas can be passed from one mind to another, because the laws of logic and mathematics are common to all minds. When there is a failure of logic in an idea, when an idea is incoherent, it is rejected by those who see in it faulty reasoning. Logic is as innate to the mind as the senses are to the body. It is logic that strings the perceptions of the body into strings of significance and weaves them together as experience, and then stores the experiences in the mind as memory.

      Logic allows us to extrapolate that when three dots appear in a sequence at the same intervals, it is logical to assume if a fourth dot appears, it will most likely do so at the same interval and the same angle of progression. This is fine as long as we don't insist on it's being true before it happens. When it does appear as we predict, we can be even more certain of the fifth dot doing the same. But when the sixth dot appears sooner than we expect and at a divergent angle, we must recognize our assumption about the pattern of the emerging dots is wrong.There was a fault in our logic and that fault is, one can never know the final nature of a pattern until it repeats itself and when it repeats itself as an exact duplicate, we can call it a pattern. How significant the pattern is can only be determined by the duration of its recurrence, its resonance with other patterns and its relevance to communication.

It is the enhancement of communication that determines the ultimate value of all pattern recognition.

     And so our minds share the same innate rules concerning their growth and resonance with other minds. Minds are constantly coming and going. Some resonate with many and some resonate with few. The less a mind is assumed to be logical and coherent in the fields of its endeavors, the less it will resonate with those in contact with it. Now it is completely possible and self evident that minds that congregate and communicate together as a group in what appears to the members of the group to be perfectly logical and coherent ideas, can be deemed by other groups to be illogical and incoherent. Groups don't always resonate with each other, and that is a significant understatement.

      Groups in which the members do resonate, through communication, become more homogeneous to the degree their communications with outsiders becomes limited. Differences dissipate and similarities spread. Cohesion strengthens and bonds are reinforced. This is particularly true for groups fighting for survival against outsiders who are trying to rid the world of such illogical, incoherent, and what is deemed to be of such- mentally pathological symptoms as those displayed by a group whose ideas are deemed illogical and unfounded on truthful experience and logical extrapolation from those experiences.

The Jews are a study for research of these phenomena.

    Their history and the development of their culture is founded on experiences that defy logic, on miracles. All of Judaism is based on the essential and fundamental premise that there were in the past, before our own memories came to be, men and women who were created by an intelligent deity that also created the universe that surrounds us all. The Jews believe that the world with the heavens around it was created by One God and that same God created man and endowed him with both logic and free choice. They believe that so started a narrative that continues till this day. They believe that it has been their duty to preserve that narrative as their highest calling, the reason for their existence. They believe that narrative to be a direct and faithful replication of what was communicated to their prophet Moses, by their Creator Deity.

    They have always admitted that they don't understand as a nation the full significance and implications of this sacred narrative and The Divine Laws they believe it contains. Their faith in the Divine value and ultimate historical importance of this narrative has weathered the trials and tribulations of 3500 years of its being challenged, in every torturous, sadistic, murderous, abusive, degrading, insulting way imaginable for individual Jews as an example before the nation and for vast amounts of members of the nation itself, Jews horrifically put to death, men, women and children across the ages.

      Yet with varying degrees of homogeneity, themselves split into sub groups with deep divisions between them selves in their interpretative doctrines of the Narratives significance, they are still here declaring an invisible God really spoke to their ancestors and told them something of absolute and extreme importance to humanity. Only problem is, they don't really know themselves any more how true the stories are, how to finally interpret them.

      The most orthodox of the Jews are the most homogeneous in outward appearances. They wear clothes that set them apart from the rest of humanity, clothes that are uniform and for the men and boys, lack any individual self expression. The most extreme of the orthodox believe that their only function in the world, is to learn how Moses's narrative as he recorded it from God, was interpreted by those who came after him. They readily profess that no one today can really comprehend the mysteries of Moses's revelation on Mount Sinai, they say its impossible to know the final truth of what Moses meant the Jews to do, other than wait for their Messiah to come, who will explain what it all means to them and the world. The most extreme of the Orthodox believe that nothing at all should be done by Jews except keep the Laws they believe in and study aforementioned interpretations. They deny the legitimacy of Zionism and ostracize any one who they believe tries to water down their fanatic adherence to practices that produce nothing of exchange value with the world around them. They believe themselves to be entitled to financial support from any source it comes from, including the Israeli government they deny the legitimacy of, though there is a minority among them that refuses government money and lives completely in poverty off charities.

     This hard core nucleus of self declared fatalist fanaticism grows exponentially because they marry very young in arranged marriages and have as many children as nature allows over the course of the woman's childbearing age. Around this fanatic nucleus of unwavering blind belief in events they have no personal memories of, these Jews are surrounded by a layer of similarly dressed ultra orthodox believers who are somewhat more open minded in their approach to the modern world. They see Israel as a means to the end of their financial support and would use The State of Israel in any way possible to further their own interests of expanding their influence over the nation as a whole. They are far more proactive and participate in politics as government Ministers. They are not Zionists but they are in active participation with Zionists in affairs of common interest to Jews as a nation. Like the most fanatic orthodox they don't interpret the rise of Israel after the holocaust as the realization of prophecies in The Hebrew Bible outwardly, but privately many of them seem to like the idea and even express a desire to see Israel flourish and prosper as the mostly secular state it is. And then there are the ultra religious Zionists who are few, and the less fanatic religious Jews who believe that the state of Israel is a sign of Israel's redemption and they are supposed to settle the lands God promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the narrative written by Moses and even rebuild the Temple on The Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In the story these Jews tell themselves, they aren't supposed to wait for the messiah who probably isn't really coming anyway because things like that no loner happen and God helps those who help themselves. These Jews, while religious, are very rational and don't really believe in miracles where God breaks the laws of nature he created the world with. Many of them are scientists and doctors and lawyers and Zionists. And then there are the traditional Jews who believe the Jews are special as a people because they are after all an historical anomaly and the creation of Israel after the holocaust seems like something the God of The Jews would do, perhaps....they aren't too sure about the truth of the Bible stories but they are proud to be Jews and Israelis and unique among the nations.

     There are many non believing Jews who are simply patriotic Zionists, they don't believe in the Narrative of Moses and believe the Hebrew Bible to be a work of national myths, they might take pride in it as a contribution to western civilization but they find it boring and difficult to read themselves. Satire programs on television in Israel openly ridicule and scorn the Bible stories and those who believe in them. These shows are applauded by the many secular Jews in Israel who don't believe in God or destiny at all. They believe in science and the survival of the fittest and see themselves as being very fit by reason of their survival as secular .Jews. I have by no means exhausted the different kinds of groups among Jews and in Judaism.

       What I believe holds them all together despite their vast differences in faith, beliefs and narratives, is that they all share a belief that the Jews are unique as as a people and a historical phenomenon, albeit for different reasons, and this idea that they all belong to a unique nation is such a harmonizing idea in their minds. gives them so much significance and self value, that the resonance of this idea between them is of far greater power to cause them to coalesce than the repulsive energy of their mutual accusations that the other parties are irrational and lack integrity of mind.

That is what logic produces, integrity of mind.

     No matter how unfounded are one's initial premises, no matter how anti intuitive or against common sense are the propositions upon which one builds a paradigm of beliefs and ideas one adheres to, if there is internal logic- then doctrines and dogma will be adhered to, to the degree doing so maintains and enhances one's existing social relationships.

     If I accept the belief that Jesus is the Son of God and He came and gave his life so as to free me from sin, well then I am freed and will experience the logical emotional consequence which is a great feeling of relief at my release from the burden of guilt and the consequences of my sins. It makes perfect sense that once I choose to believe in the foundation premise other people believe in and then experience the same emotional consequence of such a belief, we will resonate with each other and become a group that attracts any one else seeking such release and relief. In order to feel a release from pain or to prevent the pain of disillusion and the loss of social integration with a group with which one no longer shares beliefs, or have a chance of happiness, people will believe the most outrageous things imaginable.

        Those who credit themselves as being too objective and intelligent and scientific and rational and don't consider themselves capable of adhering to outlandish beliefs that have no logical foundation adhere to that very same belief despite glaring evidence that their theories and formulas and equations simply don't make sense in light of recent evidence gleaned in laboratories and from instrumental registrations of what is going on in deep space.

    The observations of the workings of the mind are the principles of logic and logic describes how the mind works, not the universe.


     For a long time, logic and math seemed to describe very efficiently that part of the universe which is reflected in our own minds. So much so that philosophers and scientists assumed that the workings of the mind and the universe are the same. Therefor it seemed to make sense that man's mind is potentially capable of understanding completely the workings of the universe. At the same time many scientists believed and believe today, that the universe exists in complete independence of the mind that perceives it and operates on the mind's logic without the mind being involved or party to the external reality that gave birth to the mind, because that independent external reality existed and came together countless eons before the mind did.

       Despite all the implicit fine tuned order in the universe it still doesn't obey the theorems of modern science in a way that makes consistent coherent sense. Every time they think they have figured out a formula to predict the recurrence of a pattern they have observed on one scale of matter, matter behaves differently, anyway. Despite their use of the intelligence of their own minds to figure out the universe that they believe gives birth to their minds, they won't concede that the universe's intelligence is greater than their own and might not be subject to the same logic and math that governs human minds.

      The thinking of secular scientists, of atheists who believe in science but not an intelligent universe, of those who believe that chaos gives birth to reason that can then encompass and comprehend the inconceivable chaos of a purposeless and innately meaningless universe, the thinking of these people is founded on irrational premises, the first being that logic and mathematics describes anything but the working of the human mind and how it processes information about whatever there is around it. Whatever it is that surrounds the human mind outside it, can't be known as it never makes full entrance into the mind without shedding it's substance and assuming symbols of sensation that can only superficially represent what is really going on out there.

        The color red represents a reality of a postulated wavelength "out there" like the word tree represents a reality out there. No matter what one does with the letters of the word tree, one knows nothing at all of the true nature of a tree outside one's mind. We only know the tree that enters our mind as a collection of symbolic perceptions and then we can stick the word tree on that package of perceptions and then only assume that that has anything to do with what is going on out there. No one has a clue what the wavelength of the color red is really like out there, as a reality that can be perceived as itself. The color red is neither particles or waves. It is a sensation that acts as a symbol for what we presume is a character of electromagnetic waves that don't exist as such in our minds, but represents these waves we presume exist outside our minds and even in our brains. Red doesn't exist in any way we can imagine it as such, except as a property of the mind we share with others as we share the mechanism of logic that hold our minds together.
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A Catastrophic Tragedy. Maybe Not!

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Jonathan Michael Robbins

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