Got the time tick tick tickin' in my head...

Enough blah blah blah-ing about things that annoy me. Lets have a little fun.

Time is a fascinating thing. Elusive, intangible, and invisible unless a physical change in one of the other dimensions is made. You can only move in one direction through it. Even being completely still, you are helpless against it's progression. And when you consider time, you also have to consider free will, and whether or not you actually have it.

What follows are some seemingly simple thought experiments. Take your time (no pun intended), do some deep thinking, and ponder the possibilities. You're doing it right if you reach a point where you either say "whoaaaaa", get really confused, or get a brain cramp. Or at least I hope you do.



1. If you fancy the idea of time as an ever present eternity in both directions with you traversing along a line, then you automatically lose the concept of free will. You are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing at the exact time you are supposed to be doing it. Everyone is. You can't help it, you can't change it. If you feel the sudden urge to defy that statement and do something silly like jump around and wave your arms, it's because you were supposed to. If you don't, you weren't. Every action you make already exists at a point in time that you have not yet reached or have already passed. You can't even throw your hands up and say "screw it! I give up!", because you were meant to do that too.

2. If you're more of a "create it as we go" kind of person, well, you still don't get free will because of causality. Everything that has ever happened has led up to and directly narrated this moment in time. It could be no other way. If things happened another way, this would be a different moment. Instead of reading this, you'd be driving or sleeping or eating or on a plane to Peru. But you're not. You're here reading this because every single second of your existence was shucking you down an inescapable path to right here, right now. Welcome. Glad you could make it. No, I don't have snacks.

3. I hate to say it, but even the 3rd option poo-poo's on the whole free will thing. Whether or not the past is obliterated, it doesn't really matter. You've done what you've done and set things in motion, like breaking a rack of balls on a pool table. When the past comes back to haunt you, it's because you've set the balls rolling, their speed and trajectory are already laid out by your actions. They can only go where you've sent them.


Now, I know I dumped all over the prospects of free will. It kind of sucks to think that you might not be the master of your own reality. So lets consider what it would take to reclaim it.

Quite a lot, actually.

Lets go back and take another look at proposition #1: infinite time on a line since it's the easiest and the one most people seem to relate to. Grab some paper and a pencil or pen or crayon for this one. You'll run out of paper fast, but that's ok, you'll get the idea.

Draw a line from one end to the other long ways down the center of the paper. This will represent an hour of your life and everything you did or will do in it. Make a little dot or an X in the middle to represent "now". To the left will be the last half hour, to the right, the next half hour.

Next, think back to what you were doing 30 minutes ago. Now think of something different you might have done. Congratulations, you just made an alternate time line in an alternate universe. Draw it like this...

Technically you could do this infinitely or at the very least, one alternate for every thing you can thing of to do in that moment (told you you'd run out of paper), but we're not going to do that. If you want to add a few more options to make it look like you're working hard, go ahead.

What you have now are 4 decisions, all existing at once, but in different realities. There's a whole lot of you doing a whole lot of things. Now think back to what you were doing 15 minutes ago, and what you could be doing if you had made a different decision. Draw a line for that on not only the main timeline, but the alternates as well. You wanted choices...

 Starting to get pretty busy, isn't it. Add some more options below the main line if you want.

Wa-la! You've just created 15 separate and individual realities, all existing at once. Two points among the hundreds or thousands of decisions you might have made subconsciously in that time frame was all it took. Infinite options, infinite timelines, infinite realities. And that's just for you alone, that doesn't include the people around you, all the people that you share this planet with, or all the people that have come before or will come after you. Infinity ad infinitum.

So there's your free will, but is it really? If every point has an infinite amount of options, then there are an infinite amount of yous living out every option. Only one of you is calling the shots, the others are doomed to live with the leftovers. No one would ever know which one they were because from their perspective, they are in control.

Molon Labe, or, How I Learned to Love the Boogie Man.

As long as anger, paranoia, and misinformation drive our political debate, there are unhinged souls among us who will feel justified turning to violent remedies for imagined threats. ~ David Horsey


There once was a time when conspiracy theorists were relegated to spreading their schizophrenic messages in crudely printed pamphlets and short wave radio broadcasts. They were the outliers of a fringe society. The weirdos. They were kept away from most of society purely by our reliance on rational thinking, both within the populous and the media.

Thanks to the invention of the often unvetted internet, the rapid rise of sensationalism, and the need to fill the 24 hour news cycle, they've been brought front and center and boy howdy, do they have an audience.

If you don't remember your high school Greek lessons (and really, who does?), "Molon Labe" means "come and take them".  These were the words uttered by King Leonidus when the Persian forces demanded that he and his army of 300 throw down their weapons and surrender. They didn't, and (spoiler alert) Leonidus and his troops were eventually wiped out, but not without putting a good dent in the Persians and spurring the rest of Greece to man up and fight back. Molon Labe has now become the rallying cry of the most ardent of 2nd Amendment supporters. And more than that, it has become a profitable and rapidly growing industry catering to wanna-be heros/ninjas of the upcoming civil war and their never ending love of all things tactical. Want some entertainment? Skip on over to youtube and watch droves of adult males (and some scantily clad females) shoot at things in a menacing fashion. Also, don't forget to subscribe and/or buy their products! How much is your safety worth? Strap on that XXXL ballistic weave tactical vest and get to operating, soldier! Molon Labe!

So, back to the conspiracy theories, and quite obviously, the one stating that the government is going to take our guns. I also mentioned schizophrenia. We'll get to that as well.

This particular conspiracy theory is pretty easy and straightforward to trace, and it all stems from the prepper/survivalist ideology. Survivalists have been around forever, preparing themselves for the absolute worst case scenario. Storing food, weapons, and other supplies in hopes that they might ride out the coming storm for as long as possible, if not entirely and successfully emerge to continue on in victory and worship for being superior. Being prepared for a situation is not a bad thing per say, it's the risk assessment that is in question here.

Here in the US, those survivalists rely on the biblical prophecy of the End Times, and that the US government will be leading the charge by confiscating weapons and property all in the name of Satan himself, especially those of the God-fearing Christians. In the ever-present potential for a war between good and evil, these survivalists are prepared to fight and die before they surrender. They can be found as lone wolves, small groups, and full on militias. Molon labe.

Such thinking used to be fairly rare. Several thousands at best. But now? Now there are millions, and you don't have to look very hard to find them. A fair percentage aren't even part of the End Times Survivalist movement, they may simply be following another related conspiracy theory, or possibly have wrapped themselves up in the Zombie Killer craze. Interesting note about Zombies. When you hear that word tossed around, they aren't talking about the undead, they're talking about the ill-prepared.

Some are just crazy about guns.

In the past couple of decades, the last one in particular, gun sales have skyrocketed to historic levels, spurred on by what has probably been the best sales strategy every. The interesting thing, however, is that individual ownership has not tracked with that increase. The US has more firearms than people, but only 30% of the citizenry own them, and that number has been declining almost steadily since the late 1970's. That means a select but fair amount of people are stockpiling.

The unfortunate thing about being a hardcore, gubberment fearing, God loving prepper is that they tend to fulfill their own prophecies. When you buy illegal firearms, ammunition, and explosives, it's not unreasonable to expect the authorities to come'a callin'. Having said that, reason doesn't figure much into their thinking, or their expectations. So when the Fed's do knock on their door, it's a "See! I told'ja!" kinda thing. Surprise surprise. Who would have thought.

So what is this "best sales strategy ever" that I mentioned? Basically, it's fear. A shitload of it. Fear of the government, fear of the Muslims, fear of the unGodly, fear of the black liberal President that's coming for your guns. If you break all that fear down, there really isn't much to it. Some of it is fun. Who doesn't like the idea of shooting zombified people? They're already mostly dead anyway, right?

Fear of the government!

For a little more than a third of the established life of these United States, we the people have been under some form of gun control. From the ban of automatic weapons, to licensed dealers and background checks, to restrictions of "assault" weapons and ammo capacities, somehow, the government has never once come to disarm us. Never. No black helicopter, no jack booted thugs, no internment camps for Patriots. None of it.

I once asked someone to provide me with a direct quote stating that Pres. Obama was actively coming to take every firearm and effectively leave the population defenseless. Of course they couldn't do that, because it's never happened, but they still upheld their position by saying "Well obviously they (Obama, liberals, commies, Muslims, what have you) aren't going to come right out and say that.". Obviously.

There's no need to mention the panic that set in when the details of the completely legitimate and innocuous military exercise known as Jade Helm 15 was made known. The prepper militias were on high alert, ready to take down American soldiers when they made their move to declare Marshal Law on the southwestern states upon command of their Muslim dictator Barrak Hussein Obama. Emphasis on "Hussein".

Nor do I need to mention the clusterfuck that was the militia occupation of the Oregon Wildlife Refuge. More God and government fearing religious nuts with a delusional interpretation of law and Constitutional freedom, and a fair portion of them living their daily lives via government handouts. Truly their own worst enemy. If the government were as bloodthirsty as they claimed, we would have seen it and more than one would have lost their lives.

Fear of the Muslims!

Nobody really gave a crap about Muslims until 9/11. Then, suddenly, everyone with a tan was suspect. Never mind that they've been living here in relative peace since before this country was founded. Never mind that they assisted us in defending our newly found home from the British. Never mind that they are the worlds 2nd largest religion, and that if they really really wanted to, they could put their collective boot up the rest of the worlds collective ass.

The big fear, as idiotic as it was and frankly still is, was that they were going to invade America, and the toppling of the Twin Towers was just a prelude to what was coming. One only has to ask themselves one simple question: How? How exactly are they going to do that? Or even better, how are they even going to get enough people here to overthrow the nation without us knowing? Commercial transportation? I'm not going to give you the answer, you're going to work that one out for yourself.

15 years later, we still cling to the same fear. We'd rather believe that our President is a secret Muslim, aiding our enemies at every turn, than understand that our enemies are not great in number, nor do they have any great capacity to inflict damage upon us. You may cry "but there have been attacks!", and yes, there have been. Small, isolated, not entirely or at all conceived or coordinated by those that run ISIS. They rely on sympathizers to do their work for them. Social media is the extent of their global reach.

People see Muslims assembled legally and peacefully here in America and grow afraid. They don't know what they're doing, they don't understand what they're saying, so clearly, it's got to be something bad. Where are the "good" Muslims condemning these attacks? They are out there, they just aren't getting any air time. They do everything in their power to prove their commitment to a peaceful existence, but that isn't newsworthy, it won't sell air time, so nobody cares.

What about Sharia Law? What about it? There is not a court in the country, be it local, state, or federal, that acknowledges Sharia Law except for extremely rare situations where extradition to the parties home country would be a deadly risk. Even then, it is limited to mainly custody disputes.

Fear of the unGodly, aka, secular society.

Religion has good reason to fear secularism, because that is where religions die.

Intertwined into the Prepper movement are the Dominionists. These are the folks that are chomping at the bit to reclaim the US for God and Jesus, and replace the Constitution with biblical law. They've been referred to as Y'all Qaeda, Yee-hawdists, and Vanilla ISIS, and the only things that separates their behavior from their Islamic doppelgangers is A) the holy book they read from, and B) that the government is keeping a close eye on them, lest they actually do try to do what they've been training for. Luckily for us, the best they've been able to muster is a hostile takeover of a bird sanctuary. Molon Labe.

Fear of the black, Liberal, Muslim President. 

This one, to me, is the most fun because it's silly and easily debunked. Technically he's half black, and yes, he's a liberal. But Muslim? lulz.

So what do we know about devout Muslims? We know they don't like the gays. In the most fervent Muslim countries, they'll kill them on sight. Our Muslim President fought for gay rights and won. Strike one.

We know devout Muslims avoid alcohol like the plague. It's on record that Obama likes a drink now and again. There are even witnesses and unretouched photographic evidence. Strike two.

They also don't consume pork. Obama likes his bacon. Strike three.

We know they (supposedly) want to kill Christians. He's not doing that. In eight years, he's never done that.

You would think that someone that was so hell-bent on pushing the Muslim agenda would be a bit more Muslim. Or would he....(cue scary music).

Really what it comes down to is that he simply isn't Christian enough. He stands up for the lgbt community (Abominations! All of them!), he isn't turning the middle east into glass (Enemies of God! All of them!), and he isn't doing anything about the supposed persecution of American Christians (How dare he side with the Constitution!). So clearly, he's a Muslim.

In fact, most claims against Obama have not panned out, not in the least. He hasn't taken your guns, he hasn't imprisoned the Christians, he hasn't killed off grandma and grandpa with his health care program, etc etc etc. The clock is ticking people, your scapegoat is fading away fast...



On to schizophrenia. The wiki definition is this: Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to understand what is real. Common symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, hearing voices, reduced social engagement and emotional expression, and a lack of motivation.

In short, schizophrenia is a well mixed cocktail of paranoia and delusion. You fear the government is out to get you (paranoia), and despite the lack of evidence, you are totally convinced of it (delusion). It can easily be argued that anything is possible, but in the end it comes down to awareness and risk assessment. Delusional people can not recognize their own delusions for what they are, and consequently they are forced to live in a separate reality from everyone else. If you're convinced that your neighbor wants to kick your cat, then your neighbor really wants to kick your cat. It doesn't matter that he's a wheelchair bound double amputee, you're sure he's got legs, you just ain't seen 'em yet.

Some will claim that they're "just being skeptical". Mmmm, no. I've been a skeptic my entire life. I'm pretty good at it. If you've never done it, or are new to it, you're most likely going to end up in weird places. Being skeptical is not automatically dismissing what is in front of your face and latching on to the most far-fetched and threatening scenario available. Being skeptical just means you often say or think "I'll get back to you on that" when someone tells you something they claim is the truth. You do a little objective research, gather up opposing viewpoints, and see how it washes. You don't make face value assessments, and you often leave the door open for new evidence.


So what does all of this mean? It means that there are a lot of nutty people in this world. Many of them are afraid, terrified even. Some are so emotionally fragile that they will go to extreme lengths to justify their positions, even if it means death. There are much more commonplace scenarios where you might lose life or property, and those are the things you should be focused on. If you live your life preparing for the infinitely, almost impossibly small chance that you will be revered as a hero or Patriot by way of lethal force, you've sacrificed most of what makes life worth living.


p.s.

If you're convinced that I'm a gun hating liberal un-American commie type, which I'm sure a few of you have firmly assumed by now, I have two words for you.

Tactical hoodie ftw.

Freedumbs

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln


I don't need to speak of what happened last night. We all know. A horrible, tragic thing that, as unimaginable as it is, happens with greater frequency as the years pass. I also don't need to speak of why it happened or what exactly is to blame. There is no singular reason, equally applied to all instances.

But there is a commonality. One that simply cannot be discussed, even though it is blatantly obvious to everyone. It cannot be discussed because some people do not want the discussion. They fear it, and what might become of it. They will invent theories and imaginative situations where everyone will suffer. They do not think, even for a second, that if they do not, can not, participate in a reasoned examination followed by well thought out action, that some day it will be so bad that they will be forced into the very situation that they proclaim to be the absolute worst outcome.

Let me put this right out front and get it taken care of immediately so that we can get past it. If the United States of America someday decides that its coming for your guns and will happily kill you for resisting, there is not a damned thing you can do about it. I don't care how many or what kind of firearms you own, how many thousands of rounds of ammunition you stockpile, how much time you spend at the range, or how many articles of tactical clothing you own. You will not persevere. You will not hold your own. You and yours will not survive. They have tanks and planes and missiles and mother-fukin' battleships. Despite what is claimed, the USofA has the most advanced, most powerful, and largest military force in the history of the world. It is completely delusional and irrational to assume that you would even have a chance. The days of a level playing field between the private sector and the military are far, far behind us.

And while I'm on the subject, the very same military that you proudly and patriotically honor on Veterans day and Memorial Day is the same exact military that you claim will be kicking in your door to pry the gun from your cold, dead hands. The same goes for law enforcement. Sort that shit out, they can't be both.

Get this stupid end of the world as we know it shit out of your head so that we may progress.

Now that that is said, there is no reason that anyone in the American public needs anything approaching a semi-automatic military grade firearm for protection or hunting. You don't need a high capacity magazine. If you can't get it done in rapid fashion, your assailant has already killed you or others around you, and the animal you were shooting has literally high-tailed it out of there. You lost because you are a crappy shot, not because the government took away your freedoms.

Now, you might be one of those that feel we that the answer to gun violence is to have even more guns. What could go wrong if everyone was packing heat? Nobody would suffer at the hands of another ever again. That is blatantly, patently false. Gun owners are more likely to accidentally shoot themselves or others than they are to be shot by a "bad guy". So, if logic follows, the more gun owners there are, the more accidental shootings there will be. Check the numbers, it's on the rise and we aren't even near full saturation yet. If your blood doesn't boil every time a child is accidentally shot by or shoots another with a firearm owned by a self-proclaimed "responsible gun owner" or worse, a "Patriot", and you just shrug it off as the price paid (not by you, obviously) for freedom, you should remove yourself from humanity post haste.

A point is rapidly approaching, and that is the one where we collectively take action for the common good, or we have action taken against us. If we, the people on both sides of the gun debate, can have adult discussions about firearms in America, then we can control our future by coming to an agreement and proceed into the future. If we cannot, then we will be victims of our own complacency and/or stubbornness and come face to face with what is feared most.

Firearms do not need to be banned, not all of them anyway. We've done it before, with the ones that were capable of pumping out mass amounts of lead in a shortest amount of time, and it was supported on all sides. It was not a Liberal or Conservative argument, it was a human one, and was supported by every living President, both Republican and Democrat. 

The authors of the Constitution, in all of their wisdom, allowed for amendments to be added or repealed because they knew that with time comes change. If the situation calls for it, and the prerequisite number of states are in approval, changes in the Constitution can be made for the common good. So, you have to ask yourself, are you going to belly up to the table and put in the work to find a solution that works best for everyone, or are you going to stand back with your arms folded stubbornly refusing to budge, clinging on to the scenario that I covered in paragraph 3?

So what do we do? We can't ban all the guns, that is unreasonable. We should have the ability to protect our persons and our property from others, and as we all know, banning something doesn't remove it from existence. What we should do is work to change the culture, hold those that behave irresponsibly accountable for their actions. Make firearms things to be respected instead of items of status and evidence that you're on the proper side of the fence. Rights come with responsibilities. If you can't control your weapon, you lose it. For how long depends on how stupidly you were behaving. Firearms have an express purpose, and if you can't respect that, you don't get one. Simple as that.

There will always be violence in the world, at least in the foreseeable future anyway. It'll come dressed in any number of disguises with an equally numerable amount of reasons. It's unavoidable. What is avoidable is the wholly ignorant, blatantly stupid, and incredibly thick-headed behavior that gets innocent people killed or injured for no other reason than someone felt the overwhelming urge to be the "good guy".

Mine is Better Than Yours

 Religion doesn't make bigots. People are bigots and use religion to justify their ideology. ~ Reza Aslan

Religion doesn't make people bigots. People are bigots and they use religion to justify their ideology.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/ideology.html

Religion doesn't make people bigots. People are bigots and they use religion to justify their ideology.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/ideology.html

Religion doesn't make people bigots. People are bigots and they use religion to justify their ideology.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/ideology.html

There are roughly 4,000 active religions in the world today. 

But the one I believe is the only true one.

Out of those religions, there are millions of denominations and sects and divisions. 

But the one I adhere to is the only one that gets it right.


Anything else, and, well, I wouldn't want to be you. 


You see, my god has told me personally that I'm on the right path, the true path. My god told me that you're doing it wrong. My god told me that all of those things you do, all of those things that I don't do, you're going to have to answer for them. My god told me what to drive, where to live, how to dress, where to work, what to eat, and even who I should vote for (that person believes in my god too, but not in the right way. Close enough for now though.). Because scripture be damned, my god needs to be forcefully involved in your life and government, whether you like it or not. It is the only way we're going to make it through this, it's the only way for you to be more like me.


There are 7 billion people on the planet, but I'm the only one that's got it figured out. If you have any hope at all, you need to be like me. You need to think like me, act like me, love what I love and hate what I hate. You need to follow the laws of my god like I do. Not all of the laws, mind you, just the ones god told me I had to follow. Which is good because I really don't like the laws that I don't have to follow. That's how awesome my god is. My god has allowed me to ignore some things that didn't really matter.


You see, my god has a plan. My god has it all worked out. For all of us. I'm not going to say that I know what it is specifically, but I definitely know that you don't know. I know because you aren't like me. 

You can't argue about what god wants because you don't listen like I do. I'm the best listener ever, because out of 7 billion people, I'm the only one that's got it right. And my god is so very mad at you people. 

You don't listen, so my god sends sickness and death and tragedy and destruction to teach us lessons. It's your fault that these things happen, not mine.



You'll note that I did not mention any specific god in the text above, there is no point in doing so. Those beliefs are not held by any single religious faction, but those ideas are common across most all of them. The idea that what I and I alone happen to be doing is the single right thing in all of the world is shared by most everyone. Even if you have no god or religion, you believe that you are correct in your ways. Otherwise you wouldn't be doing them. You may not be a fervent ideologist, but in some degree you will relate.

For 200,000 years, our modern form of humanity has trucked along, scratching out existence on a ball of dirt and water. Fire, flood, famine, disease, we have survived everything that has been thrown at us. Before that, millions of years ago, our ancestors survived all of that too. Arguably the greatest existential threat we have ever faces has been ourselves. We will fight and kill over almost anything, real or imagined.

So you have to ask yourself, are you so absolutely sure that out of all the people that have come and gone before you, and exist with you now, that you have it right and no one else does? And that you are so right that , for the good of everyone, you must do whatever is necessary to force a change to your way of thinking?

Or is it that you are so unsure that you have it right that bending the will of others is your only real means of validating your own ideology?

Or wouldn't it be better for everyone to live their own lives on their own terms, realizing that it's not always going to be a perfect mix with society at large, and that sometime we each must accommodate a dissenting opinion? Think about how many people there are in this world that are perfectly fine with you doing something that is contrary to what they do. Return that courtesy. We will all be better for it.

The first step is always the hardest.

I've always wanted to do a blog, and there have been, on rare occasions, when I've typed out more than a paragraph, hit "post", and sent it out into the ether. When I say rare, I mean extremely rare. That isn't counting actual conversations, there are lots of those where I've gone on at length, this is counting the times I've spilled my brains out onto a page without direct provocation or wading into an existing conversation. I'm talking about a level of rareness reserved for unicorns.

The reasons for not doing a blog are numerous, but the underlying cause for my procrastination is that writing is simply a personal thing for me. And, being as introverted as I am, it is also a painful thing because it is the exact opposite of what seems prudent to do. So, as you read, know that in my mind I am writhing and squirming as I type. If you're the sadistic type, it might even make it all that much more enjoyable.

By now you might be rolling your eyes and thinking "oh god, this is one of those 'personal journey' things". Well, you're right. This blog is me doing an uncomfortable thing solely for the sake of doing an uncomfortable thing with the hopes that it becomes less uncomfortable. I'm not going to pretend that what I have to say is important, or life changing, or that maybe to some minuscule percentage of an unfathomable degree something I might say might connect with one of the billions of people on this planet and do some real good in this world. It could happen, but I'm not holding my breath, and it's not the driving force here. It's not even the backseat driving force. It's not even in the car. It's home alone, sitting on the couch, wondering where everyone else went.

So what will the blog be about? Mostly whatever is on my mind the most and fuels me to write, so it could be anything. Introverts are always thinking (always, and often lost therein), so there is no lack of subject matter. Articulating those thoughts, however, even through a keyboard, can be difficult at best. A set schedule of publication will not be a thing to look forward to, but to maintain some sort of momentum and to achieve a minimum amount of dedication, I hope to put something out twice a month. We'll see.