Idiotion

This morning on TV, some news anchor lizard was moaning about the “growing problem” of hazing in schools. And it very well might be a growing problem, but you wouldn’t know it if you analyzed the reports. Here’s the pattern:

1. Complain about the growing problem
2. Cite one or two isolated, but egregious, examples
3. Quote a talking head
4. Demand that something be done about the “epidemic”.
5. Rinse and repeat with another random scare when everyone gets bored

Well I’d like to demand that something be done about pompous, parasitic media lizards bombarding the impressionable with balderdash. In fact, I think those baboons should be HAZED!

As a child I’d hear the expression ‘Far East’. To me that was just over a mile away, over the horizon where the sun rose. It was definitely east, and far away from me. That’s at least as logical as many of the things we believe as adults.

Ever since Oprah recommended The Secret, I’ve been reading complaints. I have no intention of reading the book. Ever since an afternoon in Idaho, watching the remarkable Ms Winfrey urge me to “Get in touch with my spirit”, I’ve been leery of her ability to manipulate her target audience. Instead, I’ll point you at a review by someone with the fortitude to read the book.

The Secret is a motivational book. It can inspire you to set goals, and to visualize the life you’d like to lead. A lot of its techniques are time-tested psychological tricks to help keep you motivated. I like this.

The book loses me, though, when it claims that the Law of Attraction is a “universal law” such as the law of gravity. The Secret attempts to combine Christianity (Jesus followed the Law of Attraction, don’t you know?), quantum physics, and more in an effort to convince readers that our minds are some sort of universal force governed by frequencies and wavelengths and so on. This is bullshit of the highest order, and it makes me angry. To quote Han Solo, “There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.”

Despite the harsh words, positive thinking isn’t dissed. My take is that if you believe in your goals, then you’ll be more open to the opportunities for success.

Think stupid thoughts: entertain the world.

We’re not the only ones obsessed with stupid ideas. If you’re interested in thinking for yourself try reading 5 Ways to Develop Independent Thought, a guest post by Tom O’Leary at Pick The Brain.

Logically, when we think like everyone else is thinking, the best we can expect is to achieve what they’re already achieving. If our aim is to over-achieve, we need to avoid the same banal influences and think impossibly. We need to become independent from conventional wisdom.

More often than not, conventional wisdom is right, or at least a good idea. Millennia of philosophy and religion has generated some great insight into life. But often is not the same as always, and the more conformist the society in which you live, the more difference a good idea can make. And unfortunately, you can’t always tell the difference between a good idea and a stinker. Take a chance!

An article at businesspundit.com explores some reasons for the truism about who you know, and what it takes to be successful in business. Even though he makes the case for the thoughtful introvert, he explains some of the reasons why we don’t get ahead as fast as we would like.

The point of all this is that, in business, you really do get ahead more by being liked rather than by being brilliant. Sure, you need to have some minimum level of competence, but if people like your personality, they will let mild transgressions slide. And deep deep down, they really don’t want to work with someone disciplined and demanding, because it might make them look bad. No one likes to be held accountable.

Sometimes I think that we are all in sales, that everything we achieve is proportional to the number of people we talk to. Maybe shyness should be covered as a disability.

Just listened to a piece on public radio about black people in San Francisco. Apparently they’ve been heading for the suburbs in droves because the city is too expensive. Stable institutions like churches have seen their attendance decimated as their congregation departs.

The tone of the piece implied that this was a bad thing, and perhaps it is. But the same has been said of white flight, implying that inner cities become a wasteland of ethnic poverty. Perhaps both viewpoints are correct. If the old patterns of segregation are being maintained then nothing improves. On the other hand, maybe the major effect in play is old-fashioned resistance to change.

This is mostly a rant, a little diatribe about the social nature of people. You know who they are, you probably complain about them several times a week. They’re the poor sad souls with the genetics for obstruction, some built-in radar for getting in the way, congregating at doorways, weaving in front of you as you try to walk by them, parking their cart in the supermarket to obstruct the whole aisle.

Or maybe the whole thing is random, a basic side-effect of small events, and a message from above to slow down, get in touch with priorities, take a moment to reflect. If so, I’m in trouble. I think of myself as patient but those idiots drive me mad. Pray for me!

An article at the website Zenhabits lists 52 ways to be happier. Here’s my favourite:

#51 Be lazy. There’s a time to be productive, and there’s a time to be plain ol’ lazy. I like the latter, and do it every chance I get. Does that make me a lazy person? Probably not, but even if it does, I don’t care. It makes me happy, and the kids love being lazy with me.

The great thing about the list is that the writer often writes about ways to be more productive. But then again, laziness can be defined as doing the least amount of work to achieve the desired effect. Sounds like productivity to me….

A California psych professor has a lot to say about happiness.

a state where attention, motivation, and the situation meet, resulting in a kind of productive harmony or feedback.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Wikipedia

An Independent Online Edition >article in the Independent touts the benefits of meditation, at least if you are a French academic Buddhist monk. If you are a biochemist, get out now and head straight for the Himalayas.