Great point Christopher!!! When the first gulf war started, believe it or not I was going out with a Kuiwati girl named Nowal, that is her real name. Being salacious, she was hot, and it was a very physical relationship, those were the days, sorry.
I hate war. I’ve learned to try to not comment about it because many times it’s a no win situation depending on who you talk to. At the start of these wars I’m always anxious and worried about things going sideways.
I believe now war has changed. What used to be on a battlefield with artillery, tanks and weaponized machines is now waged in our minds. Governments, our government is now using on us what they have used to destroy other nations. Issues brought up to intentionally divide, and forced discrimination is their weapon of choice.
So I agree with you Christopher, we are all watching a production that is our government and the media. I believe nothing until I see it or feel it, like how gas in my area has gone up to nearly 3 dollars a gallon again. Or the one bag of groceries I picked up last night was nearly 100 dollars. The big beautiful bill is going to continue and excel inflation. Printing and spending 2 trillion dollars more than we take in has no other end result than our money being devalued. Any economist that tries to tell you different is a big fucking liar.
What we are watching is the 9th remake of that old movie we’ve seen over and over again. There’s just a new leading star actor that loves the lights and the camera, Donald Trump.
I no longer believe anything they or the MSM say, and that’s been for a long time now. We’d all be far better off without any of them. I truly wish that they simply leave me alone. J.Goodrich
"When the first gulf war started, believe it or not I was going out with a Kuiwati girl named Nowal, that is her real name. Being salacious, she was hot, and it was a very physical relationship, those were the days, sorry."
—I believe it. Enjoy the memories. It is wonderful to have LIVED!
And I am right there with you on all the rest that you said.
About the only major event I can recall knowing where I was was back in 1963 in an 8th grade classroom when we heard that JFK had been shot. Other than 9/11, I don't recall many other events other than hearing that my draft number in the draft lotto in 1970 (I think) was #252.
Obsession over the past is what destroys the now. Yes, perhaps pay attention to history, if it is believable, but never relive it. No war stories for me.
Yes, and some will continue to study and fight the system. I agree with you—we need that. But most people are just spinning their wheels and slowly killing their own hearts. We only need a few effective ones.
And yeah, I am a put-myself-out-there kind of person. So I might as well be a put-myself-out-there kind of writer.
I remember as a child always being afraid. Raised by my grandmother who had so much trauma and poured that heavily over me. I was probably the first helicoptered child. So much so I could probably be the poster child! Anyway, war was a big part of that fear, with air raid drills and of course a constant stream of news ever on the relatively new television screen. Then, living through the Detroit riots of 1968 actually sitting on my porch watching the military march toward the downtown area where the most dangerous stuff was happening. We lived mere miles away from downtown so we were patrolled relentlessly and under a dusk to dawn curfew. Before the riots our neighborhood had been a diverse collective of first generation European families having and raising American born children. Russian, Italian, Maltese, German, Polynesian and Lord I can’t recall the myriad nationalities beyond those mentioned. All were my friends! I suppose I have to mention that these were mostly whites families. After the riots the escape to the suburbs began, and in a very short time my neighborhood became much less diverse in nationalities and so much more brown in color. The war was over, the riots were over but now there was a new fear. Because we one of the few whites families that didn’t escape for whatever reason we had to deal with racism that we are not allowed to claim or even talk about. Because we were white we were harassed, beat up, stolen from, and accused of being the cause of every wrong the brown people were suffering in the moment. Walking to school was terrifying every single day. I went to a Catholic school and the harassment was such a problem we were released early so that we could beat the public school release. There is so much more that made me afraid in the years that followed but too much to write about here. Suffice it to say that it wasn’t until my 40’s that I began to live without constant fear. I was free. Then, I discovered a relationship with Jesus and my whole world changed. Then Covid hit and all that fear came flooding back over me. I was so angry! To be clear, by March of 2020 I knew the whole thing was a farce. The fear porn continued though. Vaccine mandates, health passes, forced masking the whole gamut of BS. Fear mongering has been ratcheted up over the last 4 and 1/2 years to a fever pitch. I have to admit I’ve been a doom scroller. I tell myself it’s because what I don’t know CAN kill me. But I don’t think that really it. I’ve learned of late that fear leads to worry, and worry is just an attempt to convince ourselves we are DOING something to combat that which is beyond our control, or to avoid actually doing something over which we do have control. So how does this all relate to war in 2025? Well, I just don’t have any more worry to give. So every day I garden in my gardens. I let Jesus lead me where I must go. I help my DIL in homeschooling her children. I love on my husband who gets ALL my worry because his health is failing. I work hard to be a contributing member on our family homestead.
In short, I do what I am able to do to live my life as free as possibly can for whatever time I am allotted to do so.
Thank you Mr. Cook. Your continuing book writings are muy inspirational and thought provoking. Your musings are always a great source of hope and sometimes merely entertaining 🤗
"Because we were white we were harassed, beat up, stolen from, and accused of being the cause of every wrong the brown people were suffering in the moment […] the harassment was such a problem we were released early so that we could beat the public school release."
—A story that has been, and is being, repeated across the country.
"Then Covid hit and all that fear came flooding back over me. I was so angry!"
—Rightly and understandably so!
" I have to admit I’ve been a doom scroller. I tell myself it’s because what I don’t know CAN kill me. But I don’t think that really it. I’ve learned of late that fear leads to worry, and worry is just an attempt to convince ourselves we are DOING something to combat that which is beyond our control, or to avoid actually doing something over which we do have control. So how does this all relate to war in 2025? Well, I just don’t have any more worry to give."
—This is an essential realization. I came to it a bit earlier, though it took me a long time to fully implement it. I am glad you are there, and I am sure we are both happier for it.
"In short, I do what I am able to do to live my life as free as possibly can for whatever time I am allotted to do so."
—This is wise. This is the way.
"Thank you Mr. Cook. Your continuing book writings are muy inspirational and thought provoking. Your musings are always a great source of hope and sometimes merely entertaining"
Thank you....straight from my heart to yours. I wish I could be there to meet and hang with you and Judy this weekend. We'll have to make a future plan! 😘
Love this! And I agree wholeheartedly! There is God’s Truth and the is the incessant lies of the adversary really just swirling smoke screens and spiderwebs. Yes let us disengage and derange ourselves from all of that! And as a real live Holly my true name I know I would much rather make love than war!
I have always thought Holly was one of the prettiest names. I did meet a gorgeous Molly (close enough to Holly) on an earlier train ride north to St. Andrews, and I even got her dorm room number, but I never followed up. I think I chose that pseudonym for both those reasons.
Back when I was a more boilerplate conservative, I kinda poked fun at the 60s slogan "Make love, not war." Now that I know better, I would happily paint it on a mural on the side of my house. (Though I suspect my wife would object.)
Funny! I am done scrolling for now but just before I checked replies one last time I saw this article on no 💩 for real A Synthetic DNA 🧬 project in the UK I put it on my Substack thingy and sent it to my son. I said Hobey just in case you’re feeling Complacent…. remember there’s always a replacement!!! Isn’t that hysterical??!! That is one reason why I really don’t like to share too much online I sure do want to be the only “fully” me Holly out there! Have a good night!! Thank you!
When I was younger I thought I was the only Holly in the world. My Dad had picked my name from someone he knew when he was in the Merchant Marines in Germany. I never really knew exactly who she was my parents divorced and my Father died 2 yrs later when I was 13. I love my name because I connects me to him and I feel a real closeness and affinity with anyone who has that name also. There are a few others here on Substack. Such a great community u really appreciate it and have been learning so much. Thank you for all your contributions!!
😆 I was trying for a straightforward account, and I thought it was pretty tame, especially in comparison to some if the piquant content that is available here on Subtack. But I suppose it is somewhat out of character for my particular stack.
You’ll never make it as the next Glenn Greenwald, Chris. Gotta up
Your game.
“So there I was in a garter belt and Holly’s panties. Holly’s riding crop was making a chemtrail pattern on my lace clad butt when Holly’s Mom said ‘the war has started’. We went downstairs and I forgot to zip my zipper up and the lacy panties were clearly exposed.”
Rational ignorance, to me, seems a bit like epistemic nihilism when taken to the extreme. In the same vein, why should anyone say anything about USAID abuses, or whether it's legal to transport raw milk, or draconian COVID restrictions etc., if they stay out of one of the most fundamental violations of human life? Arguably, wars are the worst manifestations of a state, because the consent that's manufactured in favor of them appeals to the worst collectivist instincts of humanity. To avoid that discussion because a more cringy faction (e.g. "zhe/zhem" people on Bluesky) is pursuing it at the moment seems like a bit of a disservice on all ends.
Governments do lie a lot for sure, but I think the capacity for lying and maintaining thought control are contingent upon how much power one has (and geopolitically, the US *is* a superpower). In a full-blown "don't dissent or else you will disappear" autocracy, I at least know that I'm unfree ... so I might be compliant, but I haven't internalized anything. In so-called democracies, everyone's ankles are chained to walls, and the job of all the messaging is to convince the citizen that the radius that they can move in is all they'd need anyways. That, to me, is far more nefarious.
Of course I'm not saying that you're doing this, but a lot of people who implore others to "look away from the window", so to speak, have their own bridges to sell. I've seen quite a few people admonish others for having a strong stance on a given issue actions ... while exalting *their* own strong stance (e.g. snide "only pro-LGBT democracy in the Middle-East" IDpol in an article excoriating anti-Israel protestors for being too invested). At least, knowledge and past experience can inoculate people from the worst aspects of narrative management, and telling people to spurn it isn't very different from telling people to burn their guns while someone else still has theirs. That's not to say that people should just absorb whatever they can from news stories, but principles are, well, meant to be applied to IRL contexts. What's the point wearing tinted glasses (or taking off rose-tinted glasses) if one's eyes are closed?
[Just some initial thoughts, I do apologize if I sound combative in any way! :P]
"Rational ignorance, to me, seems a bit like epistemic nihilism when taken to the extreme."
—Agreed. I don't want to take it to the extreme. I just want to stop obsessing over, and researching endlessly, issues that I cannot change or even know the truth of.
"To avoid that discussion because a more cringy faction (e.g. "zhe/zhem" people on Bluesky) is pursuing it at the moment seems like a bit of a disservice on all ends."
—Yep. That is not really my point (though the zhe/zhem crowd are rather irritating). It's just that I figure we can oppose war without watching 24-7 coverage of it. And without discussing what that coverage told us about it, as if we're sure that what they told us is actually true. Know what I mean?
"In so-called democracies, everyone's ankles are chained to walls, and the job of all the messaging is to convince the citizen that the radius that they can move in is all they'd need anyways. That, to me, is far more nefarious."
—Well said!
"Of course I'm not saying that you're doing this, but a lot of people who implore others to "look away from the window", so to speak, have their own bridges to sell." Etc.
—Reasonable thoughts, and it seems like rational challenge, but not really combative, so no worries.
Interestingly, I am sharing a lot of these ideas as they occur to me. So what you're getting is honest, unvarnished me. "Hey, it just occurred to me that…" (If you cannot tell, I do not hide or hold much back in my writing.) I suppose it could seem to someone like I am saying, "Stop focusing on the world and focus on me and my ideas instead." But that's not really it. It's more like I am trying to figure out a new way out of the mess we're in. I am thinking about it constantly, soliciting the opinions of others, planning some things, sharing other things as they come to me, and trying to synthesize it all together into a plan. I don't really want attention for myself (if I did, I would probably be further along, because such people often do quite well for themselves). I do want attention to my ideas, because I am trying really hard to find good answers and come up with good ideas. But it would take someone pretty untrusting and cynical to read the vulnerable, solicitous way that I write and conclude that I had some self-serving agenda.
I suspect most meta-narratives are built with carefully cherrypicked facts, where certainty serves as cement, such that any contradictory fact can crumble it into pieces. I guess I just think that even if it's foolish to scramble for the epistemological bricks to build the best skyscraper ever (if there is such a thing), I'd still try to make use of the bricks I have, treating the construction as a Ship of Theseus-like entity--the house is bound to be rebuilt and destroyed time to time, but the person is unharmed. Similarly, we might delve into obscure topics, learning new things and changing our minds, but so long as we have some kind of, er, inner compass, it shouldn't lead to identity collapse.
To that end, I do agree that internal self-actualization is far more healthier (and helpful) than external locus-based outlooks. Even the physical body makes use of homeostasis, it's a worthy model for the mind as well. I don't think we can get out of the system by engaging in practices like, ahem, voting, but I also don't want self-actualization to become a solipsistic endeavor.
Yeah I apologize if I sounded accusatory towards you, and thanks for the civility. I don't think you're trying to sell a bridge and I do respect that you authentically believe what you write, even if I've strongly disagreed on a fair number of topics, haha. Just that upon reading the article linked in this piece and reading a couple others, that was a conclusion I couldn't entirely discard in the case of that author, and it's a recurring pattern I've seen with others, so I figured I'd write out my unfiltered intuition, along with why I'm skeptical of this concept.
To a degree, I don't know if it's truly possible to be rationally ignorant. Of course there's overt messaging in the news, but I also don't know that it's possible to be bereft of all biases (not in an IDpol sense, in terms of being susceptible to a given narrative) by simply not paying attention. Every, er, "mass synchronization event" (credit to Apollo's Lyre for this) can be the catalyst for someone to examine their current thought processes and realize that it doesn't have to be this way--I don't doubt that there's also a concerted effort to "spin" those events in a way that upholds the status quo, but just think that falling prey to it can only be avoided by intentionality (as opposed to not knowing, or only knowing the bullet points ... after all, who writes the bullet points?).
"I suspect most meta-narratives are built with carefully cherrypicked facts, where certainty serves as cement, such that any contradictory fact can crumble it into pieces."
—That is one reason why I focus on the most basic stuff (like consent, natural law, etc.).
Basically, I am exploring with y'all the realizations I am having as I am having them. (Some involve more prior thought than others, of course.) In this case, it's not so much that I don't want to know anything. (I hate that Edie Brickell song in which she lionizes bland ignorance.) It's that I don't want to dwell inside the system. I don't want to get sucked into the partisan spats, fall down all the rabbit holes, etc.
It is possible to know things. But so often, we discuss things from a position that sounds and feels like knowledge, only to discover that there is another layer. Blah blah blah strong position about Vietnam, and then you learn that the CIA destabilized Vietnam well before the war started. Blah blah blah Pearl Harbor, and then you learn that FDR knew it was coming. But then you wonder, "Hey wait, is THAT all there is to know? Or is there an even deeper layer?"Where does it end?
And while I am looking for the end, I am not building something new. While I am looking for the end, I am not watching a bee get nectar from a flower, or planting that flower myself, or caressing my wife's hair.
I really don't want this to sound like I am anti-knowledge. It just feels to me now like obsessing over every detail of the old world keeps me from building the new. I know that Trump bombed those places. So how do I spend my time now? Learning every detail of what happened? Trying to get to the bottom of it? Arguing with people about it? It just seems like a poor use of time somehow.
Maybe some of this is age. You are young and there is so much to know. I am middle-old (57) and have discovered that a lot of what I spent my adult life arguing about and getting to the bottom of seems never to change. Some might call it jaded, but I prefer to think of it as wisdom and a refocus of priorities.
I could not agree with You more! I ignore the "news," and work to share awareness of a better way of doing things. "Bombs" (maybe dog-wagging?) are not what I care about. Nothing I can do about 'em anyway. I try to enjoy the moment while working for a better future for Humanity.
So true. It's just outrage porn. Every moment we spend watching another stupid war on TV or YouTube or whatever platform we hang out on is a moment when we are NOT building solutions. We could be listening to people with ideas that are actually being put into practice to build a better future. We could be making connections and getting things done, not wringing our hands over something that we have no control over.
Great point Christopher!!! When the first gulf war started, believe it or not I was going out with a Kuiwati girl named Nowal, that is her real name. Being salacious, she was hot, and it was a very physical relationship, those were the days, sorry.
I hate war. I’ve learned to try to not comment about it because many times it’s a no win situation depending on who you talk to. At the start of these wars I’m always anxious and worried about things going sideways.
I believe now war has changed. What used to be on a battlefield with artillery, tanks and weaponized machines is now waged in our minds. Governments, our government is now using on us what they have used to destroy other nations. Issues brought up to intentionally divide, and forced discrimination is their weapon of choice.
So I agree with you Christopher, we are all watching a production that is our government and the media. I believe nothing until I see it or feel it, like how gas in my area has gone up to nearly 3 dollars a gallon again. Or the one bag of groceries I picked up last night was nearly 100 dollars. The big beautiful bill is going to continue and excel inflation. Printing and spending 2 trillion dollars more than we take in has no other end result than our money being devalued. Any economist that tries to tell you different is a big fucking liar.
What we are watching is the 9th remake of that old movie we’ve seen over and over again. There’s just a new leading star actor that loves the lights and the camera, Donald Trump.
I no longer believe anything they or the MSM say, and that’s been for a long time now. We’d all be far better off without any of them. I truly wish that they simply leave me alone. J.Goodrich
"When the first gulf war started, believe it or not I was going out with a Kuiwati girl named Nowal, that is her real name. Being salacious, she was hot, and it was a very physical relationship, those were the days, sorry."
—I believe it. Enjoy the memories. It is wonderful to have LIVED!
And I am right there with you on all the rest that you said.
About the only major event I can recall knowing where I was was back in 1963 in an 8th grade classroom when we heard that JFK had been shot. Other than 9/11, I don't recall many other events other than hearing that my draft number in the draft lotto in 1970 (I think) was #252.
Obsession over the past is what destroys the now. Yes, perhaps pay attention to history, if it is believable, but never relive it. No war stories for me.
Right on, Crix.
A great concept Christopher and likely the best path and an excellent example, you sure do put yourself out there when you write - Thank you!
Frankly, I believe optimally a portion of us will need to study the System and its actions to best position and protect us.
Yes, and some will continue to study and fight the system. I agree with you—we need that. But most people are just spinning their wheels and slowly killing their own hearts. We only need a few effective ones.
And yeah, I am a put-myself-out-there kind of person. So I might as well be a put-myself-out-there kind of writer.
Surely!
There was a gentleman (his name was something like Andrew Bourdon) who said, "War is the health of the state"...
I just looked it up, and your memory was close—I think it was Randolph Bourne. And yes, he was right!
I was shooting from the hip, so I guess it's not surprising I didn't score a bull's eye...
I had to look it up entirely, so I didn't even know the target existed :-)
“When we dwell within the system, we feed the system. We do not benefit ourselves; we benefit the system. We benefit our oppressors.” 👍🏻👍🏻
Right on.
I remember as a child always being afraid. Raised by my grandmother who had so much trauma and poured that heavily over me. I was probably the first helicoptered child. So much so I could probably be the poster child! Anyway, war was a big part of that fear, with air raid drills and of course a constant stream of news ever on the relatively new television screen. Then, living through the Detroit riots of 1968 actually sitting on my porch watching the military march toward the downtown area where the most dangerous stuff was happening. We lived mere miles away from downtown so we were patrolled relentlessly and under a dusk to dawn curfew. Before the riots our neighborhood had been a diverse collective of first generation European families having and raising American born children. Russian, Italian, Maltese, German, Polynesian and Lord I can’t recall the myriad nationalities beyond those mentioned. All were my friends! I suppose I have to mention that these were mostly whites families. After the riots the escape to the suburbs began, and in a very short time my neighborhood became much less diverse in nationalities and so much more brown in color. The war was over, the riots were over but now there was a new fear. Because we one of the few whites families that didn’t escape for whatever reason we had to deal with racism that we are not allowed to claim or even talk about. Because we were white we were harassed, beat up, stolen from, and accused of being the cause of every wrong the brown people were suffering in the moment. Walking to school was terrifying every single day. I went to a Catholic school and the harassment was such a problem we were released early so that we could beat the public school release. There is so much more that made me afraid in the years that followed but too much to write about here. Suffice it to say that it wasn’t until my 40’s that I began to live without constant fear. I was free. Then, I discovered a relationship with Jesus and my whole world changed. Then Covid hit and all that fear came flooding back over me. I was so angry! To be clear, by March of 2020 I knew the whole thing was a farce. The fear porn continued though. Vaccine mandates, health passes, forced masking the whole gamut of BS. Fear mongering has been ratcheted up over the last 4 and 1/2 years to a fever pitch. I have to admit I’ve been a doom scroller. I tell myself it’s because what I don’t know CAN kill me. But I don’t think that really it. I’ve learned of late that fear leads to worry, and worry is just an attempt to convince ourselves we are DOING something to combat that which is beyond our control, or to avoid actually doing something over which we do have control. So how does this all relate to war in 2025? Well, I just don’t have any more worry to give. So every day I garden in my gardens. I let Jesus lead me where I must go. I help my DIL in homeschooling her children. I love on my husband who gets ALL my worry because his health is failing. I work hard to be a contributing member on our family homestead.
In short, I do what I am able to do to live my life as free as possibly can for whatever time I am allotted to do so.
Thank you Mr. Cook. Your continuing book writings are muy inspirational and thought provoking. Your musings are always a great source of hope and sometimes merely entertaining 🤗
"Because we were white we were harassed, beat up, stolen from, and accused of being the cause of every wrong the brown people were suffering in the moment […] the harassment was such a problem we were released early so that we could beat the public school release."
—A story that has been, and is being, repeated across the country.
"Then Covid hit and all that fear came flooding back over me. I was so angry!"
—Rightly and understandably so!
" I have to admit I’ve been a doom scroller. I tell myself it’s because what I don’t know CAN kill me. But I don’t think that really it. I’ve learned of late that fear leads to worry, and worry is just an attempt to convince ourselves we are DOING something to combat that which is beyond our control, or to avoid actually doing something over which we do have control. So how does this all relate to war in 2025? Well, I just don’t have any more worry to give."
—This is an essential realization. I came to it a bit earlier, though it took me a long time to fully implement it. I am glad you are there, and I am sure we are both happier for it.
"In short, I do what I am able to do to live my life as free as possibly can for whatever time I am allotted to do so."
—This is wise. This is the way.
"Thank you Mr. Cook. Your continuing book writings are muy inspirational and thought provoking. Your musings are always a great source of hope and sometimes merely entertaining"
—I try to be both. Thanks!
Legit tears, my beautiful big-hearted brother. Thank you for you. 🧡
And for you, darlin'. You are on an excellent and admirable journey of discovery from which we all benefit.
Thank you....straight from my heart to yours. I wish I could be there to meet and hang with you and Judy this weekend. We'll have to make a future plan! 😘
Indeed we shall, m'dear!
(We are also doing the 4th of July, I think :-)
Love this! And I agree wholeheartedly! There is God’s Truth and the is the incessant lies of the adversary really just swirling smoke screens and spiderwebs. Yes let us disengage and derange ourselves from all of that! And as a real live Holly my true name I know I would much rather make love than war!
Well said.
I have always thought Holly was one of the prettiest names. I did meet a gorgeous Molly (close enough to Holly) on an earlier train ride north to St. Andrews, and I even got her dorm room number, but I never followed up. I think I chose that pseudonym for both those reasons.
Back when I was a more boilerplate conservative, I kinda poked fun at the 60s slogan "Make love, not war." Now that I know better, I would happily paint it on a mural on the side of my house. (Though I suspect my wife would object.)
Glad to know you, Holly.
Funny! I am done scrolling for now but just before I checked replies one last time I saw this article on no 💩 for real A Synthetic DNA 🧬 project in the UK I put it on my Substack thingy and sent it to my son. I said Hobey just in case you’re feeling Complacent…. remember there’s always a replacement!!! Isn’t that hysterical??!! That is one reason why I really don’t like to share too much online I sure do want to be the only “fully” me Holly out there! Have a good night!! Thank you!
Science + psychopaths = badness!!
When I was younger I thought I was the only Holly in the world. My Dad had picked my name from someone he knew when he was in the Merchant Marines in Germany. I never really knew exactly who she was my parents divorced and my Father died 2 yrs later when I was 13. I love my name because I connects me to him and I feel a real closeness and affinity with anyone who has that name also. There are a few others here on Substack. Such a great community u really appreciate it and have been learning so much. Thank you for all your contributions!!
Thank you for being fully Holly.
Dear Penthouse Letters …
😆 I was trying for a straightforward account, and I thought it was pretty tame, especially in comparison to some if the piquant content that is available here on Subtack. But I suppose it is somewhat out of character for my particular stack.
No, it was fine! I was just being a smart-ass 😁👍
I thought that was probably the case 😁. But I definitely don't want people to think I am writing prurient stories just for the sake of prurience.
Beautiful, thanks.
Thank you for perceiving it in the spirit in which it was intended.
You’ll never make it as the next Glenn Greenwald, Chris. Gotta up
Your game.
“So there I was in a garter belt and Holly’s panties. Holly’s riding crop was making a chemtrail pattern on my lace clad butt when Holly’s Mom said ‘the war has started’. We went downstairs and I forgot to zip my zipper up and the lacy panties were clearly exposed.”
If only I had a time machine…
Rational ignorance, to me, seems a bit like epistemic nihilism when taken to the extreme. In the same vein, why should anyone say anything about USAID abuses, or whether it's legal to transport raw milk, or draconian COVID restrictions etc., if they stay out of one of the most fundamental violations of human life? Arguably, wars are the worst manifestations of a state, because the consent that's manufactured in favor of them appeals to the worst collectivist instincts of humanity. To avoid that discussion because a more cringy faction (e.g. "zhe/zhem" people on Bluesky) is pursuing it at the moment seems like a bit of a disservice on all ends.
Governments do lie a lot for sure, but I think the capacity for lying and maintaining thought control are contingent upon how much power one has (and geopolitically, the US *is* a superpower). In a full-blown "don't dissent or else you will disappear" autocracy, I at least know that I'm unfree ... so I might be compliant, but I haven't internalized anything. In so-called democracies, everyone's ankles are chained to walls, and the job of all the messaging is to convince the citizen that the radius that they can move in is all they'd need anyways. That, to me, is far more nefarious.
Of course I'm not saying that you're doing this, but a lot of people who implore others to "look away from the window", so to speak, have their own bridges to sell. I've seen quite a few people admonish others for having a strong stance on a given issue actions ... while exalting *their* own strong stance (e.g. snide "only pro-LGBT democracy in the Middle-East" IDpol in an article excoriating anti-Israel protestors for being too invested). At least, knowledge and past experience can inoculate people from the worst aspects of narrative management, and telling people to spurn it isn't very different from telling people to burn their guns while someone else still has theirs. That's not to say that people should just absorb whatever they can from news stories, but principles are, well, meant to be applied to IRL contexts. What's the point wearing tinted glasses (or taking off rose-tinted glasses) if one's eyes are closed?
[Just some initial thoughts, I do apologize if I sound combative in any way! :P]
"Rational ignorance, to me, seems a bit like epistemic nihilism when taken to the extreme."
—Agreed. I don't want to take it to the extreme. I just want to stop obsessing over, and researching endlessly, issues that I cannot change or even know the truth of.
"To avoid that discussion because a more cringy faction (e.g. "zhe/zhem" people on Bluesky) is pursuing it at the moment seems like a bit of a disservice on all ends."
—Yep. That is not really my point (though the zhe/zhem crowd are rather irritating). It's just that I figure we can oppose war without watching 24-7 coverage of it. And without discussing what that coverage told us about it, as if we're sure that what they told us is actually true. Know what I mean?
"In so-called democracies, everyone's ankles are chained to walls, and the job of all the messaging is to convince the citizen that the radius that they can move in is all they'd need anyways. That, to me, is far more nefarious."
—Well said!
"Of course I'm not saying that you're doing this, but a lot of people who implore others to "look away from the window", so to speak, have their own bridges to sell." Etc.
—Reasonable thoughts, and it seems like rational challenge, but not really combative, so no worries.
Interestingly, I am sharing a lot of these ideas as they occur to me. So what you're getting is honest, unvarnished me. "Hey, it just occurred to me that…" (If you cannot tell, I do not hide or hold much back in my writing.) I suppose it could seem to someone like I am saying, "Stop focusing on the world and focus on me and my ideas instead." But that's not really it. It's more like I am trying to figure out a new way out of the mess we're in. I am thinking about it constantly, soliciting the opinions of others, planning some things, sharing other things as they come to me, and trying to synthesize it all together into a plan. I don't really want attention for myself (if I did, I would probably be further along, because such people often do quite well for themselves). I do want attention to my ideas, because I am trying really hard to find good answers and come up with good ideas. But it would take someone pretty untrusting and cynical to read the vulnerable, solicitous way that I write and conclude that I had some self-serving agenda.
Yeah, I see where you're coming from.
I suspect most meta-narratives are built with carefully cherrypicked facts, where certainty serves as cement, such that any contradictory fact can crumble it into pieces. I guess I just think that even if it's foolish to scramble for the epistemological bricks to build the best skyscraper ever (if there is such a thing), I'd still try to make use of the bricks I have, treating the construction as a Ship of Theseus-like entity--the house is bound to be rebuilt and destroyed time to time, but the person is unharmed. Similarly, we might delve into obscure topics, learning new things and changing our minds, but so long as we have some kind of, er, inner compass, it shouldn't lead to identity collapse.
To that end, I do agree that internal self-actualization is far more healthier (and helpful) than external locus-based outlooks. Even the physical body makes use of homeostasis, it's a worthy model for the mind as well. I don't think we can get out of the system by engaging in practices like, ahem, voting, but I also don't want self-actualization to become a solipsistic endeavor.
Yeah I apologize if I sounded accusatory towards you, and thanks for the civility. I don't think you're trying to sell a bridge and I do respect that you authentically believe what you write, even if I've strongly disagreed on a fair number of topics, haha. Just that upon reading the article linked in this piece and reading a couple others, that was a conclusion I couldn't entirely discard in the case of that author, and it's a recurring pattern I've seen with others, so I figured I'd write out my unfiltered intuition, along with why I'm skeptical of this concept.
To a degree, I don't know if it's truly possible to be rationally ignorant. Of course there's overt messaging in the news, but I also don't know that it's possible to be bereft of all biases (not in an IDpol sense, in terms of being susceptible to a given narrative) by simply not paying attention. Every, er, "mass synchronization event" (credit to Apollo's Lyre for this) can be the catalyst for someone to examine their current thought processes and realize that it doesn't have to be this way--I don't doubt that there's also a concerted effort to "spin" those events in a way that upholds the status quo, but just think that falling prey to it can only be avoided by intentionality (as opposed to not knowing, or only knowing the bullet points ... after all, who writes the bullet points?).
"I suspect most meta-narratives are built with carefully cherrypicked facts, where certainty serves as cement, such that any contradictory fact can crumble it into pieces."
—That is one reason why I focus on the most basic stuff (like consent, natural law, etc.).
Basically, I am exploring with y'all the realizations I am having as I am having them. (Some involve more prior thought than others, of course.) In this case, it's not so much that I don't want to know anything. (I hate that Edie Brickell song in which she lionizes bland ignorance.) It's that I don't want to dwell inside the system. I don't want to get sucked into the partisan spats, fall down all the rabbit holes, etc.
It is possible to know things. But so often, we discuss things from a position that sounds and feels like knowledge, only to discover that there is another layer. Blah blah blah strong position about Vietnam, and then you learn that the CIA destabilized Vietnam well before the war started. Blah blah blah Pearl Harbor, and then you learn that FDR knew it was coming. But then you wonder, "Hey wait, is THAT all there is to know? Or is there an even deeper layer?"Where does it end?
And while I am looking for the end, I am not building something new. While I am looking for the end, I am not watching a bee get nectar from a flower, or planting that flower myself, or caressing my wife's hair.
I really don't want this to sound like I am anti-knowledge. It just feels to me now like obsessing over every detail of the old world keeps me from building the new. I know that Trump bombed those places. So how do I spend my time now? Learning every detail of what happened? Trying to get to the bottom of it? Arguing with people about it? It just seems like a poor use of time somehow.
Maybe some of this is age. You are young and there is so much to know. I am middle-old (57) and have discovered that a lot of what I spent my adult life arguing about and getting to the bottom of seems never to change. Some might call it jaded, but I prefer to think of it as wisdom and a refocus of priorities.
I could not agree with You more! I ignore the "news," and work to share awareness of a better way of doing things. "Bombs" (maybe dog-wagging?) are not what I care about. Nothing I can do about 'em anyway. I try to enjoy the moment while working for a better future for Humanity.
Glad You don't get het up either!
Right on. This is the way.
🙏🏻 💜 🙏🏻
So true. It's just outrage porn. Every moment we spend watching another stupid war on TV or YouTube or whatever platform we hang out on is a moment when we are NOT building solutions. We could be listening to people with ideas that are actually being put into practice to build a better future. We could be making connections and getting things done, not wringing our hands over something that we have no control over.
Well and rightly said. And thank you for being one of the few who is putting your solutions money where your mouth is!