Writing For Idiots

By Roger Colins 

_____________________________________________________________ Representitive Literature? Surely not... Normally, I give myself a wide birth. Is that me? Could be, but could be you as well.   When I give myself a wide birth I'm allowing myself the ability to be misunderstood and when allowing someone else a wide birth, allowing them the ability to misunderstand. Could you get through that sentence without reading it twice? If you could, thine be mine bretherin. If not, well then... Sorry to have to do this but I feel that it is an important, nay, a paramount point that has to be said. I am no elitist and insist that learning, is a long, swooping, never ending curve. I was always told to write as if writing for a three year old, or there abouts. The idea is that anyone can read your work and your work can be understood. Fair enough. But, wait. What if everyone suddenly turns into genii? Yes, it is a word, plural for geniuses. Whoops, there I go again. I'd have to up my game a bit so that my work isn't passed off as remedial when it is supposed to be something more. Come on, what if everyone turned into morons? Exactly, I would say. I'd just have to write so much more carefully, on a hope and a prayer that the morons reading my work had the necessary attention span to get to the end. I would, after all, have to use more words as the bigger words that would not be understood would require whole sentences to get the meaning across to these third graders. Let me give you an example. Shakespere  I was about thirteen years old sooo, lets say this is 1995. Holy shit! A long time ago. Hmm. Anyway, my upper school class along with myself were taken along to a certain movie, originally penned by William Shakespere, reproduced and depicted with the help of one, Leonardo DiCaprio. The problem was, that the original Shakespearean language was not tampered with and the dialemma, that it left me sitting next to my best mate, telling me he didn't understand a word. Oh Shit. Well, normally I would have turned to said person in the theatre and asked them if they spoke English. Nay, I did not for I have a kind heart in my breast may it damn me to hell. I just tried to give my friend the general idea of what was going on while Mercutio was pointing his 'swords' at everyone. And we return. Now I am somewhat the twenty years on now, I have the advantage of retrospect and can use it in this well formulated and entirely improvsed illustration. Just when are we going to be able to write for those that aren't idiots? Yes, he was my best friend and I do not mean to impinge on any of you that do not understand what I am saying, just, that I am bored having to make myself more stupid in order to create something new. If I want to sell a shit load of volumes and books, signings, posters, publicity and interviews and what ever so have you, yes... I have to write for the masses and leave my true talent, truly, wasted. I can freely understand that a paper that has to be specific in all areas of accuracy such as counting and measuring must be without any room for dispute. But those that have this room, the arts such as literature, for one, art, for one and all by one, dance, music, all the fun bits in life that spur the imagination so that the scientists may take and use them for a new idea of where to look and what to look for... have been encouraged to be so, bloody, stupid. Cavemen Complex I will ask that one imagine the beginning of, consciousness... for humankind, at the very least. A caveman perhaps, a monkey in a tree if you're more open to further possibilities. Now, take your future, as you see it now, where we have come from and where we are now along with everything in between and spin it, 180 degrees. Do you think we will have gotten as far as we are now? Do you think that by going in the opposite direction, we will have gone backwards?  Do you think we will have found something new?  Do you think we will have surpassed our current circumstances?  Do you think that we will have become stunted as a result? Do any of you think that by approaching the problem from the opposite angle there is a possibility we may have advanced further than we have achieved to this date, from the direction the human race actually did decide upon?  You can, also argue that we had no choice, fair play. I implied this earlier but feel that I should make it quite clear now. This, what I am writing, is unedited. Just like how you prattle and honk with your friends and family, I'm just spewing my own bullshit in the way that I see fit. There is an upside to this, unedited, live type as well. It is un-moderated. No one to tell me when to stop, what not to say nor when not to say it. No questions, no answers, no conclusions. There's another. It's true language. If you don't get it, tough shit and you can call me a bullshitter, talking utter nonsense and going nowhere without a point but, hold on, aren't there entire professions for this? Training Idiots Lecturers? Yes, Lecturers do the exact same thing but they will indeed have an entire script ready to read from that has been doctored and edited and messed with and refined so that the largest demographic, who ever they are, can understand it. Huh? Why? I don't see the point. If everyone can understand it then there's no point in giving a lecture, surely they'll figure it out for themselves one day... Might be a good idea to inform those that will never know, but they aren't going to be in the audience, are they? I say, challenge, push, and push hard. Doesn't mean that anyone or everyone is a loser, just means that they didn't catch the previous class. They can catch up later. I'm one of those, I'm catching up and not everything I hear is understood. Some things make no sense to me at all and I might even call some of them utter bullshit. That doesn't mean that in a hundred years time these things won't be known as law or fact or history. No, just means I'm just as much of an idiot as everyone else. The only difference will be is that I was not treated like one and did not consider myself one. Treating students like idiots, will surly turn them into idiots. Treating anyone like genii, will surly, turn them into geniuses as well and I beg for the day that the geniuses of this world are allowed to write for the geniuses of this world, as well... not, the idiots!

Shakespere Cavemen Education

Rejection: The Critical Reception

By Roger Colins

     After nearly two months of waiting I finally have a rejection letter and could not be happier. Some time ago I wrote a post upon finishing my first book where I detailed the unexpected, strange void that appeared. Unknowingly, I was talking about Critical Reception.

Without mentioning who or where I gave my submission to, the rejection letter was brief and to the point. I was thanked for my submission, told that the agent enjoyed reading it but that it was not something that he was looking for. Most would be mortified but some, can take this and use it.


Walls

Perhaps I am just strange but having been rejected I have found an improved focus as I move forwards where for the last two months I have been stuck with quite without a wall.

Most do not appreciate a wall, see it as an obstacle but if I don't have a wall then I have no point of reference and can find myself running around in circles not knowing which way is forward.

The simplest of things can be the best wall to reflect upon and take bearing from. A far off mountain top for the rambler, the pole star for a sailor, for the rest of us - the bar tender at the end of the road. My prospective agent may know it not but he has helped me in more ways than he knows with but two short sentences. Whether this was just a polite response or an actual honest opinion, doesn't matter. What matters is he read it, and gave an opinion. This is useful for a number of reasons because I can educate a rough idea of why he chose not to accept my book.

It could be that he spent hours littering the synopsis and sample with red ink, could be that he didn't read it at all, just glanced at the title and made a decision right then and there.

I know my work better than anyone. The only thing that I don't know, is what it is not. Whatever may have happened after I sent off the first chapter I'll probably never really know but the response gave me an insight into what my book is not and that is something that will cleave the unknown in two. I can now say for sure that my book is not something for this particular agent and this is knowledge I did not have before. I can research what authors the agent has represented, I can read their books, I can construct a deductive comparison with them against my own. It would certainly be strange if all of them were identical to what I've written but never the less, there would be enough differences for me to bounce off the wall and see where they land.

The Desert


'You're just a writer.' 


is a pitiful excuse. If you've ever heard this before then you'll know that people don't know where things go. Ever handed someone a map and watched them turn it over? Well I have. As hilarious as it is to witness, it is useless because you know you're not going to get to where you want to go and that is exactly the point. A rejection is when the man hands it back and tells you it's the wrong map. You can toss it and start looking for the right one.

Without any critical reception you're still stuck without a guiding reference. You and your book could be just a stone's throw from civilisation, hidden behind an unlucky sand dune. Alternatively you could be truly lost, smack bang in the middle of nowhere or you could be on the silk road just waiting for a convoy to pass by and pick you up.

Critical reception will let you know that the metropolis is just over the hill, that you are in Death Valley or on a dangerous but none the less, important path. You're already in the wrong place and being told as much is as useful as the man that turned the map over but when someone tells you where you are not, you have options. If civilisation is where you were looking for all along then you climb the hill but if you've wandered so far off course, you can now turn back and brace the desert again.


Now that someone has told me where I am not, I've got a reference, and can divide my vector into two hemispheres. That which is the wrong direction and that which is the right one. I may still be a long, long way from where I want to go but I can get moving again. This is critical reception. If you're hungry, tired, alone and don't know where to go, you'll fall asleep and you might even die. If you're moving, you've got something to work with and it'll keep you awake.


#rejection #writing #psychology

Reading A Psychology Dictionary

By Roger Colins

Two or three years ago we had our psychology dictionary filled with a condition for every possible human trait from doing too much washing to spray killing goats.

It made me wonder if those that had written this updated dictionary had gone to their own councillors and psychiatrists afterwards. At least a check up wouldn't hurt, having heard that he or she might have acrophobia, a fear of itching.

What is more curious, would be how many of those diagnosed conditions in the book, these people already had, or used to have.


Pre Existing Conditions

If they already knew they were schizophrenic then the rest of the mental disorders might make them feel a bit better, knowing that they weren't the only one that's nuts.

If someone knew they had already had agoraphobia but had long gotten over their fear, that person may feel more comfortable with the rest of other phobias. They may even find upon themselves a challenge to confront their fear of something else. They may realise an old fear.

Someone that hasn't previously been aware of any mental illnesses would certainly be shocked to hear about some of the worse conditions but the less debilitating may appear more potentially troubling. As the others, he or she may find brand new insight into the entire list of human defects or stare long and find themselves the same as before looking at it.


Resolved or Ongoing?

The outcomes can be that the newly discovered condition will be seen out, the person deals with it by addressing it's legitimacy, possibility and reflecting upon it. If there is a possibility the book is right, then the person moves on to the next step but if there isn't, it is dismissed as resolved.

For the schizophrenic that is aware of his present condition, there may be a cure to look forward to, or hope. For a curable condition, more so, especially if it is an inane habit of over ambition, general lethargy, hoarding or love of music. It can be resolved quickly, should it be the case to accept the observation as is and carry on without wanting to 'cure' the problem.

Slowly, the observation can reveal the extent of a pre existing condition that's been forgotten. Constant fidgeting as a child, a love of flowers, a fear of clowns.


Case History

Some of these more obscure new conditions generally don't imply any particular illness unless taken too far and most of the new one's will be recognised as past and long been resolved.

Any one person going through the new dictionary will find most of these new conditions and definitions thereof,  have already with by the reader before. Those that read it will probably have felt a depressed nymphomaniac as a teenager, thought they were psychotic in their twenties or a schizophrenic after their first shroom.

A dictionary that claims to cover everything might be a protest too far. To say all the conditions we as humans have had or could have, might be something to consider instead.

#psychology #dictionary#reading

Sad Fury / Furiously Sad

By Roger Colins

Instead of dealing with our problems, Freud gave us all the easy way out with this lethal invention. 

Thinking that one has depression, makes one depressed. It's a paradox. It doesn't even exist and yet our clever little brains can force it into reality.

Try sadness or anger. It has to be one or the other and both are useful where depression is not. Being sad lets us educate our emotions, teaches us what to avoid in the future and how to deal with it when it does happen again. Anger will do the same but can also be used as motivation.

Sadness means that when we're done, we'll return to being content along with some added perspective. A little faith in the knowledge that the feeling won't last forever but will come back, and when it does, a little less intense next time. The same goes for happiness.

We want to avoid unhappiness and anger, that's what the purpose for them are. To identify the emotion, recognise it and discover where it came from so that in the future, such things may be preventable.

The only certainty we live with is death and we will always be sad when things come to an end but even then, the end is important in all things. When sadness ends, happiness begins and vice versa.

Emotions teach us to not waste our time. The trick would be to stay content.


Grumpy Teenagers

Puberty drips mind bending hormones into our blood to fire up an all enveloping furnace that burns the heart right out of us, replacing it with that annoying, infuriating sex drive.

If there were such a thing as a heart monitor for our emotional state then it would show a steady sinus rhythm up until puberty, and then go nuts. Every day after that, is a fight. A headlong, never ending war to get that insane pitch and trough back to a normal sinus rhythm.

The faster these ups and downs can be moderated, the less likely one is going to feel the illusion of depression.

Ecstatic joy is certainly a wonderful thing and where we would all want to stay, twenty four hours a day. It's not ideal however, as being mortifyingly sad every day is exactly the same thing.

What we're really after is serenity, a neutral balance between the two.

We know that happy times will come and go, we know sad times will come and go but until then, we need to be cool, calm and relaxed to see past the cloudy confusion of our emotions and work out what it was that made us so happy, what it was that made us so sad.


Neuro Chemicals

Shrinks play a dangerous game with patients because a patient will look up to their counsellor for help, even if that professional has the honesty to admit they really don't have a clue.

The patient still wants to believe this person must have some kind of understanding of the condition. They've been studying the damn subject for years. They must have some sort of answer.

Drugs, all drugs, do the exact same thing. Change the emotional state you're in. Anti depressants are specifically designed to simply remove all awareness of emotion. This is dangerous because they also remove progress. Drugs are a stop gap, the symptoms are temporarily removed but the problem carries on and gets worse the more it's left unaddressed.


Good can feel bad, Bad can feel good. Confusing, but quite fine because all that is happening is our emotions trying to figure out what we like and what we don't.

If a person managed to maintain a perfectly objective point of view upon experiencing their first kiss, or their first war time fire fight, they would not learn which they liked or not.

That person would find that they like everything and fear nothing. While the entire universe may turn into an ancient Greek interpretation of beauty, that person may be considered psychopathic and slightly less human, for these emotions are meant to make us what we are.

Therefore, a 'healthy' human would again balance them-self halfway between psychopathy and mania.


Hypnotised

Depression doesn't strictly exist because it cannot be defined. It's just a trick the mind plays to get around the problem because we can't see the forest for the trees.

Figuring out why we are depressed is insane, and that's the point. It simply doesn't exist because there is no such thing.

What we're displaying are the symptoms of utter confusion, not depression because we are so certain that it exists, so certain we feel like utter useless shit and want to know why, so it can be solved.

While logical, this happens only because objective reasoning has been replaced with an easy tag line that looks so damn accurate, but if you were to try and objectively reason what depression is you would only come up with a list of symptoms and nothing else.

Being depressed is nothing more than dancing around a problem one is afraid to face and the problem we need to face, simply doesn't exist; The problem of not knowing. Once we can admit that we don't know and may never know, then we can get back to the things that we do know and can work with.


People who are depressed are to be highly praised. These people look at life with an ideology that is pure and honest. These people view life in it's truest glory and understand that there is a solution to all problems so long as we work at them, for they have gone so far as to seek out a problem that doesn't even exist.

This is an innate, natural human condition that we all have to go through one way or another. It is the resolution of depression that is the trick, for depression is real and it's solution, illusory yet the illusory solution is based in logic and reality. Paradox solved.


Training

If everyone insists that something is real then you'll have a hard time believing anything contrary.

Control by training. It works best while still young. The brain stays quite plastic (changeable) up until the mid twenties so you've got a good ten years to teach yourself how to process the new slant to pubescent emotions.

If you're still depressed in your thirties, it's not too late but it is more difficult and this training has to employ slightly more advanced practices to compensate for a greater knowledge base but the method remains the same.

Training takes will power with concrete knowlegde and that is what we are having to learn. Instead of feeding off an emotion when it arrives, you take moment, breath once or twice and observe that emotion from a semi removed aspect.

Feel it, instead of allowing it to overwhelm and control.

Teaching oneself to control the effects of that emotion is the point so that there is give and take between the conscious part of you that conducts all deliberate action, and the randomly wired brain that fires off neurons which ever way it feels like, whenever it feels like doing it.

One can of course go too far and start feeling nothing at all. This is the same as feeling everything all the time so training has to also account for when, how much is too much sadness, or too much joy, or too much neutrality.


Anger versus Sadness

Depression accounts for these two emotions. They are in opposition. Anger is passionate, strong, a growling intensity that wants to do something positive, something actionable and fight out against that which we deem wrong.

Sadness is the opposite. Apathy, weakness, pointlessness and passive suffering. When these two opposites get mixed up then we become totally confused and label it depression.

It is worthwhile working backwards and do every effort to split depression back into these two constituents.

Deciding which bit is making us sad and which bit is making us angry gives something to work with and we'll be able to work through each in turn.

One might be depressed about work, a reason being that there is no satisfaction. We're angry that we are forced to endure this pointless job and that makes us sad. We are sad because we are unable to do anything about it, and that makes us angry.

Whichever emotion came first is the one to focus on and work through, without allowing it to delineate to the second. Stick with anger or stick with sadness because on their own there is resolve.

If sad, go talk to a loved one, cry your heart and let them feel that sadness. If angry, take a pillow and beat the shit out of it, scream, jump or run for as long and hard as you can.

Just make sure you don't let one emotion become the other until you've sorted out the first one first.

#psychology #emotions #depression

Contradiction with Terms

By Roger Colins 

___________________________________________________________ Contradiction. If you don't already know what it is; contra|dic¦tion Pronunciation: /kɒntrəˈdɪkʃ(ə)n 1. a combination of statements, ideas, or features which are opposed to one another: 'the proposed new system suffers from a set of internal contradictions' 2. a situation in which inconsistent elements are present: 'the paradox of using force to overcome force is a real contradiction' 3. [mass noun] 'the statement of a position opposite to one already made: 'the second sentence appears to be in flat contradiction of the first'     [count noun]: 'the experiment provides a contradiction of the hypothesis' (Courtesy of the Oxford English Dictionary) Normally, when we come across contradiction there is one of two choices. First is most obvious. The contradiction is erroneous and false, we do away with it immediately. The next option is to read between the lines and divine the underlying conflict that's been illustrated by use of simplification with two opposing factors in order to evoke, incite or elicit a specific cognitive equation. The solution is down to you. It is possible we have been remiss. It's always possible. There is a third option and the reader should allow a moment to guess at this point, whilst a clue is hidden in plain sight. The third choice you didn't see is halfway between the first two options and the holding ground for literalism. To contradict. The effect of literal contradiction is neither sarcastic nor ironic but that of both, neither and one. Firstly, literal contradiction possesses two elements in opposition as would any, whether ironic or sarcastic. 'He's on fire and yet so cool.' - All contradictions must always delineate opposition. Next. Literal contradiction will not be sarcastic or ironic. In order to achieve sarcasm there has to be double entendre; two meanings, and in order to achieve irony, a third. Therefore our literal connotation arrives at one. Contradiction is not three nor two but one meaning. The contradictory statement is not contradictory; hence, literal contradiction. If there are any more than three positively identifiable connotations, we venture into the realm of wit. Irony and sarcasm can of course be witty, but having numerically counted the references of each we have no other choice but to assign their appropriate value. All together now and in descending order, wit, irony, sarcasm, contradiction and statement. Let's attack it from the reverse angle. A statement can only have one possible outcome. If it has any others then it loses it's lethargy. 'The black cat has a white tail.' No real room to manoeuvre. Sarcasm more often crops up in spoken language thanks to insinuative pitch and timing, not that it cannot be found in literature but only that it is difficult to replicate without expert timing and flawless context. Two meanings appear to be much harder than one or three and most certainly, more difficult than our literature flooded, wit. Life or Death The beauty, if you can call it that, of contradiction is that it can disguise itself as any one of the others. If it looks clever, then surely it must be. Wrong. Contradictions by their very nature spark off a ream of purposeless dreaming without end and this is nearly always mistaken for something truly valuable. If something is witty then it says one thing in many ways. If something is ironic, it says it in two ways to get a third and if something is is sarcastic it says it one way to get two. A statement is of course one to get one. Mistakes can mean life or death.  Why do we chance it? Now, if you were passing on life or death  information. Do you really think you would use anything except a pure, unadulterated statement? 'Stop!' or would you try 'Red lights usually mean Go, don't they?' perhaps 'Strange, a traffic light on a straight road?' and if you're ever so quick you could venture 'They're going to swap green for red one of these days.' Am I Dreaming? At the very same time, have you ever come across fictional literature that used only statements? If so, I bet you put the thing back down and carefully nudged it away with a stick. That previous sentence may well have been sarcastic but if so, can you get any more than two definitive meanings out of it? The book was bad. The book was so bad I treated it as if it were diseased. There any deeper meaning? No. If it were contradictory then you could get a million, should you so waste your time waddling around in your own head. It will make you think, sure, but what are you thinking about? Everything and nothing. Your mind is watching a tennis match without score and the whole exercise, mental masturbation. It feels good but shrouds the truth of the matter because it looked so much more damn puzzling than anything you'd ever seen before, sending you off to eternity. We humans love puzzles but remember, we turn rage frightful when led down a road without solution. Stare at a white wall, summon up everything in existence that has to do with wall or white or sight. You can start with the first letter 'W' and count off every word beginning with that. This is contradiction. If there is absolutely no definite, singular imperative to any one string of words then this is instigation to dream, and arrive at your own conclusions. Arrive ye shall and attribute thine newly found wisdom to that one contradiction as if it were genius when it was nothing more than another man dreaming. Not as easy as it seems Take a long, hard, look at the title of this post and decide for yourself if it is a statement, sarcastic, ironic, wit or contradiction. I have not given a full example of literal contradiction thus far. Only now shall I grant a handful. My only suggestion is that you count the ways they can be interpreted. These are but the simplest examples I could find and still, I leave you to decide for yourself. That is all. 'One has to be cruel to be kind' 'People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid' 'Facts are the enemy of truth' 'Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance' 'When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you' 'Wit is educated insolence' 'It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid' 'Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same' 'Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you' 'The spiritual man makes judgements about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgement'

contradiction literature definition

Diamonds at Dogs

By Roger Colins 

____________________________________________________________ Who's a pretty boy? Should a charitable act be made in public or privacy? Publicly, it's the demonstration of bravery, kindness and compassion for others to do likewise. If made privately then the person cannot be accused of vanity. I find this remarkably similar to an old motto; 'Don't throw diamonds at dogs.'   Dogs can even be interchanged for pigs, depending on which you consider more arrogant. Motto being, to save your time and energy for something worthwhile. The argument can be made that sometime later, mister dog may come upon that diamond and snatch it up while no one's looking therefore it has been worthwhile, although the good Samaritan will never know. The other slant to the saying is ugly. The gesture of charity to encourage others happens to be a double edged sword. Praising the gesture for it's genuine benevolence and not the gesture's purpose, results in the opposite intended effect. This genuine applause means the public will clap the next one they see without ever considering to give themselves. This happens because the reception of the gesture is seen as showing off and, trying to make everyone feel guilty for being so mean. Some, may act upon that feeling and make a donation themselves but odds are they'll still feel weird. It wasn't their idea in the first place and there's no public backing them up with cameras and microphones. The clapping and cheering is there to spite such a display of atrocious vanity because the audience is quite well in their moral standpoint, happy to give the philanthropist his moment of glory in the hope to encourage him to do it again. Private donations do not seem to warrant investigation, until you use the dog analogy. The gesture is actually the same, showing off. The dog has no use for the diamond and made to feel perturbed by such arrogance that the thrower, with all his lofty superiority, can't even see the dog doesn't care. This is however, a private donation. The dog doesn't get to say no, no one is going to stop the thrower and no one likes taking charity. Crazy, no? Reality Check-Mate Next we have a beauty. Are any charity donations ever praisable? They are stop gap measures, the person that goes to a birthday party with a gift voucher to show he genuinely doesn't care. Instead of handing over a check, the donor could go and buy some bread and give it to the poor himself. Take along a camera crew, film the whole damn exercise in order to drive that gesture home. There is a chance that could be seen as force feeding the dog therefore we arrive at the final step, teaching the dog to grow his own diamonds. Did the analogies get too mixed? The dog never liked diamonds in the first place. 'Fair enough' says the philanthropist, the dog could sell them. He still doesn't like diamonds, besides, the pigs will come along and steal them. Security, the philanthropist will teach the dog kung-fu. The dog asks what this kung-fu is, and still isn't interested in diamonds. Philanthropist goes home and picks up some bread on his way. The dog licks his nuts in a pile of diamonds. There was another motto in there and in case you missed it's 'Give a man a fish, he can eat for a day. Teach him to fish, he can eat for a lifetime.' The dog still wasn't interested because he already knew, what's valuable to the philanthropist is out of kilter with what the dog wants. In none of these mottoes has the dog ever been asked what he wanted and if he were, he'd probably want to just be left alone, pigs and all.

charity vanity philosophy

Subliminal Messaging

By Roger Colins

Spot anything other than Ned? Subliminal messaging seeds thoughts and ideas in the back of our heads without our conscious awareness.  Negatives are a prime example of this effect. The brain doesn't hear negatives. If told not to think of a green house, you'll immediately think of one. Most commonly, the trick is used in advertising, marketing and sales. Subliminal messaging is essentially a form of hypnosis as the victim's will is being toyed with. Here's a short example. __________________________________________________________ 'If it were the right price, you'd buy it, wouldn't you?' tag question. No one can answer no, so 'Yes' 'You have the paint range selected personally by you.' customer nods in understanding, not agreement. 'After we send it to the factory you can have it in about three weeks.' nods again 'So, when can we make the appointment?' Close. The salesman has already made you say yes, then, makes you think of something unrelated. This is in order to distract for a moment while you try to connect his first line to the next. You know you said yes but to what, you can't remember any more. There is no connection and he has managed to confuse, just for a second. Lastly, while you're listening and thinking, the salesman jumps you with an assumption, once again cutting off your thought process. You're on the spot, don't want to disappoint the lovely man and just settle for agreeing to the sale. The 'Yes' was the subliminal message and how it works are the connections to it. As far as the top name brands are concerned they just want to remind you that they are still the best. Coca Cola, Nike, Apple all bombard the general public with slogans and labels. Although we will look, we not think about it. The image is just there to reinforce their grip on the market. Subliminal messaging is more subtle. In addition to the logo flashing across a screen, they throw in a clip of your favourite pop music to make it more appealing. This tells you that they have the same taste as you in music even if you don't have the same taste in drinks, trainers or computers. Subliminal messaging can more subtle than even that. I like to think of it as liminal messaging. This trick here is to encourage actively conscious thought on the subject matter. Take 'The Wolf of Wall Street'. Scorsese is well known for cinematic violence and his movies have an attractive quality because of it. He has however done movies without violence but even though they are just as good if not better, they have not done as well at the box office than those with the trademark blood and swearing. More than that, after having walked out of a movie jam packed with more swear words than any other in living memory, can you honestly say you will swear less after having watched it? Monkey see, monkey do and if we are not careful about looking out for the tell tale signs of subliminal messaging then we have no defence against it and soak up every last bit of it. Positives, negatives, blunt and subtle. The news and media are no different. They learnt this trick by sheer accident and now it's used as the gold standard. Instead of trying to cover up a scandal or ignore a humanitarian catastrophe it is simply easier and more effective to report on it and every other to saturate our expectations. If a nuclear bomb were dropped on China, seven nuclear bombs say, there would be world war. Imagine there were no scandalous reports in the current day media and had not been for a number of years. Along comes a nuclear bomb of presidential assassination or phone hacking or sexual assault, there world be the media equivalent to world war. No one would put up with it. As the media is now a soapbox for everyone's worst sins, we put up with it because it appears to be the norm, accept that because it is being reported someone else is going to do something about it and are resolved that it is not our problem. If China were hit with actual, nuclear bombs, I do not believe people would let it slide unless everyone were being hit with them too. Subliminal messaging is clever but not as clever as an on-the-nose-double-blind. It's fun, entertaining and just like a Martin Scorsese movie.

subliminal_messaging hypnotism media

Circular Balancing

By Roger Colins 

___________________________________________________________ Psychiatry is big business. A profession with whom can help in walking one through problems and suggest a course of action with a backlog of years of study and training.  Sometimes this will require nothing more than a chat, sometimes regular therapy sessions are needed and sometimes, a course of medicine is to be prescribed but is this, counselling and psychiatry what we think it is? A certain stigma has always been attached to the graduates of the mind. Hypnotists, shrinks and charlatans are the usual labels. Psychiatrists appear on the same gauge as dentists so far as trustworthiness is concerned because we value our minds just as much as we avoid dental torture. Fair enough? Perhaps not. A good friend of mine posed that counsellors usually have a counsellor of their own, and their counsellor has in turn another counsellor for them to complain to. My friend added that perhaps God is the last counsel of appeal where I wittingly filled in the last blank; 'And then God, pissed off at all this bitching and complaining screws up all the counsellors patients.' the circle begins anew. Council Let us examine the position of a counsellor. Anyone can be a council. Should one find themselves before a court of law their council is usually a professional but certainly does not have to be. A good friend is quite acceptable an advocate. A good friend is by definition, the best council one could hope for and for some, psychiatrists will fill that role should the need be. A counsellor is also a sounding board or forum for opinion where matters can be chewed over my some extra heads to work on whatever issue is in need for clarification. Two heads are better than one. Counsellors can also be a person to give advice which is why good friends are the best at it. They have an advantage over everyone else in that their perspective is trustworthy. Strangers too can be excellent counsellors. The local barman is a prime example, there for you to just double check whether or not you are talking incomprehensible bullshit or if he too understands the issue his patron is addressing. The good barman is a professional counsellor and here's why. Barkeep The perfect counsellor will sit and listen. The barman, faced with a semi inebriated customer already has a head start. He's used to it. He has to stay sober the whole night while everyone around him slowly descend into raving blabbermouths. He also has a job to do while this is going on, give change, swap barrels, wash glasses and maintain a polite and welcoming disposition. His interest here lies. The barman is therefore not allowed to deviate from this said propriety or he will be lacking in professionalism. The barman does not give advice because he is not dealing with a friend, he is dealing with a customer. He is also not allowed to retreat, stop caring because the customer can just as soon grab their coat, down the last pint and leave never to return again thanks to this unkind reception. The barman cannot go forwards, cannot go backwards. He may go sideways from time to time to prescribe alcohol. The barman is a perfect council and this is what counsellors are there to do, just listen. Here's What To Do Should a counsellor start telling their patient what to do, where to go, how to think the patient will simply not take this advice and probably do the exact opposite. On the other hand, if the counsellor simply doesn't care then the patient is lost and again will find somewhere else to frequent. The psychology profession hardens their trainee's emotions by trial of fire. A counsellor has the thickest of skins. Putting them through years of the most horrifying exposure from every quarter of mental illness, is to simply to prepare them for the real world. Nothing short of life experience, so that once the student has graduated and encounters their first real patient they will be prepared to listen without personal interest should the patient start screaming they hate the counsellor's guts. A bad counsellor gives advice, involving themselves in the patient's problems and subsequently becomes part of the problem themselves. The patient needs to immediately find a new counsellor when this happens. Blown Gasket Psychiatrists prescribe anti depressants for patients to stop their emotions. All emotions. Without emotions of love and hate we lose the trigger for not only the one problem that is bugging them but all of the others as well including those that are going along well, being solved. If a problem is not progressing then we deny ourselves - accomplishment. In order to process emotions, they have to be allowed to go through pain, mistakes, accidents, suffering and pure living hell. If you've never had the problem of a blown gasket you will have never experienced the frustration of sorting through a car manual for it, calling up a friend that knows about gaskets, being stuck under the car bonnet covered in oil. You will also never know the satisfaction that arises when you've fixed it, shelved away all that new information, knowledge and experience nor the calming effect this experience has on one's own being the next time it happens. Indeed, you will still be infuriated when it happens again but this time, you'll say to yourself that it is okay, because you know what to do to solve the problem, this time. Mind Altering Drugs Let's go back and say when the first encounter of a blown gasket happens, your counsellor pops their head around the corner and start digging in their bag for a pillbox. In a fit of rage you slug down a half dozen anti depressants and go back to the kitchen, leaving your car in the drive. The car will never get fixed because you simply no longer care. Things will get worse. You won't be able to go to work, call in and tell them your car's broken without a care in the world. The kids can't be picked up from school, you won't care if you missed the season finale of your favourite show or add the next wing to your model aeroplane. Anti depressants are also anti ex-pressants. You need more glue, the glue is in the DIY shop and you need a car to get there, but you simply don't care any more because that pillbox is still full. Having chugged the last one and it's effects worn off, your kids, your plane, your TV show and of course, your car all come crashing down around your head. Gating Mechanism Counsellors teach their thick skins to patients and do so by example. Going to the third world, hanging out with the homeless for a night or shredding your muscles at a gymnasium purifies these irrational emotions by use of burning pain far more intense than the issue that was previously the centre of attention. Quite the opposite to chemical interference, it also adds a little negative reinforcement. If your foot hurts, all you need to do is inflict a more shocking pain to a different part of your body and your foot will not hurt as much. The foot should of course be left to heal in it's own time but for so far as emotional stability is concerned, put it into perspective with real world influence and practical action outside of the confines of one's own head.

psychology counselling antidepressants

Frills or Dressing?

 By Roger Colins

I write a no frills blog. Hope you like it, but in all seriousness I'm not a photographer so you won't find any photos or images unless I think them really worthy of a single post. You won't find any videos, this is a literature blog. You might find an audiobook in the near future but that's it, you won't find any frills of any kind anywhere on this page so, safe to say, I don't like frills. Not quite. I like Snoopy. My frills are different. I run Linux openSUSE on my computer. It is a frill. I have a temperature widget, a RAM widget, network and notepad widget on my desktop. Mere examples as they are right in front of me but, these are frills. It's dressing I have a problem with. Forgive use of the same analogy but adverts are dressing, links are dressing, references, dressing to make your thesis, your blog, your car more appealing and this fashion is unattractive. I rely upon content. I do not want to distract my reader in any way shape or form while presenting the core and essence of what I'm breaking my back to get across. Why would I? Well, I suppose there are several suggestions awaiting me in the wings. My second analogy is AdBlocker. I use it and a host of other tools to ensure a distraction free experience while at work as I spend a majority of my work on the internet. It's the most powerful tool at my disposal so I am going to keep it sharp. Not to say that frills don't add commerce and economy and publicising when it comes to the internet, more that if I know what I want then I don't need the hassle of alternatives.  Frills are uneccessary additions to an already fine product to enhance or highlight it's best features. Dressing is an attempt to disguise the feeble nature of the item in question to make it more appealing and has no relation to the content at all whereas frills have to fit. My blog does have dressing. I change the background every now and then. That's it. As previously mentioned, dressing has no impact on content so as far as I am concerned dressing is okay so long as it does not detract from the point being made, the discount in the shop window, the sauce upon the steak.  It is the bombardment of both frills and dressing to specifically discombobulate that I cannot abide. Everyone needs to know where said product came from so that it can be recommended but what is throwing a thousand similar products at the same time hoping to achieve? The obvious answer is, obvious, but consider a wider spectrum, a slightly broader view. We consumers are fought over like a championship cup. Consumers and audiences remain the same but the fighters are always going to change. Only the two best in the world compete for the title. The third best might get his chance if one of the two in the ring are knocked out but it is essentially a two player game against the best and second best at any one time. Frills and dressing are the secret weapons of both, and all competitors. The best dressing, always outshines the best meat in today's world. To dazzle, glare, entice and attract. I will not go into the confidence gains and losses in this analogy but can, leave you to imagine. _______________________________________________________________

advertising marketing hypnosis

The Aesthetic Grave

By Roger Colins

I'm one and always have been one for aesthetics. The small touches, the effort that goes unnoticed but has profound effect.  What I find is interesting to be alive now is for the most part the misrepresentation the media enforces. When I look around the places I go, I see those that believe what they are given and those that do not. Unbiased attitude is a rarity. These days, not many people don't believe certain things. Everything is within the realm of acceptability, the leap from that which is possible to that which is reasonable is in a word, short. My generation were probably the last of a long succession of generations that were educated about aesthetics. Old Age We used fountain pens, learnt Latin, we remember what the last elements of the classed system in Britain was like. At least I do. This is the sort of thing that has been bled by the media. You used to get people sending in poems to the British newspapers instead of sudoku, for example. Crosswords and prizewinners are still there so demand for aesthetics has merely been transformed into something else. Something more, profitable. The common man would read over a poem and appreciate it's worth of how it fit together, complimented the concept the body was dealing with. Even though, as the world I now live in reaches the end of the X generation, one I am still very much a part of, I shall never give up the heritage I possess passed down to me by those which came before. Remember the old war stories Grandpa used to prattle on about? I do. The heritage I possess is never going to change, but the environment I live in, most certainly is. A Better New Many people give up what they once understood to be true for the idea that what is 'new' is better. Perhaps it is a natural survival mechanism to adapt but adapt is not the same as improve. I do not believe it is any better, merely different. I prefer a fountain pen to the latest mobile phone, for certain purposes, whereas most would argue the mobile phone is superior in every way. Two of my favourite quotes come to mind.  - 'The spirit of an age is something that is lost. Even though one would like to turn back time to that of one hundred years or more, it can not be done. It is therefore important to make the most of one's own generation.' - 'Someone said a person from another village has a rowdy character and that all people from that place are rowdies. Another man said that if he did not have that disposition he would not be from that place. It is because of their rowdy character that place is what it is. One should be proud of where they come from or others will think badly of all people from that place.' Yamamoto Tsunetomo What it is to live in this world at the moment is one of holding on to what is deemed valuable.  The little things are of value as the big things of where to live, who to marry, what job to take are all inconsequential. How my drink is poured, that my mind and body is sharp and what the weather is like today are things, that being alive now is all about.  Though, if the world were of a hundred years ago, I would probably not care for such aesthetics as much as I do, for they would be less likely to change. Cognition Existence is a learning process. A master is a person that has come to understand that the appropriation, the learning of ones art may it be music, painting, dancing or literature is never ending and that as much as we can learn can we only teach, until the day we die.  Teaching is the most honourable profession but only under the circumstances that you only convey what you truly believe and are not passing off other peoples ideas as your own unless you fully agree with them. Skill is an altogether separate entity.  I've been sketching all my life and started out as a babe with a little bit of talent. There were times when I lost it, didn't understand how I thought I had already learnt something.  Later on, would realise I had forgotten my talent or it didn't quite operate the same way as before however, a few years ago I came to a point where the grain of the paper came into play.  I had previously, always thought that paper was flat and I didn't have to worry about it up until this discovery that in order to get my sketch the way I wanted it, I had to sharpen up my pencil, apply feather light millimetre strokes and begin filling in the grain of the paper.  Upon embarking upon this arduous task of concentration to add patches to shade here and there, I saw something quite startling.  The human feature in light; as a mass of interconnected spheres. Three dimensions set upon two dimensional plain, perfectly round, with light bouncing off in all imaginable angles.  In any light; a candle or a thousand floodlights, in any position, standing bolt upright or the foetal position, the full white edge of a sphere may graze the arm pit and the antipodal shadow meet the chin, or hip, or naval. Therein exist smaller spheres in the shadow from the palest grey to the hardest black edge. This I know for I have observed and remember how to look for it. From that, existence along with all other related concepts have no meaning for contemplation.  Each human and every living being is perfectly spherical, three dimensional with, height, length, depth and time assisted change of energy, these fundamentals of existence.  Comprehension  Belief is a powerful thing, no doubt. Faith is, on the other hand, possessing the ability to say; 'I might be wrong'. A humility used to further understanding, a faith, that there is more. I will not believe anything until I am sure I'm willing to agree that it exists. Should I fail to disprove it, it exists. At least until I can disprove it. Belief or faith in something that isn't even available to be dis-proven, is not belief, it is ignorance, denial, the instinct for survival, fear of the unknown and corruption of spirit. Should there be any such entity known as God or Gods or not, it does not matter because either way, nature is perfect and if deities do exist, they do not have to meddle in the day to day happenings of you and me as they, being Gods, will have taken care of it all at the beginning. I like to think of life as a son of light but it is not a faith nor belief. Star dust smashed together, subdivided and grown from. However! I understand the limitless nature of the mind. If the Hindus worship and believe in many different Gods and the Romans each had their own Gods for their homes and they all believe they exist then I think it possible the power of the mind has enough potential influence to create them. 'If God didn't exist man would have to create him.' That if one believes strongly enough in something, adds enough time, it will come to pass for the better or worse. I believe in and have faith in persistence for I have observed and tested it, all by myself. Perspective Relativity. I also believe in feelings, not to be confused with emotion but heart, conscience. They guide us towards that which is true and good. Again, not from something an old man has told me or for it has been done this way, in this culture, in this religion, in this town, in this family, for a thousand years but because I have stepped out into the world and tested it myself. Now I know, now I believe and now I have faith. There is always going to be more to learn and if there wasn't then those that are arrogant enough to cast judgement over another shall find themselves without purpose and die from the lack of will to drink water, find shelter, eat, share and warm themselves under the sun or by a fire. If one can tap, directly into the mind, then the thoughts take their leave. It takes a mind that can quiet the voices of memory and hypothesis to hear the peace of mind that knows it knows, and is silent. Energy is harnessed and movement is fluid without the conscious minds cue. Purpose Meaning should be to make as many people happy as possible but, it's probably to experience what love, hate and enlightenment are. One could argue that without insanity you couldn't have enlightenment. Some would say it's to reproduce, keep breeding until one day the progenitors find world peace and it all would have been worth it. Meaning may be something more, personal. It has different perspectives, ideas and reasons. Service for instance, to serve is the best thing one can do with his or her life but if we could just admit when we're wrong, throw up our hands and admit we don't know, offer what we have to give amongst each other then we'd eventually all be content. It's of course not that simple but sharing is undoubtedly of great importance. Giving what you have or at the very least, the offering of it is meaningful to the human condition, a benevolence. For what we're here for is each for us to decide. We are here to shape our darkness around our light. Understanding The making sense of it all. I do what I can. I've tried to start exercising a bit, now and then and if I do a full arm curl it hurts so I'm doing half arm curls and I can go on for ages.  I can talk someone into feeling better, I can talk someone into depression, we all can but I choose not to use my talent, that way.  Some things are not as easy as others but, I do what I can. I choose not to do certain things because these things go against my feelings, the feelings I have for others and dedicate my personality to kindness in order to save myself the trouble of guilt or shame.  Sometimes I fail in my choices. I try to do the best with what I have got but I do not feel bad when I make a mistake. On the contrary, I am elated because I'm granted an opportunity to add to my learning in order to spot and avoid the same mistake a second time.  If I make a mistake a second time then I will, feel disappointed with myself.  Condition, is living in the moment without worry about the past or the future, thinking for now and being attentive. Soon there will be nothing but the present moment to worry about and peace of mind will be found.  Peace of mind is what we're all really looking for. Something that is cool, calm and relaxed. Where there's no worry for having too much work to do or being so bored from having no work to do.  A firm balance where the mind can rest, enjoy peace. These are aesthetics, the last post on the subject I shall make and quite possibly the last voyage into the understanding of the smaller things that have influence upon the larger.  ________________________________________________________ Bigger may be better but for now, I put my heart in aesthetics.

aesthetics philosophy meaning faith  belief