It is one thing to topple a single iconic structure, but our overseers have so completely wrapped us in the chains of servitude, breaking a single link will not be enough to slip free. Sport was initially invented by the Greeks to keep citizens out of politics and they are serving the same function more than six centuries later. Even with the recent growing awareness that repeated head injury leads to life-long disability, self-medication with drugs and alcohol and violent temper tantrums in brain damaged individuals that can lead to suicidal tendencies, many of the fans still want to watch the carnage that takes place on football fields across our country. Bringing reason and sensibility to the masses would be a mammoth task if we were to undertake it and one of the towering lies that are used to control us is that football gives "hope" to many underprivileged individuals who have no other route out of poverty. Other sports are equally hailed as a great thing for minorities and others who would normally be chewed up and spit out by our social order, but the tiny fraction of those who come out ahead in their sporting career is unbelievably minute.
Tackling this issue will take a sea change in our attitude toward our own children, valuing them and their brains appropriately. When I was in school, I had routine contact with football players and others players of a variety of sports. On the whole, they seemed normal enough, although the football players were slightly duller than most. Those who made sport their top priority always seemed delusional to me, especially those who were on the football team. If there are around thirty-five teams and forty-five players per team, that means 315 guys will eventually make some money when they finally make the ranks of professional play. Barring the illegal payments that flow to collegiate athletes, which I do not overlook completely, but which only serve to reward and model rule breaking as ethos, guaranteeing that the players who come out of collegiate sport are schooled in how to break rules and get away with it. In my state alone there are more than 315 high schools preaching to their athletes that if they work hard, hit hard and destroy the team on the other side of the ball, that they could be in for some big money when they make it to the NFL at the very least, if they work hard, play harder break whatever rules they can get away with and vanquish their "foes", that some college will at least give them a full ride scholarship. It is also a well-known fact that many of the colleges make "special payments" that can range into the tens of thousands of dollars per year to select athletes who hold promise as much needed young blood for their programs.
I apologize for going so far down this single path, but the sentiment extends to many areas deeply embedded in our culture. If you speak of these things to many in our culture, they screw up their faces as if you are a nut. Why would any of this matter? Why would the game be any less entertaining? Like the games in the Colosseum, many people wonder, if we eliminate this entertainment, what would we do instead? Many fans are completely happy using these events as an excuse to drink too much, snack for three hours straight and opt out of participation in meaningful discussion of any type. Just for fun, I once watched an NFL game with the VCR (video cassette recorder) set to record. Each time the ball was snapped I allowed the machine to record and each time the whistle blew, I paused the device. once the recording was made, the entire game, resembled rugby but only lasted a matter of minutes. Supposedly, the game is supposed to be an hour long and fans always argue this point, but what they neglect to realize is that the clock ticks away at several times that the players are not playing. The fact remains that it only takes a microsecond to permanently damage a brain.
In addition to the sporting world, we have agents that do nothing but police the population, looking for trouble skews their perspective radically. Imagine having to deal with criminals and criminality all day long every day. I know that I would be turned into a grumpy, self-righteous and aggressive bully if I were to go into this profession. Imagine the reality that exists in a sub-culture that can do no wrong, is always supported by the brotherhood of fellow officers and that "knows" where to look for illegal behavior. Much has been written about the fact that three times as many black men are incarcerated for drug crimes as white men, even though the use characteristic for the two groups is nearly identical. Boatloads of ink have been spilled documenting the fact that white collar criminals often get off scot-free while their blue collar cohorts pay the full price of their indiscretions. In my state we have an attorney general who condones illegal behavior as long as it takes place in the halls of power, is perpetrated by campaign donors and whose victims are the general public, so that everyone pays the price while his buddies come out ahead. Ultimately policing the masses and prosecuting them falls to those who feel that they are better suited to make decisions about the lives of others than they are themselves.
Many of these same complexes are at work amongst our doctors. After all, we would not be coming to them for help if we could manage our lives appropriately on out own. Several of my relatives have worked in the hospital and they all have mentioned that no one dies on the operating table. If there is a cadaver that is in that particular room, they are quickly wheeled into the recovery room before being pronounced dead. This assures that the doctor keeps his record clean. Likewise, in the maternity wards, every intervention possible is made as quickly as possible, even though the fact is that a single procedure increases the likelihood of an array of further obstacles and impediments to the natural outcome. In court, if it ever gets to court, the doctors can say, "We did everything possible." In one of my former lives, I was a childbirth educator. The heap of lies that the whole medical establishment uses to exert power over us is understandable, but certainly not warranted. Tuning in to natural processes, or ultimately understanding them requires the opposite of what most scientific endeavors are seeking to do. Science slices and dices things into their component parts, examining each in turn, trying to understand the whole through close inspection of dislocated parts. In the realm of biology, we can plainly see that sliced and diced life cannot be reconstituted.
A very telling result of medical intervention is the almost instant visceral reaction that doctors have against what they call anecdotal studies. Anyone encouraging a different approach that has been successful can be written off completely and instantly by the use of this powerful word. However, if a patient of theirs takes a medication for their heart and by chance their acne clears up after starting treatment, they will often take that as proof that the drug works for acne. If they see a relationship, it has to be true, but if someone else has had luck using a specific treatment for a specific malady for years, it is still considered anecdotal.
We have similar issues in the ivory towers of our educational institutions, the social service agencies and the news media. Taking them on one at a time cannot wrest power from those who limit our freedoms or micromanage the laws which govern us. All of them must be taken down simultaneously. Luckily, there are young people coming up, who know more than the old farts who grew up on a steady diet of hatred and misunderstanding. We must educate one another on these points or we run the risk of losing even more freedoms to those who seek to oppress us. Giving more and more of our autonomy away in the hopes of becoming safer can only lead to constraint of options that are necessary to adapt to changing conditions.
I would like to know what people from around the world think about these issues, please comment.
Tackling this issue will take a sea change in our attitude toward our own children, valuing them and their brains appropriately. When I was in school, I had routine contact with football players and others players of a variety of sports. On the whole, they seemed normal enough, although the football players were slightly duller than most. Those who made sport their top priority always seemed delusional to me, especially those who were on the football team. If there are around thirty-five teams and forty-five players per team, that means 315 guys will eventually make some money when they finally make the ranks of professional play. Barring the illegal payments that flow to collegiate athletes, which I do not overlook completely, but which only serve to reward and model rule breaking as ethos, guaranteeing that the players who come out of collegiate sport are schooled in how to break rules and get away with it. In my state alone there are more than 315 high schools preaching to their athletes that if they work hard, hit hard and destroy the team on the other side of the ball, that they could be in for some big money when they make it to the NFL at the very least, if they work hard, play harder break whatever rules they can get away with and vanquish their "foes", that some college will at least give them a full ride scholarship. It is also a well-known fact that many of the colleges make "special payments" that can range into the tens of thousands of dollars per year to select athletes who hold promise as much needed young blood for their programs.
I apologize for going so far down this single path, but the sentiment extends to many areas deeply embedded in our culture. If you speak of these things to many in our culture, they screw up their faces as if you are a nut. Why would any of this matter? Why would the game be any less entertaining? Like the games in the Colosseum, many people wonder, if we eliminate this entertainment, what would we do instead? Many fans are completely happy using these events as an excuse to drink too much, snack for three hours straight and opt out of participation in meaningful discussion of any type. Just for fun, I once watched an NFL game with the VCR (video cassette recorder) set to record. Each time the ball was snapped I allowed the machine to record and each time the whistle blew, I paused the device. once the recording was made, the entire game, resembled rugby but only lasted a matter of minutes. Supposedly, the game is supposed to be an hour long and fans always argue this point, but what they neglect to realize is that the clock ticks away at several times that the players are not playing. The fact remains that it only takes a microsecond to permanently damage a brain.
In addition to the sporting world, we have agents that do nothing but police the population, looking for trouble skews their perspective radically. Imagine having to deal with criminals and criminality all day long every day. I know that I would be turned into a grumpy, self-righteous and aggressive bully if I were to go into this profession. Imagine the reality that exists in a sub-culture that can do no wrong, is always supported by the brotherhood of fellow officers and that "knows" where to look for illegal behavior. Much has been written about the fact that three times as many black men are incarcerated for drug crimes as white men, even though the use characteristic for the two groups is nearly identical. Boatloads of ink have been spilled documenting the fact that white collar criminals often get off scot-free while their blue collar cohorts pay the full price of their indiscretions. In my state we have an attorney general who condones illegal behavior as long as it takes place in the halls of power, is perpetrated by campaign donors and whose victims are the general public, so that everyone pays the price while his buddies come out ahead. Ultimately policing the masses and prosecuting them falls to those who feel that they are better suited to make decisions about the lives of others than they are themselves.
Many of these same complexes are at work amongst our doctors. After all, we would not be coming to them for help if we could manage our lives appropriately on out own. Several of my relatives have worked in the hospital and they all have mentioned that no one dies on the operating table. If there is a cadaver that is in that particular room, they are quickly wheeled into the recovery room before being pronounced dead. This assures that the doctor keeps his record clean. Likewise, in the maternity wards, every intervention possible is made as quickly as possible, even though the fact is that a single procedure increases the likelihood of an array of further obstacles and impediments to the natural outcome. In court, if it ever gets to court, the doctors can say, "We did everything possible." In one of my former lives, I was a childbirth educator. The heap of lies that the whole medical establishment uses to exert power over us is understandable, but certainly not warranted. Tuning in to natural processes, or ultimately understanding them requires the opposite of what most scientific endeavors are seeking to do. Science slices and dices things into their component parts, examining each in turn, trying to understand the whole through close inspection of dislocated parts. In the realm of biology, we can plainly see that sliced and diced life cannot be reconstituted.
A very telling result of medical intervention is the almost instant visceral reaction that doctors have against what they call anecdotal studies. Anyone encouraging a different approach that has been successful can be written off completely and instantly by the use of this powerful word. However, if a patient of theirs takes a medication for their heart and by chance their acne clears up after starting treatment, they will often take that as proof that the drug works for acne. If they see a relationship, it has to be true, but if someone else has had luck using a specific treatment for a specific malady for years, it is still considered anecdotal.
We have similar issues in the ivory towers of our educational institutions, the social service agencies and the news media. Taking them on one at a time cannot wrest power from those who limit our freedoms or micromanage the laws which govern us. All of them must be taken down simultaneously. Luckily, there are young people coming up, who know more than the old farts who grew up on a steady diet of hatred and misunderstanding. We must educate one another on these points or we run the risk of losing even more freedoms to those who seek to oppress us. Giving more and more of our autonomy away in the hopes of becoming safer can only lead to constraint of options that are necessary to adapt to changing conditions.
I would like to know what people from around the world think about these issues, please comment.
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| Since discovering how to make my own char, I am now liberated from buying charcoal. I built a retort in which to bake wood without oxygen. My superior product to what is sold in most markets also yields a soil enhancement for the garden at extremely low cost. Biochar provides fourteen acres (5.66 ha) of surface area for each handful added to the soil. |
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