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the-cosmic-gentle-giant · 3 years ago

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Asteroid Narcissus (37117)

I need to preface this before you get into it. Don't take this seriously as not all asteroids are prominent in your chart and no asteroid alone dictateswho you are, therefore it's ok if you don't relate. Also, narcissism is generally more likely perceived by other people than by narcissists themselves.

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In astrology Narcissus represents exaggerated self-focus, an inability to see others point of view or consider their needs, excessive pride in ones own appearance & rejection of others or rejection of something in general.

In mythology, Narcissus was said to be a strikingly handsome young man. He was so handsome that he usually garnered the attention of anyone willing to win his affections (usually unwanted) and he would reject their affections. One day it so happens he rejected the love of a group of nymphs and in anger they called on the Goddess Nemesis to curse him. She did so, by having him fall in love with his reflection which he saw at a nearby pool. Cursed to be in love with it, he could never look away after gazing into the pool and withered away from hunger trying to gain the love of the man in the water.

Asteroid Narcissus in the Signs:

🏅Aries~ You pride yourself on your competitiveness, high energy, innovation and ability to stand up for yourself and what you believe in, helping you stand out as a leader. However, sometimes your innovative ideas and competitive nature could do more harm than good and you are then quick to lose your shit when someone points this out and suggests slowing down or going by the book instead. Standing up for yourself then becomes needless aggression in the face of what you perceive as a challenge/threat to your pride. You are also quite aggressive when someone opposes your beliefs and reject anyone who tries to change said beliefs (things have to go your way).

🏅Taurus~ You guys pride yourself on how practical, talented and resourceful you can be and your willingness to see things through to the end in achieving your dreams. However your pride and focus on realizing your own dreams could make you ignorant of other's dreams, belittling them as it doesn't serve the purpose in you achieving your own. Physically you could pride yourselves on the sound of your voice as a stand out feature. I also regretfully inform you that Donald Trump has this placement prominently in his chart.

🏅Gemini~ You pride yourself on your opinions and even knowing the latest gossip. Added to this your pride also extends to how witty, analytical, imaginative, original (in terms of thoughts) and articulate you are. When your ideas and opinions are brought into question you could be quick to sell a lie, manipulate or gaslight someone into taking your side, completely rejecting other's ideas/opinions, even if your own are damaging, wrong or hurtful.

🏅Cancer~ You pride yourself on how kind, sensitive, nurturing, creative and empathetic you can be. Your ability to make others feel comfortable/cared for and your emotional intelligence is your greatest joy...that is until someone paints you as the villain. Your insecurities and sensitivity then get the best of you and you then try to emotionally manipulate people to regain your lost pride. You possibly reject the idea of other people experiencing tough emotions and being sensitive too, as you might believe how you feel is the only thing that matters.

🏅Leo~ You pride yourself on being loving, generous, brave, loyal, entertaining and even humorous. Your ego and acts of showing off on occasion is greatly tied in with your pride. Unfortunately this leaves little room for the ego of others and you may even take a crack at theirs to inflate your own. When other people have a gap to show off what their proud of, you may meet this with disdain and subtly try to redirect that attention to yourself. If it is not received you could even make a scene just get that attention (you low-key might not like the idea of someone being better than you at something and the attention it brings them). Queen Victoria had this placement.

🏅Virgo~ You pride yourself on your skill for critical thinking and your analytical approach to life as well as you being honest, trustworthy, a candid speaker and astute learner. It's only natural that if people attacked your mind and intellect or just paint you as a control freak, that your anxiety boils into you lashing out. Your strengths of being critical and analytical become irrevocably dangerous as you use them to pick apart every detail of your offender until their self-esteem and pride is ripped to bloody shreds, your pride finally restored and you having proven your point.

🏅Libra~ You pride yourself on your looks and on being a fair, just, charming, sweet, graceful, somewhat passive and balanced person. When your life is unbalanced though, you tend to paper over the cracks and quickly deny or ignore those who pick up on these troubles. Your balance is upset by those who crack down on your appearance or oppose you on your sense of justice and even your persona. In an attempt to restore balance you will people please, charm and gaslight others until their perceptions of you and their own views on situations match the ones you have in mind. Their validation inflating your pride and their own validity reduced to rubble in order to serve you.

🏅Scorpio~ A tricky one you lot were. You pride yourself on your awareness of your emotional depth, you being magnetic, compelling, empowering, mysterious, determined, focused and investigative. Your ability to transform those you meet and the intensity you wield also count among this. In your pride however, you can have a complete disregard for the emotional depth of others and could even come across as controlling. If these people are to make it clear to you, they'd wish the kept quiet. You power hold will tighten to a chokehold as you exercise manipulation and cruelty to restore your pride, silencing them out of your own fear and creating a reverence for you out of fear in others.

🏅Saggitarius~ You pride yourself on being optimistic, wise, open-minded, adventurous and being able to search for a truth, as well as possibly being an inspiration to others. Sometimes you're so big on adventure ans searching for your own truth that you fail to consider the need for stability and structure in others and failing to acknowledge that your truth is not shared by everyone and that they might not take kindly to being forced into said truth. Your blind optimism leaves zero room for realism and are quick to slander those who berate you for the above mentioned. In the process becoming ignorant, self-righteous and sanctimonious.

🏅Capricorn~ You pride yourself on being ambitious, cool, commanding, steadfast, practical, high-achieving and supportive of others (as long as their goals are realistic, viable and don't overshadow yours). You could be so focused on your own ambitions that you completely reject and disregard the aspirational and emotional needs of others in favor of your own. In fact, this exaggerated self-focus could have you come across as cold, ruthless, restrictive and controlling. You want to be at the top and only you can be at the top, meaning you will do anything to stay there, keep others from getting there and somehow still keep your pride intact.

🏅Aquarius~ You probs have an unholy superiority complex, but let's get into this anyway. You pride yourself on being genuine/authentic, free-spirited (in a quirky, eccentric and eclectic way), non-conforming, humanitarian and original. This also extends to your views in life and your nature as an activist. This unfortunately, if negative, could make you quite elitist, judgemental and imposed to extreme views. This renders you incapable of seeing the opposing pov which is sometimes necessary to humble you. You're also inconsiderate towards others feelings, views and ways of expression, rather judging them as you can't understand why people can't be more inclined to do what you do. Sweetheart, masks sometimes have reasons beyond superficiality and people will not always share your views and causes in life.

🏅Pisces~ Ngl you guys were just outright difficult to interpret. You pride yourself on being spiritually inclined, creative, freedom loving, intuitive, soothing and being a dreamer. At worst you could fail to consider the need for logic, realism and boundaries of other people and could become quite defensive when they do set boundaries, tell you spirituality and creativity doesn't solve everything and that dreams are sometimes just dreams. Instead of react in anger though, you resort to a victim complex to garner sympathy, guilt tripping people into restoring your pride for you and holding their loyalties on a line whilst you yourself are a flaky thing.

Asteroid Narcissus in the Houses:

1st House: Narcissus in mythology is said to be extremely beautiful and as such his influence is placed on you too, meaning you beautiful af. You tend to put a lot of focus and pride on your beauty and generally gorgeous appearance. You might give off the impression of being vain and self obsessed.

2nd House: Ever heard the saying "Money can buy happiness...😏" You could be very focused on what you own and how to own more, as this wealth is your pride and buys you the glory you desire. Sometimes you may be unable ro understand the struggles of those with less than you materially. Your value system prioritizes yourself above other people.

3rd House: You may have difficulty understanding the pov and needs of your siblings & those in your immediate area. (exp. classmates and neighbors) Your exaggerated self focus could have you dominate the conversation and topics are usually those to your liking. You need to learn that you are not the only & most important participant in a conversation. Perhaps you could have a narcissistic sibling.

4th House: Getting Rapunzel and Mother Gothel vibes. Your mother or the maternal influences in your life could have been very narcissistic, as a result neglecting your needs for security and being nurtured. You may prioritize your own sensitivity, overlooking that of others as it doesn't relate to you or your problems. You might take pride in where you come from.

5th House: Your kids could become narcissistic or that's how they could experience you, being more self-obsessed than caring for them. You could attract narcissistic lovers (gtfo if they show up). The 5th House is also about ego and self-expression, so in general you could come across as very self-absorbed...like no one else matters as long as you are the one shining.

6th House: Extreme focus and pride on yourself & your appearance could be a habitual/routine thing. Co-workers especially can view you as narcissistic. It's likely that you go about your day where only your routine matters and you couldn't care less that others also have a life & routine to follow. In the work place you may present yourself as the best, no matter the facts and opinions presented to you.

7th House: It's possible that you can get into a relationship with a narcissist (once again gtfo if you're dealing with one). These people will often put themselves first before the relationship and your needs, causing imbalance in your life. The opposite is also applicable if your partner experiences you as narcissistic.

8th House: If you have this placement and bump into a narcissist, RUN!!! DO NOT ENGAGE!!! They would want to hold power over you, viewing you as a posession or resource of their own. You will not be seen as a person and your need for freedom will be overlooked. They would make you serve them for their own pleasures, including sex. This is likely an encounter that will transform you. Vice Versa is possible if you are the narcissist.

9th House: You ever have a teacher or lecturer that spends more time talking about themselves than the lesson material? Anyway, if you have this placement you're most likely to develop a god complex as this house rules religion. Occasionally you are so focused on your own growth and abundance that you just flat out...ignore that need in others.

10th House: You take great pride in & direct a lot of your focus towards building and maintaining a good reputation and social standing. This often means the needs of those around you are not seen to as your status takes precedence. You reject the love of those with lesser than your own status and have trouble relating to those with lower or higher status than your own. You pretty much see yourself as an authority and everyone else as an underling. This could also be experiences you have with authority.

11th House: Friendships can be quite strained and one sided for the narcissistic party. Your hopes and aspirations come first already making your friends a lower priority. You may see them and use them as a means to an end. You may have trouble relating to the struggles of your friends and humanity as they are not your own. Plainly, your friends could view you as a narcissist or you view one of them as one.

12th House: Narcissistic behavior is buried away in your subconscious. Narcissus in this house is your hidden enemy, be it your own self, other people or repressed trauma related to narcissism. Could have an exaggerated focus on the self through spirituality and understanding your place in the world to the point of forgetting others have needs that need to be seen to. Might have a "holier than thou" attitude.

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I hope you enjoyed this long ass post lol. Have a cosmically beautiful day luvs.

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idairsauthor · 5 years ago

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This Fcking Trial, Episode 2: Being Alive

CONN: Senator Collins just announced that she was going to vote to call witnesses.

PLAIDDER: That’s still only 48 people IF Manchin doesn’t do his fucking Manchin thing. Go away.

ETHIR: Don’t talk to him that way.

PLAIDDER: It gets worse!

ETHIR: I have a question and I really need to know the answer right now.

PLAIDDER: I guess in cyberspace it’s always time for freagair.

ETHIR: Who in the green earth or under it is Alan Dershowitz?

PLAIDDER: Ethir. This is unworthy of you. The night before all hope is lost, you come into my house and you ask me to dredge up from the cesspool into which they have subsided my totally 80s memories of celebrity lawyer, self-appointed gadfly, and massive narcissist Alan Dershowitz?!

ETHIR: I do.

PLAIDDER: Ethir, last night I saw Just Mercy, a film based on a real-life case in which a young lawyer named Bryan Stevenson devoted years of his life to obtaining a new trial for an innocent man who was framed by corrupt racist cops for a crime he didn’t commit, prosecuted for that crime by a corrupt racist DA, and given a bonus death sentence by a corrupt racist judge. Unlike most real-life stories in which underfunded young lawyers take on entire power structures, this one actually has a happy ending, and an innocent man who’s spent six years on death row for no good reason is eventually returned to his family. I think you should get a bucket of popcorn and some caffeine-free soda and go watch this movie. You will enjoy it.

ETHIR: But--

PLAIDDER: I want you to go watch that movie, and then I want you to come back here. And then, when I tell you that Alan Dershowitz got famous in the 1980s for finding a way to get the conviction of a European billionaire who most likely murdered his diabetic wife thrown out and get him a new trial at which he was acquitted based on problems with handling of the evidence, and then gave a dinner party to celebrate which Alan Dershowitz attended and wrote about in his book Reversal Of Fortune which by the way was made into a TV movie in 1990 which I actually to my everlasting shame saw--when I tell you all this, and then tell you that Alan Dershowitz thinks that makes him Bryan fucking Stevenson, you will fully understand my rage.

ETHIR: All right.

PLAIDDER: In the meantime, can we not talk about how Alan Dershowitz’s narcissism has set fire to the last shreds of our Constitution?

CONN: But that’s exactly what I’m most hopeful about.

PLAIDDER: That...BLOWHARD forgot that he’s not in a damn trial court where the worst he could do to the world is set one rich and guilty asshole free. To satisfy his insatiable fucking ego, that man just burned down the rule of law.

CONN: No, he didn’t. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. He’s actually made things better.

PLAIDDER: This oughta be good.

CONN: All along we’ve been talking about that moment when everyone stops pretending. The moment when people just drop the mask for good and all and they just stop caring about whether people see their atrocities or not. We talked about that in July when that Congressional delegation went to see the detention camps at the border. You must have a clip of that somewhere.

PLAIDDER: OK, I found it:

CONN: Their lack of fear, that’s the worst sign. The fact that they don’t fear exposure. The fact that they’re not worried about the rest of the world finding out what they’ve done. Because that tells you that they know they’re protected. And that means they have no reason to stop. Not just that. They have no reason not to make it worse. No reason not to invent new indignities. No reason not to entertain themselves with making more misery.

PLAIDDER: That’s something I’ve always been afraid of. The moment when the state decides it doesn’t have to pretend any more. Theamh is afraid of that moment too–you know–on the magical side. That’s why that battle at Slieve was so important. It forced the corrupt government to go on pretending for a while. As long as they were pretending, there were certain limits to what they were able to do. Theamh and everyone else worked so hard to keep those limits in place.

CONN: You’re right to be afraid of that moment.

CONN: And you’re afraid that this moment has now come.

PLAIDDER: It has. This is it. 53 Republican Senators--

CONN: Fifty-two--

PLAIDDER: Conn, you are on my LAST NERVE tonight. Fifty-two Republican Senators are about to vote to endorse the idea that the President can rig an election and nobody can do a thing about it.

CONN: No. They won’t be. Because Dershowitz and friends have already retracted that argument.

PLAIDDER: They can’t retract it now. Fox News has a hold of it. The Republican Senators have a hold of it. It’s out there and it’s going to become the new normal.

CONN: You’re not listening to me. THEY WALKED IT BACK. They realized they HAD to walk it back. Because 53 Republican Senators are not ready for this moment.

PLAIDDER: I bet 51 of them are.

CONN: No. That...circus act...that your President calls a legal team has withdrawn that defense because they now realize that these Republican Senators still want to pretend. And where there’s pretense, there’s hope.

PLAIDDER: Yeah, well I just refreshed the WaPo page and we lost Lamar Alexander, so I’m gonna go scream into the night now.

CONN: There’s still--

PLAIDDER: Don’t you get it? These assholes have got together and worked out exactly how it’s going to go down and what will happen is that they will let Collins, Murkowski and Romney vote for witnesses so there’s a 50-50 tie and then Roberts will refuse to cast the tiebreaking vote and there will be no witnesses and the whole thing will be over tomorrow. These people are not taking a stand, they are saving face in the most weaselly way possible.

CONN: But surely you realize that it doesn’t matter any more whether they call witnesses or not.

PLAIDDER: I DO NOT realize that.

CONN: They don’t have to make Bolton testify. As soon as Alan Dershowitz made that argument, he admitted that your President has done everything he’s been accused of. Everyone saw that, everyone knows that. Anyone who will ever be willing to vote for removal will vote for removal now. And the people who will never be willing to vote for removal will never be convinced no matter how many witnesses you call.

PLAIDDER: So this is it. He gets acquitted. And I SWEAR TO GOD if you say “not yet” ONE MORE TIME--

CONN: All right, I won’t say it.

PLAIDDER: You won’t?

CONN: No. I won’t. Acquittal is what you always expected. That’s is what you always knew was probably going to happen.

PLAIDDER: BUT YOU TOLD ME NOT YET!!!

CONN: MAKE UP YOUR MIND! Or let me go back into the void! I never asked to be dragged out here to this horrible place.

PLAIDDER: Yeah, I’m not gonna watch any more of my favorite characters go through the door to oblivion tonight, friend.

CONN: 67 votes for removal was always an unrealistic threshold. It’s never been done before, I understand.

PLAIDDER: No.

CONN: Trust me when I say this, friend. They overreached. That always has consequences.

PLAIDDER: How can they overreach when they are about to take a vote that will ensure that their party will always have unlimited power?

CONN: That’s not what that vote is going to ensure.

PLAIDDER: Then what will it ensure?

CONN: That your president never gets a second term. And neither will many of them.

PLAIDDER: Why should I believe you?

CONN: Look at what the Democrats in Congress have been able to do. They dragged that mac na mhada to the brink of removal. Where is your appreciation for Adam Schiff, who got up there day after day and told the actual truth?

PLAIDDER: You mean the “you know you can’t” speech.

CONN: Yes. That and many others. Because the thing is: they DO know they can’t. They definitely know that now.

PLAIDDER: What does it matter? They will never cross him.

ETHIR: Hey, I’m back.

PLAIDDER: So you see what I mean about Alan Dershowitz.

ETHIR: Actually I saw something totally different.

PLAIDDER: What?

ETHIR: You know that scene where Ralph Myers takes the stand at that hearing and he tells everyone that he lied at that first trial?

PLAIDDER: Yes.

ETHIR: And he’s scared to do it. But once he does it, you can see the whole man come back to life. He’s told the truth and now no matter what happens to him, he doesn’t care, because he’s alive now. I mean you wrote our story but you spend all your time on the shriias, you’ve never really thought about how ordinary people experience the truth. I will tell you, I’ve seen a lot of people lie in court and I’ve seen a lot of people tell the truth and there is no comparison. Telling the truth is magic for us too. It’s...it’s being alive.

PLAIDDER: Anthony Scaramucci, of all people, has said as much.

ETHIR: I wish Theamh could have seen Slythe during the trial. She would have been so proud of her. Still an ordinary woman, but once she caught a hold of the truth again she never let it go. She understood it better than I can explain it. You could see it when you looked at her. I think she knew there was a good chance they would kill her. But it was worth it to her, just for that feeling of being alive. Humans are humans. They need joy. They need to feel alive.

PLAIDDER: How are you making me cry when I don’t believe EITHER of you?

CONN: It’s like your Nancy Pelosi always says. Patience and time.

PLAIDDER: That was Kutuzov in War and Peace.

CONN: Well she doesn’t say it. But she knows it. She dragged this process out as long as she could safely drag it and what can be exposed has been exposed. Whatever happens tomorrow, you got more out of this than anyone expected. Be mindful of that. And just...be all right. All right?

PLAIDDER: All right. I guess this will be our last episode.

CONN: Maybe not y--

PLAIDDER: THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT.

#this fcking trial #the current catastrophe #wof

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bnrobertson1 · 4 years ago

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LET’S ALL GET BRAINWASHED!

Upon watching the appropriately hypnotic documentaries Holy Hell and The Vow, I find myself pondering a question I never thought I would as someone who has seen Rocky IV over thirty times: maybe brainwashing isn’t so bad?

“No,” you’re probably thinking, “you gorgeous idiot, brainwashing is bad. Because Nazis and Commies and George Orwell and government experiments and stuff.” And yes, there are certainly some very bad things that have (and will) come from coerced conviction. Giving one person or system total control of anything will inevitably lead to a flawed system as people themselves are inherently flawed, and those willing to coerce aren’t exactly known for their restraint or tact, especially when given virtually unlimited power over someone else. But between watching the aforementioned documentaries, binging Alex Garland’s superb Devs, and reading Huxley’s Brave New World for the first time*, I’m starting to think that the dangers of brainwashing have distorted humanity’s views, in the process obscuring its vast potential benefits for society at large.

*No, I didn’t just take Psych 101 recently. Why do you ask?

So how could I be advocating for something with such potential risks? Well, for starters: it works! * Whether it’s stopping smoking or helping relieve PTSD, hypnosis has been proven to help people where other methods have failed. But that is merely scratching the surface. Consider the desperate subjects of Holy Hell and The Vow. They all have similar stories: for whatever reason, these people feel like they’re lost or lacking and are looking for something to achieve happiness, community, and/or a higher plane of consciousness. They’re seeking that thing that will make them whole- ie the journey literally everybody on earth takes at some juncture in one form or another. And- at least initially- they find it! You see, right on your TV, pure gravity-less joy illuminating their whole beings, the weight of doubt and limitation lifted. Sure, it’s doing things we may perceive as silly like singing songs about joy’s joy’s joy or stitching their cult leader a sequined Baja, but the happiness itself is nonetheless unmistakable, and leads to actual breakthroughs in cognitive ability. And with regards to the potential embarrassment, the only place where dignity and true joy are seen together are in the minds of some seriously stuffy and/or seriously shameless people.

*Used a lot of exclamation points in this piece! Apologies!

Alas, these rapturous feelings are often achieved through various shadowy systems, the masters of which are often self-fashioned messiahs who are just savvy (or manipulative) enough to tweak their followers’ brains to their liking. If this sounds similar to drugs or religion or anything else that causes a shift in consciousness, that’s because it exploits similar weaknesses in the brain to achieve the effect. Unsurprisingly, much like with drugs or religion, that initial thrill wears off, creating a desperation to recapture it. And this is where things usually go bad, leading to brandings or other bizarre/ illegal rituals that typically serve the insatiable ego of the cult leader*, as to be one of these people, you need charisma, and the other side of that coin is narcissism. Which, indeed, makes it sound bad- at first. But compare it to human design.

*They themselves trying to recapture that initial high of being praised like a deity

Because what is more “brainwashing” than our own genetics? Are our emotions, the very real byproduct of those genetics, not the epitome of a “shadowy” system? Sure, we’ve studied them, but we seem to know virtually nothing about this beyond-complex system. And they’re nearly impossible to explore objectively because they’re nestled where we can’t sense them- specifically inside of our heads- all the time! They make us into contradictory vessels that constantly work against our own self-interest, slaves to neurological impulses and reactions we cannot control, because if we contradict them, they will punish us with anxiety, depression, or another litany of ways our own system is designed to biochemically weaponize itself against us. They push us to anchor ourselves with toxic relationships, ones in which the sporadic lapse of suffering feels like actual joy.

Sure, our cursory knowledge of this can lead to a lot of conscious-altering fun in the short run (booze, VR, one-night stands), but it’s akin to watching a robot bang itself in the head with a robot hammer in hopes of a brief kaleidoscopic wave* appearing on its robot LCD display. We get a euphoric rush when we do things that destroy our bodies and pangs of regret when we do what’s actually in our best interests. Our intellect is prisoner to our emotions, a never-ending strife that tears us apart. We use our immense brainpower to obsess over utter horseshit** as opposed to unlocking its immeasurable potential for something that would benefit both us and society as a whole.

*I assume this is like a bong hit for robots.

**Welcome to my blog!

It needn’t be this way. There are practices and systems- and yes, some would call them “brainwashing”- that fight these self-destructive, doubt-ridden processes directly, rewiring our reward system to let us feel great while actually using the entirety of our capabilities to achieve something more than what makes us feel good for a few fleeting moments. What if we could escape the scarcity-based laws of diminishing returns by programming our brains to experience things with such purity that every time we do something feels like the first time, thus transcending our brain’s magnetism to stimuli that inevitably make things less special the more you do them? But, as has been seen, these systems have their own problems*.

*Most notably, making Hall of Fame baseball players want to kill the Queen of England.

youtube

Take the big one people associate with brainwashing: the forfeiture of personal freedom- or its very root, free will. And it’s true, by giving your brain over to something, at some level you lose control of it. But doesn’t that happen anyway? And for that matter, what about free will? I’m not suggesting it doesn’t actually exist*, but as humans there are a very finite amount of likely responses one can have to a situation. It maybe a lot, but it’s finite. Sure, you can react to something so unexpectedly as to appear random, arguably the most “free” thing there is- like when someone punches you in the face you could decide to call Pizza Hut or when you hear REO Speedwagon you can lick the sidewalk**, but is this seemingly “endless” range of options actually freedom? Also, even in modern America, where “freedom” is in our birth certificate multiple times, we’re not actually free to, for instance, say whatever we want to say. This has been demonstrated ad nauseam over the last few decades with the rise of cancel culture***. “But wait,” you interject smugly****, “we have freedom of speech, not freedom of consequence.” Excellent point. But couldn’t someone technically- as in physically- pass out flyers saying “Pol Pot is a pussy” in mid-century Cambodia? Or yell anything they wanted in St. Peter’s Square during Stalin’s reign? There were no mandatory mouth shackles I’m aware of? Is that also freedom of speech? Sure, the consequences of those actions would be far more dire- life instead of livelihood- but they’re nonetheless consequences, restricting people in their potential actions.

*Although I seriously doubt it does

**This actually makes total sense.

***I’m not saying actions shouldn’t have consequences, or that the cancel culture is a bad thing necessarily. But it absolutely is a form of censorship- ie, a repression of our natural freedoms. (Don’t cancel me!)

****You smug, cancelling fuck!

But let’s posit we are free. While we we still would have a limited range of choices, when aggregated, they lead to a world of (virtual- but not actual) infinite possibility, but who really takes advantage of that? Isn’t everybody so wrapped up in the battle between thought and feeling that potential is more of a cruel, imprisoning tease than something actually achievable?* Due to this, we’re all pretty much stuck in our lanes no matter what, programmed to do what we’ll do. That “crazy” dude you knew in college will fall into his pattern soon enough. You may not perceive it as a pattern, but it is. So, while freedom is something that makes us feel awesome saying**, in reality it’s so limited as to not really exist. Every “free” adult I know either works 40+ hours a week or is beholden to some other sort of mechanism that could be taken away in an instant.

*To paraphrase Creepy Keith from The Vow: “Hell is on your last day of earth meeting the person you could have become.”

**And the best George Michael song

But what about “Truth”? Well, isn’t objectivity in itself kind of “brainwashing?” For example, color doesn’t actually exist- it’s just how human’s perceive different wavelengths of light. Or take the fact that eye-witness accounts are typically untrustworthy because of the brain’s shortcomings. Doesn’t the theory of relativity prove that truth is inherently, well, relative? And it applies more to than just personal experience- in a societal sense, what more is morality than a sort of temporal societal brainwashing? Or a system of right and wrong based in relativity? You may feel bad when you sleep around on your wife, or steal a Pinto, but really, those are just things society has essentially brainwashed you to believe are bad. And those brainwashers are doing it because it serves their best interests for you to create more consumers and not steal their shit. In 200 years, when the only occupation is “Water Thief,” the people who survive will be those who get a rush of Dopamine when they swipe a bottle of Fuji from the weak-ass babies.

I could go on.

And will!

Technology both complicates the topic of brainwashing… and makes it more relevant. Netflix’s The Social Dilemma is a pretty bad use of 90 minutes but not because it isn’t timely*. The film explores how reliability on all things tech and the dawn of personalized digital echo chambers have made us victims to our own biologically-wired confirmation bias. Thus, technology is using your own biological (and I stress this again, because brainwashing plays on the weakness of the brain) impulses to reward “social” behavior in its attempt for popularity, something the brain associates with procreation.

*The movie sucks because 1/3 or so of it is a weird parallel story that needlessly dramatizes the points the film is discussing. Perhaps it makes it more digestible for some, but I felt it forced and infantilizing. Plus, it stars Pete from Mad Men (in three roles!) and the shit-head son from Righteous Gemstones which kind of takes you out of the appropriate headspace for watching what otherwise could be titled “WE’RE FUCKED!: THE FILM”

If you’re curious why the separation in this country has gone from “divide” to “chasm,” it’s because Big Tech has introduced systems into our daily lives that prey on our neurological weaknesses. Our brain is defensive of our beliefs as in many ways they are the bedrock of our identity. THIS IS A DESIGN FLAW OF OUR BRAINS THAT TECH COMPANIES EXPLOIT FOR ALL THE MONIES. And it’s an insidious one at that, as it’s impossible to see from a personal perspective, so it (ironically) propagates in the soul like ink pellets in a fishbowl in a tech ad. We all feel like we’re right and everybody else that disagrees is a Bloomin' Onion of an idiot. What a fun set-up.

Thanks to the integration of social media’s tentacles into our beings, when something comes up that challenges these beliefs, we’d rather point to another source that suggests we’re in fact just fine, thanks, instead of having to face the fact that we could be wrong and need to change if we want our sense of sanity or morality or whatever to remain intact. It’s far intellectually easier and self-defensively strategic to just find another source that tells us “Hey, that thing that’s making you question yourself? Well, it's just lying to you because of some clandestine, nefarious system” as opposed to bucking up, biting our lip, and actually self-reflecting with the hope of change. Don’t get me wrong: being wrong sucks all sorts of choad! But the grace in humanity is in its capacity to improve*. To see its wrongs, to make amends, to apologize, to forgive, to express actual humility. Sure, there is something to be said for sticking to your guns, but the reality is one man’s discipline is another’s stubbornness- and the cold, hard truth is machines are better at both of those things by a wide margin. By not embracing change’s inevitability, we all nurture a system that temporarily fluffs our ego with pride, but is incendiary to the fabric of society as a whole.

*A close second: The Baconator

Unsurprisingly, “brainwashing” as a whole is demonized by those doing it now, entities who believe the world will be optimized when there are 10-20 companies who control every facet of life. One thing they control: a lot of the media we consume. In the 21st century, the most recognized source of brainwashing’s ill-directed damnation is probably The Matrix. In what is its most iconic* scene, protagonist Neo must choose between the red pill (representing “the hard truth that frees”) and blue pill (signifying “blissful ignorance”). Neo, of course, picks the red pill which was good for the plot of a sci-fi movie but a pretty dumb selection if you really think about it.

*A word now defined as “Most Meme’d”

When I saw the film for the first time twenty years ago, of course I would have argued for taking the red pill. I probably would even said “freedom” and “truth” multiple times while emphatically explaining my 1000% correct decision to the poor soul who offered the question, Camel Light smoke billowing out of my ear holes*. But that’s because when you’re a teenager, especially an American one, you are taught to lionize the pseudo-rebellious, who in reality are just narcissists with savior-complexes.

*Is the “ear” the hole? Or the fleshy part? I digress…

But what if we flipped this- to value happiness over so-called freedom? This is what makes Brave New World so believable- that if humanity were somehow trained to make this fundamental intellectual shift they’d be... well, happier. This is a premise I agree with: I’d take happiness over freedom any day of the week. If some fundamental change in thought could make digging ditches feel like I was writing the Declaration of Independence or composing Beethoven’s 5th or hugging my 12th child, I absolutely would sign up. You could argue this is selfish, but I could argue the opposite as well*.

*Fret not, I won’t

Because the human brain is engineered to procreate, it’s meant to be social. And defensive. This makes its rewards system- the things that make us just feel good- very vulnerable to the same things that social bonds are- such as hysteria and blind hatred and a lack of empathy. The faults of Groupthink often masquerade as “freedom.” And that limits us in so many ways. One could argue that this isn’t a flaw at all, it is actually the best thing, as it has led to pretty much all human achievement up to and including love, the apex of a humanity where people banging-it-out is pretty much the point of the species. But what if there was a way to transcend biological (and consequently societal) impulse? A way to reprogram society- or its individual members so simply making more of ourselves isn’t the only point? What would that new goal be? It just seems short-sighted for humanity’s only goal to be “make more humans”- perhaps a better mission would be to make all currently living humans happier as a whole? That seems it could kill two birds with one stone*, as those who don’t have to constantly fight for survival are more likely to reproduce. Instead, we’re caught at this wretched intersection of evolutionally biology and big tech, where we have the tools to evolve the human race by evolving its mindset, but that would require a leap of faith most won’t take, because we hang onto a lot of the systems that got us this far- competitiveness, fierce protectiveness of our own genetic code- even though they simply don’t work as well in a more technologically-dominated society (see: late stage capitalism). Unless we want to live in a world where there are ~400 happy people and just enough people around to run the machines that feed them and take them diamond-tasting or hunter-hunting or whatever billionaires do. It would be a utopia- for those 400 people. But for a more inclusive solution, we may need to rewire our reward system- and this is where brainwashing could come in.

*Or perhaps that should be our new goal- kill all the birds!

So, Big Tech, if you’re out there reading*, I’m 100% cool with you breaking out the big scrubbing brush, digital shampoo/ conditioner, and giving my nervous center a big ole’ scrub. But I have some requests.

*A funny thing: Not even Big Tech, which reads all data on the internet, will be reading this. Ha. Ha.

I request you make exercise feel like ecstasy, kindness to feel orgasmic, failure to feel fine (yet still be edifying), disappointment to feel like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups taste, and anger to last as briefly as a blink. For the shortcomings of others to inspire, not irritate. To recognize the humble as though they were rock stars. I want the experience of forgiveness and compassion to be akin to listening to Sticky Fingers for the first time and selfishness like that bit of fraternity hazing where we had to listen to “I’m a Little Tea Pot” on repeat for 6 consecutive hours. But I want my system to be flexible with the times, to realize something good now could be bad a century from now. So don’t make it tied to humans as they themselves are flawed. Make it regulated by emotionless things that have absolutely no scratch in the game- like hyper-intelligent machines. And holy fuck I just described The Matrix. Well, in that case, just hook me up with that blue pill.

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courtneytincher · 5 years ago

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Angela Merkel's Holiday Reading? It's All About Tyrants

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Every summer, German Chancellor Angela Merkel goes on vacation in South Tyrol to hike – and read a few books. This year, she made an interesting choice: Photographers caught her with Harvard Professor Stephen Greenblatt’s “Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics,” an attack on U.S. President Donald Trump that masquerades as an analysis of the playwright’s views of tyrannical rulers and the reasons nations accept them.Her selection is quite in character. Merkel described her reading habits in a video last year. She tends to tackle shorter books so she can get through several in the course of a vacation. As she has grown older, she has acquired a taste for history; specifically, she looks for parallels between history and modernity. She is a fan of the classics: Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller. “All of them are very, very modern today,” she said. “Tyrant” – which runs to fewer than 300 pages – appears to tick all the boxes. Greenblatt’s work has made quite a splash among the German elite. Last fall, the Shakespeare expert and bestselling author was invited to deliver a lecture about “Tyrant” in Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Hall, a venue popular with the city’s highbrow audiences. On that visit, the professor spent time with Michael Naumann, a former junior minister for culture in a previous Social Democratic administration. He isn’t part of Merkel’s inner circle, and no one close to her attended the lecture, but someone with a good knowledge of her taste must have recommended the book to her.It's clear why she might want to read on past the first chapter, which promises answers to some questions such as these: Why, in some circumstances, does evidence of mendacity, crudeness or cruelty serve not as a fatal disadvantage but as an allure, attracting ardent followers? Why do otherwise proud and self-respecting people submit to the sheer effrontery of the tyrant, his sense that he can get away with saying and doing anything he likes, his spectacular indecency?But if Merkel really looked for answers to those questions in Greenblatt’s work, I fear she wasted some of her precious vacation time. The most she could have got out of it is a chuckle at the expense of a fellow leader she makes no pretense of liking.Greenblatt never mentions Trump by name in “Tyrant,” but some passages follow the critical media narrative of the U.S. president as an unhinged narcissist so closely that they leave no doubt about whom the author has in mind. Greenblatt wrote, ostensibly of Shakespeare’s Richard III:He has always had wealth; he was born into it and makes ample use of it. But though he enjoys having what money can get him, it is not what most excites him. What excites him is the joy of domination. He is a bully. Easily enraged, he strikes out at anyone who stands in his way. He enjoys seeing others cringe, tremble, or wince with pain. He is gifted at detecting weakness and deft at mockery and insult. These skills attract followers who are drawn to the same cruel delight, even if they cannot have it to his unmatched degree. Though they know that he is dangerous, the followers help him advance to his goal, which is the possession of supreme power.Of Jack Cade, the leader of a popular rebellion in “Henry VI,” Greenblatt writes that he “promises to make England great again.” In a discussion about how banished Coriolanus, the legendary Roman general, sides with Rome’s enemies, the Volscians, Greenblatt has this to say: “It is as if the leader of a political party long identified with hatred of Russia – forever saber-rattling and accusing the rival politicians of treason – should secretly make his way to Moscow and offer his services to the Kremlin.” And modern words and expressions – “enablers,” “adults in the room” – slip constantly into the discussion of Shakespearean plot twists.The parallels, however, are contrived and strained throughout. Trump can’t be Richard III, Cade and Coriolanus all at once. One could describe all these diverse characters as different faces of tyranny, even though this would turn the concept into such a grab bag of motivations and methods as to almost make it meaningless. But looking for Trump-like features in all of them smacks of filter bubble-induced paranoia.Coriolanus’s revenge on Rome is nothing like Trump’s attempt to win an election at any price. Cade led a failed violent rebellion and was, of course, anti-elite – but then weren’t all rebels throughout the course of history? Richard III’s tortured acceptance of his physical deformity contrasts so wildly with Trump’s easy confidence in his good looks that using the English monarch as a prop in an attack on Trump requires impressive verbal dexterity on Greenblatt’s part.Underneath the strained similes, what Greenblatt presents as Shakespeare’s vision of the sources of tyranny and remedies against it is a rather simplistic, naive narrative. A narcissistic, power-hungry individual appeals to the base instincts of society’s deplorables and finds enablers among the elite, who are either in it for themselves or charmed by the tyrant’s unabashed contempt for rules. Society’s fragmentation into parties that don’t listen to one another helps his rise, too. But his ascendancy never lasts because ordinary people - the non-deplorable kind – won’t put up with it. Greenblatt wrote, referring to scenes from “Richard III”, “Macbeth” and “Coriolanus”:The best chance for the recovery of collective decency lay, he thought, in the political action of ordinary citizens. [Shakespeare] never lost sight of the people who steadfastly remained silent when they were exhorted to shout their support for the tyrant, or the servant who tried to stop his vicious master from torturing a prisoner, or the hungry citizen who demanded economic justice.Theoretically, Merkel should be heartened by this optimistic message. Somehow I doubt she can accept it, though. Unlike Greenblatt, she once lived under an actual tyranny – a self-effacing one, based on a deadening collectivist ideology rather than a charismatic leader. Nor does the recent rise of the far right in Germany have anything to do with narcissism and Shakespeare’s royal egos. The leaders of the populist Alternative for Germany party are forgettable and replaceable.For all Shakespeare’s genius, his plays are probably the wrong place to look for insights into modern illiberalism. But Greenblatt’s book could be useful to Merkel in at least one way: Next time she talks to Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping or, say, Viktor Orban, she could imagine them as Shakespearean actors in full costume. She could smile inwardly and remember that they will all have to leave the stage someday – even if she herself plans to exit rather sooner than they do. To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at [email protected] contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at [email protected] column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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foursprout-blog · 7 years ago

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The Art Of The Narcissist’s Subtle Sabotage: How Predators Set Up, Disarm And Destroy Their Victims

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/the-art-of-the-narcissists-subtle-sabotage-how-predators-set-up-disarm-and-destroy-their-victims/

The Art Of The Narcissist’s Subtle Sabotage: How Predators Set Up, Disarm And Destroy Their Victims

Alex Stoddard

Toxic people like narcissists and sociopaths destroy everything and anything in their path. On a larger scale, they ruin entire lives. Everything ranging from taking off with their victim’s hard-earned funds, carrying on double lives that deplete their families, posing irreparable, psychological harm to any children they raise – to driving their victims to suicide.

Perhaps, on a smaller but still significant scale, they ruin something their victims are looking forward to. The narcissistic father stumbles drunk into another one of his kid’s birthday parties. The abusive mother prevents her daughter from going to prom after weeks of preparing her beautiful dress. The sadistic boyfriend sabotages his girlfriend’s graduation by breaking up with her the day before, effectively tarnishing a celebration of her accomplishments that she’s been looking forward to for months.

Or, even more deviously, they may set up an elaborate scenario that prepares their victims for failure. They might invite their victims on a romantic getaway, only to spend the time flirting with others on the trip. They might prepare a birthday celebration for their victims, only to stir up arguments the entire time. They could offer to treat you to a date, just to abandon you on the day of. Usually during an abuse cycle, there are multiple incidents of these covert sabotage attempts.

How does it happen? Why does it happen? And what does it mean for the victims of crimes where the murderers often get away with clean hands?

The art of the subtle sabotage, much like the art of the pity ploy, is used to stage an environment of psychological warfare. It’s a set of manipulations within the abuse cycle that leads to an elaborate game of chess – if chess were an epic, elaborate game of mindfuckery that is. Every step the victim takes, he or she is blocked from getting to the destination. Each move is carefully “watched” and evaluated so the other player can learn to provide a buffer between the victim’s movement and their intended goal.

Subtle sabotage (or any form of sabotage, really) is used for the following:

To stroke the narcissist’s or psychopathic individual’s ego.

If the narcissist or their even more conscienceless cousin, the sociopath or psychopath, feels that they are the puppeteer pulling all the strings, they gain confidence from this. If they can dupe their empathic, eager-to-please victims, they get off on the idea that they are the superior ones. This is also known as “duping delight.”

To grant narcissists a grandiose sense of power.

To the malignant narcissist, it feels good to play God. In fact, a sense of grandiosity is part of their diagnostic criteria. They watch with glee as their victims stumble upon the roadblocks they’ve set up for them or attempt with frustration to keep up with the ever-changing moving goal posts.

To devalue, diminish and provoke their victims into looking like the crazy ones.

How do you make a victim look like the “crazy” one after you abuse them? Well, you make sure to provoke them into reacting, especially in public. Acts of subtle sabotage ensure that victims who speak out will baffle outsiders who are not aware of the covert dynamics taking place within the abusive relationship. Even the strongest of individuals eventually “snap” when subjected to long periods of terrorizing behavior. Psychopathic individuals count on society to make the final judgment on the victim’s credibility based on these reactions to the abuse.

A crestfallen, traumatized victim is unlikely to present a calm, emotionless defense when attempting to explain the abusive behavior – whereas those on the high end of psychopathy lack the normal fear and anxiety responses associated with deception and high-risk activities. Who do you think comes off as the “sane” one in the courtroom, among friends and family, the workplace, or any other context where narcissistic abuse takes place?

In committing subtle sabotage, emotional predators make sure that their victims feel further alienated and isolated due to the covert nature of the abuse, that they feel unable to feel as if anyone might hear them.

To derive a sense of sadistic pleasure.

Research has indicated that those on the more malignant end of narcissism tend to derive joy from seeing sad faces. This is not news to anyone who has been a survivor of a narcissist, a sociopath or a psychopath. They enjoy inflicting pain – to be the cause of it is even more thrilling for them. Sabotage enables them to see their sick and twisted mind games unraveling in real time on the stage of the victim’s life come undone.

What To Do When You’ve Been Sabotaged

If you’ve been sabotaged – whether subtly or overtly by a malignant narcissist, know that it is not your fault. You were chosen because you had beautiful and brilliant qualities that were used against you.

These predators don’t have as much fun breaking down an already weak target – they choose healthy, strong, vibrant individuals who emit the light that they are drawn to. They love seeing that light enshrouded in their darkness. Remember that many of these individuals are pathologically envious and despise seeing you shine.

You cannot win by playing them at their own game. To play on their level would require a severe deficiency of empathy or remorse that will only turn you into the very monsters you seek to slay. Instead, you must use your experiences to build your inner wisdom, knowledge, resources and self-validation. You must “play” at a whole different level by not playing against them at all, but rather using everything you have to survive and thrive instead. Stand in the truth of who you really are and what happened to you. Use everything they did to you as motivation and fuel to flourish.

You must build organic support systems and networks outside of them – networks they cannot touch. You must continue to showcase the talents and gifts in ways they could not stifle, even if they tried. You must use these experiences not to stoop to their level, but to catapult yourself into greater heights.

You must use what you’ve learned for your highest good and the greater good. Your experiences, your stories – can collectively lead to change, to revolution, to increased awareness. Exposing how these manipulation tactics work to destabilize victims can potentially change lives and expose predators working underhandedly in our midst.

So, as counterintuitive as it may sound, the solution lies in not in “hiding” so you no longer become a target. It’s in shining a light on their darkness, while continuing to shine brightly. To let these toxic individuals take away what you love most would be to give them the very essence of yourself.

When I suggest that survivors become the narcissist’s nightmare, what I mean is that they learn how to become what monsters most fear – an individual so grounded in their integrity, strength and power that nothing – not even a conniving, selfish, plotting narcissist – can stop them.

Checkmate.

#Happiness

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courtneytincher · 5 years ago

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Angela Merkel's Holiday Reading? It's All About Tyrants

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