You Got Farmed

Let me posit that there are three kinds of people in the world:  the happy farmers, the happily farmed, and those who hate the farm.

Of course there will be degrees of each, those are just the pure types. In fact most of the farmed are unhappy with aspects of the farm, they just don't realize that the farm itself is the problem. For all I know it may be even worse for the farmers, who are under a lot of stress to be exemplars of the farming lifestyle. The lower classes (those getting farmed to the hilt) at least don't have to pretend to themselves that they like it. And too, most farmers have some farmer over THEM. So, lack of autonomy is pervasive.

Now, this has been going on for a while. The result is that the Happy Farmers (those of the pure type, who "embrace" farming) and the most Happily Farmed, are creating two new species ("specieses"?) Viz, the Morlocks and the Eloi (as H.G. Wells predicted in his classic novel "The Time Machine.")*  Bit by bit they are getting rid of everyone who doesn't like the Farm. Breeding them out of existence. Have a problem with the Farm? How uncivilized of you. Git. Scat. (But don't go live off the land:  we took care of that back when we enclosed the Commons.)

They are in a big hurry, the Farmers. People just aren't adjusting to the farm well enough! They will need drugs, licit and illicit. They will need experts to advise them, they will need to be "educated" (brainwashed to love the farm.) The new models coming up might even need to be genetically engineered, to speed the whole process along. It's for their own good, really. How sad would they be if they did not adjust to the farm? Boo-hoo. We shed a tear for the unhappily farmed.

What to do? Yes, that is the question. There are always Marx Bros. movies, I suppose, while we drift on the undertow of the coming "new world order" (ooh, scary!) That is some compensation, I suppose. (Of course that's the idea--- entertain yourselves... don't worry about the farm... We'll take care of the farm... go back to sleep... good baby...) Perhaps too we can try to seek out those of like mind, commiserate, and even help to open the eyes of those who perhaps thus far only see the farm "through a glass darkly." How elegiac it all is! I tell you what.

*Okay, slight simplification, but that's the gist of it.

Copyright 2014 Tim Rocks (I invoke my farm priveleges on this good shite...)

Charm School Psychopaths

The fine line between "authenticity" and "manipulation" -- and who decides where to draw it? 

Dave Asprey interviewed a guy who does charm "boot camps." His program walks people through their interpersonal blind spots and hang-ups, and coaches them on how to improve. Asprey brought up the sub-culture of "pick-up artists," but the guest assured him that's not what he does. Those people are "creepy" and "psychopaths," he told Asprey, and in fact he "screens out" anyone who is just taking the course for such shallow, immature reasons. If they're just there to learn how to manipulate people, rather than to become more authentic, and grow as a person, he doesn't want them. He described how the inner self really does have to change for the outer persona to be more charming:  one begins acting differently, which creates a different response from people, which sets up a positive feedback loop that encourages more confident, outgoing behavior. (Although there is a hitch in that logic --- initially at least, he's telling you people will be faked out -- "fake it till you make it" I guess. Then eventually you grow into your "fake self" and that becomes your real self. Or something.)

Another slight --- or perhaps major --- contradiction:  he hates "creepy psychopaths" as I said (interesting how that term "psychopath" has taken off), but then he went on to describe how, among his other graceless candidates for charm school, were Navy SEALS. That's right. Sometimes you don't just want to drive around in other countries looking tough, breaking things, and killing innocent bystanders who get in the way. You might want to cozy up to the enemy --- just long enough for him to get comfortable, at least. Then you sneak up behind him and slit his throat!! Or take him to a black site for a little (no doubt charm-filled) enhanced interrogation. That's no problem, apparently, but picking up chicks for casual sex is just too much for his tender sensibilities...