What follows is my response to a Facebook message from a close friend that I received March 20, 2010, as well as some other thoughts/ramblings. I will not post his name, but, he obviously may chime in on his own accord if he so chooses.
What’s up bro? Haven’t talked to you in a while … hope life is good. I bet you are very busy with Sweden, Orlando, and even potentially living in Australia!
Indeed I am! Organizing two back-to-back conventions is indeed a daunting task, but I enjoy the challenge =).
I have been reading your comments about politics lately … man, you have certainly been doing a lot of research and paying attention. Good for you.
Thanks man. I do want to point out though (for everyone reading this), that the personal opinions I express are entirely my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of any organization I am a part of, including those that I play a leadership role in. This disclaimer is posted both here on The Dream Lounge, as well as my personal Facebook account, and it also applies implicitly to my personal Twitter account, as well as comments I make on various discussion forums and web blogs – including The 21 Convention Community.
However, a word of caution. Try not to get upset or bothered too much with whatever goes on in the political world. I used to follow it intensely myself … and realized that it only leads to self destruction. Nothing gets accomplished, and we can always argue back and forth … but nobody will change their mind. Logic does not convince people. I have spent so much time with it … and that took away time from more important things in life like family, friends, health, state of mind, life fulfillment, etc.
Indeed, this is a warranted word of caution, and something I have slowly come to recognize on my own over the past few months. Spend too much time worrying and arguing … and nothing gets done. We essentially slip into a period of very little personal productivity, and our lives, relationships, and so forth, suffer – and I am not immune to this, nor is anyone else to my knowledge.
This is especially true with social media, which is an excellent medium of communication and broadcasting, yet carries with it the possibility of being a colossal time waster. As a result, it is rare I discuss much of anything on my Facebook. I post plenty of status updates, but respond rarely, and when I do, not so long as I used to.
I have chosen this route because I realize my time is better spent broadcasting my thoughts right here on The Dream Lounge, or even on The21Convention.com. It’s simply a move to greater effectiveness and efficiency – not to mention, mental sanity, and higher quality feedback (comments/e-mails) from you guys, the readers and contributors.
However, there are a few caveats to all of ‘this’ that my friend is seemingly unaware of.
- Logic not “convincing” people.
Well for starters, he is right in one sense. ‘Logic’ and rational thought only appeal to a select number of people across a broad demographic. To those that it does not, you might as well be talking to a brick wall.
Which paradoxically includes those who are not yet aware enough of their own emotions (maturity) to “rise above” them, and as a result, grasp at logic and reason ‘straws’ to defend a point that they have latched on to personally.
An excellent example would be the vegetarian social movement in all it’s forms, and to all degrees. The people who support this idea can provide you with ‘scientific’ evidence, logic and reason, all day long. Quite literally, a nearly infinite amount.
And they can be very persuasive because they believe in their actions and cause.
The problem however, is that at no point in time, will they ever be ‘right’. No matter what their argument, what their reasoning is, or observational studies show, the truth of the matter (for whatever purpose they are supporting vegetarianism), is irrespective of human opinion.
Translation: what we think doesn’t make something right.
It can’t. It never has, and never will.
While this may sound like a no brainer to some, it is indeed the polar opposite of the consensus on the matter, which from what I have gathered in my lifetime, seems to favor the idea that who ever ‘wins’ the debate, or argues their point better, is ‘right’, and has truth on his or her side.
Case in point, if I were in a televised debate with Raw Vegan guru David Wolfe, he would probably destroy me. The same applies to Dr. Oz (Oprha Winfrey’s doctor), who would easily convince a television audience of millions that I was a delusional 21 year old who knew nothing about health and nutrition in the face of his medical degree and experience.
The problem however, is that the truth of the individual subjects these two men represent, eludes them. It is on neither of our ‘sides’, but, in both cases, I have dug deeper, been more critical of the information presented to me, or have been fortunate enough to stumble across the truth and recognize it for what it is.
I found what was already there and jumped on the opportunity to better understand it, and talk about it openly on this blog, and elsewhere. I believe this also applies to most readers of this site (in addition to all of us probably being humbled many times over in our past).
We aren’t making $hit up as we go along, or arbitrarily creating truth from thin air, we are trying to get to the core of a lot of different matters and advance our sense of right and wrong.
Things that are already there to begin with, that we need to uncover, not create.
Huge, fundamental difference.
Ending the tangent and getting back on point, I believe it is because of this that we, independently (and collectively as a by product), can help others on this same path. For those willing to THINK, be open to reason, and rational thought, they indeed can be convinced.
They can be “convinced” (helped) because they are voluntarily asking for help. I think a lot of us can attest to this with radical changes in diet that follow a similar path or theme (more or less ‘paleo’ in nature).
As discussed previously though, this is not always the case. Some people are trapped by their emotions and currently do not have the ability to rise above those emotions. Some are blatantly irrational, but many (probably most), grasp at ‘straws’ of logic and reason – as in the case of the vegetarianism mentioned earlier.
Basically an attempt to rationalize irrational beliefs or mindsets, which is entirely natural, as few wish to consider themselves willingly irrational (insane).
Who would? …
Now the question is though, can logic ‘convince’ these people? At first glance, the assumption is a resounding no, as my friend so clearly put it, but I believe otherwise.
In a classic manipulative sense, you can ‘convince’ someone who is irrational by ‘convincing’ them whatever your interest is, is in their best interest.
Or in another sense, you convince them to convince themselves of something. You step back, get out of the way (metaphorically), and allow them to do whatever you wanted them to do in the first place.
This is indeed manipulative, and is done, from my understanding, via emotional appeal.
The point I would like to make, is that this does not have to be done in a manipulative way, or for ill intentions as is often the case.
The example I will use is something I am moderately experienced in – meeting women.
If I, or any other guy, walks into a bar and attempts to logically convince a girl to sleep with him, it will never happen in a million years. Even in extenuating circumstances
“I have a $4 million dollar helicopter waiting in the parking lot ready to take us to a large island I own off the coast with a private party going on that includes every pro-basketball and football player this side of the Mississippi, along with a plethora of other celebrities.”
It is no longer a logical appeal, it is an emotional one. Money, status, fame, celebrities, connections, and experiences that girl would likely otherwise never have – are based in emotion and even instinct for her, not logic.
They may be logical for you, the guy, but reality is a matter of perspective in this instance. No matter your thoughts, it is not a logical appeal to her, period.
The long winded point I am trying to make however, is that there is a better way to accomplish meeting women, for whatever purpose, that is still based in logic and rational thought.
If an individual is socially inexperienced and therefore ‘awkward’ at times, he can knowingly choose to be more social, and meet more people – men and women alike – and change that condition. If frequently “going out” (to whatever venues) was not a part of his usual repertoire of activities, this is a very logical decision – even if it originated emotionally (from being “lonely” for example, among other possibilities).
What that person will come to realize however, is that few people in large social settings are acting or even thinking logically. Most are there on an impulse of some kind – not for the logical purpose of improving your social skills, lot in life, et cetera.
Logic as we discussed a moment ago, is then highly ineffective, for whatever purpose in this setting. People are most often even repelled by it – men and women alike. They DID NOT GO OUT TO THINK.
The solution? Doing one’s best to leave logic at the door. To use logic and reason when required – to get your butt out of the house on a Friday night for example – and discarding it (for the most part) for emotional appeal, the minute that is required.
This is the ‘path of least resistance’, and most success (whatever that success may be) – to knowingly behave in ways that are most effective at different times, and in different situations.
By the same token, I think logic always has the ability to “convince” people, if your intentions are true, and coming from the ‘right’ source – albeit indirectly in some scenarios, such is the case with knowingly dropping logical appeal for emotional appeal.
You can’t change others, they can only change themselves. How that happens is always up to the individual, for right and wrong, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ – but regardless, that possibility is always present.
The second item of my friends thought’s that I strongly disagree with is that
Nothing gets accomplished.
I for one, believe the idea of stagnation if a faulty one. The world doesn’t stand still … ever. Things are always spinning in one of many different directions – but never standing dead still. This works both individually and collectively. Things are always in motion, moving forwards/backwards, up/down, left right, center/off center, and so on.
So indeed, ‘things’ are always happening – and things are ALWAYS being accomplished, by someone, somewhere.
In the case of the governing bodies of the United States of America, they have been on a downward spiral towards central governance since the conclusion of the first American civil war some ~150 years ago. Prior to that, it was more of a balance between that ideology, and a ‘libertarian’ minded limited government philosophy and practice.
The problem however, was that there was no concrete check on the expansion of government power and control written at the founding of our country – ‘check’ in the sense of an incentive to keep government small and “the people” free and independent.
Our government was and is a self perpetuation of ever larger government, and eventually the only “check” that was worth a shot was a violent uprising of the states that created the union (federal government). The states of course, lost. And again, ever since, the balance has been out of whack and on a continual slide towards bigger and more intrusive government – often rationalized to varying degrees and in many different ways with it “being for our own good”.
In this sense and in that regard, there are continual accomplishments – be it political, physical, judicial, legislative, executive, philosophical, interpretive of the constitution, or outright manipulative.
Now, continuing on the idea that ‘stagnation’ essentially doesn’t exist, neither does the world – and especially the government in all it’s forms of The United States of America – live in a closed system or a “bubble” of sorts.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite re-action.
Point in case, our government isn’t on a linear or balanced path – not since before the first civil war has it not been. The logical conclusion is basically this – eventually our ‘sins’ will catch up with us, or more specifically, the government’s and what we as a people have allowed them to do (in spite of our peaceful protests and objections).
I use the term ‘sins’ loosely as I am in no way, shape, or form, part of any religion (nor do I practice any religion). Fill in that blank with whatever term you see fit as it is merely semantics in the context I am using it.
How will they catch up with us you ask?
As discussed previously here, there are many different possibilities in which this can happen (and has in the past happened). The problem I for see however, is again, our government not being on a linear path. They have done their best to push back looming problems (some people claim our debt and obligations to be in excess of $100 Trillion USD) and obligations – and therefore operate in an artificial bubble – but I suspect “the game” to be finally up.
In that sense, everything is about to come back and smack our government (and “the people” they serve), in the face. Sort of like Wiley Coyote chasing down the Road Runner bird with a giant rubber band strapped to his waist.
Eventually it is going to snap him back into a brick wall at 150 miles an hour, it’s only a matter of time.
It is because of this – as the title of this post suggests – that I do not believe I, or any of my peers in this ‘generation’, have the luxury of ignoring the world around them – or ‘reality’ in one sense of the term.
This is a luxury of old, built upon past credit by the giants who stood before us, and that we now stand on the shoulders of.
They fought, punched, kicked, killed, shot, bled, debated, worked their asses off, and were tortured for future generations to benefit from and have the opportunity to mold their lives how they saw fit – and be truly free – without violating the rights of others.
Those sacrifices were made for their children, their childcare’s children, and so forth – and we have squandered their sacrifices collectively over the years into hardly a shadow of what they once resulted in. Individual pockets have survived, in states as well as private organizations – and of course individuals who have taken the time to educate themselves and think critically.
But on the whole, there has been an enormous degree of erosion, to the point where many areas and levels of our country do not even resemble what they once were – public and private.
It is because of this, that I sincerely believe we may have to be the greatest generation of all. Not just ‘Americans’, but damn near everyone.
Why is this specifically?
It has to do with that “brick wall” Wiley Coyote is about to be smacked into at a high rate of speed – which most people are completely oblivious (unaware) to, or in denial of.
The US economy is at it’s worst since “The Great Depression” – that people alive today still remember. (The ‘recession’ of 1970 is also worthy of note, but not as bad as what we are currently experiencing).
The problem we face however, is much greater than what either of those periods faced. In both cases, to put it simply, people still had money. Value was still circulating through a shared medium of exchange – a currency.
In the case of the 1930′s depression, if you had savings, you were much “better off”. You were almost in a sense, ‘rewarded’, while the government artificially meddled with the economy in the hopes of ‘fixing’ it.
In the recession of ~1970, the Federal Reserve raised “interest rates” to a record high (if memory serves right). This stopped easy/cheap credit, and helped bring the economy closer to where the free market would naturally place it.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your level of cynicism), none of these things will matter as this country – that holds the world’s reserve currency – is smacked into a brick wall (or is driven off a cliff, whatever floats your boat).
What we are facing is an inflationary world-wide depression on a scale never before witnessed in history. Our currency – the reserve currency – has long lost ties to any sort of commodity – unless of course you consider “full faith and credit” a commodity.
When hyperinflation springs up on our nation, the common person’s savings will be worth very little – if anything substantial at all, and assuming they have some in the first place (forget skyrocketing unemployment for now, which is apparently over 20% nation-wide depending on who you ask).
If the Federal Reserve (our central bank) attempts to jack interest rates through the roof as the precedent was set in 1970, the last monetary life line of this country is killed off – easy/cheap credit. Which is what many people are, and have been for some time, living off of.
In fact we have been living off compounded debt for quite some time – re-financed debt piled on top of more debt with interest piling up on top of that.
In this sense, we are bankrupt, public and private.
Our Federal Reserve has another option of course, one they have been quite fond of for some time as the official printer of the world’s reserve currency – printing federal reserve notes (our currency) like Monopoly board game money.
This option has already been in use for quite some time, but accomplishes nothing positive. If the US dollar is hardly worth the paper it is being printed on, or perhaps even less, printing money (digitally or physically) will have no real impact on a crisis such as a world-wide inflationary depression – in fact it could be the final nail in the coffin of the currency.
“Stimulus checks” in this sense, are entirely worthless. They were of no real value to begin with, and this will be especially transparent in such a situation.
…
As mentioned earlier in this post, most people are completely oblivious to these distinct possibilities that I believe to be not only very real, but on our door step as we speak. “The game” is up, and being unaware of this looming catastrophe of biblical proportions is not a solution for solving it, or being prepared for it (obviously). Nor is the denial of it all.
Because of this, I’ll take a moment to spell out exactly what kind of implications these “complex economic issues” that only those with PHD’s can seemingly understand and make decisions on, can and will have on the average person.
For starters, a failing of the world reserve currency will be like a domino effect to nearly every single nation on the planet – starting with the Euro, assuming it doesn’t collapse before the USD.
“Money” as we know it will cease to have any substantial value, and trade will screech to a near or complete grinding halt between nations.
Whatever is left in your particular corner of the globe, will be outrageously expensive as compared to the ‘norm’. Crime and looting, which were likely on the rise before hyperinflation ‘officialy’ hit, will become even more common place – because hey, a man/woman’s gotta eat! And so do their children.
Credit cards will be maxed out, and credit will be relatively impossible to get more of – if it’s even useful or still functioning at that point on the whole.
As shelves are slowly cleared out by those with large sums of money, they will be increasingly difficult to re-stock due to trade being at a grinding halt between nations – due to distrust between currencies, if any is even left to begin with.
Gas stations, which are refilled daily (sometimes multiple times per day), will quickly run out of gas that was in the double digits per gallon before it ran dry. Like food and other supplies, it will be increasingly difficult to re-fuel stations regardless of the price they are willing to pay or charge the consumer – at which point people are panicking (which I’ve seen personally in Florida before every major hurricane).
…
Hopefully where I was going with this was clear – progressively more civil unrest in the economic chaos of a world-wide inflationary depression, of which, no one reading this, is immune.
I believe this out come is unavoidable. I do hold the hope that the slim chance of Ron Paul winning the 2012 presidential election could turn this country around – but that assumes everything holds together as it does now until then.
Unfortunately I believe this to now be a fantasy land, telle-tubbie fairy tale. With the passing of a hostile government take over of some ~16% of the US economy last evening, I do not believe Ron Paul can even win the presidency in time before hyperinflation takes place.
Of course, there is the possibility that this series of events ushers in Ron Paul as our next president (perhaps the only real one worthy of that title to take office in a very long time), but there are too many variables involved to assume this will happen in such an orderly fashion as we are accustomed to.
It is because of all this, that I do not believe I, or my peers, have the luxury to ignore the world around us any longer – as my friend indirectly and perhaps unknowingly suggested (that is simply the way I interpreted it). We are out of monetary ‘credit’, as well as the intangible credit given to us by those who came before us. We’ve been out of it for a while, and it’s now catching up to us as many have warned and shouted for decades gone by.
Our government, and indeed the rest of the world, does not live in a “closed system”, nor does the status quo follow a linear and balanced course. The logical conclusion of this is indeed a ‘bad’ one, and not enough people seem aware of it, or willing enough, to prevent the outcome.
The rest of my friends message has been omitted for the purpose of this post ending on singular topic and not branching into something not especially relevant. I would like to make a closing statement however and say that I believe none of the above should frighten or worry ANYONE into inaction. As always I suggest everyone do their own homework and research on the ideas I have presented above, and come to their OWN conclusions, not blindly accept my own. I strongly believe in living a normal and highly productive life, and not bunkering down in a left over bomb shelter from the Cold War with expired MRE’s and canned tuna to keep you comfy while everything goes SPLAT outside.
You make some very valid points, and I understand your viewpoint and where you are coming from.
1. I would LOVE IT if Ron Paul became President. He has been around for 25+ years now and has a very good head on his shoulders. But the reality of it is that he will not get elected. He does not have the money and the following to compete with a Republican or Democratic candidate. Most people vote based on TV commercials and who the media give attention to. If you cannot buy TV time, and do not have the media in your back pocket, how are you going to win? You and I and the readers of your blog are smart; and they will vote based on facts. But what about everybody else? Ron Paul would need one BIG donor to step in, but he hasn’t been able to get that yet.
2. To add to above, most Ron Paul supporters don’t even end up voting for him, because they are so convinced that he has no chance that they feel they are wasting their vote. So, they end up picking the less of two evils (either the Republican or Democratic candidate). This is a very sad situation … but this does happen.
3. Your blog tends to attract smart, open minded people. The key ingredient for logic to work is for somebody to have an open mind. A person who is making a conscious decision (like going out on a Friday night to improve his social skills) will be open to learning and getting his facts straight. We both know that such people make up the minority of the human population. Do you think more and more people are becoming smarter and more open minded? Do you think we will eventually reach a point in time when everybody thinks for themselves? Would that even be a good thing? I don’t have answers to these … and this will open a whole different can of worms and maybe a new blog post
4. The way I see it, what is happening now is just history repeating itself. You have a global superpower who is going to lose it all, and another superpower will be born. This happened to Great Britain, the Roman Empire, and now it is happening to the US. Europe was devastated after World War 2, but they rebuilt. I think a financial collapse would be like a “refresh” button, and everything will start again from scratch.
5. I think Democracy is a great thing, but I am beginning to think that it all depends on the people you have in power. Like last night, we passed some socialist legislation in our beautiful democracy. India in the 1500′s was prospering under King Akbar. It was one man who collected taxes and made the rules. Sure, not everybody agreed with his rules (like as if we agree with our US laws). There was as much (or even more) freedom then as there is in the US now. He allowed everybody to do their own religion, to own businesses, and built a good infrastructure. He collected very little taxes. My point is that regardless of the system, it all depends on the leadership and the people participating in the system. Socialism could work great if everybody was honest, hard working, and a contributing member of society. But that is not the case. So when I say “Nothing gets accomplished”, what I mean is that somebody will do something great, and then somebody later will come in and destroy it. King Akbar’s great grandson destroyed everything. Our great country that was founded on freedom is slowly becoming socialist. So, on a large enough time scale, all progress is probably meaningless. This can get pretty philosophical, so we can leave this for another discussion.
Great insight overall. I have definitely benefited from reading your post.
This was an awesome article! I like your writing style a lot
Anthony,
Your description of what is to come is one of the best that I have read anywhere. Very well-articulated. You are wise beyond your years.
Doug McGuff
Dream,
Awesome article. I live in heavily socialised (and getting more so by the minute) Ireland. I dream of the day a man of the sheer calibre of Ron Paul might show up in this country.
I can tell you right now, despite having, lets say, most of my needs/wants taken care of by government, in return, I get less freedom/massive taxation.
There is no “get up and go” here. We live in an era of “entitlements”. People expect a free lunch, or at least a easy lunch. Sure, I cant go far or follow my dreams, im financially limited due to sheer taxes and my nations bureacracy, Theres little room for an independant business to compete with the government monopoly, but I least I dont have the hassle of filling out a form for my health insurance, I just get taxed for it instead. Sure, its kinda crappy healthcare, but I didnt have to life a finger. Joy.
I pray for Liberty, hope for freedom and work towards the concept of the individual instead of the collective. Im seen as a nutjob in my homeland by most of my friends.
“Im seen as a nutjob in my homeland by most of my friends.”
Thanks for the kind words Andy, but that is indeed sad =(. I suppose plenty of people consider me a ‘nutjob’ as well, there’s just a lot more of us in the US =D
Anthony,
I agree with Doug. You are wise beyond your years. I hope you are wrong though.
Back in the late seventies and early eighties there was a group of free market people predicting an imminent economic and monetary collapse while urging everyone to buy gold and silver. Of course, the collapse didn’t happen. Many of these same people are predicting another imminent collapse. I think there is a pretty convincing amount of evidence that they are right this time. Now it’s a matter of trying to determine the correct timing. Will the collapse be next week, next year, or five or ten years from now? It’s very difficult to know for sure.
So while I hope you and the others are wrong, I’m afraid you are right and am preparing accordingly.
Ron
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.- Arthur Jones (among others I assume).
Indeed, I hope I am sorely mistaken as well, but that seems almost too good to be true…
As for timing, I think that is the most dangerous aspect of it all. There’s really no telling how rapidly everything can slide down the side of the biggest economic cliff in history. Keep your eyes peeled I say.
I would also say however that it is a matter of months, not years. 2, 10, 14, I don’t know, but I highly doubt we have multiple years to sit and watch this happen. Back to that non-linear theme again, we’re not going to watch this gradually happen. I suspect it will, for the most part, be quite rapid and sudden, whatever the final cause/push may be.
One person I know said, “the system’s going to collapse. It has to for any real change to take place. The vast majority of people won’t question their government until it does.”
Unfortunately most people aren’t going to see anything’s wrong, until they can’t afford food anymore.
Somehow I can’t but feel, if this was 300 years ago, we would have already had a revolution.
“One person I know said, “the system’s going to collapse. It has to for any real change to take place. The vast majority of people won’t question their government until it does.””
I would agree. This will be the biggest wakeup call in history. Starving while not keto-adapted tends to have that affect (slight attempt at humor on a dark topic).
I really don’t know how to say this without coming off as an asshole, and I love the stuff that you write on nutrition, but I have to call you out on this. Finance is a much more complex issue than you’re making it out to be. You clearly don’t have the appropriate schooling and possibly (although I don’t know you well enough to say) intellectual capacity to fully understand it.
I do think that we are going to experience a major inflation problem in the near future, which is why I have my money in savings accounts and inflation protected securities, but not on the scale that you are talking about. Not on the 1930s Germany scale that led to Hitler’s rise to power. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you’re going to need to take some advanced macroeconomics and financial engineering classes to fully grasp the subject matter at hand.
No offense taken, and I expected at least a few to make such comments. In any case, I obviously disagree. I do not believe I need degrees to understand the most epic, economic cluster f*ck in history, that is at our doorstep. It is no more complex than making coffee at this point.
All the same applies to nutrition and exercise. Medical degrees are nice, but entirely unnecessary to learn how to eat/workout properly. Partly, but not entirely due to others with those degrees relaying that complex information that fills in the gaps and helps solidify the information instinct and logic provide us.
Despite the fact that the body is very complex, proper nutrition is pretty simple. At least as compared to finance as it stands now. One can argue that finance shouldn’t be so complicated. But it is very complicated at this point, and thus requires a much deeper understanding.
I totally understand where you’re coming from with regards to the economy, but you’re simplifying it too much and coming out with the wrong conclusion as a result. The US economy is not going to collapse. I’m not going to try to explain it right now man, but maybe we can talk in July at the convention.
“Despite the fact that the body is very complex, proper nutrition is pretty simple. At least as compared to finance as it stands now.”
Finance is a blatantly SIMPLE objective of life! You my friend, have it backwards. The correct way would read:
Though LIFE is very complex, proper finance is very simple at least compared to nutrition. PERIOD.
“One can argue that finance shouldn’t be so complicated. But it is very complicated at this point, and thus requires a much deeper understanding.”
This is not even a logical argument. Business finance is AT MOST, a bachelor’s or master’s level subject and plateaus at the average to moderately advanced skill level. Finance is a fairly simple-skill to learn which is obvious by the OVERWHELMING abundance of men and women who study and succeed at this basic subject.
Nutrition on the other hand, is at the point tip of the scale on complexity and requires a much deeper-insight.
“I totally understand where you’re coming from with regards to the economy, but you’re simplifying it too much and coming out with the wrong conclusion as a result.”
ONCE AGAIN, this is not even logically worth discussing.
Moral of the story: NUTRITION and FINANCE are both equal key-aspects of life! Finance is definitely important, I completely agree with you there. What I am saying is, leave the complicated matters to the experts. ( =
— JEFF
“Despite the fact that the body is very complex, proper nutrition is pretty simple.”
This is the pinnacle of a field of study being a matter of perspective. Most people are as or more mesmerized and mystified by nutrition, as they are ‘the economy’ and ‘finances’. The idea that one is simple and the other complex could not be more a matter of opinion.
“One can argue that finance shouldn’t be so complicated. But it is very complicated at this point, and thus requires a much deeper understanding.”
Strongly disagree. In fact I would go so far as to say people are intentionally lead to believe this so as to remain ignorant from what politicians are doing behind the scenes with the economy and money supply. Promise them the world, keep them ignorant, and do as you please. That’s the motto in Washington.
In addition, the fact that there is such a supposed ‘complexity’ to ‘finances’ and ‘the economy’ is a testament to it’s impending demise and fragile government nursed infrastructure.
The government has no role in the economy, short of enforcing contracts, the law, protecting the environment, and other no brainer practices. Everything else it tends to screw up, severely, as we shall soon witness on a scale never before seen.
In any case, let’s continue talking about it here, July is still a long ways off =)
Jeff isn’t really worth responding to at this point, so I’m not going to bother.
Anthony, have you ever even taking a finance class? Understanding the Black-Scholes formula is complicated enough, and that’s about as basic as financial engineering gets. Once you start trying to price things without assuming an underlying normal distribution, it becomes infinitely more complicated, and so much moreso once you get out of the theoretical realm and into the real world.
I don’t want to get into a philosophical debate about the merits of libertarianism, but I will say that:
1. In saying that the government has no responsibility in the economy except enforcing contracts and “the law” is pretty meaningless as “the law” is in fact totally set by the government and otherwise arbitrary. Total proof by tautology.
2. When you talk about the government protecting the environment, what you’re really talking about is dealing with “externalities,” and this is much more complicated than just the environment. When you think about it, all laws are really about managing externalities, whether that be the emotional externalities caused by one person murdering another, or the safety externalities of having a society in which the lower class has no hope of ever moving up in the world (think French revolution).
3. While we’re talking about the environment, in what world is this a “no brainer”? We are drastically overpopulated as a species, the only “no brainer” solution to the environment would be to kill off like 80% of the world, control population growth and force people to eat local, but that is totally antithetical to everything that libertarianism stands for.
3. If you’re going to make an argument for pegging our currency (and all currencies?) to commodities, you are now creating a zero sum economy, and once you have a zero sum economy, you have to start dealing with how population growth effects that, and the moral implications of it.
I’m now going to break down THE flaws into Dream’s insight and WHY he is most likely leading you in the wrong direction!
In order to do this, let’s first go over the actual encompassments of a leader. Leadership is an advanced skill which requires the utmost perseverance and tenacity.
There are many ‘leaders’ that exist today. It is needless to say, a wide-variety of leaders exist around the world.
Of those, MANY are penny-level authorities who don’t actually have control over any given situation!
We call these, blind authorities.
These blind leaders have little power and attempt to exercise their rights using a sub-par skill set. Obviously, this does NOT take them anywhere worth mentioning.
On the other hand, our history has served quite a few who are actually VERY knowledgeable in skill and unintentionally command leadership attention as a result.
These true-leaders possess an incredible ability and perform these influential techniques constantly. They can TRULY lead to greatness!
Now that we understand what encompasses a true leader, let’s now quickly acknowledge and detail one of the BEST in history before moving on.
WARNING: This now gets extremely controversial! I recommend having an ultimately clear-though process before continuing.
We begin with Hitler. Yes, Adolph Hitler. What a terrible, yet GREAT man.
Hitler reached many of his goals in his days while alive. He was an incredible leader, and this is why I have such great respect for him.
On that note, Hitler had a VERY poor sense of reality. He created FALSE illusions in the minds of others with his extraordinary skill set. He led them to kill, attack, and conquer, all for the wrong reasons.
Hitler had GREAT desire to accomplish his goals and was a needles head away from doing so.
HE WAS LITERALLY ONE OF THE BEST LEADERS OF ALL TIME!
Unfortunately, he neglected one key aspect of his life. Though Hitler had an amazing ability to influence others, he lacked the REQUIRED leadership trait, of authenticity.
No matter how many were swayed Hitler did not yet have his head on completely straight and suffered the consequence. He never reached his FULL potential as his inauthentic ways came around to bite him in the a**.
He accomplished a lot, yet this was only a mist of what was to come if he would have AUTHENTICALLY led others to a better place. Blinded, persuaded and convinced, ALL of Hitler’s followers were sent off in the wrong direction!
If only Hitler was authentically taking his people in the RIGHT direction, he would have been arguably THE greatest leader of all time.
Now that we understand what leadership actually is, let us continue on into how logic and emotion are interdependently related in leadership position.
According to Dream logic convinces people. He is correct in some way, but is completely neglecting MORE important aspects we will now cover.
Emotions are an everyday outlook of life and the main ways of self-expression. They are fluid processes that are constantly switching from one state to the next.
Out of all the emotions, there are six main facial expressions existent. Happiness is the most significant of these and yields the best outcome. After all, what is everyone truly searching for in the end? Happiness.
Emotional leadership is very POWERFUL and beneficial when used correctly.
Once emotional leadership is mastered and used properly then at this point, logic comes into the picture.
Logic is a great TOOL of the leader, and very impactful at the right times. This said, it ONLY works at the right time, and on certain followers.
Logic is best saved for those who are analytical and desperate to know a bit more of the game plan at hand. THIS, is when it becomes a good time to present them with logical facts and detailed information.
THE MAJORITY OF OTHER PEOPLE RESPOND TO EMOTION!
Hitler is once again the perfect example of emotional based leadership who intelligently used logic at the right times. The majority of his leadership was performed on the emotional level!
After successfully leading others to a rewarding emotional state, he was well aware that there would be the skeptics who need further logical convincing. (Such as his generals and top henchmen).
These people needed to know more of the facts and detail behind Hitler’s ultimate plan before jumping on board. And so, he logically made his case to those who so desired and made further progress in his leadership role.
All in all, the point I am making is emotional leadership is the most powerfully effective way to lead others to the correct path. Logic does convince people, but only CERTAIN people and when used at the right times.
Unfortunately many have a skewed since of reality, such as Dream, and are full of mismatched and useless logical information. (Once again, SOME of his insights are relevant. It ALL depends on the subject and issue at hand).
It is needless to say that EVERYONE has the ‘luxury’ of ignoring reality. The REALITY of the situation is, ignoring the truth is not a ‘luxury’ at all but rather an inferior choice.
Now that this is understood, let us now move on and quickly discuss accomplishment.
Accomplishment is simply what we make it. I personally define accomplishment in my life on a broad range of ideas and areas that include:
Health & Fitness, Finances, and Lifestyle.
These are THE three main focuses of my life as I am constantly looking to improve daily on all of these areas.
That said, accomplishment for me would be to master nutrition and fitness, experience great success financially, and live a compelling lifestyle full of excitement and adventure!
If all three of these areas are being improved daily, then accomplishment for me is within reach and more time can be rewarded to hobbies and other interests.
Once again, accomplishment is simply what we make it.
To wrap up, EVERYONE has the grave ‘luxury’ of ignoring reality, as it is simply NOT a luxury!
Anyone can bury themselves from the truth. In the end, it is simply an inferior choice that eventually leads to demise.
Reality must be studied and embraced, in order to successfully impact others!
— JEFF
Jeff, I appreciate the time and effort taken to write what you have above (including your previous praise for the article in a former comment).
That said, do you have a history of mental illness, or more specifically, have you ever been diagnosed as bi-polar?
In no way/shape/form is this a personal attack. I am genuinely curious and asking as politely as the internet will allow. And no this is not a joke of some kind.
P.s. For the record, I don’t deny your authenticity. I just think you have a weird way of going about things!
Hahahaha, only on Tuesdays! ( =
I definitely have made it clear I respect your writing Dream, as a friend. On that note, I felt the urge to spark some competitive debate!
Friendship and competition are both HEALTHY personality characteristics.
Good try though!
My bad, I see where you were going with this now man.
I now see that my debate should have been targeted towards your ‘facebook friend’.
I formally apologize for the direct, competitive attacks and will write much more indirectly in the future. ( =
Hitler wasn’t a great leader. George Bush had no problem getting elected twice and starting an unnecessary war. You think that took great leadership? The people didn’t even have a say in it. I don’t recall their ever being a vote for or against the war. He didn’t lead shit. He just decided to do stuff, and people just watched as it happened.
You also might not be a good leader, but be good at convincing people of things. Convincing someone that if they kill themselves for God, there’s an afterlife where they’ll get gangbanged by 72 virgins(for example.)
“Hitler wasn’t a great leader. George Bush had no problem getting elected twice and starting an unnecessary war. You think that took great leadership? The people didn’t even have a say in it.”
I suggest you re-read the post as this is not at ALL what I was implying. There is a stark difference betweek an ACTUAL earned leader, and a ‘granted’ leader like George Bush, who was freely given his power.
“You also might not be a good leader, but be good at convincing people of things.”
I appreciate the honesty. Though I have never once claimed to be a ‘good’ leader, I am constantly working to increase my skills for the greater of good.
It’s been a few years since history class, so I’m not sure about the “earned” vs “granted” point. And I wasn’t talking about you when I said “you also might not be a good leader, but” <– I was talking about Hitler there.
No matter how many people you can lead, if you're killing the elderly, disabled, and exterminating people because you think they're inferior to you, I would NOT respect you. Or consider you a good leader.
Your leadership qualities become mute and void at that point. Kind of like how you could make the best pasta in all the land, but rape a goat, and I don't really care anymore.
The key difference between these two types of leader, is the actual willingness of people to follow. An actual leader possesses the ability to influence and motivate others by their own accord.
An elected leader, such as a political official, is given their power by a higher authority and plays a ‘leader’ role despite what people think of them.
I completely agree with your point about respecting leaders. I also agree that Hitler was a terrible, awful person and find it VERY hard to respect him. At the same time, no matter how disgusting he was, I can’t deny his ability to influence others.
Leadership is a skill, preferably used for GOOD rather than evil.
Jeff, I think your confusing ‘leadership skills’, with manipulation skills.
I can certainly scam a bunch of dudes into coming to a sleezy pickup convention – that doesn’t make me a good leader, nor would it make anyone else a good leader.
It just makes you a snake oil salesman =/
Don’t flatter yourself, Dream.
By no means was I directly OR indirectly referring to you in any way/ shape/ or form in this comment.
I have already made it clear I don’t deny your authenticity. Arrogance on the other hand, is NOT attractive in anyone.
(PROPERLY REVISED)
Leadership is an advanced skill which requires the utmost perseverance and tenacity.
Let us begin by going over the actual encompassments of a leader. There are many ‘leaders’ that exist today. It is needless to say, a wide-variety of leaders exist around the world. Of those, MANY are penny-level authorities who don’t actually have control over any given situation.
We call these, blind authorities.
These blind leaders have little power and attempt to exercise their rights using a sub-par skill set. Obviously, this does NOT take them anywhere worth mentioning.
On the other hand, our history has served quite a few who are actually VERY knowledgeable in skill and unintentionally command leadership attention as a result. These true-leaders possess an incredible ability and perform these influential techniques constantly. They can TRULY lead to greatness!
Now that we understand what encompasses a true leader, let’s now quickly acknowledge and detail one of the BEST in history before moving on. WARNING: This now gets extremely controversial! I recommend having an ultimately clear-though process before continuing.
We begin with Hitler. Yes, Adolph Hitler. What a terrible, yet GREAT man.
Hitler reached many of his goals in his days while alive. He was an incredible leader, and this is why I have such great respect for him.
On that note, Hitler had a VERY poor sense of reality. He created FALSE illusions in the minds of others with his extraordinary skill set. He led them to kill, attack, and conquer, all for the wrong reasons. Hitler had GREAT desire to accomplish his goals and was a needles head away from doing so. HE WAS LITERALLY ONE OF THE BEST LEADERS OF ALL TIME!
Unfortunately, he neglected one key aspect of his life. Though Hitler had an amazing ability to influence others, he lacked the REQUIRED leadership trait, of authenticity.
No matter how many were swayed Hitler did not yet have his head on completely straight and suffered the consequence. He never reached his FULL potential as his inauthentic ways came around to bite him in the a**.
He accomplished a lot, yet this was only a mist of what was to come if he would have AUTHENTICALLY led others to a better place. Blinded, persuaded and convinced, ALL of Hitler’s followers were sent off in the wrong direction! If only Hitler was authentically taking his people in the RIGHT direction, he would have been arguably THE greatest leader of all time.
Now that we understand what leadership actually is, let us continue on into how logic and emotion are interdependently related in leadership position.
Emotions are an everyday outlook of life and the main way of self-expression. They are fluid processes that are constantly switching from one state to the next. Out of all the emotions, there are six main facial expressions existent. Happiness is the most significant of these and yields the best outcome. After all, what is everyone truly searching for in the end? Happiness.
Emotional leadership is very POWERFUL and beneficial when used correctly. Once emotional leadership is mastered and used properly then at this point, logic comes into the picture.
Logic is a great TOOL of the leader, and very impactful at the right times. This said, it ONLY works at the right time, and on certain followers. Logic is best saved for those who are analytical and must know a bit more of the game plan at hand. THIS, is when it becomes a good time to present them with logical facts and detailed information.
THE MAJORITY OF OTHERS RESPOND TO EMOTION!
Hitler is once again the perfect example of emotional based leadership who intelligently used logic at the right times. The majority of his leadership was performed on the emotional level.
After successfully leading others to a rewarding emotional state, he was well aware that there would be the skeptics who need further logical convincing, such as his generals and top henchmen. These people needed to know more of the facts and detail behind Hitler’s ultimate plan before jumping on board. And so, he logically made his case to those who so desired and made further progress in his leadership role.
All in all, the point I am making is emotional leadership is the most powerfully effective way to lead others to the correct path. Logic DOES convince people, but only certain people and when used at the right times.
Unfortunately many have a skewed sense of reality, and are full of mismatched and useless logical information. It is needless to say that EVERYONE has the ‘luxury’ of ignoring reality. The REALITY of the situation is, ignoring the truth is not a ‘luxury’ at all but rather an inferior choice.
Now that this is understood, let us now move on and quickly discuss accomplishment.
Accomplishment is simply what we make it. I personally define accomplishment in my life on a broad range of ideas and areas that include three main points:
Health & Fitness, Finances, and Lifestyle.
These are THE three main focuses of my life as I am constantly looking to improve daily on all of these areas. That said, accomplishment for me would be to master nutrition and fitness, experience great success financially, and live a compelling lifestyle full of excitement and adventure!
If all three of these areas are being improved daily, then accomplishment for me is within reach and more time can be rewarded to hobbies and other interests. Once again, accomplishment is simply what we make it.
To wrap up, EVERYONE has the grave ‘luxury’ of ignoring reality, as it is simply NOT a luxury.
Anyone can bury themselves from the truth. In the end, it is simply an inferior choice that eventually leads to demise. Reality must be studied and embraced, in order to successfully impact others! ( =
— JEFF
Jeff, do you have any leadership experiences to speak from?
Straight skill, son! ( =
In all seriousness though, yes of course, but nothing as significant as The 21 Convention.
I have never attended live but have viewed footage. I applaud you on your leadership ability my friend.
Thank you Jeff, but I was not attempting to compare myself to you. I was asking because you appear to be speaking about a topic with great experience to back your claims, yet I suspected you did not have such experience.
I agree, I still have a lot to learn. On that note I just turned 21 and have an incredible life ahead of me to perfect my abilities!
And to directly answer the question, I have led a variety of programs into action as a Personal Trainer and Martial Arts Instructor.
I have literally changed lives for those who needed help and for MANY did not even charge a dime. Yes, I could have charged an arm and leg for my service, but that would not make me a leader.
I am a leader because I am willing to put myself out there in order to make a positive, rewarding experience for those truly in need.
FYI. Instructing and teaching is NOT leading. People will listen to you and follow because of the knowledge that you have, not because of your ‘leadership’.
Only if you were a serving officer in a respectable army (leadership in it’s most true form), could you spout this amount of BS. Would you take relationship advice from a virgin? I hope not.
I know now that you will try and rebuttal my example of leadership as an army officer (saying something along the lines of “but an officer is an appointed leader”) but I am not interested. That argument will come down to a disagreement of our definition of leadership.
I also realise that you will now rebuttal with some reference to how i am disagreeing with your definition of leadership and therefore i am contradicting myself. I’m not interested.
What I want to express ultimately is that instead of spamming every Dream blog post, create your own. Tell people about yourself and how your OWN life experiences can help others. Since you like to bring up historical references to Hitler so often you must of course realise the first rule of the study of History. Evaluate the source.
Start your own blog and tell your own story. That way people can evaluate you as a source and hence take you seriously (or not, in the case of your leadership experience).
“I’m not interested.”
Nor am I. It sounds like you secretly have a crush on me, dude. Don’t worry though I get that a lot! ( =
Watch this, you’d like it:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=34209529
JEFF
Absolutely, not being interested in what someone has to say is definitely a sign of a crush.
You must be very proud that you got to take part in a naked hug match with another man because someone dropped out due to injury.
This totally makes you a worthy force in discussing nutrition and leadership.
P.S everything I just wrote is in heavy sarcasm just so you know : )