At least once every human should have to run for his life, to teach him that milk does not come from supermarkets, that safety does not come from policemen, that “news” is not something that happens to other people. He might learn how his ancestors lived and that he himself is no different – in the crunch his life depends on his agility, alertness, and personal resourcefulness.

- Robert A. Heinlein

Demoralization: Can you trust America’s most trusted news channel..?

Destabilization: A little anarchy in the streets.

Crisis: Terror. Confusion. Fear.

Normalization: Deus ex machina. Manufactured chaos resolves, embrace the savior apparatchik.

Why send troops where “journalists” will suffice?

Always had a soft spot for William Seward Burroughs’ Words of Advice For Young People – perhaps it’s a bit dyspeptic, but there is some wisdom to be had.

Further observations on what may not be immediately apparent for some:

Never give your money to a beggar. You can’t help a parasite who refuses to help himself and you’ll find the real charity cases are asking for jobs, not dollars.

You’ll encounter people who treat you as though you’re seeking their approval. Oldest trick in the book – their opinions aren’t worth shit unless they’ve convinced you otherwise.

Religion, government, and the news media will only sell you ideas at a profit – you won’t get the whole story there and it costs you more than you might realize to lend an ear to their sales pitches.

Don’t settle for what anyone else tells you you’re worth: it’s in their interests not to. You aren’t earning your potential until you’re working for yourself.

The greater number of people are not intelligent and will act out their self-interest in ways which sabotage their best interests.

People who aren’t acting in their own self-interest are being manipulated by someone else who is.

Have some suggestions for the list? Please share in the comments.

When we’re unnerved by an unsavory caricature, our minds race; we’re vigilant; we’re arguing internally against the stereotype; denying its relevance; disparaging anyone who would use such a stereotype; pitying ourselves; trying to be stoic. In short, we’re doing everything except high level thinking—the kind that leads to academic excellence. We’ve channeled our limited cognitive power into dealing with the threatening caricature.

- The Ironic Power of Stereotype

Confusing the issue – framing interactions as racial conflicts or otherwise adding a distracting context to otherwise-unrelated events – seems to be a popular way to tire out the opposition or even create enough white noise to suppress rational analysis of disinformation.

Emotional reactions make it easier for me to lead the conversation.

Am I missing anything there?

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

- Aldous Huxley

Life in a city is inherently chaotic – granted, there are laws which govern how everything behaves and, given enough information, it would be possible to simulate every possible scenario and discern what’s happening from the quanta in an electron which composes a polymer in the plastic seat your ass is parked in to the thoughts of the person sitting next to you on the subway – but survival is generally not of grave concern at a given moment… until it is.

… and when your life depends upon situational awareness, you can count on your five senses (along with that sixth sense of cognitive dissonance) but little else: those entrusted with maintaining control over critical situations will restrict the availability of viable information if that’s as much control as they’ve got.

The person sitting next to you? Probably thinking about dinner or the events of the day or what’ll be on the television… but he or she could be thinking about the thirty-pound bundle of explosives and shrapnel in his or her satchel – and you’d be none the wiser if you were depending upon local law enforcement to clue you in to a terrorist attack.

Announcements informed passengers of delays due to “technical reasons,” avoiding anything more specific.

- Suicide bombers kill 38 in Moscow’s subway at MSNBC
2010-03-28

Containment has failed. Keep them calm. Avoid panic.

“It’s tied in with self-esteem,” says University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert Feldman. “We find that as soon as people feel that their self-esteem is threatened, they immediately begin to lie at higher levels.”

- Why We Lie at Tehran Times
2010-03-09

Preserve the façade of safety. Everything is under control.

Control requires complicit obedience and conditioned responses (the kind which a novel situation would preclude) – some situations must be down-played to prevent stampedes and ensure continuity, even if that means stifling the truth and inviting further casualties: the governing organism which demands freedom in exchange for security must not be exposed for its lies.

A former Navy man describes (with a certain amount of insubordinate glee) a singular commonality of treatment in relations between officers and enlisted men:

At any time and for pretty much any reason, you could challenge anyone else and he would have to explain what he was doing.

Makes perfect sense – if no one is above suspicion, sabotage and perfidy require a little more planning (and, regardless, the option to challenge likely served its purposes well as a pressure release for the rigors of the pecking order).

Consider your daily opportunities to challenge your attitudes and beliefs: the limitations which you believe to be in place are very real (in your imagination) and will, barring serendipity, prevent you from acquiring or even considering your potential. Limitations must be ignored to be understood. Limitations must be understood to be overcome.

What? Can’t you see what I’m doing here?

One must exceed oneself and one’s boundaries to dispel the imaginary serpents at the edge of the world. Find out where the real serpents are lurking.

They’re very real – why would I have told you about them, otherwise?

We are all limited in one way or another – physicality, intellect, and motivation are gauged easily enough by watching others – but the only shame deserving of a second glance is that which arrives with the realization you’ve dumbly laid lame your own dreams.

Are there seemingly-helpful attitudes and beliefs in your mind, happily going about their business, which limit you?

I challenge you to reconsider your worst fears.
Only the best fears come true.

Automation does not remove humans but tends to redefine their roles: operators become concerned with maintenance, repair and higher level supervisory control and decision making.

Sociological and memetic organisms supplant individual consciousness.

Operators relegated to central control rooms
Case in Point: 1977 NYC Blackout

• Indirect Information
• Operator followed prescribed procedures
• But electrical system was brought to a complete halt
• Operator could not know there were two relay failures: (1) one leading to a high flow over line normally carrying little or no current (operator would have been alerted) and (2) other blocked flow over line making it appear normal
• Operator had no way of knowing that zero reading would appear normal
• Operators become the “scapegoat” of an automated system

Consider: Assassination [fly-by-wire] and mutually-assured destruction [nuclear; Dead Hand retaliation] increasingly automated – destruction-by-proxy encouraged, full circumvention of individual decision making preferred.

Operators and Embedded Systems

• Embedded systems can mask the occurrence and subsequent development of a problem
• When malfunction is discovered it may be more difficult to control
• Systems may be hidden or distorted
• Such design further limits operator options and hinders broad comprehension

- Safeware by Nancy Leveson

… AZATHOTH — hideous name …

Interview questions span the intractable, the thoughtless, and the inane – test some skills to find out if a candidate can do the job… the interview only tests patience and personality.

Fuck the popularity contest – pay me, I’ll be your slave for a while.